The Origin Story of my New Book, "Forest Park: A Walk Through History"

Today is March 27, 2020 and my seventh title with Reedy Press is officially here!

The debut of my Forest Park book in Forest Park with my walking buddy!

When I started working on this book two years ago I don’t think I necessarily could have predicted that it would be born into a horrific pandemic (I mean, I guess we all technically knew a pandemic was likely coming one day, but still…).

Basically, this is an acknowledgement that I fully realize that in terms of things happening on March 27, 2020 the world has MUCH bigger fish to fry than the release of my new book. But in the interest of moving life along (while safely socially distancing, of course) and in the hopes of giving you all a bit of content for quarantine reading, I thought I’d share the origin story of Forest Park: A Walk Through History.

The idea for this book started almost exactly two years ago, in a coffee shop, meeting with Reedy staffers and discussing the ever present question of what’s next?? Reedy owner, Josh, had the idea to publish a book of Forest Park walking tours and, knowing my love for Forest Park, asked if I’d be interested. Of course I was interested! I’d been living near the Park for the better part of the last decade and John and I ran there every day. At that time, I was living in Dogtown and could literally hear the zoo train whistle from my fire escape. I knew Forest Park’s paths backward and forward and assured Josh I could come up with something very quickly and maybe we’d be ready to publish it that fall. BUT, I needed him to know I was going to Alaska for ten days in April, so that would delay my writing just a bit.

HA. I can’t help but laugh at sweet, naive spring-2018 Carolyn who thought that the ten days spent in Alaska would be the thing to slow down the completion of the Forest Park book. Spoiler alert: Alaska was not the thing that delayed my writing (actually, I had some downtime in Alaska and worked on the book curled up in a downy sleeping bag in a hotel room in Utqiagvik all day).

I went to Alaska. And when I got back, John and I moved into our first home.

Closing day for our house! No, I did not wear that ratty old sweatshirt for closing. I put it on to prepare to clean!

It’ll just take me a couple of months to get settled I thought, and then I’ll really get back to focusing on the book. That was the plan at least. And then, this happened…

Just to clarify…Pregnancy=not a surprise. Pregnancy + Work + Trying to write a book being really, really hard = yes, a surprise.

In June of 2018 I got pregnant. And it was hard. Like, really hard. Way harder than I’d predicted it would be. Between the physical labor of zookeeping and the constant nausea and my somewhat silly resolve to try and stay fit I had nothing left at the end of the day for writing. For months on end I found myself whiling away the evenings slouched over a bowl of cereal and Netflix. I worked on the book here and there, but never with as much vigor as it required.

The busyness of the holidays arrived. Post-Christmas I put all of my energy into finishing the baby’s nursery. When I was in college, I painted murals in nurseries as a side job and I’d always dreamed of being able to one day paint my own. They say that decorating a nursery is more for the mom (or dad!) than for the baby so, yes, I definitely painted this for me. #noregrets

The completed jungle themed nursery-mural.

Fast-forward to February. I had my baby shower on Super Bowl Sunday. The following Friday, John and I planned a date night at Ikea. We were going to try the famous meatballs and pick up a few finishing touches for the nursery, with plans to have everything assembled, washed and ready to go by the end of that weekend. Once the nursery was complete, I’d have five whole weeks to sit on my pregnant butt and finish up my Forest Park book. I wanted everything done and out of the way before the baby arrived so that I could take my time and ease into motherhood.

That was the plan. But then, this happened…

Meeting our baby boy!

At 35 weeks pregnant, I had a preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM) and low and behold, instead of going to Ikea, I spent Friday evening being pumped full of Pitocin in order to deliver our baby (who turned out to be a BOY!).

As I was sitting around in the hospital bed waiting for my usual Braxton-Hicks to turn into real contractions, Josh actually texted me and asked about the current timeline for the Forest Park book. John replied and told him I was in labor so…yeah. Of course, Josh is a father of four and was incredibly understanding of the situation. You know what they say. The best laid plans…

The First and (probably) Most Important Lesson of Motherhood: You really have no control.

So, obviously, I didn’t finish the book before the baby. In fact, I didn’t even buy diapers or wash the baby clothes or even finish the nursery before the baby! But I didn’t want to give up on it either. I told Josh that I’d give myself two weeks to adjust to motherhood (‘cause that’s all it takes, right??) and then I’d get right back to it.

And do you know what? That’s what I did! I still honestly can’t believe it.

Working on my Forest Park book just a week or two postpartum with my sidekick, Jack Francis Kelly.

Jack was a very easy baby, but getting anything done in the first weeks of motherhood feels like trying to move through thick mud. There’s just this haziness. This inability to focus. This sort of sludge that makes everyday tasks more challenging. Plus, I was breastfeeding, which everyone knows takes hours out of the day. (Positive side note: I actually really enjoyed breastfeeding. It’s a great excuse to indulge in hours of reading and binge watching while bonding with baby.).

