The call to create: Local children's author writes 'Every Day is Making Day'

THE WOODLANDS, TX -- In 2018, Woodlands resident Sara Triana Mitchell published her first book, “Love Love Bakery,” influenced by Jane and John Dough Bakery. While on her Summer of Love Love Book Tour, Mitchell had the opportunity to meet with children and adults who all had stories to tell about the things they loved to create. Mitchell, a poet as well as a children’s book author, encouraged her readers, “Keep going. Today is the day to make the thing.”

These conversations inspired her second children’s book, “Every Day is Making Day.”

“I met a six-year-old who had written and illustrated a stack of superhero books, and I met grownups who had their side thing of playing the piano or painting,” Mitchell said. “One of my favorite conversations to have with people is to figure out what people are making and to tell them to keep doing it.”

The powerful message to “make the thing” is a call to be creative every day in “Every Day is Making Day.” The words jump off the pages and beckon to be read out loud. Paired with the stunning illustrations by artist Priscilla Ornelas, the book appeals to children and adults alike. Ornelas, an oil painter from Roswell and a friend of Mitchell’s, taught herself digital illustration for this project. The two collaborated to bring an inclusive cast of children makers to life throughout the pages. And to make the work even more special, the two mom makers were also pregnant together during the creation of the book.

“I love picture books,” Mitchell said. “My graduate work is in children’s literature. But I especially love picture books; the words plus art are brought together by reader’s interpretation to create something new.”

“Every Day is Making Day” aims to help readers make something new each day. Mitchell’s words echo in the book - “The things I’m making will change the world. The things I’m making are important.”

“There’s a part at the end of the book that is important for kids to hear - what they are making right now is important. Their coloring and doodling and dancing are important,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell launched the Kickstarter campaign for “Every Day is Making Day” Sept. 8. “Love Love Bakery” was published the same way, through the means of a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the hybrid publishing of the book with Lucid Books in Magnolia. 'Every Day is Making Day' will be published with Beaver's Pond Press. It’s a daunting and emotionally strenuous process not only to write a book, but to then raise the funds for printing.

“My first challenge with writing this book was the creative challenge. I wanted this book to be shorter and more fun to read out loud than my first book, so I wrote it in a different way. I recorded it first without having written it down. I just started speaking it. The second challenge was if I was ready to feel vulnerable again and ask people to support me in creating another book. That’s tough to go back and ask for help again...to rally the troops again.”

But rally she has. The Kickstarter campaign ends October 2 at 7 p.m. CST and has just over 90% of the financial needs met. If the funds necessary to print the book have not been raised by then, “Every Day is Making Day” will not go to print.

“It’s an all or nothing campaign,” Mitchell said. “If it funds, the money is deposited, we print the book, it arrives in early December and everyone gets it by the holidays. The book will then officially release in January on Amazon and other websites.”

Mitchell and her husband, Mitch, reside in The Woodlands with their three daughters. Their lives are full of making, whether it be baking each day together or painting. The Michell’s home is set up as a place for each member of the family to make daily. For Mitchell, the writing of “Every Day is Making Day” was more than just a hobby. The pages are her family’s life.

“[The book] is just true. Today is the day to make the thing. It’s a word that people need to hear. There’s an urgency to making art. You should make it today; you should get started. Carve out the time to be creative everyday. Even if you don’t have much time, just hold on to an art practice, even if it’s just 15 minutes a day. Those ideas won’t wait for you. You need to make them right now, when you get the idea.”

“Today is the day to make THE THING!
Do you want to make something?
Create, dream up, invent, and shape something?
Make what only you can make. Make it today.
Every day is making day!”

For more information about “Every Day is Making Day” and to help fund the Kickstarter campaign to bring this book to life, visit https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/saratrianamitchell/every-day-is-making-day-a-picture-book-for-makers.

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