Interview with Chris Sarracini, Author of Children's Book 'Where Wishes Grow...' @chris_sarracini


Chris Sarracini has been working in the comic book and film industries for over 15 years. In addition to writing for a number of successful comic book favorites including TRANSFORMERS, STREET FIGHTER and DARK MINDS, his own creations include FATE OF THE BLADE and CASA NOSTRA. As a screenwriter, he has worked with Universal Pictures, Disney and Nasser Entertainment. His most recent publication is the children's picture book WHERE WISHES GROW... 

Chris lives with his family in Toronto where he continues to create and write.

Website Address: www.chrissarracini.com

About the Book:
                                                  
Where Wishes Grow… is the story of eight-year-old Maggie, a pensive and courageous dreamer, whose big heart starts to break when her grandmother becomes bedridden and sick with no recovery
in sight. Fortunately Maggie has some wishes in mind to breathe life into Nana and is about to learn the secret for making them come true.

Watching Nana’s health fail has been difficult for Maggie and so now much of her time is spent dreaming up wishes for ways she can help her. Maggie conjures up three wishes for Nana she desperately wants to come true: for Nana to see again to enjoy her favorite beautiful things, for her to walk again to visit her favorite places, and for her to speak again so that she and Maggie can sing their favorite songs. The problem is, with wishes this important, Maggie wants to be sure she can realize them; wishing upon stars that may be long dead or relying on birthday candle hoopla just won’t cut it. Thankfully, Maggie’s mother knows the secret for turning wishes into reality…you’ve got to write each wish down and then go plant each one in just the right place. And, as Maggie discovers, retelling the story of how each wish was planted turns out to be the most magical part.

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Q: Welcome to The Writer's Life!  Now that your book has been published, we’d love to find out more about the process.  Can we begin by having you take us at the beginning?  When did you come up with the idea to write your book?


Where Wishes Grow… is a story that focuses on the unbreakable bond of love between a young girl (Maggie), her mother and her grandmother. Maggie’s grandmother is bedridden, having suffered a stroke, and Maggie has some wishes she desperately wants to come true; wishes that would help her grandmother enjoy the vibrant life she once had. And so, Maggie’s mom comes up with a plan to help those wishes to grow. Like Maggie in Where Wishes Grow…, I too was deeply impacted as a young child when my grandmother suffered a stroke and had to rehabilitate herself physically and mentally. So, I guess the seed for this story was planted way back then. I think Maggie’s wishes for her grandmother stem from my feelings of helplessness when I saw my grandmother struggling to return to health.


Q: How hard was it to write a book like this and do you have any tips that you could pass on which would make the journey easier for other writers?


Writing children’s books is extremely challenging because you have to be very selective with your words.  In a way, I find that writing a children’s book is almost like writing a poem.  You have to be very disciplined with your diction to generate the most amount of emotion with the least amount of words. And I find the best children’s books have a musicality to them; filled with rhythmic sentences. Vivid description is important, but I think that when it comes to children’s books, the musicality of the language might be even more important. Creating a rhythm on each page was a top priority for me when writing Where Wishes Grow….


Q: Who is your publisher and how did you find them or did you self-publish?


Brownridge Publishing is the publisher of Where Wishes Grow…. In addition to pursuing creative writing projects, I also work as a high school English teacher. The owner who started Brownridge Publishing worked as an elementary school teacher and I was put in contact with her by a fellow teacher whom we both worked with. We immediately bonded and she felt that Where Wishes Grow… would be a great addition to the Brownridge line-up of books.



Q: What other books are you working on and when will they be published?


I have recently completed writing a 4-issue comic book mini-series entitled Street Fighter Origins: Sagat that is currently being illustrated by industry superstar, Joe Ng. The series focuses on the origin story of Sagat—a major villain from the popular Street Fighter universe—and will be published by UDON Entertainment in early 2019.


Q: What’s one fact about your book that would surprise people?


The book’s brilliant illustrator, Pauline Aksay, was former student in my high school English class. We reconnected and worked on this book a couple of years after she graduated.


Q: Finally, what message are you trying to get across with your book?


I hope Where Wishes Grow… remind readers, young and old, just how powerful the bonds of family are and how important it is to cherish the shared memories between generations. And most of all, I want the story to remind readers of how hope is one of the most powerful emotions of all.







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