Unusual Animal Messages is officially out in the world—yay!
And as promised, I want to share a bit about the inspiration behind the project, including how it began and how the idea evolved into a published oracle deck. I didn’t realize how long this story would be, so I’m going to do this in two parts. In this first post, I’m going to cover how it started and what the process of finding a publisher was like.

Like any good origin story, this one has a few twists and turns. And to really understand the roots of it, we have to go back—way back—to my childhood.

I had a very intense anxiety disorder as a kid, mainly centered around separation. I hated being dropped off at school. Most mornings, we arrived at least an hour before class just to give me time to settle in. Honestly, it wasn’t all that effective— I was generally fine after my mom left for work and I enjoyed school and had friends. But come the next day? It was back to square one, and the tears flowed freely.

My parents tried everything. I was transferred twice in hopes that a different school might help. It didn’t. Therapy wasn’t quite the right fit either. Eventually, I returned to my original school—still struggling—until another mom stepped in with an unexpected suggestion. She offered to take me to a different kind of therapy, and at their wits’ end, my parents agreed,. That was the first time I encountered energy work.

It changed everything. My anxiety didn’t dissipate entirely until I was in my late 20’s, but it definitely eased. And years later, I became a certified energy healer myself. That experience shaped so much of how I understand human psychology, emotional patterns, and the stories we tell ourselves about the world.

But before I ever fully stepped into that world, my dad had already made me a deal. At the time, he worked at the Los Angeles Zoo and he promised that if I could make it through the week without crying, I could go to work with him. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal, right?

It’s been years since I last visited the Los Angeles Zoo, but it’ll always hold a special place in my heart.

And while I didn’t make it the full week, I tried really hard and that was enough for my dad to keep his promise. He put aside some days and brought me to work with him. I spent most of my time wandering exhibits and drawing animals, but the real magic began once the zoo closed for the day. That’s when I got to feed the giraffes, play fetch with the resident dingo, and ask the zookeepers all the burning questions I had stockpiled throughout my visit.

The thing about the zoo is that I felt calm there. I found that the animals offered me a sense of connection I hadn’t felt anywhere else, and I began collecting little-known facts about them.  I just didn’t realize that those memories would become the foundation for something bigger.

Fast forward to 2020 and the start of COVID. I was studying in Scotland and happened to be in Spain over a long weekend when I read the first reports coming out of Wuhan. The city had been evacuated, but this particular human interest story covered a man that stayed behind to take care of the city’s animals. I remember thinking it was a big deal, but it hadn’t hit Europe. Yet.

That was early March. Four days later, my university closed down.

We can probably skip the details of this next bit. It mostly involves trying to get out of Scotland on flights that kept cancelling, eventually booking the last train into London, and taking the last available flight to the US with a dog in tow. Spoiler: We made it home.

The last flight out of London was a trip. I had never seen so many hazmat suits in one place before, and I felt super out of place traveling with a dog.

And this is where the idea for Unusual Animal Messages began.

Because I came home to a world that felt upside down. My body was physically in the states, but my headspace was still overseas. In California, people hadn’t quite realized the gravity of the situation yet, but I could feel the emotional weight of what was happening settle across the globe.  It felt anxious and uncertain. But I knew those feelings intimately— I grew up with them. I realized that I could draw from all the things that helped me navigate my own uncertainties— energy work, a connection to animals, and my understanding of psychology— and turn it into something that could hopefully help others too.

I finished up my degree program online, and transitioned right into figuring out how I was going to do this. I wasn’t even sure what the project was yet…. And it ended up taking a lot of trips to my local Barnes and Nobles before I even considered that it could take the form of an oracle deck. Quite honestly, I didn’t even know what they were until I started playing with possibilities.

Once I figured out the type of project I wanted to make, I set out some rules for the deck.

1. I knew I wanted to focus on lessons from animals, but I thought it was important to make sure each message was rooted in something real about them. I saw way too many examples of oracle cards using tigers as an example of leadership despite them being mostly solitary until mating season. I thought it was hard to connect to a lesson that wasn’t rooted in any semblance of reality.

2. Speaking of tigers, I thought that popular animals are more than covered. Don’t get me wrong, I love them too… but we’ve already heard from lions, tigers, and bears (Oh my! 😂  Couldn’t help myself there.) I wanted to cover the uncommon and weird animals we don’t always think about.

3. The paintings had to be done with gouache on paper. I realize it would have been faster to do things digitally, but I just can’t get into it. I’m always going to go with wanting to paint traditionally, and I thought it would be an interesting challenge.

That was my starting point. Some research indicated I would need at least 52 odd animals and accompanying messages, so I made it a point to start sifting through all the weird animal facts I had collected over the years. I asked everyone around me what their favorite odd animal was, or the best animal fact they knew, and built a list. Then I expanded on the list. And kept expanding.

Eventually, I choose a few favorite animals to paint as examples and wrote out a their message before doing a proper book proposal.

I didn’t actually send out my completed proposal while in the US. I did all this while the world was shut down for COVID, but my plan was to head back to the UK when the world opened up again. Eventually it did, and I relocated again. But this time, I went straight to London. The last time I had seen the city, everything was shutting down. Now, people were masked, but it was slowly opening up again. And while I was under mandatory quarantine, I rewrote my book proposal to incorporate the things I learned while getting ready for a big move (again).

Apparently, all the changes paid off. Because I had two publishers interested in the project within a month of sending it out, and signed a deal shortly after.

So that’s the origin story of how I came to conceptualize, plan, and sell my Unusual Animal Messages Oracle Deck to CICO Books. If you’re interested in learning more about my experience in writing and illustrating the deck, make sure to stay tuned for part 2! Can’t wait to share it with you.

x,

Manda