“...Even though I can tell a story, writing it is completely different.” - Monroe S Tarver

by Roger Zotti

For Monroe S Tarver, the most difficult things about writing children’s books are “choosing the right words and knowing who you’re writing it for. Though I can tell a story, writing it is completely different.”

Monroe aimed his entrancing “Imagia and the Magic Pearls: Tales from the Mapmaker” (Wizarding World Press) at four to eight year olds. He explained that “parents are the ones who usually make the choice about buying the book. So, you have to appeal to them.  They’ll ask questions like, ‘What is the book going to teach my child? Is it easy for them to read? Something they’re going to be interested in?’”

Actually Monroe – with his captivating and vigorous illustrations – was an artist before he became a writer. “The writing came much later,” he said. “I would draw different characters that never had a big story behind them.” But when he was working for a company in Winston Salem, North Carolina, a co-worker saw his work and suggested he create a story for his characters.  “So, I wrote my first story and everybody loved it – and that’s when it all started.”

In “Imagia and the Magic Pearls,” the main character, Imagia, is an elf princess who’s black. As Monroe pointed out in a press release, “The recent controversy over Justine Labalestier’s cover reinforces that skin color still matters in publishing.” Justine’s book, “Liar,” is about a short-haired black female, but her publisher decided to put a long-haired, light-skinned female on the cover because he felt it would sell better. Justine disagreed but was overruled. Monroe said he and his publisher “both felt it was important to place my ethnic elf princess on the cover of my book. We are really going to be testing this.”

Imagia “spends most of her time studying,” Monroe said. “She’s getting ready to become a queen, doesn’t have any friends, and is instructed not to leave the palace.” But one day she discovers a tunnel, crawls through it, and finds herself outside the palace. Enter a “thinking fluttery” named Flutterwalk, who has blue hair and “two large purple antennas … Its wings were yellow and orange … soft and shimmery.” Soon her adventure with her new friend begins.

Later, we learn that Imagia and Flutterwalk “were being watched by the evil Queen Baddora” – who sees “the large pearl in the center of the crown on Imagia’s head.” The wicked Baddora exclaims that the pearl “will be mine!”  She knows it will grant her powers “greater than anyone else in the world.”

What the immensely talented Monroe S Tarver hopes readers take away from his book is the importance and power of imagination. “Today there are so many things going on in the world that kids don’t get a lot of time just to imagine,” he said.  When he was young, Monroe’s parents gave him time and encouragement to imagine, and he believes, “If parents give their kids encouragement to use their imaginations, there’s no telling what kids can do when they get older.”

story & photo
by Maren Schober

Despite this cold blustery wintry day in Niantic, children with their parents pour into the Children’s Museum of Southeastern Connecticut on Saturday, February 6th.  Excitement is in the air. The children are eager to meet some of their favorite Connecticut children’s authors and to listen to their stories.

“This is our first time hosting this event,” Melissa Gula, Director of Guest Services, tells me.  “We are very excited about the opportunity!”

Connecticut Loves To Read Day is sponsored by the Southeastern Connecticut Reading Association whose goal is to promote literacy. It is celebrated every year. Four gifted authors are on hand to read and interact with the children today.

Leslie Tryon, Westerly, author and illustrator of the Albert Series, is on hand to read from Albert’s Alphabet.  Albert the school carpenter is assigned a task that seems virtually impossible!  He has to build an alphabet for the walking path on the school playground by six o’clock using all twenty six letters.  How is he ever going to finish in time?  The children listen in rapt attention.

“I began drawing almost as soon as I learned to walk,” Leslie comments.  “I toddled into my father’s art studio and discovered his art supplies!  I wrote and illustrated my first full story when I was in the fifth grade.  I am delighted to know that my books are embraced by teachers and librarians.”

Joe Podurgiel’s Fresh Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes is a delightfully dramatic tale of a young robin whose love for blueberries gets him into trouble with Farmer Brown who loves blueberry buttermilk pancakes.  The illustrations are outstanding watercolors by Katerina Green.

“About ten years ago I went on a business trip,” declares Joe, who is from Quaker Hill.  “During that trip I decided to try and write a story to bring home to my kids. I wrote this story in 45 minutes.”

Cheryl Kling, Branford, reads from her book Nature’s Royal Tea Party.  “In my story characters from Nature’s Royalty are invited to the May Queen’s tea party.  The little Firefly is the messenger who delivers invitations to Queen Mum, Ladybug, Queen Bee, the Frog Prince, the Monarch Butterfly and other royal characters who prepare to celebrate with a secret guest of honor.”

Bob Crelin’s Faces Of The Moon is treasured by school teachers and librarians alike. This book teaches about the Moon and its phases. Each turn of a page the reader watches the moon change. Bob is from Guilford.

“Do you wonder, when you see the Moon, at dusk, or dawn, or midday noon, just why her face is curved, or round, or why she sometimes can’t  be found?” reads Bob. “I probably was first inspired as a baby, when my father would always point out the Moon in the sky with me in his arms.  ‘Moon’ was the first word I spoke.”

