Q. When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer? 

Hal: I think becoming a writer snuck up on me while I wasn’t looking! I have always loved telling and listening to stories. I was blessed to live under the same roof with one of the world’s greatest storytellers, my Mom. Each night before I went to bed, my mother would come in and ask me one question, “What was the very best part of your day today?” 

It made me revisit my day and choose the one thing that stood out for me. Once I shared my answer, she proceeded to make up a silly rhyme about my day. We then memorialized my day with her celebratory poem and sealed it in my dreams. I think these special moments set the stage for me to love words, to create memorable events and to develop a passion for poetry and storytelling. 

Q. What do you think makes a good story? 

Hal: This is a personal preference, but I love stories that take me on a journey with twists, turns, challenges, choices, consequences, emotional decisions, fear, failure, courage, unknown strength, growth, rebirth and emergence from having taken the trip. Ultimately, our life is our story! More of us should find ways to share it from the blessing of grace and insight. 

Q. What advice do you have for writers?

Hal: First, I think we are all blessed with a very distinct gift that is meant to be placed into service in the world. We are each set on our own hero’s journey to discover that gift along with our key, powerful message to share. For me it took years of exploration and life’s hard knocks to help me finally find my gift, to see the beauty and power of my journey and the message that my heart was here to share. I invite budding writers to find their message and share their inspiration by telling THEIR STORY. For me, my greatest teacher was my life and my caring heart to retell my story. 

Q. Tell us about your plans for the future? Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 

Hal: I used to live in the corporate marketing world. At The Coca-Cola Company, and later in the branding and marketing of famous athletes, I learned how to create both dynamic long-and short-term plans. My corporate marketing mind was trained to strategically craft a vision with objectives and strategies designed to set my vision on a trajectory toward highly successful outcomes. 

I realized much later in life after I started listening to my heart that sometimes when we look too far ahead and we miss what wants to happen in a moment that has a mystical plan of its own. Here is a case in point. Once I wrote my first children’s chapter-in-verse poetic book called, “A Heart’s Journey Home,” I started making my plans from my corporately trained mind to see where and how the book would enter the homes, libraries and hospitals that could use them. 

After the books release, I discovered that my book had another plan. It asked me to forget marketing and to suspend long-term plans for once in my life. It told me to listen to my heart (which lives in the NOW and not in my mind). My heart reminded me that my mind lives for both safety & security and therefore lives to make dreams and plans around an uncertain, but hopeful future. I sat quietly with my book and listened. It told me. “Hal, you cannot push this book; it will pull you where IT wants and needs to go! Let your heart lead the book the way it led your writing. 

Trust that the Source that guided your messages now wants to guide you to hearts that need to find and feel your words. You can’t know who or where those people are! Your book is for the ‘Child in ALL of Us’. You cannot plan on where those people will be. Let the book bring them to you!” I asked how that would happen! I heard, “Take your own Heart’s Journey Home!” Go back to your roots, your beginning. Find the people who inspired you to become that storyteller that you are today.” I immediately called my former Elementary School to ask if I could come read my book there. 

I was welcomed with open arms and read my book and brought my main character to life with an app that allowed him to teach all the students the lessons from the book. My “talking bear” also taught the kids about the importance of literacy and 4 things they could do to become better readers, smarter students and future authors. From that one experience, the Literacy Coach, the school Guidance Counselor and the Principal met with me and invited me to come back and work with the kids. 

They turned my book into a Social-Emotional Learning Curriculum (SEL) and created a new “Author-in-Residence” Program for me to return for 5 days to spend time with the kids. My mission was to teach all the kids about the process of writing, illustrating, editing and publishing a book. At the end of 5 days there on campus, we created a book about the power of kindness via my main character, Eli Benjamin Bear, and we published the book to be placed in their school library and sold on-line as a PTA fundraiser. 

From my heart’s “Marketing in the NOW” plan, I was also invited to share my program with many other schools, and became a featured keynote presenter at the annual South Carolina Literacy Association Conference. There is so much more to share about the power of marketing in the NOW and letting the longterm plans follow your heart. 

Q. How did you become involved in the subject or theme of your book? 

Hal: I truly believe that all of my life I have had a loving hand guiding me in the direction of writing and telling stories that connect children and their parents on a much deeper level. My books and their messages are all inspired by my amazing “bedtime storytelling” mother. 

