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NOW Conversations - Book Publishing Conversations with Book Authors
Welcome to NOW Conversations — the podcast where authors don’t just share their stories… they reveal the story behind the story.
This is not your typical author interview.
Here, we go beyond book summaries and surface-level inspiration. As book publishers, we sit in a rare seat — one that sees the raw manuscript before the polish, the message before the marketing, and the mission before the masterpiece.
In each episode, we engage in powerful, unscripted conversations with today’s thought leaders, storytellers, and change-makers — asking the questions only a publisher would think to ask:
* Why this message, and why now?
*What did it cost you to write this truth?
*Who are you becoming because this book exists?
Because a book is never just a book.
And through NOW Conversations, you’ll hear directly from the authors who are courageously putting their voice into the world — and discover the deeper purpose behind the pages.
This is where message meets mission.
This is #NOWConversations.
NOW Conversations - Book Publishing Conversations with Book Authors
NOW Conversations - Featuring Conversations with Book Authors with Guest Marivel Reyes
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Step into a space where stories unfold, purpose is revealed, and the journey behind the book finally gets a voice.
NOW Conversations invites you into meaningful dialogue with book authors who are doing more than writing books — they are sharing lived experiences, lessons learned, and messages that were meant to be released into the world.
In each episode, we go beyond the surface to explore the real moments behind the manuscript — the doubts, the breakthroughs, the unexpected turns, and the deeper “why” that shaped the words on the page. Through thoughtful questions and authentic conversation, we create room for honesty, reflection, and inspiration.
Whether you're an aspiring author, a leader with a message, or someone who simply loves understanding the story behind the story, NOW Conversations offers a welcoming space to listen, learn, and be encouraged.
Because sometimes, the most powerful part of a book… is the conversation it begins. #NOWConversations #BookPublishing #CEOBookPublishing #LizaMarieGarcia #PublishedAuthor
If YOU would like to be featured as a guest please reach out!
publish@cbpteam.com
Conversations. I'm very happy that you're joining us this morning. Hopefully you got your coffee, or what I did is my, I don't know, maybe to be honest, probably my fifth cup of coffee, made sure it's still hot, um, so that we can uh have plenty of caffeine so that we can have a fantastic show this morning and talk with uh another amazing book author. So before I bring her on stage, um I'd like to tell you a little bit about her. And of course, I need my glasses, so let me find my glasses here. Her name is um Mari, uh Maribel Reyes, and she comes to us from Texas. She's a mom of two boys, and I want to read a couple things about her bio. Um she said that uh she is a Texas gal with a deep love for Jesus and a special fondness for bluebirds. She is a children's author, and so this morning we get to talk about everything related to children's books, so I'm super excited for that. But she uh what she says is that uh she worked in the public libraries um in the early 2000s. So we'll talk about that a little bit, and that's uh some of the inspiration for how she came to write uh these books, and it's a collection. Wait until you you hear about it, and uh we're gonna talk about how it all kind of started with her her beloved dog named Chachi. Love that name. Um, and let me bring her up to the stage and welcome to Now Conversations, Maribel. Hi, good morning. Good morning, thanks for joining us. What time is it there?
SPEAKER_00It's a pleasure to be in this podcast, and it is actually 8 30 here in the Lone Star State. Um, so uh had to get up an hour earlier. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01Well, thanks for doing it. Thanks for doing it. And I'm it could be you could be from California, right? So at least it's not that time zone. Well, um, as I was mentioning, uh right before we got on the stream here, I said this 30 minutes is going to go by fast and it will. So I want to dig in um because I'm very excited to have you on the show. And I want to talk about uh writing children's books and all that's involved with that special genre. And in our history, which is now 10 years in September. Can't believe we've been doing that, doing this book publishing for so long. But um, in our history, I think that we have maybe worked with maybe 12 children's book authors out of like 200. So that kind of gives you an idea that um we haven't, you know, haven't we publish a lot of children's books. And in fact, the last children's books series and author we did was two years ago. Um, and it was called My Father's Favorite, uh, God Loves Me with an author in North Carolina two years ago. So what uh so let's dig into children's books and and what you've got, which is really incredible, and really none of our authors have the selection of books that you have, where you have not just um a series of children's books. We'll start to put some on stage. So here's Once Upon a Cross. You have is it all of your children's books or some of them that are not just um English, but also the Spanish version? Did you do them all in English and Spanish? I did. So that's fantastic and amazing and and definitely different. But here's you, but you also have um a number of them. And is that Chachi?
