Today I want to introduce Iva Maurin and her book The Little Candle (2024, Independently Published). 

The Little Candle takes us on a journey with a small candle who wants to shine his light but he's not quite sure how--and he's not been lit. His brave and desperate journey to find his light so that he can shine brightly for everyone to see will inspire. 

The illustrations are bright and colourful and capture the imagination. A great way to encourage youngster who are feeling lost or insignificant.

Just when he is about to give up, our brave candle receives his light! This story will surely ignite your flame also!

​Iva's title is available for purchase on Amazon and is also enrolled in Kindle Unlimited.

Iva lives in Reno, Nevada, with Larry and their cat, Leo. She is a communications specialist who has been writing and doing graphic design professionally for over 20 years--although typically on the serious side like news, speeches and technical writing, designing collateral for government projects and events.

Iva always wanted to write and illustrate her own children's book and this is the fulfillment of that dream. 

"I started this journey last quarter of 2022, when I illustrated Wasteful Emma, a book meant to teach kids about energy conservation," says Iva. This book was published and distributed free across the Philippines.

She goes on to say that The Little Candle is about life in that we are all candles looking for our purpose. Eventually everyone must carve their own path. We will meet many candles along the way, each with a different purpose. Some will help us. Others will not. It is okay to ask for help.

Iva draws her own illustrations by hand using a tablet and ProCreate, and then works with InDesign to create the whole package. She has done a wonderful job!

When not writing and creating, Iva loves nature and can be found walking in parks or just lying in the grass looking at the clouds. (So do I, so who can blame her?)

What is next? Well, Iva has been asked about a children's book on climate change so she is building a story about that. She also thinks it would be fun to write a book about Leo and thinks he will greatly appreciate the extra attention and kibbles!

See images below for more and details on how to get in touch with Iva.

Veronica Santaguida is a Canadian author and the creator of The Girl With The Big Voice (2023, Blooming Dahlia Publishing).

A brief overview with no spoilers:
Emma loves to use her voice—maybe a little too much if others have their say...Follow this little girl as she learns to control her voice and not stifle it. Through a series of interactions, she discovers how to use her voice respectfully. Told in a catchy, rhythmic rhyming scheme that will capture the reader's attention. The colourful "notebook scribbles" with line drawings create a fun and youthful backdrop. So much fun to read!​

This is Veronica's first venture as an author and I think she's on the right track! She has found her voice and we will definitely be hearing from her again!

Her book is a wonderfully complete package, which is no surprise given that she works in marketing and innovation when she is not pursuing her passion for writing.

Her biggest passion, however, is being a mother to two amazing and strong willed girls.

She says they remind her of herself, as she was often called bossy when younger, and was told she talked too much. She now knows that the traits that earned her negative labels as a child have become her biggest strengths in life. 

She and her daughters love to read empowering stories with strong female leads, rhythmic story telling, and diverse characters. 

Veronica hopes that this story she has created will captivate young hearts and minds. She wants them to feel encouraged to find their own voice and express themselves fearlessly. 

"Let's inspire the next generation to dream big and speak up," says Veronica Santaguida. We hear you, Veronica!

But did you notice there are TWO Veronica's who worked on this book? The second one spells her name with a K and worked on the lovely illustrations.

Veronika Gruntovskaya, is an educator, mother and creator. She explores the expressive without being bound by genre or medium. She has helped create children's book illustrations, murals, ornaments, weaving. Her love of life is clearly evident in her work and the vibrant colours and joie de vivre we see in The Girl With The Big Voice. 

A mother to three boys whom she describes as play, curiosity and laughter.

I am positive BOTH Veronic(k)a's will be making a huge splash in future books!

Well, this is something that I have thought about doing and then put off, because I don't think I'm that unusual. I'm an open book. Literally. I see it--I write it! However, here are a few tidbits about me that you may not know:

