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As a boy in the 1st Grade, we had a creative writing assignment. I first wrote Marna then, but she didn't have a name yet. It was about a boy name Jay who discovers a magical girl with butterfly wings as they fly around together. By the time I finished reading my story to the class, half the girls had drawn pictures of the magic girl. I wish I saved those pictures.
As an adult, decades later, I was on a dive trip to Bonaire. It was the first time I used my Passport. I was with my wife and her parents. The resort had Monarch Butterflies flying about freely. This is where I got my new inspiration and started writing Marna right then and there. You can say, "Bonaire is the birthplace of Marna." Then I read it to my best friend's step daughter, she was 12 at the time. If you guessed already, she loved it. Then I self the book for a couple years.
Then one day my father-in-law, Jim Swanson, became ill all of a sudden. When we visited him at the hospital, we got the devastating news. He was dying of a very painful cancer. It was in his liver and bones. As we stayed by his bedside, I began writing the sequel to Marna, as a way to cope with the stress. Sadly, Jim died before I can even finish the first act. As I progressed the sequel, I read it piece by piece to my test reader. She loved the sequel's first act. Then tragedy struck as her mom became diagnosed with breast cancer. I felt I needed to finish my sequel no matter what.
My best friend is more like my brother, so in my heart I adopted his step daughter as my unofficial niece. This made me feel kin to the uncle who wrote "Alice in Wonderland" for his niece. If things turned for the worst, I hope my words might sooth her pain. I finish my book before the year ended, and finished reading it to her. She loved it so much she said, "This needs to be a movie!"
I realized, since I finished the sequel, I needed to copyright the first book. After copyrighting, less than two weeks later, I get a call from Dorrance Publishing. I saw it as a sign, this was meant to be. I signed the deal, and have been working hard to promote my book, so my stories can bring happiness to more kids like her, plus I want to finish the project before my niece grows up.
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