Goals Flying Forward

At Pearl’s insistence (and possibly because today is a Day of Remembrance for a Gracie who started this writing and illustrating journey), we are examining our goals going forward.

Pearl’s greatest goal is to be able to move outside of the pages of a book and into the hearts of her readers. This is no easy task especially for a chicken, and even one as talented as Pearl.

Our Current Gracie Press Goal (just one):

1. Keep our Stories and Illustrations Free for anyone to read and look at. (This had been decided long ago by Gracie for whom GraciePress was named.)

But to Move Off Of The Pages of a Book, Pearl came up with these Goals:

1. Give our readers only three things to remember. This means that stories should have three parts. If it is a long story, then each of those three parts could have three parts of their own. Pearl calls these First Toe, Middle Toe, Last Toe. You and I might know them better as Beginning, Middle, and End. (The reason for this is that chickens have three toes that face forward, and they can look down and see them. They have one toe that faces backwards that they can’t see, but with the other three, they can use to hold onto a limb of a tree or a piece of wood on something I’ve built for them.)
2. Use unexpected illustrations of chickens doing unexpected things.
3. Keep reading level and vocabulary simple but not stupid. Children (and chickens) can handle more demanding words and stories. Simplify but don’t make stupid.