My name is Karen Farmer and I am so fortunate to be doing something I absolutely love at my age and at this stage in my life.  I never would have imagined, in my wildest dreams, that after being hired to sell children's books,  I would actually end up writing them!  I am proud to say that I am the author of 4 children's books and looking forward to writing many more.  This is one of those stories you read about where the person has to scratch their head and say, "Whoever would have thought?".  Let me tell you a great story about how I went from selling books to writing them.

It all started two years ago when I was helping out a dear friend of mine at a wonderful company here in Carlsbad.  He wanted me to help out in the sales department and after two weeks he convinced the owner of the company to hire me full time. I have always loved sales and I felt very blessed when the company welcomed me aboard their family business, Penton Overseas, as a full time employee.

Penton Overseas has been in business over twenty years now and they have always been right here in Carlsbad.  They started out in the foreign language business because Hugh Penton Sr. realized there was a real need and desire for people to get their hands on some great learning tools to teach them different languages.  One hundred percent of their business was selling foreign language products up until 7 years ago when they took a chance on publishing a children's book about, of all things, teaching kids how to go potty.  It has sold over a million copies.  

After I started working at Penton Overseas I would see the Product Development Team going into meetings to discuss what the next children's book would be.  I told the team leader I would love the chance to tell them about a great idea I had for a children's book, and the rest is history.  The name of my first book was, I Love To Laugh!   I have always loved children because they are so innocent and they love life and they have no reservations or preconceived ideas about how life should be.  They just love it and everything about it.  It's easy to make them laugh if you know how, so I just wrote a book about the simple things I did with my child to teach her to laugh.  By the way, she loves to laugh to this day and can make me laugh harder than anything or anyone.

The best thing about writing children's books is the positive message you can put in them to help teach them things like, self esteem, sharing with others, and making a difference by participating in life.  The names of my other three books are, When I Look at Me, If I Could be Anything What Would I Be? and My Bag and Me.  My Bag and Me is a timely book for this new generation of parents focusing on the earth and recycling.  It follows a little boy and his mother to their favorite store where they bring their reusable bags and say, "Plastic and Paper No More!".   The book comes with it's very own reusable bag that is just the right size for a child.

I was asked to write what advise I have for others regarding giving their natural talent a shot.  If there is something you do for a living that can work into something you absolutely love, give it a try.  I love to sell and I love children so I put the two things together at my workplace and a miracle happened.  Oh, I also believe that because I am musically inclined and was a professional singer for years, it helped me with the way I seemed to pick up writing children's books.  When you write a book that is in rhyme, it helps to know what a cadence is because a cadence brings music to the words and children really like the way that sounds when you're reading to them. 

My tips for all of you who read this and want some fun and inexpensive ways to purchase great children's books at a bargain, please visit our website at www.pentonoverseas.com or email me at karen@pentonoverseas.com or simply call me at 760-431-0060 extension 612.  If I don't have the book you are looking for, I will tell you were to go to get it.  My book, I Love To Laugh can be found at Target and Borders and My Bag and Me can be found at Jimbos Naturally and Barnes and Noble and some of your smaller retail stores.  All of our books are also available at Amazon.

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