Still, I kept at it, when I could, depending on sleep, feeding schedules and how many soaked burp rags I needed to wash that day.

I spent a lot of time writing like this. Baby wearing FTW!

The book crawled forward as my maternity leave went on. I felt bound and determined to get a first draft completed before I returned to working at the zoo in May. Working motherhood loomed before me, some impossibly daunting lifestyle that was destined to be mine for the rest of my life. I wasn’t sure when or how writing would fit in, so I wanted to be sure I had at least most of the book complete.

As spring arrived, Jack got to help me with “research.” This is the Bridge to Picnic Island (where John and I got engaged!).

Honestly, I came close to my goal. I got most of the writing done before I went back to work. But this book has a lot of content. And I kind of forgot how much work needs to be put into editing. So, as I adjusted to working motherhood, I found myself constantly tweaking, adding and scrounging up photos so that the book would be complete.

I even used several vacation days that summer to take a few more photos for the book. Pictured: my field assistants!

Walking through Forest Park=really hard work! (JK.)

This book never would have been completed without John!

We’re lucky to get an hour long lunch break at the zoo, so I did a lot of the work then. But it wasn’t easy. Jack was a wonderful baby, but my first year postpartum ended up being kind of tough. I suffered from pubic symphysis diastasis after Jack’s delivery, meaning that it was months before I could walk properly and about 8 months before I could run, lift and do my job without pain. In July, I got a bad case of mastitis, which laid me up for several days. In September, I had an inguinal hernia (thanks, once again, pregnancy!) repaired, so was a bit out of commission for a few weeks and then in December I broke my ankle. So, definitely a lot of physical challenges, balanced with my job at the zoo, and my new lifestyle as a mom, leaving only slivers of uncomplicated time for writing and editing.

As an additional challenge, when I signed on to write this book I kind of forgot that I’m abysmal at giving directions. It’s not quite my fault. Though John thinks he can train it out of me by way of a compass and the constant need to ask me what direction I’m facing while hiking in the woods, I really think my lack of spatial awareness is simply a genetic malfunction of my brain. My paternal grandfather was also, famously, bad at directions, and apparently steered the Navy the wrong way once or twice in his time too. This book required both maps and directions! Joy! Fortunately, I married someone who is not only very good at giving and understanding directions, but who also knows Forest Park backward and forwards. John runs there every day, and has since his cross country days at St. Louis University High. He helped me IMMENSELY with the directions, maps and concepts of each walk. Don’t worry—John had a hand in all of this. With the book as your guide, you WON’T get lost.

So, here we are. March of 2020, exactly two years since Josh and I sat in that coffee shop discussing the concept of this book. Alaska, new home, pregnancy, pre-term baby, all of those silly challenges in 2019 and now this…the week of the book’s release and here we are going through the scariest of times in the outbreak of COVID-19 (side note: my sisters-in-law gifted me Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven to read during maternity leave and it totally freaked me out then and has made these last few months even scarier now! Don’t read! *at least until things start to get better…).

But, as I said earlier, this outbreak is a BIG deal, it’s the world’s focus, and my focus at the moment too. Despite the fear and uncertainty though, I know that people will always need and want books. They bring comfort, entertainment and fun, even in the worst of times, so, for this reason, I’m still happy to present this work to the biblio-world. I plan to do a soft, digital launch now (the book is available online, of course!) and then a larger, more celebratory launch complete with events when things calm down, hopefully this summer.

Despite it all, I’m proud of this book. It’s really a love story. A love story for Forest Park, of course, the most beautiful place in St. Louis, where I’ve run countless miles and spent many quiet mornings and evenings. John and I had our first “date” there, we got engaged there and our wedding reception was there too. I’ve worked in Forest Park for 17 years now, and I can confidently say that it truly is my happy place. But, personally, it’s a love story for myself too, and who I am as a writer. It represents who I was before motherhood, and a valiant effort to hold on to that person, as well as who I want to be in this new chapter of my life as a mother, zookeeper and author. I refuse to let go of who I am and so I doggedly completed this book, despite the many challenges. You know the cheesy quote from Confucius, “It doesn’t matter how slow you go, as long as you do not stop.”

Here it is, Forest Park: A Walk Through History. Today, after picking up my books (don’t worry, proper social distancing protocol was observed) I took Jack for a hike through Forest Park’s Kennedy Forest and we followed the book’s Nature Walk path. Forest Park is still my happy place. And now I get to experience the immense joy of sharing it with my son—just as St. Louisans have done for the last 144 years.

As Don Corrigan kindly wrote in the book’s forward, I do declare that I have taken ‘some comfort there’ —at those special places in Forest Park…walks in the park can help you to get through life’s difficulties. Let (this book) be your guide.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I’ve enjoyed the journey to getting it here. It’s been a crazy ride. Without further adieu, click HERE to order and (with proper social distancing being observed) get out there and have fun!

Author, map-guru and the little guy who greatly delayed the release of this book (but he’s SO cute though!!!) pictured near the General Franz Sigel statue in Forest Park.