SPEAKER_00Chachi? Uh that's peanut. Well, I'll talk about peanut a little bit later. Uh, so I had to jump chachi from the storytelling uh to give a little dedication to my peanut who I lost. Uh he was 12 years old when he crossed uh over to the rainbow to Happy Dog Land. So I'm gonna do a little dedication to him. So Chachi, uh, which I will talk about a little further. Uh he's still in the works.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay. I got it. All right. So I didn't even bring up the last offerings that you have, and you've done you've done crazy, you've done coloring books.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01So that is just um, you have been busy, ladies. So tell us how you how it even started and how you were, because I would say put your head down and went to town on building this, all these book offerings.
SPEAKER_00Okay, great. So I'm gonna start off with um 2006. Uh, I was hired on as the children's um specialist for a public library. It was a small branch. Uh so technically I was like a children's librarian because I didn't have a master's in library sciences. Um, I was called the children's coordinator. So I conducted story times uh and events for um preschool and elementary age uh children. Uh so I would do my weekly story times. Uh we had weekly story times, or we had uh like a Christmas event, then we would uh I would read the Christmas books. So uh that kind of just sparked up a little fascination in me. Um being surrounded by all those children's books and how creative those authors were and just the variety out there. I thought to myself, oh, that would be wonderful. You know, one day I think I could write a children's book. Needless to say, that was almost, you know, 20 plus years ago. Um, so life happens. Uh I did meet my now husband, my current husband and only husband at the library. Uh, he was bringing uh his son in for a story time, and uh we ended up getting married.
SPEAKER_01Uh we lost story time. You met at story time. I love that.
SPEAKER_00Oh, we met at story time a year later, um, got married, and then my son Noah was born. So then um jumbling motherhood, uh, marriage, uh, some job changes. Um, my idea of writing the book just kind of stayed in the back burner. Uh, and it stayed there for a while. Uh, I would say about 20 years. I know in my heart I wanted to one day write a book, but it's just that I was just too busy. And uh, luckily, about two and a half years ago, uh I was able to do a career change, and uh I had the opportunity to work from home with a hybrid position, and which kind of gave me a little bit of uh more time um because my days were not as long and I was more at home. Um, then my husband one day said, Hey, you know, when are you gonna write your children's book? And I said, you know what? I was thinking about writing a book about Chachi, my beloved Chachi, and it kind of started with this little sombrero. I don't know if you see it right here.
SPEAKER_01Oh, it's so cute.
SPEAKER_00So before I transferred over to my new position, I had gone to a conference in San Antonio. I don't know if you've been to the river walk in San Antonio, Texas. I have love it, yes. So there, you know, they had mariachi music playing, and they had some little shops and vendors, and I came across this little sombrero, which I love mariachi music by the way, and I came home that day and I placed it on Chachi because I call him Chachi Mariachi.
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh, so last name is mariachi, first name is Chachi.
SPEAKER_00So Chachi Mariachi, I started calling him Chachi Mariachi, and I kind of started brainstorming and doing some notes of what I wanted the story to be. So, in this story, Chachi has a secret, but I can't let y'all on the secret yet because this book is to be released next year, God willing. So uh Chachi Mariachi has a secret. So he isn't a mariachi band, but a secret that no one knows. Um, but as I was writing these, you know, notes and brainstorming. Um, there was one night pretty much that I was just kind of tossing and turning, my mind was just rambling, and I truly felt uh calling. Uh God has spoken to me, to you know, his spirit. Um, I felt him ask me, so you want to write a children's book? And I'm like, Well, yes, God, I I do, you know, and he's like, Okay, well, great, but it needs to be about me first. So I said, Well, God, I I already have my notes for Chachi and I already had like, you know, just say no to God, right? So, you know, with prayer and being obedient, uh, God placed some wonderful people in my path. Uh, my realtor at the time uh had just mentioned that one of her clients had just published a children's book, and she put me in contact with her. Like I said, this was just all mumble jumble, just brainstorming. There was really no plan, a full plan of action, because I was kind of new to the book business. Uh, so she put me in contact with her client, her friend, and she gave me such great advice. And uh, she led me to this uh group of children's authors and illustrators, uh, which I was able to find some great uh editors and illustrators, uh very blessed with that. Um, but I had to change my story, so it was gonna be Chachi. Chachi's gonna have to be put on the bag burner for now because our glory and honor to God, you know. So uh he even kind of spoke to me on the title, you know, once upon a cross was placed in my heart, yes, and that was pretty much my first project. Once upon a cross, um, it's a retelling uh of Jesus. I did use the Gospel of Luke for this book, as it's pretty much considered the Christmas gospel, because you know it has 24 chapters. So if you read it on day one on December, by 20 uh day 24, you'll be uh on Christmas Eve. Uh so it just talks a little bit about uh God's miracles, uh his sacrifice for us. Um, but it's something that God placed in my heart, and I felt with this book that uh I will be able to place the to plant the seed of faith and prayer to young hearts and and our hearts. Um, this book is not only for young children, even adults like to read children's books. Um my mother-in-law is 91 years old, she does have Alzheimer's, unfortunately. But uh she loved reading this book, and she may forget a lot of things, but she never forgets who Jesus is. So that's very uh inspirational. So uh Once Upon a Cross was my main project. Uh, I did have a few setbacks, unfortunately, with some you know illustrators, but uh I feel like God's timing is always the perfect timing.
