You come to dinner, you're taken by surprise. It's your birthday and the family has done something special for you. They made you a nice dinner and a homemade cake. Sure smells good. You taste the meatloaf, mmm...mmm... delicious. Then you take another mouthful. As you are chewing you realize there is an unfamiliar texture and taste. You take it out of your mouth to see that it is a—Raisin??
It all started when Daddy got Lily a special surprise. Everyone loves surprises, right? So when Lily makes her father a surprise birthday supper it turns out to be more of a surprise then what she had expected.
Plump, juicy, sweet raisins are usually in cookies, muffins and tarts but in meatloaf?
How are Daddy's and Lily's surprises connected? You will have to read my book to find out. I think you will be—surprised.
I love writing Children's books. The world of imagination that children so happily play and live in, is the envy of many adults. I remember going to a fair with rides and my husband saying, we can't go on those! We would look ridiculous going on the ride without a child with us. Or, how about wanting to go see an animated kids movie, like Puss n' Boots. Who can resist that cat with his big beautiful eyes that makes you melt. But again, without a child tagging along, do you enter the theatre? If you don't have children of your own yet, it is always appreciated by the parents that do, if you offer to take your little niece or nephew off their hands for a couple of hours. This works out good for everybody.
When I write a children's book I try to see things through the mind of the child. At times I almost see things in animation. For example, the raisins that are in the meatloaf, which I can still not tell you how they got there, I felt a child might imagine them coming to life. Hence the drawing on the back cover. I was sitting imaging the father slicing the meatloaf and a single raisin jumps out and starts running across the table to get away. He does not want to be eaten. He's running as fast as his little raisin legs can run. He looks back to see if anyone has spotted him yet. They have! The panic sets in! He continues to run but there is a spoon in his path. He leaps over the spoon and is getting close to the edge of the table. He see the family dog below. The little raisin puts out both hands as to say "No...no back away". He finally reaches the edge of the table, jumps off and runs away to safety.
This is not what actually takes place in my book but it is what came to mind as I was working on the cover design. Hence the picture below. I am not an artist, I could only wish to have such talent. But my illustrator, Christina Schofield, is amazing. She takes my thoughts and ideas and makes them into a beautiful reality. I can't wait until the end of June to be able to share this wonderful story with you. "Why Is There A Raisin In My Meatloaf?". For fun, below is the raisin film strip as drawn by Christina.
I see I have readers from Canada, Russia, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. If you are interested in my "Enjoy it and pass it along idea" from my previous blog, email me at Author@Tori-Books.com . I am only sharing a total of 10 books. Remember there is no cost, you just have to promise to enjoy the story with your children for a while and then pass the book onto someone else and so on and so on. Soon I will have my Website up and I hope you will follow along.
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