{"id":2108,"date":"2022-10-05T11:38:06","date_gmt":"2022-10-05T15:38:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.alumni.ncsu.edu\/?p=2108"},"modified":"2024-02-01T15:39:04","modified_gmt":"2024-02-01T20:39:04","slug":"kiss-and-tell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/2022\/kiss-and-tell\/","title":{"rendered":"Kiss and Tell"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Ramona DuBose<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Rebecca Colby \u201990 was an award-winning writer as far back as the fifth grade, when she won a Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) essay competition. Her prize was lunch with the local DAR chapter. Three years later, she won another writing contest, and this time, the prize was a flight in a four-seater airplane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy 12-year-old self never forgot the excitement of where that essay took me\u2009\u2014\u2009up in the air for the first time and flying over my house,\u201d she said in an email interview. \u201cIt opened doors to new experiences and made me wonder what other doors writing could open.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colby, who lives in England, is now the author of 33 children\u2019s books, including Beatrix and Her Bunnies<\/em>, published in 2021, based on the life of Beatrix Potter. She is also a poet and screenwriter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At NC State, Colby lived in Alexander Hall, where international students were paired with American students. That sparked her interest in travel and languages. She majored in Spanish, worked in the travel industry and eventually moved abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colby had always loved to write, she says, but \u201cit wasn\u2019t until my first child was born 16 years ago that I rediscovered children\u2019s books and started writing in earnest. I picked up a picture book to read to my child and thought, \u2018I can write one of these. It\u2019ll be easy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, of course, it wasn\u2019t easy. She received 140 rejections from publishers over seven years before she sold her first book nine years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asking her to choose her favorite story, she says, is \u201clike asking if I have a favorite child.\u201d But she does admit to a fondness for Crocodiles Need Kisses Too<\/em>. She describes it as \u201can ode to the not-so-cute or cuddly animals of this world like prickly porcupines, roaring tigers and slithery snakes. It\u2019s great reassurance for children to know that parents love their offspring unconditionally\u2009\u2014\u2009regardless of their appearance or behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a sample: \u201cDespite their lumpy, bumpy hide,\u2009 \/ Toothy mouths stretched open wide,\u2009 \/ Just like me and just like you, \/ Crocodiles need kisses, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On the Web:<\/strong> Rebeccacolbybooks.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n\n

By Ramona DuBose<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Rebecca Colby \u201990 was an award-winning writer as far back as the fifth grade, when she won a Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) essay competition. Her prize was lunch with the local DAR chapter. Three years later, she won another writing contest, and this time, the prize was a flight in a four-seater airplane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy 12-year-old self never forgot the excitement of where that essay took me\u2009\u2014\u2009up in the air for the first time and flying over my house,\u201d she said in an email interview. \u201cIt opened doors to new experiences and made me wonder what other doors writing could open.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colby, who lives in England, is now the author of 33 children\u2019s books, including Beatrix and Her Bunnies<\/em>, published in 2021, based on the life of Beatrix Potter. She is also a poet and screenwriter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At NC State, Colby lived in Alexander Hall, where international students were paired with American students. That sparked her interest in travel and languages. She majored in Spanish, worked in the travel industry and eventually moved abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colby had always loved to write, she says, but \u201cit wasn\u2019t until my first child was born 16 years ago that I rediscovered children\u2019s books and started writing in earnest. I picked up a picture book to read to my child and thought, \u2018I can write one of these. It\u2019ll be easy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, of course, it wasn\u2019t easy. She received 140 rejections from publishers over seven years before she sold her first book nine years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asking her to choose her favorite story, she says, is \u201clike asking if I have a favorite child.\u201d But she does admit to a fondness for Crocodiles Need Kisses Too<\/em>. She describes it as \u201can ode to the not-so-cute or cuddly animals of this world like prickly porcupines, roaring tigers and slithery snakes. It\u2019s great reassurance for children to know that parents love their offspring unconditionally\u2009\u2014\u2009regardless of their appearance or behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a sample: \u201cDespite their lumpy, bumpy hide,\u2009 \/ Toothy mouths stretched open wide,\u2009 \/ Just like me and just like you, \/ Crocodiles need kisses, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On the Web:<\/strong> Rebeccacolbybooks.com<\/a><\/p>\n"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rebecca Colby \u201990 has turned a passion for children\u2019s literature into a career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"subtitle\":\"Rebecca Colby \u201990 has turned a passion for children\u2019s literature into a career.\",\"displayCategoryID\":5,\"caption\":\"Photographs courtesy of Rebecca Colby \u201990.\"}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,9],"tags":[128,290,974,981],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"class_list":["post-2108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-class-act","category-stories","tag-beatrix-and-her-bunnies","tag-crocodiles-need-kisses-too","tag-ramona-dubose","tag-rebecca-colby"],"displayCategory":{"term_id":5,"name":"Best Bets","slug":"best-bets","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":53,"filter":"raw"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2108"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2108"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5023,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2108\/revisions\/5023"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2108"},{"taxonomy":"_ncst_magazine_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_ncst_magazine_issue?post=2108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}