A little back story…
Hello and thank you for clicking the link from my Instagram post to get you here. My socials have been a bit lonely, but life has been very full and busy. We have two boys who are finally in the same elementary school, and I have gone back to school full-time with hopes of getting into nursing school in the coming year. (Yes, it’s a very big career change for me, and a story for a different time, but I’m very excited about it!)
As I was saying in my last post, the spark of Julio’s story started back in 2017. I was fresh into my picture book journey with Wake Up, Little Bat! and the idea for a new picture book took hold of me. This time around, it would be about my dear friend, Julio Gosdinski.
If you don’t know Julio, Google his name and you’ll see his warm smile and you’ll read about his connection to the Griffith Park Merry-go-Round. To me, Julio was familia – he was our next-door-neighbor and close friend. Renaldo and I moved into the house right next to him on the very same day he moved into his house. And with our shared Peruvian background and love for pollo a la brasa and antichuchos, a friendship was born. I was fascinated by his life story, and over our years of friendship, I learned so many interesting things about him. How does a Peruvian immigrant grow up in L.A. and later come to own an iconic piece of L.A. such as the Griffith Park Merry-go-Round? As I was discovering my picture book journey, the idea for a new picture book about Julio’s life was born.
I brought up my idea to Julio, and he loved it! We had so much fun meeting over lunch at our favorite local restaurants for our “interview” time. I learned so much about Julio I had never known, including details from his photographic memory! He even remembered details, such as the number bus he would take from his childhood home to Griffith Park. It was really fun to sit and get to know my friend on a deeper level.
Shortly after we started our project, I got pregnant. After our first son arrived, the demands of new motherhood left little time for our “interviews”. But Julio understood, and we agreed we would get back to this project when we had more time. But in the summer of 2020, during the peak of the pandemic, Julio unexpectedly passed away, and we were out of the time we had hoped for. It was heartbreaking to lose Julio so suddenly, especially only a few weeks shy of his 50th birthday, during a time when everyone was masking up and keeping their distance.
What happened to the Griffith Park Merry-go-round after Julio’s death was another tragedy. I won’t go into the details (you can read more about it here if you’re curious), but it closed during the pandemic and has remained closed to this day. Repairs were insurmountable and the future of the merry-go-round was up in the air in probate court for years. During this time, our picture book project kept calling to me. In 2023, when the fog of having two small children started to lift, I returned to our picture book project. I was so blessed to find Bella Sinclair, an incredibly talented and kind artist to illustrate our picture book, and our project began to take flight again.
It took a full year of working back and forth with Bella, brainstorming ideas for the best scenes for her to bring to life, and revisions getting the look and feel just right. If you were following my newsletters at the time, 2025 felt like the year to launch the big crowdfunding campaign. I even connected with a great printing company, and had quotes ready to go.
But this was also the year the Los Angeles area was ravaged with wildfires. It was a stressful few weeks while we kept an eye on the wildfire progress. People lost their homes, including a couple of our close friends, and we were surrounded by air that was too dangerous for us to be exposed to. Julio’s book was set aside again, and I started to get discouraged. Would I ever get this passion project into the world where it deserved to be? Would this be another project that I started and left unfinished?
But now here we are, 2026 creeping into fall and the end of another year. I have a few short months until I learn whether my nursing school dreams will begin with the new year. Until then, I am back to focus as much extra energy I have to Julio’s story once again (when I’m not chasing after the boys and keeping up with my English and ASL classes, that is) . I’m so excited to share this journey with all of you!
Next up: updates on the tasks to run a successful crowdfunding campaign and the making of my campaign video. Stay tuned!
Leave a Reply