ML Bruin on Writing The Noah Series and Inspiring Young Readers

0:00Hey, I'd like to welcome each another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you'd like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to Mission Matters.com and click on be our guest to apply. All right, so today's a very special episode. We have ML Bruin on the line, who is a writer and author of the, I'll say the Noah series. I'm looking at his website ML Bruin.com, and we have no one in the shark. We have Noah's summer adventures. We have what would Noah do, so he's got an entire catalog of children's book ML. Welcome to the show. Hey, Adam. Thank you very much. Excited to be here, and it's a pleasure to talk to you, actually. Oh, man. So I want to get right into this first off. You becoming a children's author, you going down that path, I'd like to give me the beginning. How do I start? How this catalog, how this writing, how do I start for you? Yeah. I always wanted to write, and I had a long engineering career, and I wrote a couple of self-help books during my career.

1:01One was actually about raising lessons I learned, raising my daughters, and later I wrote a guide for navigating career success, because I noticed the younger folks that we were hiring were very intelligent, but they didn't have a lot of the skills that could really help them in their career. And so I published those, but I really always wanted to write children's books. So in fact, even at a young age, when I was in elementary school, I would write my own books, children's books, and do the illustrations. Really? Yeah. It became a passion about, yeah, the very young age. Most of them were about sports, but anyway, so I said, I kept a couple of those ideas and said, one day I'm going to write my own books, and so needless to say, once I retired, I had to retire because of my blind disease. So that was the ideal time for me to start writing books, and that's kind of how the self started. So it talks me about the concept for the, and do you call it the Noah series? I just want to make sure I have it right. I don't want to miss out the things.

2:01Now, would you call it? It feels like the Noah series did me go ahead. That's correct, Adam. That's actually what I call it, and the Noah series really started because we'll talk about the inspiration. That's my inspiration. It's pretty simple and very personal. It was a birth of our grandson a few years ago. So as I mentioned, I always wanted to write children's books, and when my grandson was born, it's actually my wife who said, boom, there's your inspiration right there, and now it's the time to dive into writing books. And the first book really, yeah, the first book really, it set up nicely because Noah and the shark, how that started, is my wife and I bought him a toy shark, and when he was really little, and he always had it with him. It was his source of comfort. He had it with him. He slept with it, and actually one day, there's the first book right there, so that really inspired me. So it was the birth of our grandson and it inspired me to do the series. Wow. Was it kind of like a baby shark moment? I'm just curious the timeline on this how long ago it was.

3:02Yeah, he's not quite two and a half. It was literally within a few months. I love sharks. It was kind of selfish. I guess we were at a toy store, and I saw a toy shark and the toy wife. I was always fascinated with shark. Let's get him one. And he, even at a young age, it was amazing. He always kept it with him, and I had some ideas, anyway, about the first book, and it's kind of just kind of fell into line, Noah and the shark. What do you hope the readers get out of this? Like obviously, I think a children's book, I think it's obviously multi-dimensional because the child's parents, the child, like this is the things they're going to remember, especially you know, those childhood memories, I remember my little childhood books, of course. What do you hope the readers get out of this? Well, what I want to do, it sounds corny, but when I became a grandparent, it gave me a renewed sense of purpose, if you will, and I started thinking about the lessons that I hoped my grandson would learn, you know, kindness for responsibility, doing the right thing, even if it felt uncomfortable, and that's a theme in a couple of the books.

4:02So I really thought about, before I started diving into the first book, even I thought about the times when he might feel unsure of himself or afraid or even brave, and so I said to myself, I want to create stories that could kind of sit with him in those times and show him that it's okay and healthy to feel these things, and so I like to say, I really try to write the kind of books I want on his bookshelf, stories that come for encourage remind children that they matter and their feelings do matter. So I kind of wove all that in to my books. Give me the order of how the books are released, and maybe even the why behind why each one was released. So you gave me the, I believe the first one, Noah and the shark, that was the first inspiration and that was based off of you buying this shark, and just kind of like seeing the inspiration like, well, that was first and my right. I just want to say that. That's correct. Yes. Noah and the shark was the first book. And what we find is, I mean, for Noah's series, I mean, because you mentioned before that the who taught who the one that you wrote for your daughters and then your other book too, but for the Noah series, Noah and the shark was first, right? Right.

5:03Right. Okay. Well came back. The second book was Noah's Summer Adventures, and the idea, each book has a, it tries to teach kids something, Noah and the shark teaches that only the truth matters because Noah struggles with the fact that his parents and family for some time don't believe that he'd be friend of the shark. He's always down at this dark and one day lost shark as for directions and they become fast friends. But so in this book, Noah and the shark, that the shark teaches him that only the truth matters. So that's the first one. Yeah. The second book Noah's Summer Adventures is simply Noah spending time in the summer with family and friends, and these are huge, important, luxurious trips. Their simple times spent with family and actually some of the events in the book, we incorporated things that really happening or happened to him in his life. So it would be an interesting memory for him. But what I want kids to get out of the second book is just be inspired and look forward to and really appreciate simple times with your family going to the farm, going to the

6:04beach, going to a wedding, things like that. So that was the what's behind the second book. The third book in the series is what would Noah do. This book really focuses on character and decision making. So in this story, I have Noah facing everyday challenges that might cause him to pause or stop and think about the kind of person he wants to be. It's really about kind of taking responsibility and helping others and making choices that doing the right thing even when it may be difficult or even scary to a young child. So the message here is I guess small decisions matter and children are capable of doing the right thing in their daily lives. As I mentioned, even when it can be challenging for them, talk to me a bit about the illustrations because they're beautiful. I'm curious how you came up with that piece. I know you said when you were a kid, you were illustrating the book yourself. Did you illustrate this or like talking about illustrations are beautiful. Yeah. Thank you. I don't do. The publisher has an illustrator that does them. When I first started writing, I spent much time illustrating.

