Did you know that July is Disability Pride Month? What better way to celebrate than with this book?

Jake Lockett writes books and stories for children, including My Life as an Asthmanaut. His short stories for young readers have appeared in Smarty Pants Kids, Skipping Stones, and Spider. Jake enjoys learning about space, exploring nature, building Lego sets, and watching movies on his home theater projector. He resides in the forested Allegheny Mountains, where the night skies are clear and blanketed with countless stars! You can learn more about him at his website or follow him on BlueSky, Twitter, or Facebook.

MY LIFE AS AN ASTHMANAUT is a picture book about a young boy who describes what it’s like to live with asthma. He has learned to cope with it in his life and even imagines himself like a space explorer. What an incredible analogy!

Welcome Jake!

Me: Can you tell us a little bit about your writing journey? When did you start writing picture books? How has that brought you to writing this picture book?

Jake: My love of storytelling inspired me to write at a very young age. In my twenties, I decided to chase after my dream of being traditionally published in the children’s field. Stories geared toward children’s magazine publications seemed like a good starting ground to practice my craft, but none of my manuscripts were accepted at the time.

I took a break and revisited these magazine stories a year or two later. Since they were short and made for very young ages, I thought maybe they could be submitted as picture books. I then queried them to book publishers and literary agents in the hope that they would be acquired and published as such. I was naive about proper picture book structure and didn’t really know the children’s book industry in those days, so you can kinda guess that I didn’t receive any legitimate offers here either.

During the early 2020s, I tried writing a middle grade book. It was fun, but no matter how long I toiled, I couldn’t get any closer to the ending. I hungered to write a story and actually finish it. I thought about doing magazine stories again, but I didn’t want to focus solely on that. I was eager to be a book author.

Then I remembered all the time I took trying to break into the picture book space with manuscripts that didn’t fully fit there. I had an idea. What if I wrote shorter stories that I could realistically complete, like before, but with the intention of making them picture books from the start?

The path before me was a no-brainer, but I soon discovered that picture book writing was super challenging. I was definitely out of my comfort zone! But I knew I had to keep trying and experimenting if I wanted to grow and move forward as a writer. I ended up learning a lot as I created new stories and began submitting them.

After many submissions, though, I wasn’t getting anywhere. I decided to only pursue subjects that I deeply felt compelled to cover in picture books. I started delving into writing about my disabilities when Free Spirit announced their call to writers for children’s stories about… disabilities! The call eventually led to the creation of My Life as an Asthmanaut, part of the Disability Books for Kids series.

Me: What gave you the idea to turn your experience into a picture book? Where did the space metaphor come from?

Jake: I thought that writing a picture book would be the most appropriate avenue to use my experiences to help very young kids suffering from asthma. Childhood asthma is an extremely important issue in my opinion.

The space metaphor came from my desire to do something bold and accessible. I wanted to draw readers into the story with an engaging theme that could make asthmatic challenges easier to grasp. Plus, I love space, so how could I not incorporate it in some way?

Me: I love that. It can be hard to write stories that are based on personal experience, yet you’ve managed to find a wonderful story arc that is approachable for young readers, as well as including incredible space imagery. How many drafts did it really take to get to this final state? How long did it take from first idea to final published book?

Jake: The story went through some drafts before I submitted it, but I don’t remember how many. When the acquiring editor messaged me back and said she was interested in the manuscript, she requested revisions to better align my manuscript with the series. She then took my revised story to the acquisitions committee for consideration. After it was accepted, one of their editors, Cassie, enthusiastically joined the project. I worked with her through several rounds of edits to further enhance the story. From first idea to final published book, the whole process took almost three years.

Me: Can you talk about how the book came to be published with Free Spirit Publishing? Did you send it out to multiple publishers before it was accepted there?

Jake: I wrote My Life as an Asthmanaut only for Free Spirit after they accepted my application and invited me to submit a full book proposal for their Disability Books for Kids series. I created a story that would be right for them while also staying true to my feelings living with chronic illness. It was a match made in heaven, as their values and mission as a publisher were the same as mine as a writer. I’m so proud of what this book became and how it’s now such a strong educational resource and teaching tool.

Me: That’s amazing Jake. What is one thing that surprised you when you first wrote this story?

Jake: That I was able to pull it off to my satisfaction. If Free Spirit’s call had come earlier in my writing journey, I don’t think I would’ve been skilled enough to write it in the same way and be happy with the outcome. But by mid-2023, I had played around quite a bit with different writing styles and topics in the picture book range, which ultimately better prepared me craft-wise to tackle a story like Asthmanaut.

Me: Adriana Predoi’s illustrations in this book are wonderful. I love the variety of ways she showed asthma devices and users. Such diversity! Did you have any illustration surprises? Any favorites?

Jake: In terms of surprises: I was in the illustrations! My main character looked so much like me! Also, my sisters featured in the book were very close in appearance and personality to my real-life sisters as kids! I don’t know how Adriana accomplished this when she didn’t know them or had any photos to go off of.

I had never really seen air, breath, and even outer space depicted so stylistically before. It’s all quite awe-inspiring. Because of Adriana, this book has such a strong visual identity that I think makes it feel unique.

The comic con scenes where Jacob helps the girl are a highlight for me. Adriana clearly and emotionally portrayed how to support another who is experiencing an asthma attack.

Me: Any advice would you give to aspiring picture book writers?

Jake: Read plenty of mentor texts for guidance and really embrace the format.

Picture books are special in that their words work hand in hand with pictures. If you don’t illustrate, think of crafting art notes. Allow them to complement your main text and vice versa in order to build a strong picture book vision of your story. But warning: don’t flood your manuscript with these notes! A large number can make your story hard to read and won’t give your future illustrator much creative freedom to do their magic. Only put them where they are crucially needed, and keep them brief, too.

Picture books are also made to convey quite a lot with very little text. So remember, every word needs to count and add something meaningful or functional to the whole. Don’t waste a single letter!

That’s great advice. Thank you for stopping by my blog today Jake.

Dear readers, this book published in April. If you haven’t had a chance yet to read it, you should track it down. It’s an incredible approach to asthma from real lived experience. Trust me when I say, you won’t want to miss it!