• I am the second of four children, and the family used to joke that I was the milk-man's kid because I didn't resemble any of my siblings as a child. (I still don't think I do but people insist on pointing it out now...)
• My family moved around a lot, so I always felt that home was wherever my stuff was. Now it is wherever my husband is. 
• My uncle built me a tree house one summer and I insisted on sleeping out there every night until it got too cold. (This was Canada after all.)
• My favourite mantra when cooking is "You can never have too much cheese!"
• My favourite mantra when creating is "What the heck...why not?"
• My favourite food is Macaroni and Cheese. My second favourite food is anything chocolate with cream cheese icing...
• My favourite colour is green, and particularly that golden emerald colour you get when the sun is on it's way down and everything in the forest glows.
• I really like snails, geckos, funny looking bugs, and birds. I really dislike spiders. They should be banned.
• My husband made me sign a "Spider Accord" in 2018 where I vowed to never smoosh another spider. His part of the Accord involves keeping Spider Relocation Kits in every room of the house and making sure he Relocates the spiders to their natural habitat as quickly as humanly possible after I trap them in the Spider Relocation Kit!
• I was horse crazy when I was younger and only read books with horses in them for about 4 years. Thankfully that covered a lot of historical fiction as people used to travel by horse and carriage a lot in the old days.
• The TO READ pile beside my bed also includes the pile on my husband's side of the bed, a table in the living room, and a very specific book shelf. My husband thinks the pile on his side is HIS TO READ pile but really it's just my overflow. I often relocate books from one place to the other and he often forgets where they started...
• I have a secret hoard of children's books and because it is a hoard, I can say I am a Book Dragon. I share with small people. Sometimes. After they wash their sticky fingers...
• I wanted to be Santa Claus when I grew up, until someone burst my bubble and said I could only be Mrs. Claus. She is important because she bakes cookies, washes Santa's long underwear and secretly runs the show...I am lobbying to make Santa Claus a unisex position. Mr. Claus can do the laundry, thank you very much!
• I also wanted at one point to be a skydiving veterinarian who created architectural designs for treehouses you could live in year round. I ended up in bookkeeping for way too long...as in accounting, numbers...
• Now that I am still not grown up, I know that what I want to be--and in fact AM--is an award winning author and illustrator!

Well...that's 15 things you know about me now that you probably wished you didn't. Thank you for reading and taking the time to get to know me.

These actually answer some questions that I've been asked via Instagram, Tiktok, or Facebook (you can find me on each of these @ruthamandawrites). Follow me for more ridiculousness--I mean, very important authoring and creative stuff and book updates!

Whee doggie! Where do I begin with this one?

As a wise man once said, gnaturally, "Begin at the beginning..." and so I shall.

In February I decided my 2024 would be full of support for my fellow authors--I may have even blogged about it. I posted in an author FB group my offer and the response was overwhelming. I have been reading, reviewing and (w)riting about these books in every spare moment. And in these books, there are quiet gems. There are also shining stars. In the case of The Gnatural, there are home runs that may actually be grand slams--I'll stop there before I screw up the baseball analogies.

So here is my review of the book:

Gnatural is going to create some buzz in your bookshelf this season!

Roy and Bryce are obsessed with bugball and hope to one day make the major leagues. I really enjoyed following their adventures as they overcome bullies and injuries to make their dreams a reality.

A wonderful story to help motivate and encourage young athletes to aim high but be good sports. Never let a bad season "bug" you!

​Colourful illustrations perfectly portray the action and you will be on the edge of your seat waiting for that next smash hit!

Those of you of a certain age (or just being fans of sports movies) may notice some similarities with a certain movie: The Natural (1984) starring Robert Redford, from TriStar Pictures. That is not the only carry over from real life in this book. Baseball fans will find bug puns abound in cameo appearances from Major League Bugball--I mean Baseball--stars!
​
I spoke with Mark Bryson to learn a bit more about him and his books and here is what I learned.

Mark has a background in sports which is no surprise. His love of events and sport started at an early age and has never disappeared. He continues to be involved as an event manager, board member, motivator as well as player, umpire, official and coach in multiple sports.

Somewhere in there, he managed to meet and marry his wife and have six kids of whom he is rightfully proud. This is a busy man--but not too busy to help the smallest of players with their own story and dreams.

I asked Mark where he found the time to work with son Ryan on The Gnatural. Mark says he mostly writes in the evening and often listens to music while driving which helps him to  visualize scenes or stories. Mark says, "I have been blessed to be around many great coaches and players as Head Coach at MLB Fanfest. The inspiration quotes and motivational stories that they would tell to kids in the clinics provided much material."

As a fellow bug follower, with a book on racing snails, I needed to know--will there be more sports books featuring bugs? And the answer is YES!

There are a series of sports stories coming together. 

Beeball (to release in 2024) is about basketball with Joel Embee, Michael Jordant and Julius Erwing.

Centipedes Can't Skate is hockey based and features Peter Forsbug, Sidney Crosbee, and Steve Flyzerman.

You can probably guess at the names involved in other titles like Friday Night Lightning Bugs based on football, FLEAFA based on soccer, and GNATSCAR about--you guessed it--racing!

You can bet that I'm ordering a complete set!

Mark and Ryan are currently working on screenplays to pitch to PIXAR. They also hope to create live action coaching content with Bryce Hopper (Bryce Harper) to teach hitting, and Mite Trout (Mike Trout) to teach little ballplayers how to play the outfield.

Lots of  great content to come from this team and I am so inspired by this!

Whatever your age, you are going to love what comes from this team! If writing were a World Series of Books, I see this team making the Big Game!

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