7:05And realized after not a long period of time that, no, it wasn't going to work out. The ideas I presented, I'm not talented enough to do it. They set me up with an illustrator. But thanks for saying that. That's one of the biggest comments we get is that the illustration, full page illustrations are really colorful and beautiful. And the illustrator does a great job. That takes the most time, believe it or not. It takes a while for me to write. But the illustrations, because there are so many edits and there are scenes that want to come across. I want to come across in a certain way that don't look just right or so it takes a lot of iterations. But yes, they supply the illustrator to help me, which at least, that's great. So I looked at, I believe the first book was released in 2024, I think. So you're really, you're really cranking these things out at the top of at least your proper amount. I'm curious, what's your vision for the series overall? Like, well, what do you have to envision this? Well, thanks for that question, because I've been thinking a lot about that lately. I'm currently writing the fourth book. And does it be all about me?

8:05You got to catalog. Yes, they're talking about it. Thank you. catalog now. Yeah, right. You've created a universe. Noah. So, my plan is to write the fourth book and it'll be out before Christmas time, it'll have a Christmas message message. Beyond that, in this series anyway, I'm going to wait until Noah gets a little older because my plan from the get-go was to have Noah actually work with me on the future books, what he wants the topics to be about, what he wants to include in them. So if he thinks all of this is fun and interesting, so that's my plan and I'm really looking forward to that. So I think I'll, this book will be it for the Noah series until Noah starts collaborating with me, but I have some other ideas in parallel with that I may start, right? For instance, the children's books I told you that I wrote as a youngster in elementary school. And they work on those next, but what does the family say about this? I mean, it's got to be pretty cool. Like, everybody's like, wait a minute. Noah gets a book. I don't get it like, yeah. It's about to be. Simply write me some other.

9:06What happens is there's another, I don't know, grandkids are in trouble, man. Noah got all the books. Yeah, I'm going to. We're going to have a Marvel universe. We're going to have a Marvel universe. We're going to have a Marvel universe. We're going to have a Marvel universe. We're going to have a Marvel universe. We're going to have to have a Marvel universe. We're going to have to keep everybody happy. Exactly. Well, it's funny. We have talked about that. And mainly it was me because when we started, I asked his parents, my daughter, and son-in-law, was this OK? And they were absolutely for it. And then I said, by the way, to our other child, if and when other grandchildren come, they will get their own book. I didn't promise a series, but they will get their own book. We're going to do a writing like Charlie Brown found where you're going. What is Grant going to do? OK, like Charlie Brown. That could be the case. Yeah. Oh, man. Well, you said I did that, and if not, no, I didn't be like, I'm the favorite look at the book. Yeah, you're right. You're right. I have to be careful for that.

10:09Oh, man, that's great. But what a legacy. I love it. It's great to see it. And what's your little feedback from, like, the reader? I'm sure people love this. I can see Agantel. Like, people just love this thing, don't they? It's been beyond five beyond my expectations. And that's the biggest thing. If we're at a book signing or something and people come up and say my or teachers come up and say, oh, my class loves your books. I want to write the rest of them. Will you come in and then to see the children of the face light up? We try to include them at the book. Sorry. You're right. It's unbelievable. That's the best feeling because that's who I want to reach, right? And it inspires the youngsters. So yes, it's kind of amazing. Thank you for asking. I figured it has to be, like, when you see a little kid face light up seeing, and you think about, like, the pages of, like, you have, like, how it's to write it and illustrated. And then your inspiration, like, it's the gift that just keeps giving. I feel like it's not going to be amazing. No, that's a great way to put it out of me. Yeah. It's true. Well, Mark, this has been a lot of fun having you on today and just learning more about the Marvel universe of Noah.

11:09No, the universe of Noah and the catalog we have showing. And now the, I don't know. They're going to keep you busy. You're going to be right in a whole lot more, which is wonderful. Exactly. When, when somebody puts something in a book like this and that passed down knowledge, I just feel like that's one of the things that helped us all, like, in pass on that knowledge. That's wonderful. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you so much. And to get them in their hands, and to follow your, and to follow your journey, how do they do that? Right. My website is mlbruinbrun.umn.com, where people can see what I'm working on and where I will be doing events and when the books are coming out, the books are sold at everywhere you buy books. Really, you can find my books. Instagram is mlbruin, mlbruin, and Facebook is mlbruin-author. Fantastic. And for every listing, just so you know, we'll definitely put some links in the show notes. You can go to Mark's website, check it out, and just connect with them on social and otherwise so you can grab some of these books. And speaking of the author, if this is your first time with Mission Matters, and you haven't

12:14followed Mark or subscribed to our show, definitely go to Mark's Facebook page, all of that, follow him, make sure you get connected there. And then for us, make sure you hit the subscribe or follow button, because this is a daily show. Yes, you heard me correct. Each and every day, we bring you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way in your journey. So we don't want you to miss any of those upcoming episodes, so hit that subscribe or follow button. And Mark, appreciate you making some time for us to come into the show. Thank you. I'm going to spend fun in a really pleasure to speak with you.