November 5, 2013
Dear Readers,
I’m so excited! I have a new book out and it was illustrated by my daughter, Laura (www.lauramaelove.com). I am so happy with it. It is a beautiful book thanks to Laura’s illustrations and her great imagination. (She created fabulous flower pixies!) The book is a poem that asks why some flowers close at night. In the back we also inclosed a short scientific section why some flowers close at night, and a short scientific section on why humans sleep (and why we need to sleep). Laura also wrote a beautiful original song (she is so talented) to go with the poem and we included the musical notation for the song in the back of the book.
Here’s the back cover description:
From dawn to dusk, journey with the flower pixies to discover a tender lullaby that introduces children to a variety of flowers and explains the reasons that some flowers close at night. Written by award-winning author Donna Love, it features musical notation and luscious illustrations by Laura Love. Whether you read it as a poem or sing it as a song, this lullaby is a bedtime poem sure to delight!
Laura and I independently published it together. It is available on Amazon.com. We did that (well, really I did that) so Laura could have her art out there sooner, and since she wants to be a children’s book illustrator, so she could use the book on her resume’. I also wanted to give independent publishing a try to find out what it is all about. I liked it OK and have other manuscripts that I will consider for independent publishing. I didn’t really learn how to do the uploading, etc. I hired Kelly Anderson Publishing for that. She is very good at her craft. However, I will also continue to find traditional publishers for some of my other manuscripts. I have so many completed that now it is time to get on that! My new adventure – try to find an agent, which I understand is almost as hard as finding a publisher!
Hope everyone had a great summer! I did with a trip to Washington and Oregon in June (the Oregon coast is beautiful), and then a trip all the way to Big Bend in Texas. Then this fall my husband and I traveled to Canada. So in this year, I’ve truly been to both the southern and northern border of the USA. Way cool!
Have a great holiday season and check out my new book! Girls are gonna love the flower pixies.
All my best,
Donna