My journey from start 'til now. - Tricia Ting Lee

Since high school, I’ve always wanted to illustrate children books. But the thought of being a “starving artist” drove me to give up this dream and pursue a more lucrative career – I went into advertising.

When I graduated, I was excited to embark on my new adventure. I landed a job up in San Francisco working on Adidas. It was definitely my dream job. Advertising was fun – traveling to exotic places to shoot TV commercials, staying in 5 star hotels and eating expensive meals on the client were just a few of the perks. Slowly, I started to conform to this lifestyle of, “Life is short. Do whatever pleases you…” and I began questioning my faith in God.

I remember one day when I was living in NYC I was hanging out with a friend talking about religion and she said, “I believe all religions point to the same God.” I nodded my head in agreement with her. A couple of months later I ran into an old childhood friend of mine and told him what she said. He was so upset with me for believing that and quoted Exodus 34:14 –“For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:” This was definitely a wake up call. I realized that my faith had become soft. God convicted me through my friend and I asked God to forgive me.

I became disillusioned with my career and I wanted to do something that would make a positive impact in people’s lives, especially children. My desire to illustrate children’s books grew stronger. I met people at work that had written children stories and was looking for an illustrator. So we would partner together but nothing ever came from it. I gave up again.

Fast forward to 2006 when I was pregnant with my daughter, Maya. Late one night when I was speaking to a friend that was my spiritual mentor, I told her that I always wanted to illustrate children’s books. All of a sudden she was silent. With tears streaming down her face, she said, “I believe you’re the one that God has chosen to illustrate my book.” She then told me that this book was suppose to be a surprise for me and her daughter since we were both about to become moms. One night while she was praying for our children, she asked God, “What happens in Heaven when a child is born?” Images and words came flashing through her mind and she ran to her computer to record everything.

It took me 8 months to paint Beautiful and Valiant. Throughout the whole process, my friend sent passages of the Bible to me and I learned so much about Heaven and God’s Throne. A year after this book was finished, we were talking about another idea for a book. It was amazing; God gave us the entire story and visuals in one night. And this time around, I painted The Land Where Dreams Come True in just 3 months! Again, I learned so much about Jesus and how much He loves us.

Around this time, I started asking the Lord to give me more opportunities to illustrate children’s books. I met a few people that wanted to partner with me on a book but nothing ever came from it. I didn’t understand why. I kept telling God that it was my heart’s desire to illustrate books and to get out of advertising.

So I waited...and waited…and waited. One day I got an email from a woman that was friends with my parents. She wrote that her niece, Lori, had written some books and was looking for an illustrator. Lori had written a children’s series about this kid named Henry Hamper and his encounters with animals. These animals all have a “problem” and Henry is able to help them out through prayer and some creativity.

We began talking on the phone and I soon realized that God had placed her in my life for a reason. She has become a close friend and sister and whenever I have a problem or I need prayer, she is one of the first ones I call. We’ve shared long talks on the phone about our lives and how God is so faithful and good.

Our first book, The Adventures of Henry Hamper & The Flying Fish was finished this past May. Lori is planning to travel here to California to do some book signings and give her testimony. I’m so excited to finally meet her in person. I’m currently working on our next book, The Adventures of Henry Hamper & The Color Caterpillar. God not only answered my prayer but He’s given me more than I could ever ask for. I’ve been learning throughout this process that God is never late, but always on time.

My journey from start 'til now.

Hello everyone, I thought it would be nice to share my journey of this book with you from the start, it will give you a much better appreciation of just how special this book is. About two years ago I was laid off due to a plant closing down like so many because of a bad economy. It was at that time that I was at home everyday with a lot of time on my hands, the kids were at school and the husband at work, so it gave me a lot of time to reflect on my life and the direction it was going or lack there of.

In that time I decided that I needed to renew my walk with God so I started reading my bible and praying a lot, just getting reacquainted with Jesus. After a few months of doing some much needed inner healing and reprioritizing things and relationships in my life, I was sitting on the couch one morning and I heard a voice in my inner spirit and it promptly said "write the book" I knew what book it was because I had the idea for this first story years ago, and even though I had sat down to write it many times it just never worked out.

It didn't work out because the time wasn't right. So out of sheer obedience I said "OK" but I don't have an ending for this story, but I had a peace in my inner spirit that the ending would come to me, well sure enough it did. I went and got a notebook and an ink pen, sat down on the couch and the words flowed from my pen, the story just came, and what really came as a complete surprise is that the whole thing rhymed and not only that, I also wrote five more books, it became a series. After finishing the book I thought, what now? Well I needed an illustrator, I knew a couple people that would be great, one of them was my high school art teacher, and the other was a friend of mine from high school that was now my children’s art teacher. I contacted them both by phone by neither answered so I left messages; it was really surprising that neither had gotten back to me, because I know that they would have.

