My friend John Bray is here to tell you a bit (or a lot, he’s a talker— but not one of those annoying can’t shut up types, more like, witty, sharp, interesting kind of talker) about his amazing new kickstarter project. I hope you all read on and help him in supporting and aiding to create his dream…. and sprinkles. 

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A Children’s Book…Without a Moral!

You probably came here to read about Drea. Or maybe to hear a cute bit about Marlowe or to see her infectious smile. Maybe you stopped by in hopes of seeing something incredibly delicious atop a slice or three of delicately toasted bread. Whatever it was that brought you here, it probably wasn’t me or my thoughts or even the project/dream/book I’m going to tell you about. Either way, you’re here and you’re reading, so I’ll consider it a win-win. A win for me because the talented Drea let me guest post on her blog (which is awesome!) and a win for you, I hope, because I’m pretty excited about this book and I hope you will be too. 
So what’s this project? This dream? It’s…

It’s a picture book that started (in slow growing seed form, mind you) four years ago. But it really started long before that. I wanted to write a children’s book for a long time. A really long time. And I wanted to write one without a moral. 
GASP 
Yes, you read that correctly. I wanted to write a story without some hidden (or even not-so-hidden) moral or message or agenda. I think kids have plenty of time to learn about morals and I also think it’s okay for a book to be an escape. I mention this lack of moral because that was a major motivation for me when writing the story. When looking for books for my son, those without a lesson always seemed a lot harder to come by and I wanted to help fill that gap. But that doesn’t mean it’s immoral. Not even close. It’s just more about imagination and fun than it is about eating vegetable or being nice to siblings.

Anyway, sometimes I’d start writing, but I’d always stop short (usually very short) because things kept coming up. Life things that just come up when you have a family and, well, a life. Other times I’d try to illustrate my own words only to find myself sitting ashamed in the corner after facing my inability to draw even the most geometric of shapes. Then my son asked me a question that inspired this story about a little girl named Maggie and a tree full of sprinkles.

In the months following his question, I mapped out the story and convinced my friend Christian (a talented graphic designer who was also probably ashamed of my drawings) to create the illustrations. So we fit it in whenever we could for a few years until earlier this year when we finally sat down to get ourselves in gear (a reciprocal kick in the ass, if you will). Now, after months of planning, writing, rewriting, illustrating, re-illustrating, and colossally clashing creatively (just once, though), the book is complete!

So what’s it about? Well, Maggie and the Sprinkle Tree is about an adventurous little girl named Maggie.


She’s a fun-loving kid (what kids aren’t, really?) who’s always up to something. But this time around, she finds herself faced with more sprinkles than anyone could ever need. I know we’re probably biased, but we think it’s an all around fun, imaginative read for almost all ages (4+ is how we’d list it). You can read a bit more about it (and even see our faces in a video!) over on Kickstarter. And you know, while you’re at it, if you happen to find the story as fun as we do, you can help bring this book to print! That’s right. You!
 

If you’re not familiar with Kickstarter, I’ll bring you up to speed in one (kind of long and possibly run-on) sentence: Kickstarter is a website that hosts crowd-sourcing campaigns, which are campaigns in which entrepreneurs, authors, artists, and basically anyone with a creative idea and/or dream asks the world (that’s you) to help make that dream possible, usually in exchange for something. In this case, that dream is publishing a children’s book and that something is a copy of the book (among other things).

But here’s the catch (yeah, you saw this one coming): Kickstarter funding is all or nothing, which means if we don’t meet or exceed our goal, we don’t get anything at all. As in nothing. As in the book never happens. 

So…maybe you like sprinkles? Maybe your name is Maggie? Maybe you love books or have kids or have another reason to find this project amazing? Well, head over to Kickstarter and get yourself a book or two (of whatever reward you chose)! Spread the word! Help our long-time journey come to a successful end (or perhaps an even more successful beginning)!

John Bray 
Author

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Please help fun John’s amazing project:

you can also find john on twitter &instagram 

Happy sort-of national holiday! (I guess? right? Florida doesn’t really see it as a holiday apparently) and Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! Also, Happy Monday! 

2 Comments

    • Thank you! Christian is definitely quite talented and he's done a great job creating Maggie's world. Thanks for your comment! I hope you enjoy the story and/or video over on Kickstarter!