Freewriter Britt Gondolfi has an important message: people need to put down their phones and LOOK UP.
The medium she chose to get this message across? Pigeons and poop jokes.
Look Up!: Fontaine the Pigeon Starts a Revolution has a simple premise.
As Britt tells it, it's "a poop-joke book about birds strategically, thoughtfully, and en masse pooping on our phones to wake us up from our doom-scrolling daze."
In other words: it's a lighthearted segue into a deeper conversation on digital distraction and human nature. It's no wonder Britt and Freewrite are a match made in heaven.
Find out how Britt and her BFF — who happens to be her illustrator — took a silly song and turned it into a book deal.
"It's a lighthearted segue into a deeper conversation on digital distraction and human nature."
ANNIE COSBY: How long have you been writing?
BRITT GONDOLFI: Since I could write, around 2nd or 3rd grade. I have always leaned on writing as a way to manage my thoughts and feelings.
"I have always leaned on writing as a way to manage my thoughts and feelings."
AC: So how did Look Up! come about?
BG:I wrote Look Up! as quickly as it takes to read it. It was, at first blush, an impromptu song on the guitar in my friend Amanda's kitchen with our babies on the floor.
With a guitar on one knee and, ironically, my cellphone with the Notes app open on the other, I sang the entire poem out and transcribed it on the very device the poem seeks to put away.
From the point of that day to publishing, it was a solid 7 years.
AC: And that friend is the illustrator for Look Up! right?
BG: Yes. My illustrator, Amanda Romanick, is my best friend in the world.
We met in Atlanta when we both just found out we were pregnant. And we were both from the same area of Louisiana. Our friendship, and our children, were both unexpected.
AC: Is it fun working with your best friend, or is it hard?
BG: I love working with my best friend.
Before we got the publishing deal, we had been dreaming of this book for 7 years. She had started so many times and had so much great material to show the publishing house.
It is a rare miracle in publishing to get to work with your best friend and the co-mom to your brain child. I couldn't imagine this book coming to life with anyone else.
"It is a rare miracle in publishing to get to work with your best friend..."
AC: For an illustrated book like this, do the illustrations come before or after the writing?
BG: For us, it really happened together. We love pigeons and were not wild about the stereotype of a crazy, loony-bird pigeon dominating the kid lit scene. We felt like pigeons deserve some representation that showcase their intelligence, collaborative skills, and care for humanity.
As I was singing and transcribing, Amanda was already doodling our little red beret wearing pigeon hero.
AC: I'm a piegon stan, too. They get a bad rap. I'm so glad Look Up! is here to change that. How did your book deal come about?
BG: Amanda and I tried several times to self-publish, but we thankfully never got it together between COVID and the strains of single motherhood. I tried to partner with a local bookstore and another illustrator once, but that collaboration fell apart.
It wasn’t until some old neighbors of mine in New Orleans met the stepmother of our literary agent and nabbed his number for me that the real journey to publishing got started.
We met on Zoom, and I performed the poem for him. We met once more in person, and I sang it to him on a ukulele. A month later, he invited me to a party where a publishing house was honoring some librarians.
There, with a French 75’s worth of liquid courage, I walked up to the editor and asked if I could slam-poetry-style perform my poem for her. She agreed, and the rest is publishing history.
I jokingly asked my agent after the party, “Did we get it? Did we get the deal?” He laughed and said, “No, we have to make a formal pitch, but the barstool poetry slam was a good start."
A few months later, I got the call that not only would we get a great publishing deal with one of the oldest publishing houses in the country, but that my best friend would be the illustrator.
"With a French 75’s worth of liquid courage, I walked up to the editor and asked if I could slam-poetry-style perform my poem for her. She agreed, and the rest is publishing history."
AC: That might be the most ridiculous publishing story I've ever heard. How has the publishing process been so far?
BG: Baker & Taylor has been a dream to work with. Getting traditionally published was a miracle for me. I was so excited, and it all felt like such a convergence of synchronicities and coincidences.
The editing process was tough. Honestly, though. I had no idea how much my original piece would be changed. There was a lot of push pull, and sometimes I still have the urge to ask for edits.
I knew a lot of the storytelling was going to happen in the illustrations, but in the editing process, the editor wanted to make sure the story could stand alone sans illustrations. We came to a good compromise.
I still sing the original version in song form every reading. It is my little “Britt’s Version” way of keeping the original poem's simplicity and flow alive. It will be coming out soon with a cute music video and on streaming services.
AC: Well, it sounds like people love it!
BG: Yeah,Amanda won silver for best illustrations in the Moonbeam Awards, and the book was a Foreword INDIES 2024 finalist in the picture books category.
All of this has been such a shock. I mean, we are just two solo moms from Louisiana who turned a poop joke into a poem and that poem manifested into a book.
The reception the story has received has put me on the floor and ironically had me on my phone more than I wanted to be, trying to drum up more publicity. Oh, the irony of promoting a book about screen use on your screen.
"Oh, the irony of promoting a book about screen use on your screen."
AC: Is that what drew you to Freewrite?
BG: Yes. I am currently working on an elongated version of the Look Up!children's book. I want to turn the poem into an early-reader chapter book.
For the past decade, I have collected vintage typewriters and used them for all of my creative writing. Freewrite gives me everything I love about using a typewriter: focus, clarity, and taking life — and writing — one line at a time.
It also helps me deal with everything that is complicated about writing on a typewriter: no backspace, inky fingers, taking your writing from analogue to digital, having to call the old typewriter repair guy in Algiers, New Orleans, when I have no idea what I am doing...
"Freewrite gives me everything I love about using a typewriter: focus, clarity, and taking life — and writing — one line at a time."
AC: Hah! Anything else you want to share with other writers?
BG: Writing is therapy. It is the most healing thing anyone can do for themselves. I dreamed of being published, but most of my writing has been to keep myself sane, balanced, and checked in to my inner voice.
I worry a lot about the screens and their effects on us. Devices like Freewrite give me hope that by combining older writing mechanisms with new technology, we can keep the spirit of distraction-free writing alive while helping authors more easily get their work out there.
"Writing is therapy."
You can follow Britt's writing journey at @britt.gondolfi on Instagram.
