I think if you don’t have it, there might be something wrong. John: And I explained to her that we all have imposter syndrome -I have it every time I do a book. Hayley: I was a children’s book publicist for 10 years, and I’d feel like, “Who am I to be writing a book compared to this great talent I grew up with, or this brilliant young artist?”īut I have this pro to ask. I doubted myself: “I don’t know if this sounds good.” “Is this going to convey what I’m trying to say?” Being able to look at this history in my family in the letters, and my relationships with them, and where I was at that time in my life-it’s what the writer is trying to convey about that moment for them. I have letters from my grandfather, and from my uncle while he traveled the world. Hayley: Yeah, I’m a very sentimental person. John: That was when we really cracked it. Hayley to John: You asked me, “What does writing a letter mean to you?” And I said, “I’m sending a hug! I’m telling the people that I care about that I love them.” At that point it was called To Write a Letter, in the manner of Mordicai Gerstein’s To Paint a Bird. John Rocco: We had several others we were toying around with, but when this one started we knew it was the one to do.

But it wasn’t until the pandemic, when I couldn’t go anywhere and I was writing a lot more letters, that John said, “ That’s the book you need to write!” Hayley Rocco: Well, when we first met, we talked about collaborating.

Blackout rocco