SPEAKER_01Well, thank you for sharing that. Um, and I know that's just part of what you can share about your journey and such, but um, first of all, there's no straight line for any author's journey for any book that they have. And um, it's interesting that we're talking about this because I even had a client, and again, you know, I don't know, we've published somewhere around 90 something titles, right, in our history. So, and I said about 200 some clients. And I even had a client just recently that was maybe three chapters in, that just really gave up. So then there's that. And but it's but there's always things that can happen in your publishing journey. And from the author's standpoint, especially a debut author, which you were before you wrote your first book, you don't understand the journey, the process, the industry. And you know what? As a book publisher, I don't even always understand the journey, the process, the industry, because the industry is very non-standard. There are not industry standards. There isn't one exact way to publish a book. There is not just one way to be published, you know. So I right, so you experience that firsthand. Um, I can't tell you how many times I will talk to um prospective book authors, and I will say, you know, not every publisher is for every writer, and vice versa, right? So um, but you've I bet you've learned a ton about book publishing with what you've done, right? You can probably write a book about it now based on your lot of trial and error.
SPEAKER_00Um, but the end of uh the end results, uh, you just have to keep learning. Uh you have to keep going at it. Um, mistakes are gonna happen, setbacks are gonna happen, but you gotta focus on that end result.
SPEAKER_01100%. Well, you you brought up illustrators, and you brought up that you had to change illustrators. So, two questions I have for you. One is did you end up using the same illustrator for every one of your books or not? I did not.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01I did not, and they're not really in the same series, so to speak, so that's perfectly fine, right? Okay, but when you, you know, we've definitely had that experience as well, not with all of our children's book authors, but definitely issues with illustrators with some of our children's book books. And as you know, and as many people know or may not know, even you know, one of the most important elements in a children's book is the illustrations, right? Definitely. And the other part of that is when we do work with children's book writers or authors, we we definitely have to change the timeline that we manage for them. And we put extra time in the schedule that's really open to try to plan for everything for the illustration work because it's so important. And when you're dealing with artists, they might not they have their own, you know, clock that they work towards, you know, and that might not look like you know an editor's time clock for two different types of people, right?
SPEAKER_00Yes, definitely. Uh, because some illustrators, um, so for little Zulie, that illustrator, uh, that's all she did full-time. Uh, so she was a full-time student. Uh, I found her through a Facebook, the Facebook page that I joined. Um, so little Zuli was illustrated by a full-time student uh that was doing just illustrations. So she was able to produce the illustrations, you know, a little quicker than uh, for example, my other illustrator, Christian, who has a full-time job, who has other site uh commitments. Uh he's a muralist, he does art on Canvas. Uh, so that project took a little bit longer because of his schedule. Um, so like you said, every illustrator is that you work with is going to be different uh depending on their schedule. Was that something that they're doing full time, was that something that they're just doing on the site?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, and I didn't even think about that factor 100%. But the factor also was that, you know, they're creative types and they need, you know, if you can't just say, okay, sit down and uh, you know, start illustrating necessarily, you know, just um be on a production schedule. So I'm glad we're talking about that. One of the um other parts, I was looking at some of our children's books because my head's been, I knew we were gonna have this conversation. So I've been thinking about children's books. And this is the very first book. I don't know if that shows very good. Um our children's book, and it was uh Miranda, Queen of the Marshmallows. And um super fun, and it was written by a nine-year-old at the time. Oh, wow. Yeah, and this is you know, this is 10 years ago or so. Um, we've had all we've had that. Um, we've had an author that wrote about his sports foundation, we've had a grandmother type. Um, and then you know, we've had father that wrote about his daughter that um was premature and wrote music and that. So, you know, I love I love what you said about, you know, the children's books' messages aren't just for the kids, it's also for the person reading them. And um it's so true, right? And even as we talk here, I'm sure you have your favorite children's book. I can name off my top favorite children's book, right? It's because it's it's the fundamentals of life, right? And as believers, uh nice talking to a believer. I mean, it is all about him and his love and sharing that.
