Hey, all.
I am from Toledo, Ohio.
After graduating from Whitmer High School in the Washington Local School district, I attended Specs Howard School of Media Arts in Southfield, Michigan. While completing that education, I started working as a producer for a News/Talk Radio station. After tumbling around a few local television and radio stations, I decided it was time to explore.
To do so, I started working as a flight attendant. Insert joke here. But the travel discounts and flight benefits made so much available to me, I can’t express my gratitude and love of the job enough. I have lived in Toledo, various spots in Michigan and also spent three years in Maui, Hawaii. Those years in Hawaii would not have been possible without my position at the airline.
In 2012, I was approached by Joe Kelley. His 11-year-old young nephew was being bullied in school. Joe knew that I had a passion for writing… so we began batting about ideas about writing a book for children. Eventually, we decided on Pete the Popcorn. His name was Pete for a reason…
Joe and I believe we need to teach children to encourage each other every single day! So P.E.T.E. actually stands for Pursuing Excellence Through Encouragement! It’s our goal and dream to teach kids how to be nice to each other, accept each other and encourage each other.
Since the release of Pete the Popcorn, we’ve read our stories to over 100,000 schoolchildren in 25 states. At these visits, we are constantly approached by teachers, parents and children about ideas for future books. We’ve expounded on those ideas, thrown in some more of our own… and have released more titles including Casey and Callie Cupcake, Crusty Cupcake’s Happy Birthday, Gilbert the Grasshopper and Murdick’s Mackinaw Mystery. Pete the Popcorn has three books in the series currently– with a few more on the way. We even have our first chapter book, The Trashy Hootenanny.
Please visit our website, www.PeteThePopcorn.com to purchase our books today. Your support is appreciated. The difference you make in a child’s life through the gift of reading is unexplainable.
And please keep reading here for details about the constantly evolving life of Nick Rokicki and Joe Kelley.
Take care,
Nick
ABOUT THE AUTHORS... 
Excited for you both, Nick and Joe! Can’t wait to read about Pete!
Wanted to stop by and thank you for following my blog AND for the like on the post! You’ve made this cold, snowy Wednesday a very cold, snowy and HAPPY Wednesday! 🙂
Hi Nick,
Great to meet you through Twitter.
Wishing you every success with Pete the Popcorn.
Hey Carolyn,
Thanks very much for coming to the blog.
Don’t forget that Pete goes on sale next Weds, Leap Day, at Amazon.
Looking forward to keeping up with your tweets!
Nick
Hi Nick! I love the Pete the Popcorn premise. Very clever and inspiring. Even as adults, we need that sometimes! 🙂 keep up the good work. Cheers, Deb
Hey Deb,
Thanks for the comments! We do need encouragement, as adults— so thanks for encouraging me today!
I’ve been a flight attendant for a regional airline for the past almost-9-years and have really enjoyed following your blog! It’s been nice to see tips about everything my passengers go through on a daily basis… thanks for this wonderful service that you provide!!
Nick
Hey!
This is just to say that I’ve tagged you for a Beautiful Blog Award, which you can read about here at daniellezeissig.wordpress.com I hope you’ll participate—it would be a good chance for me (and other bloggers of WordPress) to get to know you a little better 🙂
Danielle
Danielle, Thanks so much!! I will look into continuing this Beautiful Blog Award chain as soon as possible!
I love your core concept – it has a lot of merit in this less than perfect world we have created. I wish you all the luck in the world in your quest to make a difference. Also, I wanted to thank you for stopping by and liking my post ‘Word of the Week Challenge entry – Clouds’ ! Your support – no – your Encouragement – is appreciated! 🙂
Thank you so much for the comments! I really enjoyed seeing your clouds, by the way! This “Word a Week” challenge is something I’m likely to do next year… this year, I’m doing the “Word a Day” thing— a “Word a Week” would really give more time to thinking about each word and appreciate the subject more. Thanks again!
Thanks for the return visit and liking my recent post ‘Emerging Light’ – your continued support is greatly appreciated! And I noticed I neglected to mention one thing before – I also am from/in Ohio – about 4 hours south of Toledo in a small town called Jeffersonville (roughly half way between Cbus and Cinci). I go to Toledo periodically and shoot at group shoots at the Collingwood Art Center. Good luck with the Word a Day – there is no way with my current schedule that I could accomplish that! Thanks again – take care – Stan
Word a Day has been tough! And I’m supposed to be leaving on an 18-night cruise in February, if my new job doesn’t start before then. So I better start scheduling posts now. I feel like a kid that has to do homework before vacation!
Beautiful mission. Really. Too bad it can’t be retroactive: many of us could have done with a bit more encouragement growing up, I’m sure. But you are correct that it’s about the next generation and I try to encourage my children as much as I possibly can. They are a bit too old for Pete the Popcorn, but one never has to look very far to find a child who would benefit from such a book as yours. So no excuses!
Thank you so much for visiting my modest artistic endeavor too.