"Pen the Tale, Oogie" is a Book for Anyone Who Has Struggled

For anyone who has tried hard and failed, there’s a new book available about a bear that’ll encourage you (and possibly tempt you to eat a honey sandwich).

Pen the Tale, Oogie is the product of local skill and imagination – both the author, Karen J. Moore, and illustrator, Doug Hansen, are Central Valley residents. Of course, I couldn’t miss the opportunity to hear them speak at an Author Talk at the Betty Rodriquez Library recently. (If you’re interested in writing, books, or reading, check your local library’s event page for upcoming Author Events.)

A Tale of Perseverance

Pen the Tale, Oogie is the story of a large brown bear who has a literary bend. Unfortunately, he is going to snooze through the winter and leave the forest animals without bedtime stories. Once his honest and encouraging friend, Mr. Fox, suggests he write his stories down for the animals to read while Oogie hibernates, things get tough. Oogie runs into the speed bump of unoriginality and has to face the word “REJECTED” more than once. Most people will relate to this narrative (and I don’t want to be friends with the ones who don’t).

“Keep going! Hard work pays off!” author Karen J. Moore declares. “I wanted to write a book because I love stories so much. They are so important because they cause us to use our imagination. This particular story took me close to two years to get it ready for submission. Then someone heard me read it and asked me to submit it.”

Moore has been through the same struggles as Oogie. As a writer, she knows what it’s like to work on a story and refine it, only to have it rejected. She might have made an angry bear face along the way, but she didn’t quit and she’s got the publisher to prove it. As in many cases, the love of the work kept her going. When she was a child, telling stories was a way to survive boring car rides and now, she says, “even as an adult, I love stories.”

Even kids who love stories need a good illustration to kick it into gear. Happily, Doug Hansen has stepped in to make Oogie and his woodland friends vibrant and interesting. As he explains, “Illustrations are pictures that grow from the words. I read the story and let the pictures grow in my head.”

As organic as that sounds, there was still some serious planning involved in the Oogie illustrations. Hansen drew the literary bear’s house outside and inside with an entire floor plan. The man is smart, and he knows kids will notice if a window gets moved to another spot on the next page. “I tried to envision the type of house a moderately skillful bear would make for himself,” he explained.

Perhaps that’s the charm of Oogie the bear: he’s moderately skillful. He works hard for his achievements and his acceptance is hard won. Unless you’re Mozart or someone equally annoying, it’s likely you’ll face the same obstacles on your way to success.

Hansen himself spent a long time working as an illustrator before his dream of creating his own book came true. “I saw the pictures in my story books and I wanted to do that. It took me a long time to have my own story book: I was 50 years old when I made my Mother Goose book. I was inspired by pictures other people made, and wanted to do that myself.”

So whether it takes you five months or 50 years, the key is to keep working hard, to eat a honey sandwich once in awhile, and to continue to work on the things you love. Eventually you’ll see those rejection slips turn into acceptance slips.

How to Buy the Book

If you’re interested in picking up Pen the Tale, Oogie, it’s available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and A Book Barn in Clovis.

For more information on Karen J. Moore, check out her website here. If you want to see more of Doug Hansen, his website is here, or you can read this FresYes profile on his work I wrote last year.