SPEAKER_00Exactly.
SPEAKER_01Um tell me, so tell me how you ended up, you know, it seems like you sort of had you put your head down and just went to town on building these books. Would you say that was how you did it?
SPEAKER_00So pretty much uh with the setbacks of the illustrations with Once Upon a Cross. Um my mind, I guess I kind of got the little writing bug. Uh, I had been working on the manuscript and I had it edited. Like I had mentioned, the illustrators were a few setbacks. So my mind was just thinking, like, oh, how about a prayer book, a little prayer book? So, you know, children could learn simple prayers, you know, because prayers don't have to be so lengthy. Uh, God loves to hear from all his children. And I wanted also to um give a dedication to my late father, Pablo. Uh, he was a great man of faith. And we used to share a little bluebird. Uh, I was giving a little acrylic bluebird as a teenager from a missionary group, uh, the little bluebird of happiness. Um, so it kind of became a little tradition that when my father would travel to Mexico, uh, he would take it with him. Just so I can remind him, I know that you're away from home, uh, so you could just remain enjoying. So he did that for about 20 years. He would take the little bluebird with him uh when he would travel to go visit his family in Mexico. And ultimately, when uh he did pass away uh in 2001, we placed that little bluebird in his hands um as he went to his you know final trip to heaven. Um, so my brain just started braining, and I'm like, oh, I would like a bluebird to be the main character. So little Sully uh became the main character, and actually, Little Sully is gonna be a three-part series. Uh, it is an inspiration. The first one is a prayer book. Um looking forward to launching her second book uh this fall. Uh, it's gonna be about Bible affirmations. Uh, it's gonna be Little Sully and the big faith train. Uh, so my dad did retire from Union Pacific, where he dedicated his hard work to his family. Um, and I figured this will be another honor to him. So little Zulie will be riding around in a train, uh, reminding us of the Bible's affirmation. So uh that's how little Zulie came about. And I was very blessed that when I reached out to my illustrator, I didn't know how this bird was gonna look. I had reached out and I said, I want a bluebird as my main character. I don't know how this bluebird's gonna look, so I'm gonna leave all the magic to you. So she said, Okay, I'll sketch a few birds and you tell me what you like. And if you don't like those, I'll continue sketching some more. Uh so actually on her first shot, she sketched four little birds, and I like little Zulie, but I like the eyes on another bird. Right. It made her look girly because she has like little eyelashes. So I asked her, we take those eyes and put them on this body, and that's how little Zulie uh was created. She colored her and it was just perfect.
SPEAKER_01Well, first of all, I did put up your um, I'd like everyone to connect and connect with you. So there's the link there uh on the stream, and then you'll see all this incredible collection. Um, thank you for taking us through the process um of how do you, you know, how do you begin with the illustrations? And that's exactly what we do. So we we we go out for black and white sketches, right? And then our illustrator will present those to the client, to the customer, prospective book author. And then they do exactly what you do, you know, they what you did. I like, you know, this beak, I like this body shape, I like this enhance the eyes more. And we actually build the whole book with black and white sketches. However, now they're more black and white um graphics, because really everything now is really just graphics. And with AI, it's changed everything, right? Um, but it's uh, you know, it's a process. And you know, it's you know, you'll see you'll know when you see it. Yeah, it's kind of like book covers that we work with with clients. It's like if they don't love the book cover, then we haven't made it right yet. And then see it and say, that's it. I love it. Yes. So it's great. And um, what about I was gonna ask you about the coloring books. Why did you decide that your collection needed coloring books?
SPEAKER_00I Figured uh I wanted to add like a fun activity to go along with the book. Um, so my first coloring book was Little Sully, which is also pretty much like a devotional, uh, because not it's not it's not only a coloring book, but it has little sayings at the bottom of the coloring book. Uh, it reminds us to be brave, to share with others. So you'll see uh some different illustrations, black and white, for the children to color, of just uh reminders of how to be good children of God and how to um be loving to others and caring. Uh so I figured um this was a perfect opportunity to put those two together. And and that coloring book actually became a blessing because I was uh able to actually uh I just recently was approved for a trademark. So little Zulie uh is actually has been trademarked.
