Brandi Mays 1/4/26 Brandi Mays 1/4/26

I'm Back! And Forlorn Corn Has a Launch Date!🌽

Dear Friends,

I owe you an apology and an explanation for my silence these past few months.

When I first shared my excitement about Forlorn Corn: A Farm Fresh Adventure for Kids Who Love Words!, I had no idea the journey ahead. What I naively believed would be a smooth path to publication turned into a masterclass in patience (those who know me understand how difficult this was) and problem-solving.

The short version? My illustrator situation fell apart, leaving me with files that had visual and punctuation errors, and were miles away from meeting publishing specifications. I spent weeks teaching myself “photoshop” (Procreate), as well as technical skills I never knew I'd need, like all that is required to format a book correctly to Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) standards: pixel dimensions, bleed margins, spine widths, and more. I’ve questioned more than once whether I could actually pull this off.

But I did. And I'm so proud to announce:

Forlorn Corn launches January 31st, 2026! (And with your help, could become an Amazon.com #1 best seller on launch day - more on that later)

This book is still everything I dreamed it would be - a rhyming adventure that teaches kids ages 4-8 advanced vocabulary words like "forlorn," "trepidation," and "bereft" through loveable vegetable characters. With help from Literate Ladybug, young readers will expand their vocabulary while following Forlorn Corn's journey from lonely corn stalk to beloved friend.

I excitedly received my book proof last week, and the thrill I felt opening the envelope was intoxicating. Unfortunately, I realized I had even MORE to learn about formatting, because I’d miscalculated the bleed margins and there was an uneven white border on all of the pages.. At this point, I was determined to get it figured out quickly, and thankfully was able to fix the issues and re-submit it the same day. It will now arrive Tuesday, and if all looks good in this copy (I’m feeling confident!), I'll have author copies available soon for media, influencers, and educators. If you're a teacher, librarian, or blogger interested in reviewing Forlorn Corn, reply to this email (or send directly to brandi@forlorncornandfriends.com). The good news is that, problems aside, the colorful illustrations are GORGEOUS, and the book itself looks better than I dared to even dream.

Thank you for sticking with me through this quiet period. Your support means everything, and I can't wait to share Forlorn Corn and his friends with you and the young readers in your life.

As for the note about becoming an Amazon.com best seller in the children’s book category, all that will take is for everyone who is interested in purchasing the book to do so on launch day. If you’d like to be a part of that, please stay tuned for confirmation on the planned launch date (because if I’ve learned anything, plans can change)!

I look forward to sharing images from the book once I receive the proof, and appreciate all of you for reading and subscribing to the newsletter. I’ll be talking to you again very soon!

With gratitude,

Brandi

Brandi Mays 10/20/25 Brandi Mays 10/20/25

It’s happening!!!

Well, it’s official. I have received the final revisions on all of the illustrations for the book! I really ran him through the ringer, but he handled it with grace and professionalism. He has now transitioned into the next project I hired him for: creating coloring pages!

This week I should be able to wrap up the remaining pages: the glossary, front matter (title page, copyright/dedication page, etc.), and back matter (about the author, review request, website), as well as refreshing my knowledge of the KDP uploading and approval process. It’s pretty intimidating, but I’m confident I can figure it out.

In the meantime, I really need to start building out my “Launch Team”…these are supporters of me and the book who will post about it, purchase the book on the release date, and write an Amazon.com review for it. If you’d like to be on my team, will you please let me know? Feel free to comment on this blog post or email me directly at brandi@forlorncornandfriends.com. Thanks so much!

Considering all that I still have to do, I obviously won’t be able to have a November 1 release date, but maybe November 15th? Either way I’ll keep you updated!

-Brandi

Brandi Mays 9/28/25 Brandi Mays 9/28/25

The Adventure Begins…

Hello! Thanks so much for being here. This project - this book - has been a passion project of mine for many, many years. From inspiration to conception to creation…to be honest I can’t even tell you how many.

The Inspiration: From a very early age, my youngest child loved words. There were a lot of adults around during that stage of our lives, and their father and I both have pretty broad vocabularies, so there was ample opportunity for them to hear many words that were beyond their understanding. The reason I knew they loved them was because whenever they heard a new one, they would ask “What does (insert word here) mean?” They would be given the definition, and more likely than not, it became part of their vernacular. It’s no wonder to either his father or me that they ended up being a writer, and are going to school to become a high school English Teacher.

The Conception: How “Forlorn Corn” was actually born (haha), I can’t remember. It was just a silly little coupling of words that I thought was fun. I’m sure I wasn’t the first to think of them. But I couldn’t stop thinking of them, and started trying to think of other ways to come up with fun names for fruits and vegetables. As I begin to choose words to name these new friends of mine, I remembered my youngest…there have to be other young children who love words, too…what if they had names that may actually teach them new vocabulary? At this point, I really felt I was on to something.

The Creation: So off I went: creating a list of fruits, vegetables (and as you’ll see if you check out “A Garden Roll Call” on the Poem page), even some herbs and other adjacent-to-the-garden produce, with (dare I say) fun, interesting, and challenging descriptors as their names. This took some time, but eventually I got to the point where I had more than enough to start working on a story.

And here we are now. I truly can’t believe we are only a few weeks out until the illustrations are complete and the book is ready to be published. It’s been such a labor of love, which is a good thing since there is no guarantee anyone else will even like it!

My hope is that they will though. That YOU will, and that you know others who will, too. If that’s the case, I’d love it if you’d subscribe to the mailing list to be notified of additions to the website, updates on the release date, more teaser images from the book, and anything else I can think of to keep your interest! I promise not to spam you, it will ONLY be things related to Forlorn Corn (& Friends).