Interview Friday: Dennis Marcoux - Children's Picture Book Author

Dennis Marcoux lived in Worcester, Massachusetts for most of his life and now resides in Cape Coral, Florida. He has been writing children stories and poems for many years and is passionate about children reading to expand their imagination. In his spare time, you can find him reading books as a volunteer in elementary schools and children's hospitals. He is a member of the Gulf Coast Writers Association of Fort Myers, Florida

VS: What do you do to help balance your writing life with your family life?

Dennis: I do not have a typical routine. I write whenever ideas and thoughts enter my mind. My imagination is like a jig saw puzzle. Sometimes the pieces do not always fall into place easily.

It has been a humbling experience, especially when children and parents express to me how much they enjoyed my book.

VS: What inspired you to write your book?

Dennis: I was inspired by my Granddaughter Molly's imagination. We often walked together in the woods and the animals there fascinated her...namely the squirrels

VS: Can you share with us a little about your current book?

Dennis: Nutty and his sister Twittles set out to play a fun game of hide "n" seek with their friends. When Twittles is the only one missing, the game quickly changes. Nutty has to find his sister because she may be lost in the dark and dangerous Forrest.

VS: What did you find to be the most challenging part of writing your book?

Dennis: The publishing process. I sent my manuscript to Halo Publishing Int., and received a response from Lisa Umina the CEO. I had no idea what getting a book published entailed and really learned a lot about the process. Lisa guided me through each step of the process beginning with editing, finding an illustrator, marketing and the final print. Lisa went above and beyond my expectations and made the challenges of getting a book published a good experience.

VS: Do you have any other works in progress? Can you share a little about them?

Dennis: I'm currently working on a series of books with Nutty and Twittles that will include a teaching element, as well as open up their imagination and develop their creativity.

VS: What do you feel as parents we need to do to help our children see success?

Dennis: Reading is important because it ultimately leads to greater creativity. I compare my philosophy on reading like playing dominos. Reading leads to imagination, which leads to ideas, and ideas lead to creativity. You can't get to the last domino until you start the first one.

VS: Where can the readers of The Writing Mama find out more about and your writing?

Dennis: Places where available for sale: Halo Publishing International, Amazon and Barnes & Noble

e-Book Available Nook & Kindle

Follow Dennis Marcoux at Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dennis-Marcoux/286869338186554

Interview Friday with Author Maggie Lyons

Maggie Lyons was born in Wales and brought up in England before gravitating west to Virginia’s coast. She zigzagged her way through a motley variety of careers from orchestral management to law-firm media relations to academic editing. Writing and editing nonfiction for adults brought plenty of satisfaction but nothing like the magic she discovered in writing fiction and nonfiction for children. Several of her articles, poetry, and a chapter book have been published in the children’s magazines Stories for Children Magazine and knowonder! VS: I want to thank you for being my guest here on The Writing Mama today, Maggie. To get things started can you share what you do to help balance your writing life with your family life? Maggie: Very fortunately for me, I’m retired and my son left the nest some time ago. That doesn’t mean I have no other commitments, of course. In fact, I’m very busy as a freelance editor, but I do have the privilege of being able to control m...

American Chronicle | Get to know Rodger Dodger Dog and His Author, Jan Britland

In 1986, Jan was driving her children in a new town to start school. On their way, they would pass a beagle type dog chained to a huge Magnolia tree. Some days they would see the chain hanging down from the tree. "I think we just assumed the dog was in the house until one day we realized he was up in the tree. From that day on, Rodger Dodger Dog as we called him became a favorite. It was a 45-minute drive, which can become boring so as we passed him, I would start telling a story about Rodger Dodger's adventures up the tree and beyond. Because I am so dyslexic, the stories had to rhyme so I could remember them from day to day. They also started the same to get me going," shared Britland. However, it wasn´t until 2008 when Britland received a phone call from her daughter Kelly, who had young children of her own that the Rodger Dodger Dog started to even think about becoming a children´s book or series for that matter. "My daughter was complaining her son ...

Interview Friday: Author Sands Hetherington

Sands Hetherington credits his son John for being his principal motivator. Sands raised his son as a single parent from the time John was six. He read to him every night during those formative years. He and young John developed the Crosley crocodile character in the series during months of bedtime story give-and-take. Sands majored in history at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and has an M.F.A. in creative writing and an M.A. in English from UNC-Greensboro. He lives in Greensboro. VS: I want to thank you for being my guest here on The Writing Mama today. To get things started, Sands, what do you do to help balance your writing life with your family life? Sands: Hi Mama and thanks for having me over. Actually, my family life was part of my writing life. I was a single (male) parent of a six-year-old son. We always did bedtime stories. One night John invented a red crocodile named Crosley for an after-lights-out companion. This evolved directly into...

VS Grenier ~ Award-Winning Author, Speaker & Podcaster

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