Episode 19, Talking South Carolina Podcast Interview with Douglas Berry, Author of the Jasper-n-Friends children’s books Camden, SC

Episode transcript:

Angela Barrett – “Hey, Douglas Thanks for being here with me today.”

Douglas Berry – So thanks for having me.

Angela Barrett – “Absolutely. And how appropriate to have you here today. As it is, Veterans Day, and you spent 20 years in the Air Force.”

Douglas Berry – I did 20 years as a bomb loader. I loaded the eight engine F-16s with all munitions.

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, I was going to say thank you for your service. And, aircraft armament specialist, I think is the official title. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Great. AKA bomb loader,”

Douglas Berry – Or load is I used to coalition Air force.

Angela Barrett – Called.

Douglas Berry – What a load towed.

Angela Barrett – “Oh. Load towed. Oh my gosh. So, what do you remember, about the day you enlisted?”

Douglas Berry – The the most poignant thing I remember is being in the plane and just being emotional.

Angela Barrett – The day you listed enlist.

Douglas Berry – “Yeah, yeah, the day I enlisted in flew all of the basic training because you’re leaving everything a little behind you.”

Angela Barrett – Yeah. So what was the motivation to join? What was the reason?

Douglas Berry – “Do something bigger than me. I mean, I at the time, we were in Maryland, and, I guess we were four years into being poultry farmers, and I just graduated high school, and there wasn’t a lot to do down there in Maryland, except, being a commercial fisherman. Oysterman, truck farmer. You know, a vegetable farmer or a or poultry.”

Douglas Berry – “That was a lot of work. I didn’t really want to go back to school. And I’m like, well, let me do something really important with my life, and we’ll join the we’ll join the Air Force. And, nobody really thought I’d make it through basic training because I was a little scrawny, 125 pound kid at the time.”

Douglas Berry – “You know, I’d say I made it.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I made a career out of it. Now, when did you meet your wife in this process?”

Douglas Berry – “We actually, met before I left to join the Air Force. We were both working at a place called Side Street Seafood Market. Was a little seafood restaurant market right on the Chesapeake Bay in Crisp Field, Maryland. And, we met there and, got engaged before, before I went off to basic training. And, we ended up getting married, and, 86.”

Angela Barrett – “While you were obviously in there. Yeah, yeah, the first base. And so now, where was boot camp for you?”

Douglas Berry – Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.

Angela Barrett – “Gotcha. Now, what is your funniest moment that you can remember in boot camp?”

Douglas Berry – “In boot camp? The funniest moment can. Weren’t too many of those, but.”

Angela Barrett – “Oh, come on.”

Douglas Berry – “Well, probably the funniest moments were just going to go for humor was, after we were all done, they pulled us out of the, the barracks we had been staying in and put us in a, like, a little side barrack off to the side because they had a road, another flight through. Sure. And, RTI came over to that other barracks that we had moved to with our stuff for, like our last night.”

Douglas Berry – And they just cut up cracking jokes with us and everything else. And that was that was a good time.

Angela Barrett – “Well good good, good. Now you served two tours, two tours in Kuwait and two tours in Saudi Arabia. Correct?”

Douglas Berry – “Yes, ma’am. Yep.”

Angela Barrett – What can you tell us about that?

Douglas Berry – “Oh, that was that was quite an experience. The, because I did the two Kuwait tours first and then the two Saudi Arabia tours, the first Kuwait tour. I was in, it was we were the third rotation in after we got back from Saddam, and we were told, the, the we were told to stay on the hard and surfaces because we didn’t know where the landmines were.”

Douglas Berry – “So we were forbidden to, to step into the sand.”

Angela Barrett – “Well, let me just second was what was the name of this particular two or do you have one? Well.”

Douglas Berry – “If it did, it’s been so long ago, I’ve probably forgotten that.”

Angela Barrett – Okay.

Douglas Berry – “And I find that that happens a lot with my, like, the little particulars. Like, did I run into guys all the time? And they’re like, remember when we used to do that low down had, you know, two, eight nines. And the beauty is what what do we call that? And I’m like, I don’t remember.”

Angela Barrett – So y’all were over there again after you had the the capture had taken place. So you were going keep going.

Douglas Berry – “Yeah. That was a that was an experience because, that was my first time ever in what was a war zone. And see, the devastation from war, was pretty, I don’t know. I don’t, I don’t know that I would say traumatizing, but it was definitely an eye opener. To see, the, the residents and stuff of Kuwait just blown up.”

