Click Here To Purchase The Exciting Adventures of BOO, Ten tender Lessons

Today, Norm Goldman Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com is excited to have as our guest Manika Ward who is only fifteen years old and has already published her first children’s book, The Exciting Adventures of Boo.

Manika is a freshman in high school and is a very strong believer in learning. In addition to being an “A” student, Manika is very active in school sports including the volleyball team and cheerleading. Manika also likes to sing and for the past three years she has won Outstanding Performance Awards for both singing and acting in New York City’s National Performing Arts Festival.

Good day Manika and thanks for participating in our interview

Norm:

How did you get started in writing? What keeps you going?

Manika: 

Well, since my dad is an author as well, I have always been surrounded by books and authors.  Ever since I was three I would watch my dad write.  I would sit in his office with my coloring book and observe my dad write for hours!  I had inherited my dad's talent and love for writing!  I love to write! I always work hard on my writings though.  I would work every day on my book for two and a half years for two or more hours on week days and sometimes even up to eight hours on weekends! I would re-edit and re-draft over and over again. What keeps me going is just knowing that, after each draft of hours of hard work and editing, I am one step closer to the end product.  I am one step closer to finishing my book and bringing this value to others.

Norm:

Could you tell our readers something about The Exciting Adventures of Boo?

Manika: 

The Exciting Adventures of BOO is a 144-page children’s book.  This book has ten different stories, all about a dog named Boo.  Boo experiences life and all the challenges that come with it.  At the end of each story, Boo learns an important lesson.  These lessons are based on my own childhood experiences.  In fact, when first creating my book, I made a list of all the lessons I had learned throughout my childhood so far…there were over 200 lessons!  I then chose the ten most important lessons and created the ten different stories in The Exciting Adventures of BOO, targeted for the age group of children 2-12.

Norm:

Could you tell us something about your book’s illustrations and who created them?

 Manika: 

My book is full of colourful, brilliant illustrations.  When first presenting the idea and stories of Boo to the illustrator, William Garbacz, I already had a set image of Boo in mind.  William drew image after image of Boo.  However, none of them were Boo…none were the image in my mind.  Then, finally when he came to me with this Boo, it was perfect!  It was the one that fit the image in my mind.  It was brilliant; it fitted the image, character and personality of Boo perfectly!

Norm:

How did you decide you were ready to write your book? What was the timeline between the time you decided to write your book and publication? What were the major events along the way?

Manika: 

All my life I had always been a straight A student at school.  I worked very hard at school, but I noticed how all this hard work only benefited myself.  I wanted to find a way to put my hard work towards something that would not only benefit me, but also children and animals.  When I was twelve years old, I decided it was time to begin writing my book.  Since I was so young, it took three years of hard, long work.  There was a lot of editing, redrafting and rewriting.  The major events were the obstacles along the way.  The biggest obstacle was writing my book at such a young age and getting it as close to perfection as possible…up to the level of being published.  Finally, at age 15, my book was published.

Norm:

How did you celebrate your book’s completion?

Manika: 

As soon as we go the first copy of my book back from the printer’s, I re-read it over and over again.  It was such an amazing experience to hold my book in my hands for the first time and to be able to read it cover to cover!

Norm:

What has been the best part about being published?

Manika: 

The best part is the tremendous feedback I get from the children who have read my book!  Some of the things they tell me are how much they learned from Boo, how much my lessons have helped them, how amusing /entertaining the book is, how much they love the illustrations, their favorite parts of the book and how they love to read the adventures of Boo over and over again.  This feedback, knowing you are truly bringing a value to others, is the greatest reward any writer could ask for!

Norm:

What's the most difficult thing for you about being a writer?

Manika: 

The most difficult thing is putting in the hours of work.  The real time consumer in writing a book is editing!  For example, for the first draft of my book, it might take me a few minutes for a particular page.  However, when editing this same page, it might take me thirty minutes.  I would then edit this same page, in the first draft print-out, many times before moving on to the next draft and repeating this process for the same page.  All together, I had about twenty drafts with many editing-run-throughs per draft.  As you can see, doing this for 144 pages...it can be very time consuming.  Not only is it time consuming, but exhausting and requires hard-deep concentration work.  However, when a writer holds up a copy of their published, finished product for the first time knowing they will bring this value to others, all this hard work pays off.

Norm:

What made you decide to donate $15,000 from the sale of your books to the SPCA?

Manika:

 I love animals!  I have countless of pets.  I have dogs, birds, tortoises, rabbits, fish and a hamster.  When I visited the SPCA Animal Shelter, I was impressed by their no-kill policy, their promotion on the education of the care for animals, and the tremendous love they have for their animals.  I looked around, into those innocent eyes of those cats and dogs…I then realized what I had to do.  I had to help these animals…I had to help the SPCA.  There is no better way to spend money than to spend it saving lives.  I then decided that I would donate the first $15,000 of my book’s proceeds to the SPCA Animal Shelter.

Norm:

What do you want your book to do? Amuse? Provoke thinking?

Manika: 

With my book, I want to bring value to children.  I do this not only through the temporary amusement, excitement and  suspense the children get while reading my book, but also through the everlasting lessons the children learn with Boo…these lessons that will stay with them for the rest of their life.

Norm:

If you could invite a famous author or writer to dinner, who would that be and why?

Manika:

 Hmmm...I’d have to say my dad.  And I can!  Haha!  But seriously, I would.  I love my dad…he is my inspiration.  With his thirty years of professional writing experience, he is always there to support me and help me out whenever I have a question on editing.

Norm:

Have you decided what profession or occupation you would like to pursue? Actress, author, writer….?

Manika:

I definitely plan to continue writing.  However, I have not put my love for other areas of the arts aside!  I have a passion for music; I love to sing, which I definitely plan to continue.  I also enjoy acting, which I hope to be able to proceed in along with my writing and music.   I think the reason I love the arts is because it lets you be creative and it brings value and enjoyment to others.

Norm:

Where can our readers find out more about you and The Exciting Adventures of Boo?

Manika: 

Please go to www.boostories.com  Here they can find out more about my book and me, play free fun games, read a story from my book for free, email Boo with questions, enter to win a free book, download free dog food recipes, order the book and even watch free Boo cartoons!

Norm:

Are you working on any other books/projects that you would like to share with us? (We would love to hear all about them!)

Manika: 

I am starting to draft out a sequel to my Boo book which will deal with ten slightly more complex lessons and stories.  I hope that children who read The Exciting Adventures of BOO can grow with Boo and read the next ten stories!  I am also working another writing project…but you will have to wait for me to finish it to hear more about it!

 Norm:

Is there anything else you wish to add that we have not covered?

Manika:

 Also, be sure to check out the Boo cartoons! You can find these on www.boostories.com  or you can go directly to the Boo cartoon channel at www.youtube.com/BOOstories  We already have over fifty of these free, funny and fun Boo cartoon clips!

Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors.

Click Here To Purchase The Exciting Adventures of BOO, Ten tender Lessons