Author Lisa Sheldon’s book is filled with her drawings and lettering. Photo by Phil Custodio

BY PHIL CUSTODIO
Clarkston News Editor
Lying in the hospital with an out-of-control thyroid at age 45, all Lisa Sheldon could think of was her family.
“I thought I was leaving the planet,” said Sheldon, who is from Troy and has lived in Independence Township for about 18 years. “I felt terrible for the kids. What have I done? Was I going to leave them without a mother?”
Seven years later, she’s still around for her family, husband Scott and daughters Emma, Melanee, Donya, and Gabby, and has a message to leave behind in the form of a book, “The Importantalizing Loola-Boop and the Good Adventure Journey Journal.”
“Now if I leave the planet, I’m all good, I’m not stressed about it,” Lisa said. “There’s a lot more. I want to make it into a series. But this is a place to begin.”
The book, all handdrawn and lettered by the author with artwork in colored pencil, water color pencils, and ink, shares her philosphy of life through the adventures of a girl named Loola Boop.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to say. I didn’t know what my own truth was, what is this life, what would I tell them to do,” she said. “It started me on my own journey, to think and focus on that, like with an astronaut’s overview effect, above it all. I would wonder what they would become, what to say to them.”
The book stemmed from her recovery, which included a change from her previously stressful lifestyle.
“I was the type of person who was always running around, the kids were little, PTA, work. I thought it would go away, but then there I was (in the hospital),” she said. “They told me to go home and try to relax.”
Friends suggested meditation, which she tried.
“It made me really look deeply at everything, and find ways to de-stress,” she said. “It was a magical combination of questioning in place of stillness. What is it we all have in common, what is shared?”
The answer she found – the good in all of us – led to a flood of words and images in her head.
“I felt like I was going crazy. My husband said I would have to write this down or go insane,” she said. “I talked to the girls about it. Friends asked to share in it. Then, after all these years, with so many starts, stops, and changes, this is how it came out.”
The character in her book is named after her daughters’ nicknames.
“Emma, I called her Emma Bemma Loola, and Melanee, Melanee Belany Boop. That’s where that came from,” Lisa said.
It took about a year and a half to draw and letter the book.
“I had never done any drawing. I couldn’t even draw stick figures,” said Lisa, who did learn lettering as a child. “I tried to find an illustrator, but it never worked out. It took a lot of practice, but I kept trying.”
She had the rough draft in a sketch book about a year and a half ago.
“There has been a lot of changes, a lot of depth and awareness, thinking through my own logic to make sense of it,” she said. “I wanted it to be kind of pure.”
It’s called a children’s book, but it’s written for everyone.
“It’s a children’s book for adults,” she said. “I picture parents and children reading it together, using it as a learning tool. It’s a reminder for the kids, and for us adults who have been colored by the world, away from a child’s understanding.”
For a followup, Lisa wants to send Loola-Boop on an adventure to figure out how to find the good.
Looking back on her experiences, they have been the best thing that could have happened to her, she said.
“I’m doing OK. I’m still shaky, but better than before. I’ve learned how to take care of myself,” she said. “It’s changed my whole life, my outlook and relationship with my family. I’ m stronger, more alive. Life is truly good.”
For more information, check HowsYourGood.com or email Lisa@HowsYourGood.com.