Tammy's Talking Tummy: The Book I Wish I Had at Seven

I wanted to write a book that treats a child's gut feeling like the small oracle it actually is.

When I was seven, I already knew when a room was about to go wrong. I could feel a tension in my stomach before an adult even raised their voice. Nobody around me had a name for that feeling, so I decided it must be a problem with me. It took me twenty years to learn that it was intuition, not malfunction.

Tammy is not brave because she is loud. She is brave because she listens to the whisper inside her before the noise outside gets a chance to argue.

The book started as a bedtime story I made up for my niece. She was going through a season of stomach aches that no pediatrician could explain, and I wanted her to have a language for what her body was telling her. The first draft was four pages long and I read it to her from my phone. She asked for it three nights in a row. That was the review that mattered.

I wanted every page to feel like a hug and a permission slip. Kids do not need a lecture about anxiety. They need a story that treats their inner life as real. If a book can help a child trust their own signal, it has done more for them than any coping strategy taught later in life.

Self-publishing was its own tender education. I designed with an illustrator, sweated over paper stock, and learned that a spine and a signature are two of the more emotional inches in a person's life.

I said no to the first publishing deal I was offered. It was flattering, and the advance would have paid off a real fear of mine, but the notes came with a quiet suggestion that Tammy's voice be softened for a wider market. I could feel my own stomach speak up. I trusted it.

Independent publishing meant every decision was mine, and so was every mistake. I hand-approved the proofs. I answered emails from parents at midnight. I signed copies at a small bookstore in Leimert Park and cried in the car afterwards. It is the closest to sacred I have ever felt in this work.

If you are a parent, a teacher, or a big cousin looking for a book that tells a child their intuition is trustworthy, Tammy is for you. And if you are the adult version of that seven-year-old, please know that the whisper was always right. You were not too much. You were early.