Douglas Berry – “And, we went to one part that was, I think it was called the resistance House, or there was a batch of Kuwaitis that were resisting. And, they’re doing a good job for a while. But, then they rode some tanks and, and some, I guess it was RPGs and stuff and just started blowing the daylights out of the house, and you got to walk through the resistance house, and it was, that was something to see.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, I imagine, I imagine, now that was your first story or what about the second one?”

Douglas Berry – “The second one I don’t remember too much about, because it’s basically the, a mirror image of the first door. I mean, it’s hard to remember. They were. They split up. And the same with the Saudi Arabia tours. It’s. I remember being in.”

Douglas Berry – “I remember being in, there’s nice accommodations. We called tents, but the first two Kuwait tours and the first Saudi Arabia tour, the second Saudi Arabian tour, I remember we were actually in dorms that they finally built. The one thing I didn’t like about that, and I remember it specifically for the second Saudi Arabia tour, is there were other, dorm areas, separated from ours.”

Douglas Berry – “And the one thing I didn’t like is they each each area had a water tower, a big tall water tower, and all the other, areas there were painted, tanned, except in ours. Ours was painted red and white striped. And I’m like, I don’t know how I feel about that.”

Angela Barrett – “Well, why was that?”

Douglas Berry – “I never got a good answer, but it felt like a giant target on our back is what it felt like to me.”

Angela Barrett – Wow. The how long each time were you over there?

Douglas Berry – “I believe the Kuwait tours were, were three, months. The first Saudi Arabia tour was three months. The second Saudi Arabia tour, I had to stay for, for two rotations. So it was almost six months. I think I stayed over there for the last tour. Well, now I and I didn’t know I was going to stay there for two rotations until we got ready to leave for the first group.”

Douglas Berry – “And they’re like, oh no, you got to stay. And we need that. We can’t have everybody leaving at one time. So you and your crew’s going to stay until the other, you know, and work with the other crews when they get here. What they it’s kind of like another.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. So, what was the, I guess the throughout your career in the Air Force, what was the thing that you miss most about civilian life? Other than your wife? Well, go hands.”

Douglas Berry – Yeah.

Angela Barrett – Before you get in trouble.

Douglas Berry – “No. And I and my my son joined the guard, I told him, I said, you know, once you get in, it’s almost like a regular job. I mean, if you can figure a load in bombs or an aircraft is a regular job. I mean, you know, it’s it’s.”

Angela Barrett – It’s.

Douglas Berry – “It’s just a day to day grind kind of thing that you go through. So I don’t remember missing too much. I missed that. I didn’t even really miss many of the the holidays, even with the tours I did the Middle East. But you do lose a little freedom. But you just adapt to it, and you just don’t even think about it.”

Douglas Berry – “After after that point. But, I mean, you you you have to, you know, take leave and make sure everybody knows where you’re at, when you’re going to be back in, in this. So I mean, that’s the maybe the main thing is just your time really isn’t your own.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. So now what do you now as a civilian, what do you miss the most about military life?”

Douglas Berry – “Oh the comradery. Yeah. You just don’t get that. And, no offense to the civilian world, but, I mean, you just don’t get it there, because, I mean, you’re everybody’s got your back. I mean, whether you care for the person or not, if if, the rubber hits the road and, and, you know, you’re in a bad spot, you just know everybody’s going to have your back.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, yeah. So I’m gonna take a just a minute. So this elephant out here. So there has been talk for many years now that I’ve when I say talk things that I have read where some people, have who have been in the service, appreciate what. Thank you for your service. And then there are others who please don’t say it was that for sure.”

Douglas Berry – “Take well, I don’t mind. I usually respond with thank you for your support because, without the support from home, you know, we almost make our job non-existent.”

Angela Barrett – Right. And and why do you think that is? For those that don’t want that saying.

Douglas Berry – “I don’t know, because I, I never really thought about it. I mean, in my mind, it’s not a bad thing. I mean, those folks are asking you know, one to express, you know, how much that they appreciate what you did. I don’t I don’t see any reason why we should not want to hear that.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, right. I’ve always thought, well, maybe I’ve done a little more in-depth digging on that because that’s interesting. Why they would not.”

Douglas Berry – “Yeah. And there’s, there’s some who, And they may be the same people I don’t know, but like, I’ve got my retired Air Force hat on today. There’s some people who are like, oh, you know, some of the guys are reading this like, why do you feel like you don’t walk around with that or what? It’s like, because that was 20 years of my life, you know, it was probably the most important thing I’ve done with my life, you know?”

