Children’s author Carrie Tillotson paid a visit to Molalla Elementary School teacher Debbie Wolf’s classroom on Friday, May 16, to share with fifth grade students a valuable series of lessons on the importance of patience and perseverance on the way to becoming a published author.
Along the way, students took part in a workshop designed to give them new writing skills and a love of books.
Tillotson lives in Tigard with her husband, son, two dogs and two chickens and regularly presents workshops to students of all grade levels. At Molalla Elementary, her Story Spark to Bound Workshop for grades K-5 offered students an hour-long journey that began with Carrie’s childhood passions and demonstrated how she turned those into grown-up goals that included becoming a published author and how she uses her own interests to spark her own writing.
“I love the energy that kids give,” Carrie said. “Giving presentations like this organically grew from the first requests for workshops into something regular. Every school visit I’ve done is a little bit different and it challenges me to make each one fresh and new. But that keeps it interesting, too.”
Carrie’s presentation at MES covered her newest book, Alpacas Here, Alpacas There, and how she researched alpacas and turned a raw concept into a completed idea and a book. She shared her research on alpacas, including a series of photos showing her visiting alpaca farms, shearing alpacas of their valuable wool, and learning all about these marvelous creatures.
Students from a blend of Molalla Elementary fifth grade classes asked a variety of questions about her process and went through exercises designed to inspire them to continue to develop their writing skills. Students also took part in a free verse poetry exercise and a bookmark making craft project to round out the afternoon.
It’s no wonder Tillotson gives an engaging presentation. Her own story is fascinating.
Alpacas Here, Alpacas There actually predates her career as a published author, which began in 2022 with her first book, Counting to Bananas.
The first draft was hammered out back in 2015. But Tillotson set it aside for some time to focus on her former career as a biostatistician. She went on to patiently churn through a total of 70 different drafts - and wrote Counting to Bananas and B is for Bananas in the meantime.
But she never lost sight of the book she wanted to produce. Alpacas Here, Alpacas There was workshopped repeatedly with the help of other authors, while Tillotson eventually shifted the prose into a series of rhymes. This process finally resulted in a published book in February 2025 - and a brand new series of lessons for her youthful audiences.
“I’ve wanted to be an illustrator since I was a little kid,” Carrie said. “After I started my public health career, I still felt like something was missing, so I started taking art classes again. I soon thought that I needed to write a book, so I started writing.”
Turns out, she was both good at writing and hadn’t realized how much she enjoyed it.
“It was an unknown passion before then and it grew from there,” she said. “In 2020 I quit my job to start a consulting business, but at the same time I got my first book deal. Within a year I had my second book deal.”
Carrie Tillotson is the author of children’s books including Alpacas Here, Alpacas There and Counting to Bananas. After getting a master’s degree in public health, Carrie worked as a biostatistician for more than ten years and now sculpts her interests in science into playful picture books. Carrie lives in Tigard, Oregon with her husband and son, two dogs, and two chickens.
