May 27, 2025
Storytelling with Grandkids: Ron Kinscherf's Creative Journey
Send us a text What happens when a grandfather's impromptu bedtime stories transform into a mission to combat childhood illiteracy? Ron Kinscherf's journey from burned-out IT consultant to children's author began with a simple request: "Papa, tell me a book." When his grandson stomped on anthills in their backyard, Ron saw more than destroyed insect homes—he saw a storytelling opportunity. That moment sparked a series about an ant colony facing challenges that paralleled Ron's own childhood ...
What happens when a grandfather's impromptu bedtime stories transform into a mission to combat childhood illiteracy? Ron Kinscherf's journey from burned-out IT consultant to children's author began with a simple request: "Papa, tell me a book."
When his grandson stomped on anthills in their backyard, Ron saw more than destroyed insect homes—he saw a storytelling opportunity. That moment sparked a series about an ant colony facing challenges that paralleled Ron's own childhood experiences growing up without a father. What he didn't realize was how these stories would uncover his authentic creative voice and launch an unexpected second act in his career.
Ron's approach to play and imagination offers valuable lessons for parents and grandparents. By encouraging children to break conventional boundaries—like imagining tigers in colors beyond yellow with black stripes—he demonstrates how adults can foster creativity rather than restricting it. This philosophy extends beyond family interactions into his visits to schools, where he was stunned to discover many children own no books at all.
The publishing journey hasn't been without challenges. Despite selling thousands of books, Ron candidly shares the financial realities of self-publishing, where illustration costs often exceed revenues. Yet his persistence has paid off with a recent deal with Morgan James Publishing. More importantly, his mission has evolved beyond commercial success—he's donated over 1,000 books to children this year alone, confronting the alarming statistic that only one-third of Illinois children read at grade level.
For anyone feeling stuck in a routine or unfulfilled professionally, Ron's story offers inspiring guidance: "Don't be afraid to make it a side hustle." Whether writing, gardening, or fixing cars, pursuing creative passions alongside other responsibilities can lead to unexpected joy and purpose. Follow Ron's continuing journey at papatellmeabook.com or connect with him on Facebook to learn how imaginative play can spark meaningful change in children's lives and your own.
Want to be a guest on Living the Dream with Curveball? Send Curtis Jackson a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1628631536976x919760049303001600
00:00 - Welcome and Introduction
02:15 - Ron's Creative Storytelling Technique
05:15 - Trusting Your Talent and Finding Purpose
10:00 - The State of Child Literacy Today
16:15 - Family Influence on Creativity
18:50 - Current Projects and Publishing Realities
22:15 - Final Thoughts and Contact Information
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Welcome to the Living the Dream Podcast with Curveball, If you believe you can achieve.
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Welcome to the Living the Dream with Curveball Podcast, a show where I interview guests that teach, motivate and inspire.
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Today, I am joined by author and storyteller Ron Kinsher.
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Ron took a creative way of playing with his grandkids and made it a business, and he realized the stories that he was telling were similar to his childhood.
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So we're going to be talking to him about this creative way.
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Maybe we can take tips from him and use it to play with our kids and grandkids.
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So, Ron, thank you so much for joining me today.
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Hey, thanks for having me on.
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Why don't you start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself?
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Oh boy, I live in a little town on the Mississippi River in Illinois, quincy, illinois.
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It's right where Illinois, iowa and Missouri meet, meet.
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I kind of say it's where illinois is pregnant on the west side, about as fat as illinois can get um.
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So I had like a 30 year career, um in it, consulting, uh, selling it products and solutions, and um, at the end of it I was just burned out, really really burned out, so I just quit.
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I didn't have really a game plan going forward.
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In the meantime I was having some grandkids I had about two at that point and it was suggested one time at a Sunday dinner that I start writing the stories I was creating for the kids and like anything else, I kind of just pushed that aside with all the other ideas I was getting for the kids and you know, like anything else, I kind of just pushed that aside with all the other ideas I was getting at that time.
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But then I was outside one time with my oldest grandson and he was stomping on all the anthills on our back patio and I was just sitting and watching, you know, destroying all these beautiful homes and I decided to write a story from the aunt's point of view about that, and so I wrote that down and I kept getting ideas of the various challenges and circumstances these ants that live in this ant colony would get into.
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So I kept writing, and writing and writing and eventually someone talked me into publishing.
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One and one all of a sudden became 11.
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And my last book I picked up by a publisher based out of New York city.
