Fake pearls dangle over my unclasped breasts, so realthey hang above my waist. From time to time,I clutch them. Mornings, I grasp for the feelingof being touched: thumb strumming my ribcage,fingertips smoothing my hairline. I can barely graspthe concept of time—light given off by a cold star.I feel naked without a watch. My father gambledhis […]

Original source: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2022/12/22/mother-of-pearl-ama-codjoe/

1. Art Nouveau—the phantasmagoric “new art” that emerged in the twilight of the nineteenth century and flourished during the dawn of the twentieth—quickly wrapped itself around the popular imagination with all the tenacity of the winding vines that became its predominant motif. Although it remains one of the oddest and most recognizable manifestations of the […]

Original source: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2022/12/22/whips-and-vines-art-nouveau-martin-filler/

“Threshold” is an old word for a simple thing: a horizontal floor strip, a doorsill, to mark the boundary of an entryway. Out of such simple things are the deepest metaphors made, often overdetermined or contradictory, imbued with preternatural power. A line of poetry, too, is a threshold, signaling its formality, tapping into uncanny origins: […]

Original source: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2022/12/22/the-transplanted-ironist-the-threshold-iman-mersal/

In a cramped, fluorescent-lit office in Tripoli up several flights of stairs, a middle-aged official and his staff labor on what is perhaps the most important work for future generations of Libyans. It’s a command center of sorts: flashing computer monitors on desks, cables everywhere, and satellite maps on the wall marked with great swirls and arrows. The […]

Original source: https://www.nybooks.com/online/2022/12/03/libyas-perfect-storm/

The cover for the Review’s holiday issue was hand-drawn and painted by the multimedia artist Marcel Dzama. As I wrote last year, our holiday covers tend to skew dark, favoring doom and gloom over comfort and joy. With the spirit of Krampus in mind, I thought of Marcel, whose work veers from cinematic to Edenic […]

Original source: https://www.nybooks.com/online/2022/12/03/my-winnipeg-marcel-dzama/

A Splash of Colour is a wonderful picture book introducing colours to children. What made you write a story about this topic? Did you pull anything from your life experiences?

For many years, I was a classroom teacher. I started writing in December of 2021.

My motivation in writing A Splash of Colour was the same as for all of my books.

Thus far, I’ve published two children’s picture books using a conventional format.

So, with a narrative structure and characters and with illustrations that reinforce and complement the written text.

I will write many more of these however thus far most of my picture books have had less a conventional narrative structure. They are much more an educational aid explicitly teaching maths and language concepts. These are aimed at early childhood albeit with the written text and the illustrations complementing and reinforcing each other and aimed to be read by children or to children.

There are many educational workbooks for younger children but these serve a completely different function to children’s picture books.

I feel passionately about the importance of having children arrive in a classroom setting for the first time, feeling confident and comfortable around words and numbers. Word and number intelligence are the bedrock of our educational system and its curriculum. Without feeling at ease in this environment, children start their formal schooling on the back foot.

And it’s so easy to make a difference in the life of a child. If as an adult you feel comfortable with words, then read and read and read some more to the children in your life. Some children will find the journey of learning to read harder than others. With support and strategies they will learn to read. For them to live in a

home environment where words and reading are a comfortable part of the atmosphere will be powerful. And I have never met a child who didn’t adore being read to.

What scene in the book did you have the most fun writing or illustrating?

I was gardening and the rhyming verses flew through my mind and the illustrations of colourful birds began to form. I enjoyed creating every page. I love the effect of water colour as a medium and I loved being able to have an entire book using watercolour elements to build up the illustrations. And I also so enjoyed writing in rhyme. If you can get the tempo right, then this style just flows from the mouth of the reader. It’s born to be read out loud and for young children, this is a very effective tool for learning.

What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?

I next published Numbers Come In Pairs and that’s up on my Amazon bookshelf. The explicit teaching focus of this book is that numbers can be written as words or as digits. Again, its written in a picture book style but without an explicit story narrative. There are characters however. Meet the ones, meet the twos, meet the threes and so on and we discover something that each of the pairs loves to do.

I’m almost ready to publish an educational workbook that fits hand in glove with the picture book. It’s tentative title is Numbers are Never Alone.

What were some goals you set for yourself as a writer in this book?

