Whalesong - A Labor of Love (With No AI!)

Hi, friends! My name is J.S. Phillips, author of Whalesong, and co-owner of Flatfish Publishing. I am extremely proud and happy to say that our debut children’s book is finally here. I have known the artist, Noelle, since we were in grade school, and have always admired her beautiful and detailed watercolor paintings. I am a filmmaker by trade and love writing, so I’m not sure why it took us about thirty years to realize that her paintings and my word smithing would go well together, but better late than never, I suppose! 

We are both adventurous, outdoorsy people, and when we came together to brainstorm stories, it did not take long to land on conservation, and, more specifically, marine pollution as relevant topics we would want to write about and help kids understand. As a marine biologist, one of Noelle’s goals is to educate others about helping to stop ghost gear—which is abandoned fishing gear that can harm marine life—and before we knew it we had the idea of our first illustrated picture book. As an award-winning documentary filmmaker who is always up for an adventure, whether it be in the mountains, forests, or on the high seas, I dove headfirst into learning all about marine conservation. Once we had our heads full of facts and figures, I think it only took an hour or two to hash out the basic story of our heroine Maxine, chock full of humpback whales, adventure, accessible fantasy, and tidbits of science-based facts about the impact of pollution on marine life.

Whalesong has been a labor of love, and I have had such an incredible time putting this story together with Noelle. We have no shortage of ideas, and are actively working on our second (and third and fourth!) follow-up. In an age of technology and the growing presence of artificial intelligence taking over all corners of our lives, especially art, we have dedicated Whalesong and other subsequent Flatfish Publishing releases to have no use of AI. If you are looking for high-quality, hand-painted, hand-written children’s books, you will always have a place amongst us here in our little school of flatfish. 

Cheers!

-j.s.