A couple weeks later I still hadn't heard anything so I thought what am I going to do now? God works in mysterious ways, later that day my mom was talking to my aunt who lives in California, and she just happened to mention to her that I had written the cutest story, but was having a hard time finding an illustrator. My aunt said that she just happened to know a Christian lady that was an illustrator and wanting to do a children’s books, but she had turned down a few offers, well long story short, my aunt talked to her and gave me her number, I called sent her a copy of a portion of the story, she loved it and agreed to illustrate it for me.

Turned out that she was sent to me by God, because we have become very close friends and she has been a HUGE help to me (not to mention a great partner for this book), we have grown to love each other as sisters would we call and talk and tell each other if one of us has a problem. Even if this book never sold a copy becoming her friend has made this journey well worth it.

Ok I have the book written and the illustrator now what God? So I did what I could do and let Him do the rest. I had never wrote a book or even knew anyone that had, so the next steps were just a guessing game, with the security that God would bless my steps and close doors that needed to be closed and open doors that needed to be opened I did the only thing I knew to do, I got on the computer and typed in "book publishers" wow!!! There are only a million- lol, where do I start, come to find out there are very few if any that will take a manuscript submission, with out the representation of a literary agent.

Soooooooo I then wondered how do you get one of those and how much is this gonna cost me. Well I put it out of my head for awhile and found a " Christian publisher that was willing to look at my manuscript, after looking at it I was told that he wanted to change too many things, "which I might add would be hard to do because the whole book rhymed, I felt strongly in my spirit that I wasn't to change anything, that the book was written just the way it was supposed to be, so being obedient I turned down a publishing deal, and was back to square one.

I put the book thing to the side just temporarily, 'til I had some more guidance come to me. One evening as I was cooking dinner my illustrator called and said "you need to check this website out" she said it just popped up on her email, " weird I thought" but what the heck, turns out that God was at work again! Because the email was about a children’s book literary agent looking for new authors! Hmmmmm, how interesting.

Well, you guessed it, I submitted it and a few days later got a reply back that they had a publisher that they thought would be interested but that they needed to submit it to them and wait and see. A couple weeks later I got an email that said "WE WANT YOUR BOOK" I just about fainted talk about excited!!!! After crying and jumping up and down and telling my husband and kids, I called my illustrator and told her, let the journey begin.

OK fast forward through the next six months of ALOT of work I never realized how much work was involved in publishing a book. There were ups and downs but through it all we grew as people and got business savvy and learned a lot, but most of all we grew in Christ.

Finally the day came that we got the email " it is done and ready for sale" So this is where we are now, really the journey is starting now' Its now that the traveling, book signings, book readings and all the promotional event start. There were so many more miracles in this whole process that I just don’t have time to write about, but I wanted to make sure that you all understood just how special this book is and that if you follow God closely He will go above and beyond what any of us would expect.

I’m hoping that after the book is out and people start getting familiar with my name that I can start giving speeches on this journey. My family deserves a lot of credit, they have been so very and completely supportive, and in fact this whole thing has changed many of them, through watching this unfold in front of their eyes. I think this book experience was brought about for many, reasons. So a BIG thanks you to my precious family for your awesome support, my mom, dad sisters and brother I love you all!

I'd like to say I have the best friends a person could ask for, they too have also been so supportive and still are its truly amazing and such a blessing I love you guys!

My husband what else can I say, he is my BIGGEST fan and my partner, he will always be by my side, and I wouldn't want anybody else. He is the love of my life!! Thank you, Honey. We are truly in this together.

Thank you to my precious children, you are both a part of my life that can never be replaced, you are my heart. I LOVE YOU Paige and Zain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And last but certainly not least THANK YOU JESUS!!!!!!!! By whom which none of this would have been possible, thank you for giving me life.

I hope this story has inspired all of you, because I know it has changed my life.

If you are on my Henry Hamper fan page on facebook, id love for you to get on my blog and comment. It only takes a moment and would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for all your support and continued support, it will make a difference in a childs life.

Lori Ann Libby
author of
The Adventures of Henry Hamper and the Flying Fish

The time for this book to be out is soooo close, i know there are so many people who are excited about this book coming out including me. Its time we give children a little inspiration and this book will do just that.