I remember the first poem that Mom had me commit to memory was one that her mother taught her as a child. It went like this: “Your life is what you make it. So, make it good and true. And when your life is gloomy, It’s not the world, it’s YOU!” Mom taught me that the power of what and how I experience life was up to me and my attitude, my reactions to events, and my thoughts and feelings about events I invited into my life.

In that one little poem, she taught me how to create words attached to feelings and outcomes. That was the origin of my little CODE FOR LIFE called, “The Bear Essentials”. I hope you and your loved ones will find one or two little heart-inspired lines of poetry from my book that can take you to higher self-awareness about how special you are. 

Q. What do you like to do when you are not writing? 

Hal: I love stimulating, creative adventures that connect me to nature, people, life, art and service. Since my heart scare in 2014, I have developed a new and more profound appreciation for life. I moved 2,300 miles away from my home in Atlanta, GA in 2015 to a small beach town just south of Santa Barbara, CA. I feel so much more alive and connected to life here. Two days after I moved, I joined Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation (TBCF) as a volunteer to support the families of children in the area facing cancer. 

I host many fund-raising events for them and donate a percentage of my children’s book sales and my Eli Benjamin Bear sales to TBCF. I also have a 5-mile walking meditation on my beach here each morning in Carpinteria, CA where I walk my adopted dog, “Rescue Reilly”, and take photos along the way. I have recently begun to turn my beach photos into canvas prints to sell and also use as auction items to raise money for TBCF. 

I write an inspirational poem each day upon waking and post it on my social media platforms for my friends and followers. I am also proud to be a very active Brand Ambassador for the Carpinteria Valley Chamber of Commerce and was blessed to be named their 2019 Ambassador of the Year. Everything I do revolves around creativity, service, teaching and connecting with kids and their families. I love my new life! 

Q. What type of books do you write? 

Hal: I love creating heart-based storybooks designed to reach and inspire “the child in all of us”! My goal is to always write stories that invite a conversation between loved ones. I share stories about kids, parents, relatives and friends and how we all grow from experiencing and working through life challenges with and through one another. 

My books have universal themes about the power of kindness, cause and effect world we live in, and the gifts received from following the wisdom of your heart. I write stories that capture the connection that my mother and I experienced each evening as we turned the lights down on another busy day. 

That “tuck-in time” was sacred. It was a ritualistic time of bonding and a time of peaceful transition into the night. It was a beautiful way to close out my day with a loving discussion about my day followed by a favorite bedtime story and closed with a prayer for safe passage into the night. Those moments live in my heart forever. 

Q. What do you love most about being an Author? 

Hal: I love when children memorize their favorite line in my simple poetry book and repeat it to me when I meet them. One of their favorites is: “I promise you can change the world. Allow your feelings to be felt. And trust the wisdom of your heart To let you be YOURSELF!” 

I also love when they draw pictures of my character, Eli Benjamin Bear, and mail them to me and ask him questions or tell me that they want to write a book one day. I think the thing that has touched my heart the most was working with an entire elementary school to teach them about how and why I write stories and books. 

In October of 2019, I was invited back to my childhood elementary school in Columbia, SC to be an “Author-in-Residence” to teach all 482 kids how to write, illustrate, layout and publish a book. I found that participating in helping kids write and publish their very own book in 5 days to place in their library far exceeded the joy that I felt in writing my own books. This is something that I am building into my school programs now. 

Q. What do you hope your readers take away from this book? 

Hal: My greatest wish is that the readers of my book remember how special they are and that they each have a beautiful and powerful gift that their heart, hands and mind want to lovingly bring into the world. My “Bear Essentials” book is my heart’s guide for kids who feel lost, misunderstood, empty, angry or lacking in self-confidence. 

It offers hope, encouragement and 40 simple lines of poetry that their heart can save, remember and repeat as a mantra when needed: “When you know yourself you can’t be lost And your life will take you far. The key is being TRUE TO YOU And remembering who you are! Respect ALL LIFE, it’s here for you And trust your HEART to guide. Know LOVE SURROUNDS you every day. It never leaves your side!” 

10. Is there a message in your book that you hope readers will grasp? 

Hal: Love is all there is! Be LOVE. Share LOVE