“Everybody, young or old wonders about the Moon in our sky,” Bob continues.  “It is the nearest world to Earth in our universe, and is there for all to see-no matter where they live.  Learning that the changing Moon is actually telling us clues about her orbit in space is fascinating to any child – from age 5-105!”

For Victor Alexander Baltov, Jr., “Baseball is a miniature version of the American culture.”

by Roger Zotti

The author contends that “Baseball is a miniature version of the American culture. The exposure of mass fraud in baseball is simply a small slice of the overall corrupt nature of corporate America.” He continues: “I feel as if I have lost a good friend, baseball, to the spirit of secularism and am writing about it, speaking truth.”

“Baseball Is America” is the first book in a trilogy. Victor’s next is Origins and History: The Good Bad and the Ugly, which will will be followed by Reclaiming the Strike Zone. That book, he says, will “boldly [offer] solutions to changing baseball and laterally America back to where it once belonged… identifying the trade-off between a noble America… and a toxic baseball culture too big to punish or fail.”

Jim Bouton (Ball Four), Howard Bryant (Juicing the Game), Viktor Frankl (Man’s Search for Meaning), Steve Courson (False Glory) and Rick Warren (Purpose Driven Life) are authors who have influenced Victor, an outstanding amateur ballplayer years ago. As for Bouton’s book in particular, Victor writes that it caused “outrage and betrayal [from] the baseball community…the good, bad, and the ugly were revealed in print. The players couldn’t handle the truth about themselves being a bunch of party pill-poppers…”

While Joe DiMaggio is Victor’s all-time favorite player, he believes Curt Flood, one-time St. Louis Cardinals Centerfielder, is “the bravest man ever to wear a big league uniform.”  Victor tells us that Flood informed then-Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, in a 1969 letter, that he “was not a high-paid slave; he asked Kuhn to allow the American free enterprise system to operate within the baseball structure, thus allowing him to shop his services to the most interested party instead of being shipped to the City of Brotherly Love… at the time very harsh toward blacks.” It took several years for Flood’s words to become reality, but “Free agency would follow in the mid-1970s.”

Though Victor’s Oklahoma State baseball coach, the unforgettable Chet, runs a close second, the book’s most compelling individual is the author’s grandfather, George J. Minges, a man of principle and courage. An ardent Cincinnati Reds fan, he was appalled with the team’s “fix in the [1919] World Series.” From then on the “Reds were a tainted team” – and Mr. Minges protested by making “a conscious choice to never spend a red cent to see [the Reds] in person…”

Yes, some self-editing would’ve streamlined the book, but if you like a writer who isn’t shy about being politically forthright, or timid about expressing his Judeo-Christian beliefs – “I grew up seeing America through the lens of the Catholic Church” – read Baseball Is America. Victor Alexander Baltov Jr. is a knowledgeable, insightful, and forceful writer.

Victor Alexander Baltov, Jr. has hit a homerun with his first book, Baseball Is America: A Child of Baseball (AuthorHouse). An informative, passionate, humorous, and scrupulously researched autobiography, it’s concerned with the good and bad aspects of baseball, along with the sport’s link with religion, history, politics, music, movies (especially “Field of Dreams”), and Victor’s family and friends.

by Roger Zotti

Want It, See It, Get It” (Amacon), the newest book by Gini Graham Scott, Ph.D., often departs from the usual way most of us think. Gini believes the techniques she espouses work because they get you more in touch with your intuition, your inner voice – whatever you want to call this very powerful force within you. Unfortunately, in today’s society “This force isn’t given the attention it deserves.” Gini believes the reason is that “We emphasize solving problems and working out issues logically because of this emphasis on being rational.”

Gini doesn’t oppose rational, logical methods to handle problems, but she suggests we tap “Into our intuitive, non-rational side to gain insights and also understandings that – when combined with rational techniques or used alone – can help make even better decisions and choices. This inner sensing and intuitive part of ourselves is linked to our ability to use mental imagery or visualization [which] is something anyone can do. It’s just a question of learning the method.” After a time “You’re able to basically visualize something very clearly. It’s not only affirming and visualizing but also going through the steps to turn that visualization into reality.”

Gini wrote her book to share “The visualization techniques I’ve been using and living my life with for over twenty-five years. It seems like the time when people need this because of transformation in the economy and economic turmoil.” She revised some of her earlier works – like ‘Mind Power” and ‘The Empowered Mind: How to Harness the Creative Force within You” – and “merged and updated them” for this book.

Gini hopes readers integrate her ideas into their everyday lives to “make what they want happen and then use the principals to create their own techniques as well, so they can incorporate symbols or beliefs to work with any kind of religion [or] spiritual tradition.” Before readers tackle her book, she added, “They should know what they [want to change about] their lives, which is where this book could help. One of the techniques is to start off and ask yourself certain questions.”

In Chapter 10 she suggests creating “a mental script.” Then by “rehearsing what you want to learn in your mind….you re-enforce what you have learned through physical practice.” More, “…working with the skill you want to acquire in your mind…see yourself performing it perfectly….” Of course, it’s hard work and if you make mistakes “in your mental practice…you’ll make the same mistake in the real world” -because “the mind doesn’t distinguish between what you really do and what you do mentally.”