Douglas Berry – Makes the family.

Angela Barrett – Right?

Douglas Berry – “Yeah, I’m all proud of it.”

Angela Barrett – “I’m Luke Lee, and you should be absolutely. Yeah. Moo Moo Moo will collaborate. Do a deeper dive on that one. So now tell me how in the world of all the Santa Clauses that you went from loading on, bomb to, whatever you called it, to writing children’s books.”

Douglas Berry – “That was it. I always, God put me on this path. It’s it’s pretty obvious to me. It wasn’t supposed to happen. I mean, when your kids are growing up in your reading stories, you always think it’s like, oh, these are cool. I should be able to write a kid’s book. You know, I should try that sometime.”

Douglas Berry – “And it’s one of those thoughts that you have. And then it passes and it goes away. And one day my son went out in the backyard and he caught a baby rabbit. He named it Jasper, and he brought it in the house, and he spent the night with us. And we let it go the next day. And I leave it to my wife.”

Douglas Berry – “I’m like, what a great idea for a kids book. I said, I should, I should write that. And, yeah. So from that point I thought it would be a cute story, for the family, you know, to have a book to pass down to the grandkids. And then it gained traction. It actually sold like 500 copies in the first six months or so.”

Douglas Berry – “And I. Willa. Wow. I check, you know, maybe I’m on to something, maybe push this a little bit, see how far it goes.”

Angela Barrett – And so that.

Douglas Berry – Was the start of the other books. Yeah.

Angela Barrett – “That was, I think the night I spent, in a people house that actually comes from that rabbit.”

Douglas Berry – Yeah.

Angela Barrett – “I got a lot of the name Jasper. That was my grandfather’s name. But, so how did you actually. I mean, did you just say, okay, I’m going to go in here, sit down and start writing, or how did how did that go?”

Douglas Berry – “The first book, I had a rough draft, almost a full book, written in probably 20 minutes, because it just, my brain just started firing on all cylinders, and I just started thinking about all the things the rabbit went through. And when he goes outside and tries to tell his little woodland friends, are they gonna even believe that he spent the night in the house?”

Douglas Berry – “So he has to try to. Yes, to try to convince them that he did. And, so he goes through all that process. And, at the end of the story, there’s a little surprise. I went out.”

Angela Barrett – The day that.

Douglas Berry – “You can point to and be like, see, I told you, you know, kind of all week.”

Angela Barrett – “Right now, I know you said it probably was about 20 minutes, but are in real reality from when you sat down and wrote the draft, the original draft to the time it published. How long was that?”

Douglas Berry – “That was a long time. TJ was, about nine when you call it the rabbit. I wrote the story. He’s, 28 now. 29. No. And I didn’t get the story published until I think September 2020 is the published date on that first book. So it was a lot of probably 3 or 4 publishers telling me, no, through the years.”

Douglas Berry – “And, you know, somebody told us, you know, so you put it on the shelf for like six months to a year, you lose track of it, maybe two years go by, you know, and you try it again. But, you just keep hacking away at it, you know? And it’s, Covid hit and we had some, extra money.”

Douglas Berry – “I worked at Lowe’s at the time, and they were giving you, you know, frontline worker, checks and stuff like that. So I had some extra cash and I’m like, let me take another swing at this book thing and, phone publishing, send it off to them. And they said, yeah, we’ll do it with you.”

Douglas Berry – “So we started to do it. And, everything went pretty good. Yeah. That’s, but it did took a long time. And that’s one thing I like to tell folks. You’re going to get your nose going and stuff. Don’t let them bring you down, everybody. There’s no, and, there is. I always tell folks, it’s like, get the word failure out of your vocabulary because you don’t fail.”

Douglas Berry – “You just learn. And, you know, any time you really fails when you’re self quit, but you’re learning and you learn what not to do, what to do. And if you just keep pushing, you’ll get to a success on the other side.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. I’ve talked to quite a few authors, over the years, and I don’t know anybody had what I would call complete success their first go around or not. Meaning anyway, it is not an industry for the faint of heart is what I do.”

Douglas Berry – “And it’s not. You’re not going to. Well, at least I’m not. Anyway, at this point, I’m. It’s not a great way to get involved in something, but think you’re going to make it some quick cash or anything. Yeah, that’s not going to happen.”

Angela Barrett – “Right. But, now what about, your illustrator in this book? Who who is that?”

