Last year, I hosted a couple of Young Author Program (YAP) workshops online.
It was a difficult year. We were getting used to a tirade of bad news and distressing images on a second to second basis. Borders were closing around us. Doors were being shut. Roads were filled with long lines of laborers who wanted to go home. Faces were hidden by masks. The world flipped into a gigantic unknown.
The online workshops were, however, filled with hope. What I love most about mentoring young writers is how they can run away on the page with a prompt and create something completely unexpected. I received a bouquet of stories and even a couple of illustrations.
This book has been a labor of love. In a year when a germ duped us all, these little stories by children in the broad age group of 8-17 are a testimony of the human spirit. Come mask, come sanitizer, come uncertainty, we will dream, we will create, we will write.
The Process of Stringing Stories in an Anthology
Over a couple of sessions, the YAPPERs came up with a protagonist, setting and plot. It was all very organic. We worked on revisions and then it was up to me to bring the stories together. How do you decide which stories go where?
I went by theme. I’ve segregated the book into a couple of broad sections- wizards, vampires and werewolves; family and friendships; fantastic fiction; pandemic conundrum; the wild and the tame; and dystopian drama.
Another element was age. Each section is ordered from youngest writer to oldest. There is no better story here. Each child has written to the best of his/her ability and although I wondered if age would be a barrier, there is really no barrier to creativity. In fact, having a mix of different age groups gives the anthology a unique feel.
I relied on one of the YAPPERs, Ishmita Menon, to help me edit the book.
Where did the title Footprints on the Moon Come from?
The moon featured heavily in two stories, Reeham Ahmed’s Bobo and the Magic Cloak and Ekansh Nitalie Garg’s A Dream Come True — Woof Woof! And the stories are all the footprints of children’s dreams.
The Koala and the Electric Blue Cover
This I thank Sara, the cover designer, for. I sent her a rather immature drawing and she wowed it with blue. Johann Koshy’s story How High Do Airplanes Fly?
Where can you Buy the Book?
The print book is available at the Pothi.com store.
You can pick up the ebook from the Amazon Kindle Store.
Do share widely and leave your reviews! Footprints on the Moon is on Amazon, Pothi.com and Goodreads– so start sending in your precious feedback:)
This will encourage my young YAPPERs to write more stories and help me create more and more anthologies in the future!