Today’s special guest is children’s author Louis J. Desforges. He’s chatting with me about Ethan’s STEM Adventures: I Can Be a Scientist!
During his virtual book tour, Louis will be awarding a $15 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit his other tour stops and enter there, too.
Bio:
Having endless curiosity, Louis has always been enthralled by the inner workings of everything around him.
With a natural and insatiable drive to build, explore, and understand, one of his fondest childhood memories is harvesting toasters, microwaves, TVs, and other discarded electronics in his Brooklyn neighborhood so he could take apart and rebuild them, or scavenge parts to build his own remote-controlled cars or planes.
He is the first to admit that nothing ever worked as intended, or at all, for that matter, but that never really mattered to him. As long as he was dissecting, constructing, exploring and learning, his cup was always full.
Today, his tinkering looks very different. Louis spends countless hours building and rebuilding Lego sets with his four-year-old son.
With any free time left after work and family life (usually late at night), you can find Louis in his workshop (any available free space with a flat surface) writing, painting, sculpting or toiling over his photography; nonetheless, his deep love for STEM remains, and at its core feeds his endless curiosity and desire to understand the inner workings of everything.
Welcome, Louis. Please tell us about your current release.
In this children’s picture book, there are two characters – a boy and his dog. The boy is my 4-year-old son. Although the dog is fictionally because we don’t have one currently, I am a big dog lover!
In Ethan’s STEM Adventures, both boy and dog are curious, adventurous, and brave. Together, they travel through time and visit amazing locations discovering the joys of science.
What inspired you to write this book?
I believe that we learn as children to adopt false narratives such as the perception that aspirations are “unattainable,” “far-fetched,” or “unrealistic” simply because they seem out of reach for whatever reason at the time. We aren’t taught to look at failures as a success waiting to happen, or to look at barriers as a challenge that will instead teach us more of what we need to know to succeed.
Telling stories is an excellent way to inspire children. Stories provide children with a view into new and exciting world of characters, places, cultures, and traditions.
Storytelling enhances creativity, inspires curiosity, and broadens a child’s immigration – making them more open to new ideas and concepts while teaching them about life, themselves, and others.
Sadly, children along all dimensions of diversity rarely see themselves represented in the characters of the books that they read.
My purpose is to be intentional about creating more diverse, equitable and inclusive stories that will inspire and cement deep within a child’s framework the confidence to achieve their dreams, regardless of their prevailing circumstances.
Excerpt from Ethan’s STEM Adventures:
Science is the way we see
What was, what is, and what can be
Earth Science, Life Science, Social Science…Whew!
Physical Science and formal Science too!
All the ways to tell the story of me and you
And everything in between
That can or can’t be seen
What exciting project are you working on next?
I plan to continue writing – this first children’s picture book is one in a series of 4 focused on STEM. From there, I plan to branch into other topics that resonates with me deeply such as sustainability – more specifically, living in harmony within our environment.
I believe it is possible to teach these things to children very early on – creating responsible and conscious adults.
The writing process can be excruciating for me. I am still working on developing the confidence, knowledge, and discipline to create a full-length novel.
More to come – but for now, I love writing children’s picture book.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
To be honest, I do not consider myself to be a writer. I respect the writing journey immensely – as a novice making a foray into arena, I dare not try to align myself with the honor of being call a writer.
What I am, is a very creative being using writing as medium to express certain ideas I cannot capture on canvas, using a camera or sculpting.
One day, many years from now, I can say that I am a writer, but not today…lol
Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your workday like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I do not write full time – even if I could, I do not think I am able to – even as a very disciplined corporate executive during the day, my creative process is very, very messy – think of a toddler with an open jar of peanut butter unsupervised.
My workday is very meticulous, strategic, and focused; so is my living space, my workspace, even the way I dress – yet my writing is completely the opposite. As you will see in the next question about my writing quirk, ideas and inspiration comes to me in spurts – and I don’t want to change that because when I try to be more disciplined in my writing process, I become much less creative, humorous and authentic – and at the point, writing becomes a chore.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I cannot sit long enough for a structured writing session. I would just stare at the computer or blank piece of legal pad. My ideas come to me either at 3 am, while exercising, on my commute or simply at a totally random, often inconvenient time – and I can only write comfortably on tattered scraps of paper or the occasional napkin – at 3 am, I use “notes” on my phone. Once written, I shove the notes into my scrap book.
Every few weeks or months, I collect all those scraps of paper full of ideas and voilà – I have the making of a manuscript lol.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Other than a superhero (which is still my secret desire), I wanted to be a robotics engineer. I am still very much enamored by how this work and building gadgets. Think of me as Q to James Bonds 007 or the Lucius Fox to Batman – creating all those amazing gadgets that helps the superhero save the day, or just helps him save his own hide in most cases lol.
Links:
Website | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon | Bookshop | Barnes and Noble | Book Depository
Thanks for being here today, Louis!
Thanks for hosting!
Sounds good, thank you.
Sounds like a great book.
Happy New Year’s Eve.