Children’s book series launches based on tumult caused by Hurricane Ian
Plaskon’s ‘Bella and Bird The Emotion Explorers’ was released in August
Pine Islander and equine psychotherapist Deana Plaskon said she and her husband, David, moved to Pine Island in April 2022. While she already had a Ph.D. in education, she wanted to go back to school to earn a second master’s degree.
“I always had a calling to do psychotherapy, but I kept pushing it away. Eight years ago I realized that was what I was meant to do, so we moved to Pine Island and I’m interning and volunteering and learning all about equine psychotherapy with the horses,” Plaskon said.
She had no desire to do simple talk-therapy, she said. After realizing equine psychotherapy was an option in her field, she began researching the best horse for the job, emphasizing her love for horses. As it turned out, the best horse is called a Gypsy Vanner.
“They’re very rare in the U.S. The first Gypsy Vanner was shipped over and was actually in Florida in 1996 … I said, that’s the horse I need because they are very docile, very sweet — they have great personalities for adults and children, just all kinds of people,” Plaskon said.
She found and adopted her horse, Bella, three years ago on Sept. 3, 2022. She had been on a Gypsy Vanner farm, where she was a broodmare. Bella was the mother of five babies, Plaskon said, explaining that Bella had lost the last one at the time she adopted her.
“I found someone to transport her and she got to the island about a week before the hurricane. She wasn’t supposed to be there because she was supposed to be trailered the week after, since I was actually in New Jersey doing my very first triathlon,” Plaskon said.
Just after Bella’s arrival to Pine Island, Hurricane Ian caused an order to evacuate, leaving Plaskon with the task of trying to find a flight back quickly.
“We know that Bella and the other horses were in about 4 or 4 1/2 feet of water. She was off of Stringfellow Road on Pine Island,” Plaskon said.
She and her husband ended up flying into Miami and driving back to Pine Island, where the road was out. The couple hired a young man to boat them over to their house.
“We had to break into the garage because we didn’t have any power,” Plaskon said.
According to Plaskon, Pine Islanders came through in a most amazing way, as there was no water and horses require roughly 15 gallons of fresh water every day.
“People transported food and water round the clock and really took care of the horses and the other livestock on the island,” Plaskon said.
Watching Bella try to process everything going on in the aftermath of the storm was difficult, she said, as she had only had her for a week at this point.
Plaskon admits it was even difficult for her to process her own feelings regarding the hurricane. When she received advice from a friend to write a book about the experience, she decided to take that piece of advice and that was when she decided to begin writing the first book in series, “Bella and Bird the Emotion Explorers.”
“A few weeks after the hurricane I started writing. I didn’t know anything about children’s books. I’m an equine psychotherapist and an educator,” Plaskon said.
Her journey led her into the hands of a very helpful editor, who encouraged her to draw out each of the emotions likely brought on by a cataclysmic event such as a hurricane and Plaskon followed the given directions. She said she realized she wanted to start out with anger, because that seemed to be the primary emotion.
“So, I had Bella, who acts as the therapist in the story, but I needed a wise-cracking side-kick. Bella has a friend that is constantly in her stall, making nests with her long hair,” Plaskon said.
She explained that she had already named him Bird, so assigning him the job as the wise-cracking side-kick in her books came fairly easily. It was also important to her that she enable humor to come to life in the series, which was no easy task, considering the heavy subject matter of emotional intelligence, she said.
“I pitched it to my editor and she loved it. We came up with ‘Bella and Bird the Emotion Explorers.’ That’s how the series was born,” Plaskon said.
After three years she was able to get the book printed, and launched on Aug. 19, although all four books in the series are already written. After 3 years, she said, her hope is to bring something as catastrophic as Hurricane Ian to shine a light on a better understanding of emotional intelligence.
“Emotional intelligence focuses on you as a person and understanding your emotions and feelings, but also the emotions and feelings of others. My series and my goal is to bring emotional intelligence awareness, because it’s not just about ourselves,” Plaskon said.
Her books, she said, are a tool, where she walks parents and kids into conversation and gives them tools to understand and manage each emotion. Her second book in the series goes to print this coming week. Her big hope for this series, she said, is that it would find its way into the hands of every child and adult, not just across the country, but globally.
“Hurricane Ian changed everything. I want people to know that we don’t have to stay stuck in these trials,” Plaskon said.
To reach PAULETTE LeBLANC / pleblanc@breezenewspapers.com, please email