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So it's been quite a three-year journey, to say the least, but it all started with making up stories.
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Put my grandkids to bed.
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Absolutely, and congratulations on that.
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So kind of explain to the listeners you know the, the creative way, you know how it works and how they could probably use it to play, but their kids are grandkids.
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Yeah.
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So what I did was the general process was putting this one down for a nap was he would get to pick two stories and then you read them, the stories, and you leave them and hopefully it falls asleep.
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He was about three, three and a half at the time.
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So one afternoon he said Papa, tell me, tell me a book.
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I was like I would like.
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Okay, what do you mean by that?
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And he goes tell me a book, make, make, make me a story.
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So I go what do you want me to make a story about?
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So we looked around the room we were in and he picked a medicine bottle.
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So I had to make a story up about a medicine bottle, kind of on the spot, and the one thing you can't do as a grandparent is you can't say no way you can.
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But you know, in that type of situation, you know you don't want to disappoint the kids.
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So I made up a story.
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Um, that led to more of those types of situations going on and it got to the point where he was asking his mom and dad to do that type of thing and I kind of got in a little bit of trouble because I put them on the spot where they had to start making up stories.
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So the you know, the basic gist of it is just using your imagination to create these environments for, for your kids or grandkids, um, where they can use their imagination, because the way I look at it is a kid's mind, you know, three to five years old, is yet to be molded by anything.
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It's just wide open to any type of possibility.
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And you know, when I go visit schools, a lot of times we'll make up stories about animals.
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You know, I ask them what their favorite animal in the zoo is and they'll tell me whatever.
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And I ask them what color that animal is and they'll always say the tiger is yellow with black stripes.
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And I say why is?
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And they'll always say the tiger is yellow with black stripes.
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And I say why?
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It doesn't have to be, it could be whatever color you want that animal to be.
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And then we go off and continue to make stories and, you know, just twist facts around a little bit.
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It's all make-believe and um, that's kind of how this all got started.
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And, uh, it's just a creative way.
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And imagine, it's a way to to play, um, and we were doing it also with their Legos and, you know, creating various scenes and things like that and mixing up their Legos with other toys they may have, and just you know, just kind of breaking outside your barrier, your comfort zone when you're playing with your kids.
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Okay, well, tell the listeners about the process, about what you learned about yourself doing this process well what I learned about myself.
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I learned to trust my talent more than anything else because, like I said, it was not in a, I didn't have any jobs or anything going on, and I've always been creative.
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My degrees in radio and tv.
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So I did some of that before I decided I need to make money and um, but I was creating parody commercials and all that type of stuff.
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So, um, I went on this journey without knowing anything about it.
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You know, trusting myself and trusting the decisions I would make.
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Um, I get again, I had no idea what I was doing.
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No idea, I mean, I wrote the words.
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I wrote the words, I had to find an illustrator, I had to find out a way to get it public, all that type of stuff.
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You know the legal ramifications, the business side of everything.
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But I trusted that I would figure it out in some fashion.
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And I was talking to somebody one time and it says I, I, I like remove the handcuffs from myself and just went on this journey and kind of took a chance that this, this would all work out and things would be fine, and it and it kind of did so.
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I don't know if I answered your question correctly, necessarily, but a lot of it to me was just everything kind of fell into place and it felt like God was pushing me in this direction because all the people that started entering my life during the course of this process like the gal who does my proofreading just came out of the blue.
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She was an old friend from high school, popped in out of the blue right when I needed an illustrator.
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Just things like that continued to happen throughout the year year and a half process.
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I started doing this.
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I call it kismet, just serendipity, it just happened.
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But I guess the point I'm trying to get across is life is too short not to have fun.
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I've talked to a lot of people you know, friends and that have jobs they don't like.
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But you got to be able to find something that you do enjoy.
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Or you're just going to go through the same routine day after day, and it doesn't necessarily have to be a job.
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But there's got to be something in your world, whether it's gardening or something along you know, something along those lines that you have to give yourself time to do.
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I'll buy that feeling that you're just in a rut, that you're doing the same thing over and over and over again.
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You go to work, come home, have dinner, sit in your chair, watch TV, maybe read a book.
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You know the same thing over and, over and over again.
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There's got to be something outside that, and that's what I've found, and I'm so much happier since I found this.
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It's just opened up a lot of doors for myself.
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It's opened up the creative side of myself, opened a lot of doors for myself.
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It's opened up the creative side of myself and it's and what I found out is that a lot of the stories I'm creating are actually things that I have lived through.
