Glasgow Author Makes Writing Debut With 'The Tooth Fairy's Stars'

Cara (Morehouse) Pinder launched her first children's book tour on Oct. 10 at the Loaded Toad to promote her new book "The Tooth Fairy's Stars." The tour continued throughout the week with stops at the Glasgow City-County Library during story hour, Blend 10 and the Harvest Bazaar. She completed her first sale just minutes into the first event to Sheila Doll.

Pinder is a fifth-generation Montanan, born and raised in Glasgow, and graduated from Glasgow High School in 2003. She currently resides in Glasgow with her husband and two kids, Everett and Fallan, who inspired the story while they themselves started to lose teeth.

"My kids asked a lot of questions when they were four and seven, which is prime loose tooth season. They asked why the tooth fairy needed the tooth back. I started looking and found the origination of the tooth fairy but found nothing on why she needed the tooth so the kids and I started the story," explained Pinder. "When I started writing down the story, I asked the kids what the tooth fairy looked like. She has a slingshot because my son got one for Christmas which is why she slings the tooth. The tooth fairy also has a pocket full of glitter as when she visits our house, she leaves glitter on the pillow."

When the writing process started, the story was just going to be a family heirloom to pass down to future generations, however once the story was passed along to a freelance editor, to "spruce it up a bit" according to Pinder, she was inspired by his feedback to make the story available to everyone. "He said 'you have something here. Children will want to read this.' His job is to make things better than what it was and he is a pretty well known editor, so if he thinks it's a good book then I should move forward," said Pinder.

Move forward she did to get the story out to the community and beyond. Prior to sending the manuscript to the editor, she had been taking online classes and started reading up on how to write a children's book, again more for heirloom purposes and not for the masses. However once the editor provided the positive feedback, she gained momentum and motivation to get the book published for everyone to access. Using resources she learned from her online classes, she reached out to agents and publishers with the final manuscript and only got a few emails back, after sending two dozen letters. She learned through the process of submitting that it could take as little as three months to get a response back and as much as 12 months or beyond. Though she did get some responses back from her letters, it was only confirmation they had received the request to review.

"I can't just sit here and wait. I have the momentum now and as I moved forward in my classes, I found out more about the publishing world, such as if I published traditionally, I only receive a 10 percent profit and they own the story, where independent publishing you are at the beck and call of Amazon. Eventually I found a happy medium with Deveo Studios, a publishing company out of Portland, Ore., that provides independent publishing benefits without giving up my vision," explained Pinder. This relationship has allowed her to obtain author copies, of which she can then sell through her book tours and other events while also donating copies to libraries and in the future, local dentist offices.

Having the ability to be a part of the library system was also important to Pinder. "We love libraries. We would break the bank if we had to purchase every book my children have checked out of the library over the years," laughed Pinder. Through this relationship with Deveo, she also has the ability to have the books in small businesses throughout northeast Montana, including local gift shops and bookstores.

Sequels are in the works with two more potential books in the series if all continues to go well. "The first book is really focused on my daughter Fallan with Everett in the background so the second book will focus on Everett and his missing tooth. This book is currently in the rough draft stage. As long as everything goes well, the third book will focus on how tired the tooth fairy is as a result of all the adventures," stated Pinder.

Since the initial book tour, she has been invited to do story time at Opheim School and she would love to do a story time at other area schools, including preschools. She has also attended various bazaar events in Circle and Jordan to continue her reach throughout northeast Montana.