Author's Interview with Dr. Jim Price

Before we dive into our exciting conversation with today’s remarkable author, let’s start by getting to know the creative mind behind the diverse and captivating stories.

1. Could you please introduce yourself to us?

Greetings and blessings first I am humbly grateful for the opportunity for this author interview. Its definitely been a unique  and special author journey.  I am award winning childrens book author Dr. Jim Price the creator of the social skills building series for grades K-6 the adventures of Harold from the hood. I was awarded the Kingdom Indie Author Award for top children's for my first book installment a trip to the park. I am also an educator within the public school system here in Massachusetts and really embrace my role to be able to inspire youth to know they are special and that they can accomplish great things in life through self love and understanding their value and worth while becoming the best versions of themselves. 

I am also a former college basketball player earning third team All American honors which taught me the value of working together with others to accomplish common goals and accepting others diferences. childrens book series has been well received by families, communities and educators across the country and has been featured with ABC, CBS and FOX news networks and the morning TV show Inside South Florida as well as many podcast shows internationally. I have been blessed to have had my children's book series endorsed by celebrities and  I feel that all I do is aligned with my purpose which is the inspire youth worldwide while bringing a message of diversity and inclusion through the lense of love and acceptance of others diferences. I recieved my Doctorate of Education from American International College where I studied professional counseling and leadership and I continue to apply my academic success to my role as an educator and author as many doors and opportunities continue to open for me to share my messages of inspiration with others. 

2. Congratulations on your book! What inspired you to write it?

Thank you it's definitely appreciated greatly I am just tremendously blessed to be able to have the platform to share my creative talents with the world. This newest installment was inspired by the work as I do everyday as an educator.  I see many of the struggles that children go through while navigating their school days. Many deal with struggles at home that impact them in their learning environments.  Frustration is one of the ways that the traumas children experience within their lives manifest itself. Sometimes this can look like an aggressive outburst for some kids and in others it may look like shutting down and being unresponsive to social interactions. 

In either circumstances there can come an opportunity to use these experiences as time to learn,  grow and utilize social skills so that frustration can be expressed in a healthy way.  Coping skills can also be learned to be applied as additional tools and strategies in their social skills tool box to navigate times kids may experience frustration as well. My newest installment looks to address these social skill topics for kids in a way that connects to where they are at while being kind of cool, refreshing and colorful so that kids will be more excited about learning social skill concepts.  These are just a few of the multitude of things that inspired the creation of my newest childrens book installment when I feel so Annoyed.  

3. What is your book about?

When I feel so Annoyed is focused on helping teach kids to deal with their feelings of frustration  through making better choices and utilizing coping strategies when in those moments of being frustrated. As a school counselor I will often remind kids that mistakes will happen and that they can grow and learn from their mistakes to be a better person so that the same mistakes won't occur again if faced with similar situations. Additionally I make the connnect that it's okay to be angry or frustrated cause those feelings are natural in the maturation of social development AND it is the actions behind those feelings that decides what outcome transpires in those moments. 

We all have the freedom to make choices and decisions in our lives but can't choose our consequences so it's so important for kids to understand the social aspects of decision making when connecting to good outcomes verse bad outcomes. These social lessons can apply to adult situations as well which is why my children series is great for positively boosting the family dynamics sphere. My childrens books reflects and explores these domains through realistic situations and circumstances within the platform of building social skills through literacy.  

4. Why did you choose this genre for your book?

This is a great question which for me holds a multi prong answer. First I feel that within my own personal experiences in life I have had times when I have been treated with bias and labeled because of my stature and skin tone often before I have spoken a single word, I have been followed in stores, profiled by the authorities and even asked in a job a interview when pursuing school counseling positions if the kids would be intimated by me despite my vast experience and advanced education. I also have an understanding of how poverty can impact how others may precieve you as well growing up in poverty myself. 

I also remember the stories my dad would tell me about his experiences growing up down south and the blatant racism and discrimination he would experience eventually forcing the family to move to the north during the civil right, jim crow laws era. Despite any of these circumstances, stories and experiences I never sought to get back or hold on to feelings of resentment or anger instead I used all these experiences to fuel my fire to grow and want to become a better person while focusing even harder on my goals and aspirations to achieve more while incorporating prayer and developing a better spiritual connection within myself. Now the manifestations of my efforts can be seen in all aspects of my life as I have grown and improved  and reached so many goals through many blessings and has even lead to a clear understanding of my purpose in this life and being able to see the signs of synchronicity which lead my path. 

Everything started from childhood and this is the reason why I chose to do children's books with social skills because during childhood is the stages of development is where we all begin our journey of shaping parts of ourselves that will influence how we are as adults. 

5. How long did it take you to complete the book?

For me I really enjoy the time period of fleshing out the social lesson for each book that I publish.  I really enjoy bring in full control of the creative aspects of publishing a book so I do take my time. I might flesh out the framework for a book and then get caught up in everyday life and not revisit the book for a few weeks then get back to it. Other times while I am in a period of not focusing on the book ideas will pop into my head in odd  places and I will be scrambling to get the ideas down on paper so that I can get back home and put those ideas or concepts into the book.  