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You know, an example is I went through four or five books and I had a friend that was reading them and this is before I even published anything and she brought up the fact that, uh, she thought it was really cool that I had a female matriarch that was leading this colony of ants.
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I had a queen and I did not have a king.
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I thought about it and said you know, my dad passed away when I was five, so I never quote unquote had a king in my world as I was growing up.
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So a lot of things that were happening were somewhat paralleling to not the way I was raised and the things that I went through as a child.
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Well, this is also, you know, kind of taught you about the state of literacy in kids.
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So you know kind of explained that.
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Yes, so the so when the first time to visit a classroom and this is actually the first classroom I went to you know, I read to kids and I had books to give to the kids and the teachers are telling me that that will be the only book that kid has at home, and I was just blown away by that.
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And you know, another teacher told me that their parents will throw this, throw that book away because they won't want them to have it.
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And I was just, it's just mind boggling.
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So I will not visit a classroom now without having a sponsor or a philanthropic group or anything like that Give me books.
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You know, buy books that I can give to the kids.
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I just will not visit a classroom now without having a sponsor or a philanthropic group or anything like that.
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Give me books, buy books that I can give to the kids.
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I just will not do it.
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This year we've given away over a thousand books to kids in our community, but in doing additional research in the state of Illinois, where I'm from, about one third of the kids are reading at the level that they're supposed to be reading at.
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You know it got really bad during COVID and it's gotten a little bit better.
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But illiteracy leads to drug use, unemployment, criminal activity.
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It's just a long list of things that illiteracy leads to and none of it's really good.
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So I don't want to say it's the cross I'm bearing for everybody to try.
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You know a big mission of mine but it just blew me away and I'm trying to get in front of as many kids.
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You know, one thing I found out, too, curtis, that I found that is interesting is when I go visit these kids and I visit kids of all age, all age levels is I always ask them what they like to read.
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And the younger kids first, you know kindergartners or second graders all say they like to read.
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Then you ask the older kids, when they get to junior high level they like to read and they don't.
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And I always ask them why.
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And I personally think a lot of it has to do with the things they're being given to read.
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Um, and if I, when you went to school, the stuff you had to read in school, I don't know if you enjoyed it or not, but it was things that you were given, you were made to read something, and I think anything that you're made to do you're going to have a negative.
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It's going to have a negative impact on you, and so I think that's a big reason for it.
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I think that schools would have a list of books that kids could choose from or use graphic novels or something else.
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That would still get the basic point across that they're trying to teach these kids they may enjoy reading, and the point I try to make to these kids is even in this age you know we're doing a Zoom call here.
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It's recording this we didn't have this you know, a number of years ago, but you still have to be able to read.
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You still have to be able to comprehend, no matter what profession you go into.
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I mean, I was in sales.
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I had, I had to be able to read, you know, and I had to be able to put together an email that made sense, because I could have the best product in the world.
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But if I can't communicate to the person on the other end of that email, they're not going to buy anything from me, it's just.
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Or if I want to be a mechanic, all that stuff's going to be downloaded and you have to be able to comprehend anything you do in this world.
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Even if you're an athlete, you have to be able to read a playbook.
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You have to be able to look at contracts to understand what they're saying.
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So that's the type of stuff I try to stress to these kids, and that English isn't this class of English isn't the devil.
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It's something that should be enjoyed, and sometimes that can be a hard message to get across to these guys.
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Well, explain to the listeners what you know the world of creating books is like and you know what advice would you give somebody that's looking to break into writing kids.
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It's fun, it occurs.
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It's funny because Cause I visited some high school kids and I told them the process I went through, and one kid raised his hand is like Mr Ron, it doesn't sound like you would recommend this as a career path.
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It was like I'm not saying that, it's just.
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You gotta be ready to be smacked in the face a few times.
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Um, because to me the industry is upside down.
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Because, you know, I thought so.
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This was my mindset when I started doing this.
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I write the manuscript.
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I find an illustrator.
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She draws the pictures that are in my brain.
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I put it all together and print it out.
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Right, Curtis, make sense.
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So that's how I self-published.
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Then I found out, you know, a year and a half later, you know, okay, I might be good at this.
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Maybe I should find a publisher.
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Publishers don't want that.
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Agents don't want that.
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They just want the words you created.
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So you send an email to this email address or whoever, just with the words.
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So you tell me how, in two pages, they know how that book is going to affect those kids without the pictures that I have in my brain.
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To me that's idiocy, but that's the way the majority of publishers want to operate, Um, so, so I I couldn't believe something.
