ROB MURRAY: I’m speaking with local author Meghan J. Ward. You’ve just released a brand new children’s book called The Wonders That I Find. What is this book about?

MEGHAN J. WARD: The book is about a little girl named Geneva who goes hiking with her parents, and it’s all about the things that she sees along the trail versus the things that they’d like her to see.

RM: This isn’t your first book, but typically in the past your books have been beautiful photography books of the Canadian Rockies that you’ve done with your husband Paul. Why did you decide to write a children’s book?

MW: This story just kind of came to me. I have young children myself, and when my eldest daughter was little I had to learn how to slow down on the trail and how to look at the world through her eyes. It just kind of inspired me with the story of these parallel experiences that kids have versus what their parents are having on the trail.

RM: Did your kids have any input into the book, or did you use any real life experiences and incorporate that into the story?

MW: Maya was definitely one of my first readers. Well, I read it to her, and then when she was old enough she could read it. I definitely leaned in to her for some feedback in terms of comprehension, but I think it’s in the subtle ways that it’s been inspired. Nothing really direct from my girls, but the character certainly looks a little bit like them.

RM: Writing a children’s book, obviously you need to find an illustrator. How did that process work?

MW: That was a bit of an interesting one, and actually finding the illustrator is what helped me get the ball rolling on actually writing the book because it was in my head for a very long time. I met Tay (Odynski) through the Canadian Rockies Annual which I was publishing at the time. She’s an incredibly versatile artist, and when I saw some of the illustrations she did for the magazine I realized she could be the perfect person to illustrate the children’s book. I reached out with a draft of the story and she said yes, and the rest is history.

RM: What was the process like working with an illustrator during COVID?

MW: That was tricky. In March of 2020 I drove out to Calgary to meet with her to do some storyboarding, and it turned out it was the last time we would meet in person for another year or so. We did everything remotely by Zoom and by text. Thank goodness for technology. It allowed us to collaborate and get feedback to each other. It wasn’t the ideal process but I think everything turned out okay.

RM: You have a story. There are illustrations. Putting them all together…it must have been really interesting when you first opened it up. What do you think of the final product?

MW: I adore it. Rocky Mountain Books did such a good job. There’s both a soft cover version and a hard cover. They’re both beautiful. The hardcover is particularly exceptional and Tay designed some beautiful end sheets for it that just kind of bring the whole book together. I’m really happy with it.

RM: Where can people find this book?

MW: They can find it locally at Café Books, and we also have all of the order options on our website.

RM: Are you able to do any kind of book release? Are you doing anything virtually?

MW: We’re working on it. We’re not sure we want to do anything virtually because it’s not the same experience, and it’s also a little bit tricky with children as I’ve seen when my daughter’s home doing some online learning. I think we’re going to hold off for a little bit to see if we can do something safely outdoors this summer, but we might do some fun Instagram live chats between the artist and author.

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