This happened to me with my newest book while I was shopping at Target and I got some ideas for the book that randomly popped into my head and I immediately stopped all my shopping actions and hurrily made my way to the customer service desk to get some scrap paper to jot down the ideas so I would not forget. While other customers were bringing back items or asking about where items in the store were I was requesting some paper and a pen to get these ideas out. 

With the back and forth of the process it usually takes me up to 6 or 7 months to get to a place whereI feel the book is where it needs to be to get to the next phase of getting the book published.  I definitely enjoy the entire process and each experience in the creative process can be different based on what the social lesson will be in a particular book. 

6. What makes your book special?

This a a fabulous question as well. My thoughts on what makes my book special rest in the dynamics of how the book interconnects families and communities together in a positive way while helping children to improve in a much needed area of social skills. When connecting the book to aspects of diversity and inclusion and accepting others diferences to spread the message of love and peace helps make the books in the series very special.  

Even the main character of the book Harold the purple snail has his tee shirt say love and peace on it which helps carry the theme as well. It also helps tremendously to be blessed to win the nomination for top children's book award as which happened with winning the Kingdom Indie Author Award in the children's book category  for my installment of the adventures of Harold from the hood a trip to the park.  I have been able to connect with so many authors from many different places as well some expressing to me about the positive impact that the series is having while inspiring others as well. 

As authors sometimes  we can forget that we can be inspiring others that we may not know behind the scenes and it's important to be aware of that. 

7. When can we expect your next book?

Right now I have been focused on promoting and marketing this new installment in the children's series while exploring tv media markets to help further bring the new book to larger audiences. It has helped that I already have an established brand being that this is the fourth book in my childrens social skills series and having connections with tv media markets already.  

I am also working on a project currently with a production company that is working with me to bring my book series into cartoon animation episodes. The first cartoon episode will be premiering soon and I am extremely blessed and excited about that project coming to life. I have also established my first new program called Children Learning Social Skill Through Literacy which is about teaching professionals and families about the importance of social skill development through professional development trainings and speaking engagements virtual and in person.  

I book virtual and in person read out louds of my books  for schools and libraries which gives me to opportunity to connect with children and families in the community. I am in the process of putting the framework together for restarting my podcast show which will be based on bringing to the forefront issues in our education system collaborating with educators across the country.  I have not brought focus yet to what the next installment of the award winning children's book series will be as of yet but when that occurs I will definitely be full steam ahead on that project for the future.  I am just blessed to have the platform to pursue all these projects and see them come to fruition.  

8. Did you experience writer’s block while writing? What advice would you give to others who face it?

I have definitely had my experiences with writers block when faced with the wording of concepts in the social skills books. When I have been faced with writers block I will just pray  about it that I will be given the idea to get past that. Sometimes the idea will come soon or sometime it will come much later but I will say that eventually the ideas to move past writers block will come through to me and when reading the material out loud will make sense and add up to the concepts that I am making the connections too. 

You have to believe that the time will come that the ideas will be opened up to move past writers block. For myself incorporating prayer into the routine had proven to be a part of my success in moving past writers block. Sometimes focusing on doing  self care activities you enjoy most also helps relieve stress of the mind that can be associated with writers block. 

As they say a thunder storm does not last forever eventually the sun does come out to shine. Same can be said with regards to writers block. Hope this is helpful information for all authors going through their author journey.  

9. Besides being a talented author, what are your other hobbies?

I do have quite a few hobbies or activities that I enjoy. One thing I do tend to focus on is self care and making sure that I do something for myself each day after going through most of my days helping others. 

A lot of people forget to realize how important self care is in connection to the energy we expend in everyday life processes. For my self care needs for me it could look like a hot rocks back massage at the massage parlor or just coming home and enjoying a period of pure quiet time by myself with no TV on or indulging in reading a good book. 

Whatever the activity it definitely has to be something you enjoy. I also see cooking for me as therapeutic as I like putting together tasty meals and going through the process and steps to make that happen sometimes finding new good recipes to try out and follow. Being a kid at heart still I also will sometimes get back to  just firing up my video game console and playing some games. 

When I was a kid I was introduced to the video gaming world with the Atari 2600 system many moons ago which has since become a part of my hobbies  to this day. Definitely a Playstation guy not Xbox 

for those that know anything about gaming. It's just important to remember self care in the process of our daily lives so we all can be effective in our process of helping others. 

10. Last but not least, how did you feel during this interview?

Definitely want to say thank you again for the opportunity to share aspects of myself outside of just being an author. I like to have people see that I have life experiences,  up and downs like anyone else. We all have choices we can make to steer where we will go and have free will to change our circumstances if we are not happy with where we may be in life. 

Striving to be a better person each day should be the focus and plan for ourselves and for the benefit of our youth as well. It's the little kind gestures towards others we interact with in our lives be it family or friends or complete strangers that make a difference in the bigger picture of things and adds up to help make for a more positive minded society.  Appreciate the time and continued blessings to all children and families wherever you may be. Stay blessed.  

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