In sum, Gini’s latest book is practical and readable and, with easy-to-learn techniques, aims at making it possible for readers to access “and direct their intuitive power,” so that their goals are attainable. Her books – she’s written over fifty – are available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and numerous local and online bookstores. For more information about this remarkable woman, check out her website: www.ginigrahamscott.com.

In his book, “A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa: But Resident above Sixty Years in the United States of America, Related by Himself,” former slave Venture Smith shares, “I am now 69 years old. Though once straight and tall, measuring without shoes six feet, and every way well proportioned, I am now bowed down with age and hardship. But amidst all my griefs and pains, I have many consolations; Meg, the wife of my youth, whom I married for love and bought with money, is still alive. My freedom is a privilege which nothing else can equal. I am now possessed of more than 100 acres of land, and three houses. It gives me joy to think that I have and that I deserve so good a character.”

by Crystal Harpstreit

In 1736, an eight year old boy is captured in Africa along with hundreds of others and sent across the Atlantic in a terrifying journey to America to be sold as a slave. Venture Smith, then known as Broteer Furro, moved from the shadows of obscurity to being an integral link between the history of slavery in western Africa and New England. His life is the best documented out of the countless individuals who were forced to cross the Atlantic and into a life of slavery.

It is known that he was from western Africa, probably somewhere in Ghana, Togo or Benin. After his capture by an unnamed enemy army, Venture was sent to the famous slave castles in Ghana. Later, he was put on a Rhode Island slave ship and sent across the Atlantic with 260 others, many of whom did not survive the journey.

“After an ordinary passage, except great mortality by the small pox, which broke out on board, we arrived at the island of Barbadoes, but when we reached it, there were found out of the two hundred and sixty that sailed from Africa, not more than two hundred alive,” states Venture in “A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa: But Resident above Sixty Years in the United States of America, Related by Himself.”

After Barbados, Venture landed in New York, and then moved on to finally settle in Connecticut. Researchers, including Chandler Saint, president, The Beecher House Center for the Study of Equal Rights, hope to make a place in history for the Venture Smith sites in the Stonington area and in Haddam Neck where Venture had a farm with his family after he was freed.

“There is an application pending to make the Venture Smith sites world heritage sites,” stated Chandler. This will create a tangible link between Ghana, where the slave castles remain; these are already recognized by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as world heritage sites.  Archeological research will begin this summer in the Stonington area where Venture once lived.

Always determined and a hard worker, Venture took on odd jobs in the years that he was owned by Oliver Smith, eventually earning enough money to buy his and his family’s freedom. Although historians are unsure whether Venture could read and write, the narrative of his life may indicate that he could. Chandler believes that his narrative was probably written by Venture himself, saying, “These are his words,” and that he was, “Clearly a very bright guy.”

Venture was capable of complex real estate deals and getting the most for himself.

The book was written right before Venture died at the age of 69 at his home in Connecticut. The fact that Venture describes real places in his narrative makes him one of the best documented former slaves.

In “A Narrative,” Venture recounts a trek across an unnamed desert region in Africa after his mother became enraged when his father took on a third wife without her permission. She brought the children, including Venture across unnamed countries, finally stopping at a rich farmer’s house where she left the young Venture. He stayed there for about a year until his mother returned and took him home.

After six months of living with his parents, an enemy Tribe invaded and took Venture prisoner along with hundreds of others. The enemy Tribe took them on a long march to the sea. Another Tribe attacked and captured Venture and the others a second time, destined to be sold into slavery.

Venture also tells how he was originally bought and got his English name, “I was bought on board by one Robertson Mumford, steward of said vessel, for four gallons of rum, and a piece of calico, and called Venture on account of his having purchased me with his own private venture.”

Venture is described as an extremely intelligent and strong man. In fact, he was known in town for his strength and height, Chandler mentioned, “He was a bit of a legend around town.” For the time, Venture was very tall, measuring 6 feet 1½ inches tall, at this time in history an average white male stood around 5 feet 8 inches tall and African slaves were around 2 inches shorter than that.

His noted strength and size could be one of the main reasons why Oliver Smith decided to buy him. At the time of the sale, Oliver was building a home for his wife and their first child and needed as much help as he could get. By having a slave do the job instead of hiring free workers, Oliver would be able to save money on the project. Chandler noted that, “Oliver was his own general contractor.”

It seems that Oliver Smith was not viewed as the worst of owners and it can be noted that some third generation ancestors of Venture’s even named one of their sons Oliver Smith. “There was probably some kind of agreement between the two,” says Chandler, where Oliver allowed Venture to work and save money when he was not needed on Oliver’s property.

Some may wonder why Venture Smith decided to keep the name that he was given upon being sold into slavery. Once Venture was free he could have gone back to the name that he was given by his parents. Though the answer will never be clear, Chandler says that it can be noted that Venture, “Reinvented himself,” with this name.

Venture had an extensive knowledge of boat building and had worked on a whaling vessel, so it is highly probable that he could have built his own boat and sailed back to Africa with his family, had he wanted to. However, Chandler says that, “Venture was one of the first to identify himself as an African-American and could have changed his name back, but did not.”