Twelve years ago? Thirteen years ago?
It’s hard to remember what year Andrea Beam and I first met – but instantly we had a few things in common.
We were both freelance writers. We were both writing routinely for Kidding Around Greenville. We both were moms of adopted kids.
Eventually we’d go on to attend some writing workshops together, to show up at the same events for articles and to share ideas about writing and motherhood through the years. We’d both move along in our careers too and we’d each end up writing for other tourism and promotional sites. (Plus – you can find a lot of Andrea Beam articles here on Travelers Rest Here – it’s fun to read along and follow her adventures.)
You can now find Andrea Beam’s words and work at Greenville 360 – a website I have grown to love and appreciate. This is definitely a fabulous connection for Greenville events and updates.
Andrea has also been up to something else too – another special writing project.
Tyler Goes to School is Andrea’s first children’s book and it’s available locally and online currently. In fact, this Saturday (January 18) from 10 to 2 you can meet Andrea and purchase her book at M. Judson where she is hosting a book signing.
We met at Leopard Forest recently to talk about her path to publication and the story behind her book.
The Tyler in the book is based on a real life Tyler.
“He’s 28 years old now, but when I first met him I was working at a daycare and I fell in love with him and his family,” Andrea shares. We speak a little loud to hear over the roasting machines at the coffeeshop.
Andrea was a college student at North Greenville University and Tyler was in the afterschool daycare program where Andrea worked. Tyler was on a heart monitor and has cerebral palsy. Andrea and Tyler’s family quickly connected and she began babysitting for Tyler. This was also an open door for her to the Meyer’s Center, a special education school here in Greenville County where Andrea worked for a decade.
In the book, Tyler is heading to school for the first time and being anxious would be a normal response for a school’s first day. In reality, Andrea was the nervous one! “I was overcome with anxiety about his starting school. What if he was the only one in a wheelchair? What if people made fun of him?” Research was her go to so she headed to the library to find a book to help ease her worries. “I found nothing. Sure, there were books with kids in wheelchairs, but I couldn’t find a book then about the child heading to school his wheelchair. So I wrote one.”
This was about two decades ago. And over those years Andrea had sent it to publishers and tried different routes to publication. But the timing just wasn’t right and she shelved the idea while life and other pursuits took the lead.
Recently, however, she pulled the manuscript back out and decided to give it another try.
“I took it back to writing critique classes and polished it and brought it back to life,” Andrea shared.
And now you can find it at As the Page Turns and M. Judson, at Walmart and Amazon and Barnes & Noble. (But definitely shop local!)
One of Andrea’s goals is to bring Tyler’s story into schools. She has a presentation to accompany the book that can help students learn empathy and understanding for other students with different abilities.
This won’t be Andrea’s last book. She has another picture book in the works and we’ll share that one too when it becomes available.
Head over to M. Judson this weekend and say hi and buy a copy for you and one for your school library too!
