I’m so excited to feature this author on my page this month.
Please Meet, Jennifer Milius
Jennifer wears many hats. She’s an author of children’s books and a co-author to a new released non-fiction book. Recently, she started a show called, “The TufFish Show.” Many of our authors friends have been featured on her show and we all had so much fun.
Here’s Jennifer
How did you get started as an author?
That’s a great question! Although I’ve enjoyed writing since I was a young child, I started writing children’s books based on our family’s real-life brother and sister tuxedo kitties, Einstein and Moo, during the summer of 2011. The first story I wrote was the third book I published, Einstein & Moo and the Quest for the Catnip. It went through several iterations while I also worked on the first two books of the series, Einstein and the Leaf and Moo and the Case of the Mistaken Identity. The series has six stories, and each one started out as a poem with minimal punctuation because that’s how I preferred to read them, unless there was dialogue or a specific inflection was needed, then appropriate punctuation was used.
As I was tweaking and polishing Einstein and the Leaf and Moo and the Case of the Mistaken Identity, books one and two of the series,I started to shift my thinking about how to turn them into published books and proceeded to figure how to make it happen.
I believe that we’re all works in progress, but your first, next or current book doesn’t have to be. And when you have support from someone who has “been there” and understands what you’re going through, it makes all the difference in the world. My goal is to help writers get from “maybe I’ll do it” to “it’s happening!”
Tell us about your TufFish Show.
The TufFish Show makes my heart so happy! It features authors from different genres and businesses, but with one thing in common – they had a message or story they wanted to tell and courageously got out of their own way and made it happen. It’s one facet under the TufFish umbrella, which also includes book coaching and developmental editing.
Each time you get “unstuck” by brainstorming a story plot for fiction or teasing out how to teach a concept for nonfiction, you feel excited for what’s possible and your writing flows even more. When you have a trusted advisor, sounding board and encourager as you write your book, you take the limits off yourself and create something even better than you thought possible because you were receptive to a reader with an editor’s eye and desire for you to be successful.
And if you want to know how TufFish got its name, check out the trailer to the podcast. Click on the image below to listen.
Tell us about your latest book and what can readers expect to learn?
You Know it’s a Verb, Right? is my first non-fiction and first co-authored book; it demonstrates how leadership must become a verb and positively develop individuals across the leadership spectrum who believe there’s more to leadership than meets the eye.
We wanted it to feel like you had two mentors right there with you who cared about you being successful, so you could serve and encourage others. We created You Know it’s a Verb, Right? to be a roadmap with real-life examples that uses everyday language to help you bridge the gap between your technical skills and the leadership skills required to successfully guide individuals, teams, and organizations. Whether you’re at the start of your leadership journey or already in a leadership position, You Know it’s a Verb, Right? affirms you can become a better leader.
What was it like working with a co-author?
I really enjoyed co-authoring You Know it’s a Verb, Right? with Wayne. He’s a wonderful person and dear friend, and it was an honor to work on this book with him. This book was years in the making between brainstorming, writing, re-writing, editing (more re-writing and editing), and finally getting it published. We spent a lot of time using video to talk through ideas, rework chapters, and engage with our team to bring the book to life. One thing I treasure from this experience is that as I contributed to our book, I learned so much from Wayne that I could feel my own leadership practice deepen.
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
I love time with my family (including our kitties) and friends. I’m also a bit of a foodie, so I enjoy creating delicious food in the kitchen.
Thanks so much for being with us today, Jennifer.
If you would like to reach out to Jennifer to talk more to her about the topics we talked about, you can contact her at on her website by clicking here:
► https://www.jennifermilius.com/
In Other News at Books by Rose…
These next few months will be busy as I gather Beta Readers and a Street Team for my new book coming this fall. If you are reading this and would be interested in being a part of this adventure with me, please leave a note in the comment section below.
Thanks for stopping by today.
Wishing you all a wonderful June 2021!
As always,
Happy Reading!
Rosie