I next published Numbers Come In Pairs and that’s up on my Amazon bookshelf. The explicit teaching focus of this book is that numbers can be written as words or as digits. Again, its written in a picture book style but without an explicit story narrative. There are characters however. Meet the ones, meet the twos, meet the threes and so on and we discover something that each of the pairs loves to do. I’m almost ready to publish an educational workbook that fits hand in glove with the picture book. It’s tentative title is Numbers are Never Alone.

I have just begun a book for primary aged children. The focus is on feelings, naming them up, describing their physicality and their impact. Having a language to speak about feelings is a powerful means of building emotional literacy and a strong sense of self. Books aimed for earlier school aged children and very young children will follow

What were some goals you set for yourself as a writer in this book? First of all, for it to effectively help colour recognition in young children. And for it to be enjoyed a book that children will want to revisit again and again. And then for the book to be the best that it could be. I felt very positive building up the book in my mind before putting ideas on paper. I wanted it to be as good as I my imagination had it. And I was really proud of A Splash of Colour. While I feel comfortable with words and can create stories on the fly, I’m new to creating and publishing books and I feel they are getting better each time. It’s so important for us humans to feel proud of what we do and if we can enjoy what we do to earn a crust, how blessed is that!

A goal that I have and I’ve had some limited success with, is using tools to get my books under people’s radars. I struggle with this, I’d happily not have to do it. I have a Shopify store, an Amazon author page and a Facebook page and they will mature with age. I’m excited about blogging because I can add so much more of interest and that’s useful for others and to learn from them.
The issue is that all of it is a tiger in the bushes. In the last two years, I’ve discovered that I’m autistic. This has been a profound and very positive paradigm shift. The downside of such a late diagnosis (Ive just turned 54) is that, as for so many others with late diagnosis is that anxiety and depression are my housemates. This interview took three weeks to sit down and write to as the thought of it brings on anxiety. So, blogging and promotion are tigers in the bushes. But they are tigers that need to be tamed somewhat if my books are ever going to be found by readers and listeners.

Author Links: Website | Amazon

Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2022/12/03/read-and-read-and-read-some-more/

Everyone keeps secrets. And all kids keep secrets from their parents. But what if your secret were so big, so terrible, and so impossible, no one would believe you anyway?

Rieden Reece hides such a secret.

To an outside observer, Ri may seem somewhat average. A troubled kid from a broken home coping with his personal pile of problems. A snarky thirteen-year-old can only deal with so much.

The night the moon cracks changes him forever.

When the moon breaks, it starts a chain of events leading him on the greatest adventure of his life. By his side, a shadowy figure from another universe whom Ri calls the Shadow Man. Together they must fight the evil powers beyond Ri’s understanding. It forces him to muster up the strength, bravery, and grit he never knew he had.

And the countdown until complete collapse continues…

Will Ri be able to stitch the moon back together before his universe completely unravels? And can he reverse what is happening to his helpless mom…

Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2022/12/03/rieden-reece-and-the-broken-moon-book-trailer/

Dane Thorburn and Nature’s Revenge follows a courageous hero who needs to find out why Dragons are invading their land and why they are after the Princess. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?

[Matt Galanos]: It was based on a question I asked myself as a result of the ending of the previous book. In Dane Thorburn and the City of Lost Souls, Dane manages to rescue the Princess from an ancient, long-lost wizard prison that no one has ever escaped from in the history of the land (readers will know all the details, so I won’t say any more about it). The question I asked myself was, what would happen if the actual Ruling Elements of Nature themselves (Air, Earth, Fire and Water) – the underlying source of every living thing in the land, did not realise the Princess was innocent and should never have been imprisoned in the City of Lost Souls, and sent their own creatures after her after she was rescued.

The creatures in this book were very intriguing. How did you go about creating them for this book?

[Matt Galanos] I needed to have one creature from each of the Ruling Elements, and I wanted them to be big and scary. A dragon is terrifying enough and a creature everyone knows about, but with the others, I wanted them to have their own special characteristics that would make them unique to this story and difficult to kill. So, after giving it some thought, I created each one:

A dragon – from the Fire Element, with all the fire-breathing and terror that dragons are known for.

A giant kestrel – from the Air Element, much larger than an eagle or any other bird seen in the land before, so large ‘it blotted out the sun.’

