Santa Book Spreads Message of Sharing
Twenty- three years ago I published a little book for my daughter Alex which started out as a poem. Like many toddlers she asked lots of questions. It was during the Christmas holiday season and she was inquisitive as to who exactly was Santa, how could he be in so many places at once, and the logistics behind the exchanging of gifts? At the time, we were participating in a program in our county that matched up individuals with families needing gifts.
The poem called out to me to be accompanied by illustrations. One Saturday while my husband Peter took Alex and our older two sons skiing for the day, I worked on some sketches which I developed into drawings with colored markers. That first year I sent the book around to various publishers of children’s books and received a stack of rejections. The second year I asked my husband to help me self-publish it with the idea of giving any profits to the County’s holiday sharing program. It was spiral bound, but serviceable, as this was before the days of self-publishing on Lulu and Amazon. Maybe it didn’t look like a “professionally published” book but people liked the story. We sold the book at some local toy stores and at our church and life moved on. The kids got older and I took on new projects.
Last year, Alex’s son got a scary diagnosis, a rare type of children’s lung cancer. He had two surgeries and I felt very helpless. Joining with others in focusing on the positive, sending wishes of hope, prayers and support, I wondered what else could I do and I thought of the little Santa book. Maybe I could re-publish it in a more professional way and donate any profits to the researchers who were focusing on solving the mystery and finding a cure for this very rare children’s cancer (pleuropulmonary blastoma/Dicer 1).
Lucky for me I knew someone who could help me with the lay-out, artist /writer Margaret Rose Caro who donated her time and expertise to create a lovely children’s picture book. The book is now live and available for purchase on the Amazon website. Thank you to writers Jane Elkin, Alan Bern, and Dylan Roche who gave feedback on advance copies.
The other good news is that my grandson is doing great and his last two scans have been clear. Our family is convinced that everyone’s positive support has helped. We are very grateful.
Vigilance continues and research is important. Please, if you can, spread the word about the book. Buy a copy or two to give as gifts and tell your friends.
Thank you. Next month I’m excited to share that my first chapbook of poetry and essays, Recipes from My Garden are being published by Old Scratch Press. Follow me for FREE on WordPress and Substack and if you are a member of Medium, follow me there as well and sign up to receive an email each time I publish a new blog and continue to share new recipes and writing prompts.
Published by Nadja Maril
Nadja Maril’s prose and poetry has been published in literary magazines that include Change Seven, Lunch Ticket, Thin Air, and The Compressed Journal of Creative Arts. Her first chapbook containing a selection of poems and short essays , Recipes from My Garden, published by Old Scratch Press will be available for purchase in September. Author of two children’s books illustrated with paintings by her father Herman Maril and two reference books on antique American Lighting, she is currently completing a novel and working on another poetry collection. A former journalist and magazine editor, Nadja has an MFA in Creative Writing from the Stonecoast Program at the University of Southern Maine and is a Contributing Editor to Old Scratch Press. To read more of her work and follow her weekly blog posts, visit Nadjamaril.com https://nadjamaril.com/ View more posts
Originally published at http://nadjamaril.com on August 19, 2024.