Meet Jesse Orenshein of Grandpa Herbie’s Stories in Beverlywood

 

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jesse Orenshein.

So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I’ve been writing screenplays since I was 13 years old, and for about seven years, that was my sole focus professionally. Somewhere in college, though, I was reading books to a group of kids at the synagogue where I Direct the Youth Program, and I thought, “Someone needs to create a new generation of great children’s book.” So I stepped up to the plate and started collaborating with Art students at my school. We published the first book before I graduated, and as I learned the ropes a little better, we started picking up the pace. I’m 22 now, and my company has five published books under our belt, but that number should hit at least ten before 2020. I still write screenplays and a whole slew of other things, but children’s books have become my life’s work, and nothing makes me feel more fulfilled than holding the first copy of a new book in my hands.

I’ve also been very passionate about exercise, and I started training for American Ninja Warrior when I was 14. I competed on the last two seasons, and I actually did pretty well. Now I’m a little bit of a celebrity in my neighborhood, I’ve spoken at multiple schools, and I can’t wait to do it again!

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It’s not easy starting a business at 19 years old. I was trying my best to act like a professional and ask all the right questions and take all the right precautions, but there are so many things that only come about through experience. Figuring out the contract situation was one of the most annoying obstacles. I used some online templates, fudged them a little to fit my purposes, and produced what I would later find out were some horribly unofficial, very dangerous contracts. Thankfully, my illustrators and I were too naive to feel the need to even sign the contracts in the first place, so I only had to fix two or three of them when I eventually got myself some contracts that would actually hold up in court. The other big issue was complying with the Amazon’s printing specifications. It’s a self-publishing platform, so we had to format everything properly on our end without having a publisher to speak with directly. We went through so many drafts in the beginning. I’d print a book, wait for it to arrive, open the package, and feel my heart sink when the illustrations still didn’t line up. Now I know how to prevent those issues pretty well, so it’s smoother sailing. There were a lot of other issues, of course, but those are the two that come to mind first.

With American Ninja Warrior, my biggest challenge was and continues to be consistency. I’ve only gotten to where I’ve gotten on ANW by never missing more than a day of exercise. In the last nine years, except for a few serious injuries, I have never gone two days without exercising. But it’s tough to keep myself motivated and working out as hard as I can.

We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
We’ve branded ourselves as “The next generation of great children’s books.” All of our books rhyme, teach a moral lesson and take our readers on a real adventure. So far, I’ve written everything in our catalog, but the goal is to sell lots of books from lots of writers, as long as they fit the profile of the company. I’ve been accused of trying to emulate Dr. Seuss, and I consider that accusation a great honor. He’s the best children’s author who’s ever lived, and while a trained eye would be able to see that my books are wildly different from is, I still consider it a great compliment. It’s just funny that people hear rhyme and automatically think “Dr. Seuss.”

The moment I’m most proud of happened one night when my cousins came over for dinner. My aunt told me that her 2-year-old son knows the last word of every rhyme in one of my books, so I read it to him and let him finish each line. He knew some complicated words for a 2-year-old, and I realized that I’m actually playing a hand in educating the children who read my books. I cried. I think we’re different from other companies because of the level of creative freedom we offer. We self-publish, which is awesome for me because I can write anything I want, and I let the illustrators do whatever they want, as long as it’s clear and the quality is stellar. Often times, I have to bite my tongue and just let my illustrators follow their own creative visions, and in the end, the product of true collaboration is always better than what I would get if I was more controlling.

My highlights on the ninja front are quite different. I was honored to bring glory to the Jewish community by doing a half-decent job running the course on my first season. It’s really not a skill people imagine Orthodox Jews having. Everywhere I go now, people tell me how awesome it was to see a little boy from the neighborhood, all grown up, killing it on the toughest obstacle course out there. And they were all thrilled when Matt and Akhbar (the announcers) said “He’s a Modern Orthodox Jew, keeps kosher, observes the Sabbath” for all to hear. But my proudest moments have been the times I’ve spoken to classrooms full of kids about my experience. I love motivating people and giving life advice to eager young minds. I’ve spoken at elementary schools, high schools, and even a post-high school program overseas. I really connect to those kids, and it brings me a lot of fulfillment.

What were you like growing up?
I was nuts. I was the kind of kid who would do something like come down the stairs one morning with a blindfold over my eyes to see what it’s like to live as a blind person. That morning, I shattered a cup while trying to blindly prepare my breakfast, so that experiment was short-lived. But there was always something new. Once, I created strange contraptions so I could open my door or turn off my lights without getting up from my bed. Basically, I could entertain myself endlessly in any room at any time. I had a new interest every other day, from sign language to throwing knives, to painting, to collecting rocks, to lighting things on fire in the alley, to longboarding, to gymnastics, and I would take each one very seriously. I’m blessed with supportive parents who signed me up for anything and everything I wanted to try. And when I said I wanted to be a writer, they said– Well, I don’t remember exactly, but it was something supportive.

Shockingly enough, ANW was a goal of mine long before writing was. When I was six years old, I set every record at my summer camp during the annual fitness competition. When I was ten years old, my parents got me a workout machine for my birthday – one of those 7-foot-tall, full-body calisthenics machines. It was my pride and joy. I got a gym membership at 13 and never left. I’ve tried my hand at every workout I could get my hands on: calisthenics, weights, boxing, swimming, running, yoga, rock climbing, parkour, and some very unprofessional martial arts (courtesy of YouTube). And it all paid off. I guess I’d just like people to take a lesson from all this, if they’re interested: Slow, consistent progress is the road to success. No shortcuts, no magical abilities.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.GrandpaHerbiesStories.com
• Email: GrandpaHerbiesStories@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_author_jesse/
• Other: (For American Ninja Warrior) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR1ZvO7wnhs&frags=pl%2Cwn

Image Credit:
Elliott Keegan (for the image of me holding the two books)

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