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You know, I'd be on calls with agents and stuff like that.
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Okay, I've got three or four self-published books.
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I think they're really good.
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Would you like to look at them?
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No, it's like why?
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Well, you've gone too far.
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It's like what do you mean?
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I've gone too far.
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I've taken all the hard work out of this for you.
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I've got it illustrated, I've got the ISP script.
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So the basic gist is I think the publishing world wants to control everything.
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They want to own your IP or intellectual property so that they can use it as you, as you feel fit.
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So that's that's in my world, the publishing world.
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I got lucky finding Morgan James because they're letting me keep my IP.
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Um, so that's kind of what, where I'm, where I'm at right now.
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So that's kind of where I'm at right now Well, kind of talk about how your mother played such a big was such a big influence on you and your writing.
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My mother.
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Yes, well, it's kind of a Uh.
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So, like I mentioned, my mother passed away when I was young and I was.
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She had to get.
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This was back in the sixties.
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So she had six kids.
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She we had no real family around the area because she moved prior to me being born from the East coast.
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My mom was born in Manhattan, my dad was born in Brooklyn, so they moved, you know, a couple thousand miles away to Illinois.
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So she had no real family.
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So she had to go back to school, get a job and provide for the six kids.
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So a couple of the kids were in high school, one was in college and we I was left alone, a lot.
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So I was had to create a play with my GI Joes or my Lincoln Long.
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Whatever I had to do, I had to be, you know, be self-sufficient.
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So from that aspect, that method of survival, so to speak, that you know that helped me for my creative you know the creativity that I have today.
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But she, we also didn't back in those days there wasn't cable TV, there wasn't video games.
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We got three channels and we weren't allowed to watch.
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There was nothing on after school, you know, and during the day, other than stuff that kids shouldn't be watching.
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So I, if I wanted to be entertained, I had to basically entertain myself during those days.
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Um, outside of that, my mother, um, is probably the strongest person I know, because very independent person, fought for everything.
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Because she, if you think about this, she had to raise six kids in the late sixties.
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And if you knew what was going on in the world in the late sixties, it was not.
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It was a pretty tumultuous time and she was, and many women did not have jobs at that time.
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They're the stay-at-home mom type thing and so she had to go get out in the workforce.
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And you know, just looking back on it, what she was able to do was remarkable to provide for us kids and somewhat keep sanity going on in our house with, you know, the teenagers, you know the boys being torn on all different ways during what's going on with Vietnam and all that other type of stuff.
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So, yeah, she, she, uh, yeah, she was something else, something else.
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Absolutely so.
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Tell us about any upcoming projects that you're working on that need to be aware of.
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Well, the uh, um, like I said, you know the uh.
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I don't know if I said this, but the last book I wrote and published self-publishers has been picked up by a publisher.
00:17:00.648 --> 00:17:03.996
So Morgan James has picked it up and that should be out.
00:17:03.996 --> 00:17:14.112
So I'm kind of I'm writing, um, but I'm not publishing anything because I'm kind of waiting to see how that works out and if they're going to be interested in doing anything more with me.
00:17:14.112 --> 00:17:23.699
So I'm not at a standstill of creativity, creative wise, but I'm kind of at a standstill publishing wise, because you know, this isn't.
00:17:23.699 --> 00:17:28.403
You know you're asking about, you know, recommendations.
00:17:28.403 --> 00:17:30.488
You know being an author and what I would suggest to other people, this is not a money-making venture.
00:17:30.488 --> 00:17:39.422
To say, you know, being an author and what I would suggest to other people, um, this is not a money-making venture to say, you know, I have to pay illustrators.
00:17:39.422 --> 00:17:48.167
I can't draw the pictures myself, and when you're selling books, you know, for $10 each, there's not a whole lot of profit margin, you know.
00:17:48.167 --> 00:17:57.353
So if I'm paying an illustrator X amount, I have to sell X amount of books in order to break even, and I've got 11 books out right now that I paid an illustrator for.
00:17:57.353 --> 00:18:17.329
So, um, I, you know, to be honest, I'm in the hole, and people are sometimes shocked like that, cause they'll ask me how many books I've sold, and I've sold thousands of books, but I'm in the hole, um, so I, I'm kind of in a situation where, if this works out good with the publisher, works out well with the publisher.
00:18:17.329 --> 00:18:22.890
I'm hoping, though, you know, we'll do additional projects together and maybe, you know, reprint.
