By Lea Altea Winnen December 3, 2024
I am four books into this new adventure engaging in something
I have always wanted to do, writing and illustrating children’s books. As a preschool teacher, I would read various
children’s books to the children in my classroom. I would get engrossed in the tails
and the illustrations from some books I read.
I remember taking a class at the Learning Exchange in Sacramento on how
to get into the kidlit market and write a children's book in 2010. After that experience, I began to play around
with different storylines and ideas for characters. My first story was called Cowduck, I still
love that story! I am working on a
rewrite and hope to develop it soon. Then I wrote Boogie In The Barn and did my
first storyboard, and illustrations in 2012.
It was a lot of fun to come up with ideas, and how to match the pictures
to the words. It was the first book I
self-published this year on Amazon.
Writing a children’s book is like a marriage of two passions,
I am a songwriter and an artist, so writing and putting the books together has
been very satisfying. I feel like when I write a children's story it has a melody
all its own. It comes out as the reader reads it aloud, like when you write a
song. You can hear the voices of the characters;
like you can hear the guitar, bass, and drums.
All you need to do is put what you hear down onto paper to give rise to
the melody, and the story they want to song.
Moonbeam Catches A Star came out just this way one day in a total
of about 20 minutes. Some stories are a
piece of cake to write, others are like standing in the pouring rain with a
broken umbrella. Moonbeam was a character, I could hear like a song inside my
head wanting to take shape. After
finishing the words, I put the storyboard together. It took about 2 months to do
the illustrations. I just loved working on this character. He came out as naïve but capable. He needs to experience and learn just like we
all do. How we approach a task and how
we move through adversity. This gives us
a chance to let our humanity and curiosity shine. The joy, courage, and
interest to move on our way with our child-like wonders. To me, that is how I
see Moonbeam. He moves forward in his
child-like way to build friends in all kinds of ways.
This is one of the reasons I have decided to put Moonbeam into a series of stories. His lovable, simple curious character opens a world of fun, unique adventures, where he makes friends and learns about the world. Children get to come along for the ride, learning new ideas, and seeing his world through his curious nature. I plan on making a set of 12 books total in the next 2 years. I want to keep the pictures drawn by hand and keep the simple rhythm of the story true to his nature. Letting the character's voice rise and fall like verses and chorus of a song.
The First book Moonbeam Catches A Star came out in August. I
just released the 2nd book, Moonbeam and the Perfect Christmas Tree,
and I am planning the third in the series as I write this article. It feels like I am working on an album and
each book is a song in the collection. Each
will have its own theme and feel, but maintain Moonbeam’s character and story rhythm. I cannot wait to see what other songs he will
want to sing to invite you and children of all ages into his world.
You can find Moonbeam Catches A Star and Moonbeam and the
Perfect Christmas Tree on Amazon Now. I
have included the links below. Check them
out and see if maybe Moonbeam has the right song for you.
Click on the title and it will take you to the Amazon page:
Thank you and stay tuned for more Moonbeam books to come!
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