Warman-based children’s author, Kristin Pierce, newest books The Sweet Dreams Express: A Meditative Bedtime Journey, and Hazel Mist, Hypnotist have gained national recognition through the 2020 Nautilus Book Awards.
The Nautilus Book Awards recognizes books that promote spiritual growth, conscious living & sustainability, high-level wellness, and positive social change & social justice as they stimulate the imagination and inspire the reader to new possibilities for a better world.
The Sweet Dreams Express: A Meditative Bedtime Journey claimed silver in the Children’s Picture Books/Fiction category, while Hazel Mist, Hypnotist claimed silver in the Children’s Illustrated/Fiction category.
This is the second time the 35-year-old Pierce has received international acclaim for her children’s picture books. She won a silver 2018 Nautilus Book Award for her title Mayva O’Meere, Creationeer.
To be recognized for two categories really caught Pierce by surprise and it was something she didn’t expect to happen as she is still wrapping her head around the idea of those accomplishments.
“It’s pretty cool to win one award, but to have both of my children’s books from 2020 be recognized, honestly, it’s mind blowing,” said Pierce.
A big part of children’s books are the illustrations, and Pierce is thankful for the illustrators who contributed to her books and helped her gain this recent recognition.
“This award is shared with the talented women who helped bring these books to life; illustrators Aleksandra Szmidt of New Zealand and Abbey Bryant of New York City, and editor Lacy Lieffers of Saskatchewan,” she said.
Pierce doesn’t receive a plaque or certificate, instead the awards are seals she puts on the respective books. She said there will be seals (stickers) on the books that are already printed and for future prints of the books, the seals will be a part of the cover.
Even though Pierce won the award in the Children’s Picture Books/Fiction category, which is for books directed toward the two to six age range, she said the majority of her books are for children who can read.
“I find that my sweet-spot is that five to eight year-old range,” she said.
So far, Pierce has has written and published five children’s books and all have some sort of empowering message. The books also have a reoccurring theme of dealing with the inner mind-set and conquering those limiting thoughts that children might have when it comes to their self worth.
“A lot of the books come from some of the mind-set stuff I teach in my Inner Compass Academy business or some of the things I’ve learned along the way,” she said.
Pierce has a five-year-old son and an eight-year-old daughter and she said they too inspire here to write children’s books.
She also does author presentations for schools. Since she has a sponsorship through the Saskatchewan Writers Guild, it makes it possible for the schools to have her do the presentations without paying a steep price.
As part of her presentations, she supplies the teachers with some worksheets if they decide to study the book as a project.
“That has been a really fun way to integrate the books and help kids learn from them, and the teachers can use some of those resources after the presentation is over to help get some of the messages through,” said Pierce.
This school year, she had to resort to virtual presentations because of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, that has worked out better for her because she was able to do more than she had before, since she didn’t have to travel as much by physically going school-to-school.
“The virtual presentations have actually made it more accessible because I don’t have to drive to places now. Like before (the pandemic) I was driving all the way to Eatonia, from Warman and (travelling) past Regina, driving all over the province.
Even though 2020 had been a hard year for a lot of people, Pierce was able to release those two children books and her memoir that year.
She said it was a little stressful having all three of those books in production during the pandemic, but it was also something to keep her focused on as well.
“It was a little bit intense managing all of that on top of no school and the kids being around, while processing everything with the pandemic,” said Pierce.
Originally from Rosetown, Pierce has been living in Warman for about seven years.
Pierce is a self-published author as she started her company Inner Therapy Books in 2018. Before that she said she had little experience writing books and the publishing business was new to her.
As a self-published author she is really excited to have the success she has had and she’s been enjoying writing children’s books.
“It’s just a fun process to get to collaborate with illustrators too. I enjoy it and it’s honestly taken over most of my work life, but in a good way,” she said.