Among the performances taking place at the Creating Young Readers celebration was a first-time novelist and local mom who was inspired by her own children to get into writing at the Stuart MacPherson Library last Tuesday.
Among the performances taking place at the Creating Young Readers celebration was a first-time novelist and local mom who was inspired by her own children to get into writing at the Stuart MacPherson Library last Tuesday.
Katrina Mamela launched her debut children’ s book Got Your Nose! During last week’ s event, which also included a reading of the short picture book to a crowd of about 10 young children. The book is about a young boy who actually gets his nose stolen by his grandmother and decides to head out into the wilderness to see if any of the animals will give him a new nose.
Mamela, a longtime teacher, was inspired by her young son to write the book when a thought occurred to her as she was playing the classic “got your nose” game with him.
“My son really likes animals,” she said. “So I wondered, ‘what if he had a moose’ s nose or an elephant’ s nose?’ ”
Mamela finished writing the book two years ago, but struggled to find a publisher who would take it.
“Traditional publishers don’ t often pick up first time authors because of the financial risk involved,” she said. “I got good feedback, but it wasn’ t published.”
After failing to secure a traditional publisher, she decided to publish the book herself. She made the decision in January and started selling it by mid-April.
Aiden Sehn of Plamondon, who she found on Facebook after she put out an open call, did illustration of her book. Mamela said she got lucky by finding a quality local illustrator, but also that it was nice that work on the book has been kept inside the county.
“It’ s a completely local project so far,” she said.
Even before publication of her book, Mamela had been selling her book at places around the community such as the home business and craft sale at the Bold Center. She hopes to continue selling her book at local events and is currently trying to get her book sold in Chapters and Indigo.
Mamela is also working on her second book, which she expects to be published in the fall. It too was family inspired.
“The first book was inspired by my son,” she said. “This one’ s inspired by my daughter.”
Got Your Nose! is also available on Amazon.
