Behind the Scenes of GSD Factor Juniors

R.C. and I are teaming up this month on our blog. We thought it would be fun to share with you the behind the scenes around our co-authored book GSD Factor Juniors. 

R.C., what are your top three favorite things that you got to do with this project?

1. Illustrating the first ninja
2. Recording the audiobook
3. Drawing out the alphabet

Those are 3 great favorite things. Let’s dive a little deeper into each of those.

1. Now R.C. has been doing karate since she was four years old. Through karate, she has learned great physical skills as well as a stronger mental mindset. One of the very first lessons she learned from her sensei was that her voice was her strongest weapon. When R.C. first decided she wanted to write a book, she immediately knew she wanted to bring ninjas into the story. She loves art and drawing, so I told her to draw a picture of a ninja from her mind. Once we saw this ninja, we knew we wanted it to be the inspiration for our illustrator Ms. Ella Carllton Shirk. Ms. Ella did a beautiful job of illustrating and representing many features that make us humans uniquely and wonderfully made.
   
2. Now what you may not know is that R.C. made a cameo appearance on my audiobook The GSD Factor, at the beginning asking me what GSD stands for. While in the studio recording, she said she wanted to write a book and record it just like me. We live in Nashville, so finding a recording studio was not hard.  When I took her to the studio, the halls were adorned with pictures of all the artists who had recorded their albums there, including two of R.C.’s favorites, Dolly Parton and Carrie Underwood. It brought me such joy to see her face light up when she realized that two of her sheroes had spent so much time creating memorable songs and albums within those very walls. If walls could talk, right? R.C. spent three days recording GSD Factor Juniors alongside our book editor Alacia Reynolds who is also a singer/songwriter and vocal coach. Then our producer, Drew Boals, taught R.C. some of the basics and fundamentals around editing and producing. It was an incredible summer project.

3. Did you know that the font on the front cover, title pages, and throughout some of the illustrations is custom? It’s the R.C. Farrish font! That’s right, Ms. Ella had R.C. draw out the alphabet and then digitally create a font that we use throughout this project. As a mom, it is very memorable to have R.C.’s 8 year old handwriting memorialized as a font that can be used for many projects to come.

As you can see through some of these examples that we shared, R.C. has been part of this project every step of the way, from providing ideas and inspiration, contributing to the creative process, and even helping out in some of the production and execution of bringing this book to life. This is a moment in time that, as a mom, I’ve spent many “Be present” moments enjoying this journey with her, collaborating, and bringing the GSD Factor Life to the younger generation.

Be sure to check out her audiobook exclusively on Audible and sign up for our updates, where you can learn more about our upcoming read-along storybook video.