Alright guys, it's time to talk books.
Publishing books in particular. Publishing one book in particular.
When I went to OsFest (Omaha Science Fiction Education Society's annual sci-fi convention), I met Nikita Rose Woltersen aka Nikita Dragonrose. This lady is amazing. She sculpts, she illustrates, and she's also obsessed with dragons. I bought some hair sticks from her with a dragon curled around the top of one and while she was showing me how to easily put my hair up with them within a few seconds (something I'd previously thought beyond my hair's capabilities) she showed me her new book. She's been working on a book called Bruno Wants a Nose Horn and it's an adorable book about a dragon names Bruno who was born without a nose horn and goes about searching to find one, getting into trouble along the way. She illustrated the book herself and has also made sculptures of the various dragons within the story. She hopes to expand the story after this first book gets published and to write more children's books starring the other characters in her series. For that to happen though, she's got to get this one published!
So if you have time out of your busy schedules (trust me, I hear ya!), check out her site at Dragonrose Designs to see her work. If you really want to support her, her Facebook site has the most recent updates for her book.
She did a Kickstarter project earlier this summer to try to raise money for a hardcover publication, but it didn't reach full funding so she didn't get to keep any of the money. Publishing a book is actually a lot more expensive than you'd think, unless you can self-publish. Self-publishing works great, unless you want an audience other than those who know you already. Nikita Dragonrose travels to several conventions and such within the mid-west (as judged by the two that I've ran into her at and the schedule posted on her website) promoting her book and selling her dragon-related creations/wares. (Trust me, they are GORGEROUS!) This is a large step in getting a fan-base, but I really would like to see her get a larger following. So if you're out there and appreciate children's literature or at least books with dragons that learn valuable morals about loving themselves the way they are, I'd suggest looking up one of this lady's sites!
(She doesn't know I'm doing this, but I really wanted to see if I could try to get her a little more of an audience, and if we're really really lucky, maybe a donation? I don't want to push that too heavily on you though)
