The Story Behind My Book Series

To my dear readers,

Thank you for taking the time to read my first blog posting! In my first blog, I want to share my story and what ignited my passion to write The Magic at Villa Verde.

I love books! Since I was little, I always walked around with a book. When my daughter was born, I was excited to share all of my favorite childhood stories with her. We embarked our journey and enjoyed works from Eric Carle, Beatrix Potter, and Dr. Seuss to name a few. I realized that I’ve always wanted to write a book, but I couldn’t think of what to write about.

It wasn’t until my grandmother’s passing in 2017 that I finally got a spark of inspiration. After my grandmother’s funeral, I kept thinking of elephants. I couldn’t stop thinking of them!  Suddenly, the character Essie the Elephant was born in my imagination, named after my grandmother Esmat. Esmat, also known as Essie, is my inspiration and muse. Once I finally had my character, the words just flowed. I’ve always loved stories that rhyme. They are so fun to read and I wanted to create that same style for my story. I also noticed that I love stories like the ones written by Peter Reynolds because the messages are so powerful.

If you had the pleasure of meeting my grandmother, you know that she was probably one of the most loving, but brutally honest women you have ever met. My grandmother would always say to me, “You are so beautiful, you just have to fix your nose.” It seems interesting that the character I thought of for my grandmother was an elephant – an animal with one of the longest and largest noses! In this story, my goal is to teach youth the lesson of self-love; to love yourself no matter what. After Essie the elephant was born, I started to think about all of the powerful people in my life that have taught me profound life lessons. One by one, each different character in The Magic at Villa Verde was born.

Once all of the characters were created, I had to figure out what I was going to do for the artwork. My daughter loves watercolors, so I wanted to pick an artist with a passion for water coloring. As luck would have it, my husband worked with a woman named Gale Kenison who loved drawing, painting, and using water colors. I shared my stories with Gale, and I was so grateful that she was excited to embark on this journey with me.

And this journey will continue. To date, The Magic at Villa Verde series is comprised of the following books: The Magic at Villa Verde: The Adventure Begins and The Magic at Villa Verde: The Path to Awakening. The next book, The Magic at Villa Verde: The Path to Strength, will be released later this year.

It is my hope to bring lifelong lessons to youth at an earlier age. Now more than ever, our planet needs young leaders awake and ready to light the way with love.

To stay current with my latest developments, you can follow me at Instagram or Facebook

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Maryam Nemazie