Chris
Sarracini has been working in the comic book and film industries for over 15
years. In addition to writing for a number of successful comic book
favorites including TRANSFORMERS, STREET FIGHTER and DARK MINDS, his own
creations include FATE OF THE BLADE and CASA NOSTRA. As a
screenwriter, he has worked with Universal Pictures, Disney and Nasser
Entertainment. His most recent publication is the children's picture
book WHERE WISHES GROW...
Chris
lives with his family in Toronto
where he continues to create and write.
Website
Address: www.chrissarracini.com
Twitter
Address: www.twitter.com/chris_sarracini
Where Wishes Grow… is the story of eight-year-old Maggie, a pensive and courageous dreamer, whose big heart starts to break when her grandmother becomes bedridden and sick with no recovery in sight. Fortunately Maggie has some wishes in mind to breathe life into Nana and is about to learn the secret for making them come true.
Watching
Nana’s health fail has been difficult for Maggie and so now much of her time is
spent dreaming up wishes for ways she can help her. Maggie conjures up three
wishes for Nana she desperately wants to come true: for Nana to see again to
enjoy her favorite beautiful things, for her to walk again to visit her
favorite places, and for her to speak again so that she and Maggie can sing
their favorite songs. The problem is, with wishes this important, Maggie wants
to be sure she can realize them; wishing upon stars that may be long dead or
relying on birthday candle hoopla just won’t cut it. Thankfully, Maggie’s
mother knows the secret for turning wishes into reality…you’ve got to write
each wish down and then go plant each one in just the right place. And, as
Maggie discovers, retelling the story of how each wish was planted turns out to
be the most magical part.
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Thank you for this interview! I’d like to know more about you as a person
first. What do you do when you’re not
writing?
I’m a high school English teacher...so
usually I’m marking a stack of literary essays! But when I get out from under
my mountain of marking, I’m mostly spending time with my family and watching
old movies.
When did you start writing?
I’ve been writing stories as far back as I
can remember. My second-grade teacher really inspired me when she loved one of
my stories so much that she laminated it and put it in our school library for
other students to read. It was called “T.V. Dinosaur”. When I went back to
visit my Elementary School nearly fifteen years later, she was still working
there and told me that she still reads it to her class every year!
As a published author, what would you say
was the most pivotal point of your writing life?
Working on the comic book series “Transformers:
Generation 1” for Dreamwave Productions was a huge boost for me. It
ended up being the number one selling comic book the year it was published and
opened up a lot of doors for me in the world of writing. This included offering
me some opportunities in Hollywood, which was always a huge dream of mine.
If you could go anywhere in the world to
start writing your next book, where would that be and why?
My wife is from Karachi in Pakistan and I
would love to take my stepson and my daughter to visit there. I think if I
could be a part of helping them recognize their roots it would be both powerful
and inspiring.
If you had 4 hours of extra time today,
what would you do?
Write a bit more of that project I’m
behind on...(p.s. it doesn’t matter when you ask me this question, this will
always be my answer because I always feel behind on a project hahaha)
Where would you like to set a story that
you haven’t done yet?
My home city of Toronto.
Back to your present book, Where Wishes
Grow..., how did you publish it?
Brownridge Publishing is the publisher of Where
Wishes Grow…. In addition to pursuing creative writing projects, I
mentioned I also work as a high school English teacher. The owner who started
Brownridge Publishing worked as an elementary school teacher and I was put in
contact with her by a fellow teacher whom we both worked with. We immediately
bonded and she felt that Where Wishes Grow… would be a great addition to
the Brownridge line-up of books.
In writing your book, did you travel
anywhere for research?
I walked some hikes to get inspired by
nature, as so much of the main character’s journey is about travelling to her
grandmother’s favorite spots in nature and looking at them with wide-eyed awe
for the first time.
Why was writing Where Wishes Grow... so
important to you?
I wanted to write a book that felt
timeless. I wanted to tell a story that would have a powerful emotional impact
not just on the kids enjoying the book but also on the parents or grandparents
who might be reading it with them. “Where Wishes Grow…” focuses on the
unbreakable bond of love between a young girl (Maggie), her mother and her
grandmother. Maggie’s grandmother is bedridden and Maggie has some wishes she
desperately wants to come true; wishes that would help her grandmother enjoy
the vibrant life she once had. And so, Maggie’s mom comes up with a plan to
help those wishes to grow. I wanted the story to remind readers, young and old,
just how powerful the bonds of family are and how important it is to cherish
the shared memories between generations because time with family is precious.
Also, like Maggie in Where Wishes Grow…,
I too was deeply impacted as a young child when my grandmother suffered a
stroke and had to rehabilitate herself physically and mentally. So, I guess the
seed for this story was planted way back then. I think Maggie’s wishes for her
grandmother stem from my feelings of helplessness when I saw my grandmother
struggling to return to health.
Where do you get your best ideas and why
do you think that is?
I am a night owl and I think best in the
dead of night. I find it easier to concentrate when the rest of my neighborhood
is asleep.
Any final words?
Don’t ever stop planting your wishes.
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