Douglas Berry – “The publisher hooked me up with the illustrator. I don’t know why they keep it secret. Maybe it’s because that I maintain rights to the illustrations, and they don’t want any back and forth going on there.”

Angela Barrett – Gotcha.

Douglas Berry – “So that that’s probably why that is. But they they gave me like ten to choose from, ten styles, ten illustrators. And I knew I wanted to keep it simple because I knew I was shooting towards like the preschool kids. So I didn’t need a whole lot of, of, detail. I didn’t need to get all clogged up in detail when the a lot more cartoonish.”

Douglas Berry – “And, actually, I’ve got commenting on that. People are like, these look just like the, you know, the books I used to grow up with, you know, folks, you know, my age and, you know, 50 years old. So that made me feel good. That was a good compliment to know.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. Now, the second book that you wrote, the Beach? No. Where did that story come from?”

Douglas Berry – “Well, I had no intention in publishing a second book. I thought that was going to be one and done. And then, when people started asking me, where are they going next? Where are they going next? I’m like, I have no idea. But we like to vacation in Myrtle Beach, so it’s like, well, these are all these are woodland critters who probably have never been to a beach.”

Douglas Berry – “So we’ll have a new character move into the pond and tell them it’s like, hey, I saw this great, cool place on my way here. We should go and investigate it someday. And, yeah, I think it’s called The Beach. And they’re all like a beach. Never heard of one of those. And so they all go off to the beach and build sand castles and pick up seashells and they run into a sea turtle there all kinds of stuff.”

Angela Barrett – “Right neatly. And then your very latest, which just, Published, September of this year. Yeah. Farmer. Jasper. Right.”

Douglas Berry – “Farmer. Jasper. Yep. That’s a throwback to my my poultry house days there. And I didn’t know, the same thing. I didn’t know that there was going to be a third book. But people keep asking me what’s next. And that’s what really drives me and makes me think that God really has his hands on this because, folks that don’t, folks, they could easily say these things are no good.”

Douglas Berry – “No, don’t do that. Everybody comes by and says, wow, these things. You’re really on to something here. And some folks even say, I can see it as a cartoon at some point in time on TV.”

Angela Barrett –

Douglas Berry – “But, yes, but the, the farmer Jasper kind of came from the old farmhouse. Figured they could go, see what’s going on in the farm. The way that one starts out is, all the little woodland critters get together, and they haven’t seen your friend mouse in a while, so they’re like, well, what’s yours, mouse?”

Douglas Berry – “What’s a mouse here? You know, they want to play. And so they’re like, well, he lives down in that big red barn over there. Let’s walk down and see what he’s got going on. And he could take it down there. And they realize that he’s just swamped in chores and he’s like, well, I can’t do anything until I get these these chores done.”

Douglas Berry – “I, you know, he’s got to feed the animals and play in the garden. And he has him. He’s like, well, you guys help me. And we’re like, yeah, that’s what friends do. So they all get together and they, they feed the animals, water the animals in the garden, and they actually have a I’ve actually got a couple of activities for the kids and the most recent one, there’s a at the.”

Douglas Berry – “Yeah. The thing for my, my dad who’s passed away now. Oh. There’s a little corn maze they go walk through to gather corn to feed the chickens so they can trace through the corn maze with their finger and stuff. And.”

Angela Barrett – One more maze.

Douglas Berry – “And at the end of the book, there’s a, where they can finally play. They’re going to play hide and seek. So, there’s a they’re all hidden, peeking around corners of buildings and stuff for the kids. So we should try to find them neat.”

Angela Barrett – “So now let me ask you, the characters that are in, all the books do they have or do they represent, like, real people in your life or. These are truly just fiction from.”

Douglas Berry – “Yeah, they’re really just fictional little critters.”

Angela Barrett – “And no personalities. Because I know a lot of writers. I mean, they don’t obviously, it’s not about their wife or their kid or whatever, but some of the little personalities that come out in the books, maybe. So none of that either, Nope, nope, nope. So which character do you think that you identify those with?”

Douglas Berry – “Oh, that’s a good question. Never been in someone before. Well, I’d have to say the main character, Jasper.”

Angela Barrett – “Was this because he sort of the the leader or, leader may be the wrong word, but he certainly comes up with the ideas for the most part. Right?”

Douglas Berry – “Yeah. He’s a, he’s a if there would be a main character, that would be the main character. Yeah.”