A serpent – from the Earth Element, one that was able to blend with its surroundings and where its mouth could spring from its body like a harpoon firing and latch on to its prey.

A sarkoe – from the Water Element. This was my favourite of them all. A ‘sarkoe’ is actually a name taken from an ancient breed of crocodile. To make this one unique and more terrifying, I added the shape-shifting ability and the ability to be equally adept on land as it is in water.

What scene in the book did you have the most fun writing?

[Matt Galanos] I liked all the scenes with the sarkoe – it was such a gruesome and fearsome beast, and if I had to pick a favourite, it was the scene where Dane, Will, Lord Frederick and the rest of the Brindabeare Knights have to fight it.

What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?

[Matt Galanos] I’m working on the next instalment in the Dane Thorburn series, and it should be available in the first half of 2023.

Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website

Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2022/12/03/i-wanted-them-to-be-big-and-scary/

Marky the Magnificent Fairy follows a young fairy who is teased for looking different and teaches the other fairies about acceptance and compassion. What was the inspiration for your story?

Writing Marky has been a very emotional journey. The book has always been about a Fairy who could not fly because she had a small wing, but she could still do so many other things. However, it began to evolve into much more as I started talking to teachers, doctors, families, and others who work with and/or live with special needs children.

I am so blessed and fortunate to have partnered with Linda Radke and the Story Monsters team on this book. The entire team fell in love with Marky as I did. It has been a passion project for all of us.

What were some educational aspects that were important for you to include in this children’s book?

Marky the Magnificent Fairy is written with the intent of eliciting back and forth discussions with children at home or in the classroom. This book is about diversity, inclusion, bullying, disabilities, kindness, believing in yourself, self-love, confidence, acceptance, positivity, and compassion. No matter what age you are.

The art in this book is fantastic. What was the art collaboration process like with illustrator Jeff Yesh?

I always had a firm vision of Marky in my head, and I could not move on to any other illustrations until she was created. I knew once we captured the essence of Marky everything else would fall into place. During a phone call I gave Jeff the “backstory” of who Marky was and how she came to be. That was helpful to him in understanding her background and importance.

As a surprise Jeff added in the small yellow Japanese Caterpillar which you see throughout the story. I have since named that caterpillar “Tomo” which is short for Tomodachi which means friend in Japanese.

What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?

We are still busy rolling out Marky the Magnificent Fairy which is currently in Pre-Order. Tomo plushies are on the way and will be available for sale soon. We are currently updating my website to accommodate it all… However, there is a dystopian novel I started outlining a year ago, the question is, am I brave enough to conquer it?

Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website

Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2022/12/03/am-i-brave-enough-to-conquer-it/

Hollyland follows a woman with a passion for the arts and a Hollywood playboy who fall in love and change each other. What was one thing that excited you the most about writing this novel?

I wrote this novel during the pandemic to escape to someplace cheerful, hopeful, optimistic, and full of love. I wanted to remember that there’s always beauty and possibility. The characters in the book are searching for magic—or gold dust—in their lives. They find that magic in each other, in memories of their loved ones, and in the arts. I was excited to follow the trail of gold dust they left along the way.

Was there anything in Deanna and Ryder’s relationship that you pulled from your own life?

Yes. Deanna is an arts researcher. While she’s a fictious character, I did draw from my own experience. In addition to being a novelist, I’ve also been an academic researcher specializing in the arts for over two decades. Beyond that, I absolutely love the arts. My husband does as well, and we spend much of our leisure time at museums, movies, theater, and so forth. Deanna and Ryder also share that love of the arts. Some of the places they visit and specific nods to the arts come from my own life. For example, there’s a scene at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York that happens in front of a painting I’ve been lucky to see many times.

What scene in the book did you have the most fun writing?

There are two. The big restaurant scene, which takes place in LA and involves a bunch of celebrities, a director, and the head of a Hollywood film studio. That scene unfolds over two chapters and was a blast to write. My other favorite is when Deanna and Ryder exchange special gifts. I don’t want to give anything away, but the gift he gives her is my favorite moment in the book. I cried a mess of happy tears writing it.

What were some ideas that you wanted to explore in this book?

There can be love after grief. The real movie stars in our lives aren’t necessarily famous, but are those we hold most dear. Art matters. Always live and love with passion. Gold dust may be right around the corner.

Author Links: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Website

Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2022/12/03/there-can-be-love-after-grief/