Photo courtesy of Ashlee Fulmer.
Ashlee Fulmer signs her book for guests at an event at the O’Neal Library.
Mountain Brook resident Ashlee Fulmer says that spending time with her parents during the COVID-19 pandemic was the catalyst for her book journey.
Fulmer remembers back to her younger years, when her dad would tell her stories about the biggest gorilla in the jungle. Although the animal may have seemed intimidating and scary, it was actually the sweetest animal of all.
“Every night I’d climb in bed and say my prayers and my dad would let me pick the animal to help that night,” Fulmer recalls. “Something would happen and the gorilla would come in and help fix what was wrong. I remember those stories from growing up. I loved them and would beg for them every night.”
While Fulmer was quarantining at the beach with her husband, two children and her parents, her dad, or “G” as he is known to his grandkids, began telling those same stories to her 4-year-old daughter.
“Seeing how much my daughter wanted to hear those stories again, day after day she would ask for them, and it was this constant reminder of how much she loved them,” Fulmer said.
“Being together and seeing and hearing her response to the stories, I think that's absolutely what kicked off the process, getting them on paper and writing them down and making a book series and turning it into something real.”
Fulmer said that she and her husband discussed how those stories transcended from her childhood to her children’s generation and had timeless messages, including not judging a book by its cover and being kind and helpful to others.
“I thought, ‘What if we wrote these [stories] down and got to share them with our friends and family?’” Fulmer said. “Being obsessive like I am, I sat down and wrote 12 stories (three are holiday themed: Easter, Christmas and Halloween).”
She spent time writing in the evenings after her kids went to bed. When Fulmer was finished, she began shopping her manuscript to different publishers. She was worried about going the traditional publishing route and decided to go with Mascot Books out of Virginia. Their agreement is to publish the first two books and see how things go. Fulmer said she hopes her audience is able to see more of her books in the future.
“I don't have the bandwidth to be a physician, mom, wife and daughter and do all of that,” she said. “This for me was a labor of love, to be able to create the stories like I saw them and maintain creative control throughout the process.”
Although she had written all of the stories in prose, Fulmer decided just before the first book, about a chameleon, went to press that she wanted to edit them to rhyme instead. Her son was 3 at the time and really enjoyed his books that rhymed the best. She also knew that rhyming books helped children with their language and speech better than those written in prose.
“One night at 1 a.m. I woke up and wondered if I could write in rhyme, so I laid in bed with my phone and rewrote the entire chameleon book,” Fulmer said. “I read it to my husband the next morning and then pitched it to my editor. She liked it and it went to the printer the next week. It took a lot more work, but I’m glad I did it.”
All of the stories feature a different animal, each with a specific situation. Her first book,
“Banjo the Gorilla and the Chameleon Who Lost Her Colors,” was released in October 2022. It features a chameleon who ate too much coconut ice cream and lost its colors. The book tells how Banjo helps to get its colors back.
Each book teaches lessons, including resilience, perseverance, kindness, inclusion and self-acceptance. They also have clues about the animal that will be featured in the next book. The second book in the series will come out in early 2023.
Fulmer dedicated the first book to her dad, and said he was excited to see all of his ideas come to life.
“It's been a two-year process and a lot of work to get it to where it is today,” Fulmer said. “I think that for him, holding these stories that he told me 35 to 40 years ago and seeing them in a book bound in his illustrated hands is kind of surreal.”
Just as Banjo is dedicated to helping his animal friends, Fulmer shares a passion and an obligation to do the same. A portion of the profits from the books will be donated to wildlife rescue, care and welfare organizations. For more information, visit banjothegorilla.com.
