Why I write.

I would like to start the new year off right by writing! Since my children's books were published last year I have been on an amazing adventure. One that I started to believe I may never have had. Now with my minor success I am more determined than ever to make a bigger splash in the world of children's books.

Over the past several months my book, The Deep Black Pond, has been reviewed and blogged about by numerous people. Some good and some not so good, and I realized that the one voice missing out there  was my own. I would therefore like to remedy that by explaining why I am writing children's books and offer a philosophy behind my individual style.

When I was a kid, many moons ago, I use to love books but I hated to read. Now I realize that that is a strange thing to say but it was the truth. I was considered to have a learning disability because I disliked reading so much that I just would not do it. Now my brother was an avid reader and being the younger brother I always seemed to be in toe. So, on Saturday afternoons I would find myself being taken to the Reading Public Library because that is where my brother wanted to go and my parents thought that it would help me with my reading. During these visits I discovered that many books, beside being filled with words, had pictures in them; weird, wonderful, and colorful pictures! These pictures and photographs fed my vivid imagination and allowed me to wonder far from my seemingly dull life and dream wild and wonderful dreams for my future. Visiting places I would love to go and exploring the possibilities of what I wanted to do with my life. In fact Leonardo DA Vinci became one of my most powerful and influential childhood hero's because of the art book section I discovered in the library! Being able to hold these books and examining them in every way became an important pastime, and low and behold when I found a picture that fascinated me enough too want to know more about it I would find myself reading! Well in a nut shell that is the influence I have used when designing my children's books.

The photo illustrations I create to accompany my stories do not, in themselves, tell the story. Instead they support the story and inspire a child too want to know more about what is going on in the pictures. Thus, giving them the desire and opportunity too want to read the story, and in some cases create their own stories to accompany the photographs. So my goal in all of this is to produce books that will fascinate and fuel kids imaginations no matter what their age.

I value peoples feed back and opinions so I encourage you to contact me and share your thoughts and feelings about this blog.

Happy New Year!
Morgan