SPEAKER_01Oh, congratulations! That's um, you know, and I didn't I tell you that this is gonna go by fast. We only have a few minutes. I told you that. Um, but you know what I love, love, love about what you've shared with us is how creative your selection, or we call it book offerings, how creative your book offerings are the devotional, the prayer, the English, the Spanish, the different characters, part of a series, standalone. And I don't even know the half of it. That's just from what you've told us. So, you know, um, and I love also you did what most of our authors do, and what that or what happens to most of our authors, and what that is, is that after they write their first book, and sometimes even in the midst of them getting, you know, working with their editors and really getting into it, understanding more of you know how to write better and such, they catch the writing book.
SPEAKER_00Yes, okay.
SPEAKER_01So it sounds like I'm talking to someone that for sure has a writing book and you've been using it um for his glory, which is been amazing as well. But um, what a wonderful, what a wonderful book offerings, and you have two sons. What are your son's ages?
SPEAKER_00So actually, my older son um is 29. Okay, and uh my younger one is 18.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so is Noah 18?
SPEAKER_00Yes, 18, and he's 29. Uh, and they love each other, they are such great sons, such an inspiration, so supportive. I bet. Like Noah uh said, Mom, I'm gonna buy your book.
SPEAKER_01I love that. I also love that you know, yeah, you you were you know with the library with the story time um part. And now my my idea is we need to put you in the Barnes and Noble storytime authors. Yeah, we have that, and that actually was where our our last children's book offering, that's what we did, is he was invited to be the storytime author for the Barnes and Noble in uh Charlotte, North Carolina, and I was there, and it's just such a good thing, right? You can read the book to the kids, and kids just love it, and especially such beautiful books that you have and offerings. I want to make sure that everyone can connect um with you. So that is uh here, and that's your author page where you have your selections. So you said you're in the midst of um uh the series. Tell us what book is coming next, kind of take us through what we're what to expect with you.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so uh definitely Little Sully's Big Fate Train should be launching this upcoming fall. I am working on Chachi Mariachi uh for next year, and also uh the last book of Little Sully. Uh, I know I jumped on uh Chachi's story uh because Peanut uh was my beloved dog who was obsessed with apples. You could not have an apple inside without him just harassing you giving some apples. So in the story, Peanut works in different places throughout the week because he wants to get paid in apples. Oh my god. So on Sunday he gets to enjoy his apples with his family and friends. Um, but so that is a true aspect. It is a dedication for my beloved Peanut. He loved apples, he was totally obsessed with them, and that dog could smell an apple five dollars away.
SPEAKER_01So great, it's so fun. Well, we are gonna have to chat. Well, one thing, please. Again, you know, we appreciate that there's a lot of people that watch this stream and then listen to the podcast that are hopeful book authors, and so we're gonna end with I'm gonna ask you a question about that, but um just to as something that we tell all authors. So your Chachi Mariachi, do you own chatchimariachi.com? And if you don't, go grab it. Oh, go grab it. Okay, okay, and the other thing that we instruct our authors to do is buy ChachiMariachiBook.com. I'm waiting for the dot book. I can't believe there's no dot books yet. There's dot everything but books. I'm always watching that, but at minimum, you know, grab that, and especially with it being a book series, you know, grab your book series URL, of course, establish, you know, hashtags is kind of the journey, the jury is out whether we're still using hashtag or not. So I don't know about that, but definitely your URL. So, okay, so we are right at our last question. First of all, before we get there, I want to thank you for joining us. Thank you for being here, getting up early. Um, we can talk for probably all day if we had the time. Congratulations on on what you've accomplished. And uh I look forward to people connecting with you. But what I'd like you to do is encourage someone that is maybe a fellow mom, yes, uh, maybe a fellow believer that uh God has planted in them that they should write a book or they know they should write a book, but they haven't started. What would you say to them?
SPEAKER_00So I would say start just note-taking, start brainstorming, uh, pray about it if you're a believer, uh, start doing a lot of research. Um, what do you want to tell your audience? What age group do you want to target? Uh, do you want to write something personal, something inspirational? There's just so many genres you can write about mysteries, um, comedy. Um, just start. There's no better time than right now.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. There's and there's never a perfect time, right? Never as the shoe company told us to do. Okay, all right. Well, thank you everyone for joining our conversations and thanks again and have a great Saturday. Thank you.