Throughout the holiday season, we feature our authors who have taken advantage of the 2019 Holiday Marketing Bundle and the benefits of the New York Times Holiday Book Review co-op ad! Co-op ads provide authors effective exposure through a well-known, established publication with millions of dedicated book lovers!
The New York Times Holiday Edition features Outskirts Press Self-Published author Floras Athena.
We had the opportunity to ask Floras a few questions about her new book Art Fairy and what inspired her.
OP: Congratulation on your new book, Art Fairy. Tell us a bit about it.
Floras: My book is about music, art, family, school, education, and school violence. It’s infused with the experiences of Mozart, Beethoven, Joe Hisaishi, Da Vinci, and my own practice and discipline on the road of music and art. The story is about a young boy who loves music and art and how he creates happiness for the world. My book is based in reality but with new, fantastic, fairyland language. This book is full of funny, fantastic, and heartbreaking stories, as well as touching moments and a bright happy ending.
OP: What inspired you to write Art Fairy?
Floras: My road in the world of art was very hard and miserable, so I hope my book Art Fairy will inspire and encourage children to embrace happiness and follow their dreams. I think our educational concept has many absurd aspects, especially the methods of cultivating talent. In our education, a lot of valuable time and energy is used to force us to cram and practice every day. Measuring children by the standards of commodities is ridiculous and this is a problem that exists in almost all the of world’s educational methods. So, in my book Art Fairy, there are three important theories: one is “The reason why no great is born, it is we neglect the process of forming the great soul.” Another is, “All beings are created equal! All beings’ talents are created equal!” And the most important one looks into the methods of cultivating talent, “Read Practice Think”. The amount of reading, practicing, thinking, is also equivalent to the promotion of talent. It comes from my many years of research on the geniuses and greats of various fields. Painting, music, literature, philosophy, science, film, martial arts, politics, and military. Different fields have different proportions and contents. This requires us to look closely at the lives of the greats spanning both history and all fields of study. In my theory, the only way to measure the value of talent is by their contribution to the world. In other words, the value of a talent lies in our devotion; just as how much we read, practice, think, our talents are put to the best use when we create happiness for the world. Above of all, we must remember that all beings are created equal! All beings’ talents are created equal!
This book is inspired by the difficulties I experienced on the art road; all of my tears, sweat, blood. Every word comes from my art and my soul.
OP: What makes Art Fairy different from other children’s books?
Floras: The thoughts, stories, and language are singular to my book. Take a look at the excerpt below!
New year party, Oris played the piano and violin on the stage, and the solo of bel canto. “I dedicate my solo and singing for Cynthia!” Instant springbok sensation below the stage! In the Madagascar rainforest, the lemurs on the deer’ eyes trees was screaming! Leaves left and flowers danced! Melody was on the alpine cypress, Flora danced as flowering sakura sea. Singing was dreamed sun as a cloud butterflies in the flowers sea of Poland forest. After playing and singing, a deep bow, applause instantly exploded galaxy! Cheers volcano rained all dawn! After a long time, when cheers destroyed as stars, Cynthia said loudly to Oris that laughing as a whale on the stage, “Idiot! Hideous! Poor! Only big howling monkeys and dog raccoons in cloud forest would like you this only can play the piano and sing but poor and hideous, and grades are bad as tiger cats’ hind legs of Caribbean! You unicorn whale big idiot!!!” Instantly! The auditorium died like Lyra stars…
An ancient Roman scholar made such a request to literary and art workers, “Think of bee as model, very widely reading, practice our own inventive mind, melt all the flowers into our own nectar. All has the origin, but all has new hue.” This sentence can fully explain the language of my book, which is the hardest work. Because I often read a lot of books and imagined for a long time just for creating a new, beautiful and fantastic fairy world in a few words. Fortunately, everyone who had seen this book all praised it, so I believe more and more readers would enjoy the reading with this book.
OP: Tell us something about yourself.
Floras: The cover is my own painting. I painted it 5 years ago. I have spent a great deal of time on the road of art, striving to create a perfect fairyland for readers.
The content of this book has two different part, one is “The old miserable world”, in this world everything is miserable, and one is “The new gorgeous world given by great nature and Art Fairy”, in this world everything is beautiful and happy. At the very beginning, the boy went through all kinds of oppressive tribulations in his cruel family and school, then frozen to death like the little match girl, and saved by the Art Fairy, and then, he had had a happy family, realized his art dream, the teachers, schools, and the whole world had become more and more bright and beautiful. Finally, the boy and a deaf-mute girl who loved playing the violin and saved by the boy did their best to create happiness for the world. This book also incorporates a lot of real events in reality, and strives to be close to reality and seek truth from facts. But the language of this book is fantastic and funny. This book is full of funny stories, fantastic stories, sad stories, heartbreaking stories, touching stories, and a bright happy ending. And there is a beautiful myth in the middle and end. Tolstoy said, “A good literary work should show the right direction for the world.” The second half of this book is the essence of my 15 years of exploration and the right direction of the world, I think. Direction of personal development, family, school, education, solutions to school violence, and the right direction of world. The first thought in this book is about education, in one nutshell, “The reason why no great is born, it is we neglect the process of forming the great soul.” The second thought in this book, is “The value of man lies in his devotion, and only by dedicating for the world can he receive the world’s reward, but only greater ability can make the greater contribution.” The extension and development in culture and art of this theory. There are many theories about art, talent, culture and education. Part of the plot is based on the real experience of Mozart, Beethoven, Da Vinci and Joe Hisaish, a little like Romain Rolland’s Jean-Christophe, but also very different. Most of the plot about music and piano is based on my own experience of practicing and being a piano teacher. I used to teach three 5-year-old little girls to play the piano, and I’m going to study composition and play the piano in New York. An ancient Roman scholar made such a request to literary and art workers, “Think of bee as model, very widely reading, practice our own inventive mind, melt all the flowers into our own nectar. All has the origin, but all has new hue.” This sentence can fully explain the language of my book, which is the hardest work. Because I often read a lot of books and imagined for a long time just for creating a new, beautiful and fantastic fairy world in a few words. Fortunately, everyone who had seen this book all praised it, so I believe more and more readers would enjoy the reading with this book. By the way, if you like the movies X-Men and Spider-Man, you will like my book, they have many common themes. And this book, is for the whole world, for everyone who is suffering.
OP: Did you learn anything from writing and publishing this book? What?
Floras: Yes. I understand that when you create happiness for the world, the world must also create happiness for you.
OP: Do you plan on writing any more books?
Floras: Yes, this is the first book, and I will publish Art Fairy 2 in about a year. The second book will be funnier and more beautiful. I also plan to paint hundreds of paintings for two painting books. The cover of Art Fairy is my own painting. At the very beginning, I began writing to express my dreams for painting and piano. For the past 15 years, I refused give up on my art dreams; although they are different fields, they have many common principles. I know Da Vinci very well, his biographies, his Note Book of Leonardo da Vinci… and Art Fairy has many stories based on the real experience of Da Vinci. Leonardo da Vinci proved that one can achieve in many fields, as long as the method is correct, and the time is used efficiently. So, everything and every dream is possible and achievable
Have a happy fairyland journey with Art Fairy!
OP: Thanks for your time, Floras! We look forward to seeing Art Fairy featured in the New York Times Holiday Book Review.
Buy from Outskirts Press: https://outskirtspress.com/ArtFairy
Press play to watch the book video
Are you ready to publish your book and perhaps find yourself in the New York Times next year?
Imagine your book advertised in the pages of the New York Times for pennies on the dollar just in time for Christmas! But hurry, there are only a few spaces left, so reserve your spot right now.
