David Cabezas was looking at his fish tank one day and started imagining what the decorative fisherman who sat on top might catch.
That led to the idea for his first book, for young readers entitled, “Why the Fisherman Fished,” that is illustrated by Natia Gogiashvili.
Cabezas, 33, lives in the Regatta Pointe community in Miami Lakes.
He enjoys dining at Gaucho’s Gourmet Market in town, for the empanadas, and takes his dogs to a park.
He writes under the pen name D.T. Rossi and self-published the book in July.
It has earned acclaim, winning a Literary Titan Gold Book Award on Oct. 7, for being a book with unique characters and content.
It was also a finalist for the American Writing Awards in the children’s picture book category.
“I kind of started thinking about [why the fisherman] was in there and started paralleling them to my life experiences,” Cabezas said.
The story is told through the eyes of a young boy who studies a fisherman’s activities.
While the boy imagines all the fantastic fish that have been caught, he finds out that though the fisherman returns to land with empty nets, he has a wealth of stories of his adventures at sea.
“Then I realized it comes back to that general platitude of enjoy the moment, and the experiences that shape you during this journey instead of trying to rush to an end goal,” Cabezas said.
He relates to that feeling as far as his career in advertising, but also to where he is in life.
“I just…[am] taking a step to appreciate everything. Take a moment to soak it in, enjoy the people and those moments that ultimately shape you to who you are at the end of the destination,” Cabezas said.
He said it’s important to get in touch with that idea early on.
“Kids can get frustrated, [saying] “I want to be a pro athlete” and [then realize] it’s a lot of work,” Cabezas said.
He used fishing to convey the message, but it was also an easy concept for children in elementary school to understand and for adults to present to them.
He has completed a second children’s book that is being edited but did not yet want to share the title.
“My whole ethos is to teach valuable life lessons to kids, using our relationship with nature,” Cabezas said.
He attended Texas State University and the Miami Ad School.
Cabezas works as a free-lance copywriter in advertising so that he can continue to work on his books.
“Why the Fisherman Fished” is available on Amazon at https://amzn.to/3NnySck.