About Flannel and Flashlight.

Stories you stay up for past your bedtime.

Flannel and Flashlight is currently producing Children’s Stories and Thrillers. Read on to hear from the author.

Children’s:

The crazy thing about Princess the Cat (my first children’s series)- and I’m honestly a little proud of this - is that both children and adults love Princess the Cat.

I originally set out to write a “Pet-Perspective” chapter book (yes, I’ll claim the trademark for this new genre I invented!). I would base the book on one of my childhood cats. Then, I would read the book aloud with my kids.

I had recently discovered the magic of reading a good chapter book with my children. I enjoyed the story, and so did my kids. So much better than reading the same board book over and over and over.

I noticed a pattern with my kids. They loved any story with animals in it. After we read Where the Red Fern Grows, they asked me to search online for books with pets that don’t die.

I also knew that cat videos and pics are insanely popular online. I just so happened to own a few *unique* felines as a youth, and so I figured I could put together some chapter books that would strike a chord with people, especially children.

Did I set out to write outstanding literature? Nope.

My goal was to write books my kids liked and that parents would enjoy reading aloud with their kids.

I wanted my kids wanted to read these books under their covers with the flashlight. (Hence the name of my small press: Flannel Flashlight Press.)

For that I needed stories you would stay up for past your bedtime.

One reader blew me away when me emailed me a picture his son had drawn of Princess.

I can’t tell you how many times somebody says something like: “My granddaughter has this book, and she really liked it, and I’ve ended up loving it too!”

Wow! Both kids and adults love Princess the Cat!

So that’s really what’s at the heart of Flannel and Flashlight. I’m proud to create stories that you will stay up for past your bedtime. (You’ll kick yourself in the morning, but you’ll still find yourself staying up too late reading the next night!)

Start the Princess the Cat Series for free with Princess the Cat versus Snarl the Coyote.

Awesome,
John Heaton

Thrillers:

The audience is different, but the goal is the same. Flannel and Flashlight strives to produce books that make you stay up late, reading with a flashlight, or killing the battery on your iPad, Kindle, smartphone, or whatever you read on these days.

If you like thrillers with a hero who is more brains than brawn with historical ties to the Cold War, then try a thriller from Flannel and Flashlight.

Just don’t complain to us if you go to work tired the next day.

J.A. Heaton