00:18:22.890 --> 00:18:24.614
You know we'll redo the.
00:18:24.614 --> 00:18:28.634
You know what I've already got in the can, or they'll help me with some progress going forward.
00:18:28.634 --> 00:18:32.555
So you know that that decision hopefully be made in a couple of months.
00:18:32.634 --> 00:18:34.686
But the thing I'm still doing is writing.
00:18:34.686 --> 00:18:36.209
I mean, I keep getting ideas for this.
00:18:36.209 --> 00:18:56.265
I've got, you know, I've got eight books about the Zan colony published, and I probably got another nine written that I haven't done anything with no-transcript.
00:18:56.265 --> 00:18:58.912
So, as things happen to me, I go.
00:18:58.912 --> 00:18:59.994
You know that'd be perfect for the.
00:18:59.994 --> 00:19:06.545
You know, for the queen to live through, or that's a lesson my grandkids just learned, you know, that's something I can incorporate into a book.
00:19:06.545 --> 00:19:07.790
So the ideas are still there.
00:19:12.516 --> 00:19:13.176
It's just the I.
00:19:13.176 --> 00:19:14.358
I mean, I'm still going to go to schools.
00:19:14.358 --> 00:19:15.700
I'm still going to do all that type of stuff.
00:19:15.700 --> 00:19:27.070
You know, I'm still going to try to get as many books as I can in kids' hands and I've got organizations reaching out to me in this area that want me to, you know, do things for them.
00:19:27.070 --> 00:19:36.768
One organization here in town I'm ghostwriting books for them to help use as a curriculum to help behavioral challenge kids.
00:19:36.768 --> 00:19:38.993
So I'm involved in that project.
00:19:38.993 --> 00:19:43.385
So you know, I got a lot of irons in the fire right now.
00:19:43.385 --> 00:19:45.571
I just I'm kind of like that.
00:19:45.811 --> 00:19:45.992
Is it?
00:19:46.073 --> 00:19:47.737
Atlas that was pushing the rock up the hill.
00:19:47.737 --> 00:19:48.826
Was that the guy?
00:19:48.826 --> 00:19:50.288
I can't remember who?
00:19:50.308 --> 00:19:51.290
the guy was yeah, so.
00:19:51.371 --> 00:19:57.252
I'm, I'm pushing that rock up and I may be two thirds of the way, but I, I'm really wanting to get to that top of the hill.
00:19:57.252 --> 00:20:07.196
We're going to just push it over the end and things start, you know, snowballing for me and I got started really unleashing this creative junk.
00:20:07.196 --> 00:20:10.109
I've got going on on my head and entertain a lot of kids.
00:20:12.094 --> 00:20:22.548
Well, so people can keep up with everything that you're up to throw out your contact info.
00:20:22.567 --> 00:20:25.074
Yeah, Papa, tell me a book is my website and it's just spell out Papa, P-A-P-A.
00:20:25.074 --> 00:20:25.674
Uh, tell me a bookcom.
00:20:25.674 --> 00:20:26.195
You can also get there.
00:20:26.195 --> 00:20:26.656
Um, Ron Kinsherfcom.
00:20:26.656 --> 00:20:27.685
Kinsherf started to spell.
00:20:27.685 --> 00:20:30.152
Some people think it's K-I-N-S-C-H-E-R-F.
00:20:30.152 --> 00:20:33.278
Uh, everything's out there on my website all S-C-H-E-R-F.
00:20:33.278 --> 00:20:35.200
Everything's out there on my website all my books, all my titles.
00:20:35.200 --> 00:20:36.981
There's a little video about myself out there.
00:20:36.981 --> 00:20:42.311
There's samples of my work and the illustrations out there too.
00:20:42.311 --> 00:20:47.571
Reviews are tagged in there too, so you can read some of the reviews and you can also follow me on Facebook.
00:20:47.571 --> 00:20:53.570
Just, you know, just search for me and I'm out there, and that's kind of where I post updates on my projects and stuff like that.
00:20:55.134 --> 00:20:56.837
What closes out with some final thoughts.
00:20:56.837 --> 00:21:01.781
Maybe if there was something I forgot to talk about that you would like to touch on, or any final thoughts you have for the listeners.
00:21:02.244 --> 00:21:03.951
Oh boy, that's a tough one.
00:21:03.951 --> 00:21:07.491
I think you've got about everything.
00:21:07.491 --> 00:21:11.666
I mean I don't want to dissuade anybody out there to sing it or, you know, writing about children's books.
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