Product Details
- Paperback: 30 pages
- Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; Lrg edition (December 8, 2012)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1481136526
- ISBN-13: 978-1481136525
Have you ever had a dragon in your house? How about a dozen? Bean is a little girl with an imagination that is creating quite a mess. Although Bean loves each of her dragons, she forgets how untidy they can be when having so much fun. When Bean's parents discover what's happened in their short absence, Bean finds herself the blame of the dragons' giant mess.
You can find more about Bean’s Dragons at: http://www.insidemikeysworld.com/beans-dragons/
Product Details:
- Paperback: 38 pages
- Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (December 28, 2012)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1481814486
- ISBN-13: 978-1481814485
Book Description:
This is the first installment in a series of ABC adventures featuring Professor Vontriponmybottom, a heroic explorer determined to share with children the alphabet through exciting and fantastical means. In Magical Creatures you will find all sorts of enchanting beings such as: B is for Bigfoot, M is for Mermaid, and O is for Ogre. The professor shares fun facts about each creature he encounters and never shies away from getting a picture with them. This book is sure to educate and entertain young readers and their parents.
You can find more about ABC Adventures: Magical Creatures at: http://www.insidemikeysworld.com/abc-adventures-magical-creatures/
I asked Mikey to do a guest post on his story about how he wrote his books. I hope you enjoy reading about his writing adventures.
Finding the Aha Moment, by Mikey Brooks
Aha moments can come
from just about anywhere; from dreams, to a scene that should have been
in a movie but wasn’t, even over hearing someone’s conversation at the
grocery store. But for me, the greatest aha moments come from my
children. Aha moments are when a writer stumbles upon an idea that is
the backbone of a story. And if you write books for children, being
around kids can create a lot of aha moments.
An example of just
how little these moments can be is this: my daughter is three years old
and loves just about anything to do with princesses and magic. One day
she told me she wanted to read “Princess and the Frog” except that isn’t
what I heard when she said it. I heard “Princess and the Hog” which got
me thinking about a picture book about a very messy princess and a very
clean hog. It was an unexpected aha moment.
Sometimes these
sparks of a story can be like a whisper and other times like the boom of
a marching band. When I had the aha moment for my ABC Adventure series I
really had parades of animals with drums marching through my head.
Again this aha came from my daughter. We were at the library and we were
trying to find a picture book to borrow. She told me she wanted an ABC
book about dragons. I did a search on the computer but yielded no
results. She then asked me why there wasn’t a book like that. I
responded, “Because I haven’t written it yet.” Trigger: the AHA moment!
By the time I left the library with her stack of books in tow, I had
three ABC books in my head that I wanted to write. Currently I’ve
planned for seven. Ranging from King Arthur to Halloween, even one on
Cooking with Kids, a collaboration with my wife who operates the
fantastic recipe blog: www.ourcreativekitchen.blogspot.com.
The
hard part about ABC books is coming up with something for each letter.
And for me it has to still be a story. It can’t just be a list of
alphabet characters—that to me is boring, and chances are if I am bored
just thinking about it, then kids will be bored reading it. I wanted
something that would connect all the books together to make them more of
a series and not just a bunch of different ABC books. This is when I
came up with Professor Vontriponmybottom. Yes, I know, his name is
outrageous. But it’s funny, and kids like anything that mentions bums. I
drew out a sketch of him and didn’t like it at all. I left it on my art
table and didn’t look at it again for a few days. My wife discovered
him and fell in love with him. Taking a break is sometimes the best
thing any writer or artist can do to benefit their creativity. Now the
professor is a mix of India Jones and Amelia Bedelia.
ABC
Adventures: Magical Creatures is the first installment in the ABC
Adventure series that features Professor Vontriponmybottom, a heroic
explorer determined to share with children the alphabet through exciting
and fantastical means. In Magical Creatures you will find all sorts of
enchanting beings such as: B is for Bigfoot, M is for Mermaid, and O is
for Ogre. The professor shares fun facts about each creature he
encounters and never shies away from getting a picture with them. This
book is sure to educate and entertain young readers and their parents.
My fondest wish is that every child finds it as fun and magical as my
daughter dreamed it would be that day in the library.
So watch out for those aha moments. They can be found anywhere.
Now enter to win one of Mikey's books; either a copy of Bean's Dragons of ABC Adventures. Open to USA Residents only.Enter with the Rafflecopter form and Good Luck! You have two weeks to enter. Contest closes on January 30th, 2013.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
About Mikey:
Mikey is an author/illustrator with a BS degree
in Creative Writing from Utah State University. Illustration has always
been a love of Mikey’s. His art has been seen in many forms from picture
books to murals for community art productions. He creates full-room
murals and loves to doodle on almost anything. He also manages a bakery
where he also is a cake artist and decorator. He author/illustrated
Bean’s Dragons, ABC Adventures: Magical Creatures, and Trouble with
Bernie. He also illustrated Bongo Flo and Ocelot Scott, both by Carolyn
Quist, and Lucius and the Christmas Star, by Jim Long. He’s had poetry
and personal essays published in university sponsored literary magazines
2007-2009, and was awarded 3rd place for his personal essay, Waiting
for the Morning Sun to Rise, in the Utah Arts 23rd Annual Writing
Competition, 2011. He has a wonderful wife and two amazing daughters.You can find more about Mikey Brooks and his works at: www.insidemikeysworld.com.
Or on his blog at: www.writtenbymikey.blogspot.com.
You can find Mikey on Good Reads at: http://www.goodreads.com/InSideMikeysWorld
On Twitter: @writtenbymikey
On Pinterest at: http://pinterest.com/writtenbymikey/ and on Facebook: as Mikey Brooks, or email him at: insidemikeysworld(at)gmail.com.
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