Hello my friends! Just want to let you know, if you don’t know already, that my Indiegogo Campaign, Picturing Merrigold, will launch in less than ten days! Indiegogo is a sponsorship platform that I’m using to raise the funds to pay for Kyla Wiebe’s awesome illustrations of my new children’s book, Merrigold’s Very Best Home. This is my first children’s book and it’s been a joy but illustrations are expensive so I value your support!
I hope the “perks” (aka free stuff) will delight you and the little ones in your life. The activity pack includes colouring pages, a pattern for making paper finger puppets and stickers. Other perks include pressed marigold bookmarks, and a very special small book with all the pix I’ve taken of Wee Merrigold along the way. If you haven’t seen pictures of our tiny mascot, just check out my Instagram page
Then head on over to the Pre-launch page and register to receive a notification when the campaign goes live on September 1st.
Please share the links above and encourage your friends/family/contacts to join in on the fun!
The Proposed Cover of my Work in Progress. What do you think of it?
Hello everyone!
You might notice a bit of divergence from the usual fare here on my website blog in the next while. I’ll continue to post the devotionals now and then but will vary that with other posts letting you know what I and some of my writer friends are up to, as well as a few posts that are just random thoughts. I hope you won’t mind.
So … to start this off, I want to let you know about my latest WIP (work in progress). I’ve been having such a good time with this one. It’s a children’s book! Yes, that’s right, I’m sticking my finger in yet another pie!
Merrigold’s Very Best Home is about a little girl who thinks God has put her in the wrong house because her parents make her eat veggies she doesn’t like and take naps when she doesn’t want to. So she goes off to find another home. She visits a puppy but bumps her head going into his house, which is rather smelly. She spots a raven and climbs the tree to get to his house but the sticks poke her when she sits down. She chats with a chicken but her house is full of sawdust that gets into her shoes. She meets a fox but his house is just a dark hole. She steps in something gooey and stinky in the pony’s house and finally she ponders what the pig says in his very muddy pen. “Maybe you should go home to your own house.” Merrigold decides that is a very good idea. Her mommy and daddy welcome her back, give her a nice meal (even the veggies taste good) and a nice warm bath. When Merrigold snuggles into her nice warm bed with her favourite blue teddybear, she thanks God for giving her the very best parents and the very best home in all the world.
So it’s a book about being grateful, with an ending reminiscent of the story of the Prodigal Son. And the illustrations are wonderful! Kyla Wiebe has done an excellent job on the ink drawings (don’t you think so? see some of the ink drawings below. Go to my Instagram profile to see more). I’m anxiously waiting to see them in colour.
As I said, I’ve been having a blast putting this all together, but I am a little nervous too. Producing a children’s book is expensive, mostly due to the illustrations. I think they are worth every penny, but my pennies are limited these days. I’m also going “hybrid” with this one, which means I’ll be paying Siretona Creative Publishing to help me with some of the production (layout etc.) and promotion. So I’m going to be running an Indiegogo fundraising campaign. Picturing Merrigold will launch at the beginning of September. You’ll be hearing more about it in the days ahead.
But for now you can join a discussion group set up there and join in the excitement. Please do! I’d love to get some ‘buzz’ going about Merrigold. I’ll be posting a question every now and then and it would be rather embarrassing if no one responds. 😉 You can also sign up there to receive an email when the campaign goes live. Or, sign up for my newsletter, Home Words so you won’t miss any of the exciting ‘reveals’ as we go along. That link will put your name on the list and take you to a free download of one of my most popular short stories.
I also hope you’ll partner with me by supporting this project through the Indiegogo campaign. I promise I’ll try to make it as much fun as possible. And of course there will be ‘perks’ added to all levels of support. If you aren’t able to help in that way, I totally understand, but would ask that you spread the word about the campaign and pray for me and the team working to make it happen. Above all, pray that the children who hear Merrigold’s story would be blessed.
So – to sum up, here’s what I’m asking you all to do –
1 – Pray for me, the production team, and for the kids who will hear this story.
2 – Join the discussion group and fill in the form on the discussion page to be notified when it goes live.
3.- Keep up with it all by subscribing to my newsletter, Home Words
4 – Participate in the Indiegogo Campaign and spread the word to friends and family.
I’d love to hear what you think about all this, so let me know with a comment or reply by email.
marcialeelaycock.com 