Angela Barrett – “Right. Now, there was another question I was going to ask you. Let me see if I can get, Well, you answered me about ask him. Say, while rabbits were. You did answer any sort of stuck with the rabbit thing, right? Yeah. Yeah. And now is in your in the books. There are some children stories that are trying to teach something or they’re lessons to be learned in these books.”

Douglas Berry – “There are, but I don’t write them specifically for the lessons, if that makes any sense at all. I like the my tagline is just fun stories, the quiet, the noise of the world and let kids be kids because there’s a another second. I’m not a teacher. I just want kids to be able to pick up a book, read it, and kind of giggle and laugh at it and that sort of thing.”

Douglas Berry – “But having said that, and having been in the military, you are going to find like and as you can imagine, the former Jasper, both there’s teamwork in there and there’s responsibility in there and there’s integrity in there. And I mean, if you dig hard enough, you’ll find them. And I actually think that’s kind of cool because the kids will learn without feeling like they’re actually learning.”

Douglas Berry – “You’re not picking up a book saying, this is how you do this, or this is how you’re supposed to do that, that kind of thing. But in being a good rabbit, you’ll learn.”

Angela Barrett – The.

Douglas Berry – “Proper way to, to, to handle and talk to people and deal with different situations.”

Angela Barrett – “Well, that is neat. That is neat. What’s next? You got another one coming.”

Douglas Berry – “I do, I do it’s and it was 75% written until I started thinking about it a little bit. So we’re back down about 50%. We’re back down to about 50%. Written. But it’s going to be Jasper’s Christmas. Everybody’s like, you ought to write a Christmas book. Everybody needs a Christmas book.”

Angela Barrett – So oh yeah.

Douglas Berry – “That’s going to be Christmas. And this may be the first time that I’m really going to teach a little bit, because the first half is going to be winter fun, Santa Claus, and the second half is going to be a wise old owl, because they’re going to go out and they’re going to look at the houses and see the decorations, and there’s going to be a church where there’s a manger scene out front, and they’re going to question who those people are.”

Douglas Berry – It was all that I was going to fly down and explain to him the manger scene.

Angela Barrett – “Oh, neat, that would be fantastic. Well, I can’t wait. Now, when do you think you’ll be finished with that? I know you said you’ve sort of backtracked. I think it now.”

Douglas Berry – “It’s going to be a while. It’s going to probably be a year or two, probably.”

Angela Barrett – Gotcha.

Douglas Berry – “Because along with that comes, the, the financial part of it. Yeah. The promised my wife that I would not go on a financial hole making these things and let the last book pay for the next one. So we always kind of are, above water. So, get some sales under our belt. I think Farmer Jasper is going to sell well, so I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.”

Douglas Berry – “But yeah, I’m looking forward to that. And, I’ve even got a story beyond the, the Christmas story. So there’s, and it’s going to be, again, a teachable moment without really being a teachable moment. Sure. There’s going to be a a storm, and the ground is going to get flooded out of his house will grow.”

Douglas Berry – “Lows when you’re above ground, can’t see, so he’s going to have to the friends are going to have to help. Basically a blind ground rule, try to find his house.”

Angela Barrett – Oh. Wow.

Douglas Berry – “So that’s going to that’s going to be kind of cool and may, you know, be a good book for the the handicapped kids and stuff.”

Angela Barrett – “Oh, yeah. Interesting. Yeah, absolutely. Well, you can get your books, I know, on Amazon because I saw on there and what’s.”

Douglas Berry – “Yeah, they are literally everywhere online during Barnes noble.com books-a-million or even on Walmart.com. My big push at this point, since I don’t have any problem getting them everywhere, is to get them stocked in stores. They are distributed through Ingram Content, which is one of the largest book, distributors in the country. And they are 100% returnable through them.”

Douglas Berry – “So, I mean, there’s really nothing holding folks back. They probably already have an Ingram account. It’s just, be a one man show trying to get the information out there so everybody knows about them. And that’s that’s why I’m here.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, absolutely. Well, it’s very interesting. And we’ll have to collaborate maybe on something about a book signing or something, because that would be pretty cool. But, well, I just want to thank you again for being with me today, and, again, thank you for your service. And I’m glad that you do like that phrase, because I.”

Angela Barrett – I really do mean it. We none of us would be here without the service of our veterans.

Douglas Berry – So I appreciate it.

Angela Barrett – “Certainly appreciate it. And, I’m looking forward to the next book.”

Douglas Berry – “Yeah, as am I.”

Angela Barrett – Yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you.