Kiki and the Baby Unicorn

"Kiki and the baby unicorn", out now at amazon.com:

This is a story of a Little Girl that wants to find a new friend for her cuddly toys. She goes to the zoo in search for a baby unicorn. The search becomes a beautiful adventure where she meets and talks to a lot of animals.

This book is designed to create a shared experience between parent and child, as the parent reads the book to the child, the child can follow the story through the drawings. This is a book from the series "We didn't fly to that cloud yet" that tells the larger than life story about a father and a daughter in smile land. It is a series dedicated to better parenting through storytelling. One of the activities that helps us communicate with our children is reading for them, this book intends to give you this shared experience with your child.

Available at all amazon sites:

US	UK	Germany

The Big Pirate Ship

Why do we have pirates in our imaginary? Do you tell pirate stories to your kids? How do your kids feel about pirates? Do they want to be a pirate? Do they understand what a pirate is? Is a pirate simply a symbol for bad people? Tell me your story, here is mine...

The Little Girl got lost in the library. This library is big. Papi liked to bring the Little Girl to the library, Papi said all stories lived in this big building full of books. And each book could whisper a beautiful story.
The Little Girl was afraid, many stories have bad people or big monsters. The Little Girl did not want to find a bad man or a big monster before she could find Papi.
"Oh! Oh! Oh!", heard the Little Girl from behind the bookshelf, was it Santa Claus or was it a big bad pirate. The Little Girl crouched behind the bookshelf and waited to listen a bit more.
"Oh! Oh! Oh!, Where are all the kids?", must be Santa Claus, he wants to give presents to kids. The Little Girl stood up to go and meet Santa, and continued to listen to the man with the loud voice talking.
"Oh! Oh! Oh!, Where are all the kids? Those nasty little rascals need to be punished for waking me up".
"On no!", though the Little Girl, "that is not Santa, that is an angry man."
And the big angry man appeared from behind the bookshelf, "Ah! Ah! Ah!, Here is a Little Girl, catch her", said the Pirate Captain to all the ugly pirates.

The Little Girl climbed the bookshelf as fast as she could, and the books helped the Little Girl. one by one, the books stretched out of the bookshelf and made a staircase in front of the Little Girl.
the Little Girl ran up the staircase and climbed above the tallest bookshelves. She could now see the clouds under her.

The Little Girl continued to run over the clouds looking for an exit. Suddenly the clouds finished and the little Girl could see down a volcano island with a pirate ship docked in the bay. The Little Girl flew down towards the ship.

As the Little Girl was flying, she looked back and saw the pirates falling from the edges of the clouds into the sea. Suddenly she could listen to a repetitive sound: "tic-toc-tic-toc-tic-toc". She looked down to where the pirates were falling and saw a pair of eyes ticking with the sound. It was the big crocodile. The pirates ran above the water strait to the pirate ship.
The Little Girl was feeling tired of flying and needed to rest, but the only place she could see near enough was the pirate ship. The Little Girl flew slowly to the pirate ship not making any noise.

The story continues at Row Row Row Your Boat...

The safe tent

Do your kids search time for themselves? When do they need time? Are you always around them when they want to be alone? Do you get worried that something might happen during those moments? Where to do they escape? What do they do when they are alone? Do they lock their room? Do you respect your child's privacy? What happens when you have guests? Do you select your guests so that your kids feel comfortable? Do you ask your kids to respect your moments too? Tell me your story, here is mine...

Papi's friends are coming to our house today. I don't like them. I don't want them in our house. Our house is only for Papi, Mami, and me. The pink girl can also come, and the blue boy. The fast red boy can also come and the little yellow girl. Auntie and Granny can also come. Also the violet girl can come. But not Papi's friends. I don't like Papi's friends.
Papi's friends talk, and talk, and talk. Papi's friends are boring, they don't know how to play. Papi's friend think I am a baby. Some Papi's friends think I am an adult. Papi's friends are very strange people.
The doorbell is ringing. Oh! No! I don't want them.

Let me get my toys. I don't want Papi's friends playing with my toys. I'll take the chuchu train, and woody cowboy, and cactus jack, and the cow, the elephant and the skyrocket. I am going with my toys to my tent. I like my tent, it is so nice to be playing and nobody looking at me.
Oh, not, the voices of Papi's friends. They talk so loud. I am going to fetch the small tablet to see my movies. When I listen at the movies I don't have to listen to Papi's friends.
"Hello Little Girl, can we come in your tent?", said one of Papi's friend.
"NO! You are too big!", I answered.
Papi's friends are also dumb, they can't see they don't fit into my tent.
"Hello Little Girl, I have a beautiful book for you about a bear that rides a bicycle!", said another of Papi's friend.
"Oh! can I see it?", I asked.
"Yes, of course, it is for you", said the nice Papi friend.
"Can you read the book for me?"
"OK! Let's read the story..." said the nice Papi friend. The other Papi's friends joined to listen to the story.
"Once upon a time, there was a small brown bear..." the nice friend was reading the book.
Papi's friends are the best friends in the world.

The monkey

What happens when your kids cross their favorite cartoons in real life ? Like walking in a shopping mall and suddenly crossing Mickey ? Or in a restaurant and finding bugs bunny ? Or in a theme park and finding the usual suspects ? Is your kids afraid of the characters ? Does he interact with them asking for autographs ? Simply trying to do some sort of conversation ? Or hiding behind your legs ? Tell me your story, here is mine...

The Little Girl was climbing the wall. Suddenly she saw a monkey. The monkey was coming in her direction. The Little Girl got afraid and fell of the wall. She ran away from the monkey. But the monkey could fly using the tree tops, soon he was near the Little Girl.

One moment of distraction, the Little Girl looked back to see if the monkey was still chasing her, and splof. The Little Girl tripped on a tree root and fell. The monkey approached the Little Girl. The monkey had a book in his hand, he wanted to give it to the Little Girl.
The Little Girl looked at monkey once more and ran away again. The monkey chased the Little Girl. The Little girl suddenly heard a loud shout and cry. She looked back and saw that the monkey had fallen and was crying.
The Little Girl approached the crying monkey. "Are you OK?", asked the Little Girl.
The monkey gave the book to the Little Girl. he stood up with his leg still hurting and went away.
The Little Girl ran to Papi, "Papi, the monkey gave me this book, can you read it for me ?".
"Off course Little Girl, let me see it!", said Papi grabbing the little book from the Little Girls hands.
"It is a book of how to save the jungle animals!", said Papi.
"Like how to help the animals if they fall ?", asked the Little Girl.
"Yes, you can say that little Girl".

Another great moment

Another great moment.
My daughter got entranced by reading the first mock-up of the new book. Received the print in the mail, and couldn't rest until i went through the ritual of reading a story to my daughter.

She loved the story, she really liked it and said to me that she liked it, "Papi, the story is beautiful!".
That is a huge motivator to continue.
While reading, and many days after having sent the story for creation of the mock-up , we really get a new feeling for the story. Some paragraphs that are not needed, they do not add anything to the story, and just makes the story to long for the kids. Other sentences are too elaborate for the kids, so need simplification. It is a huge pleasure doing this, and we do it with the feeling of creating something.
It is really indeed a great experience.
Now I'm doing the first proof-reading of the books in both English and Portuguese. And a dear friend is helping me with the German version as well.
excited moments these that i am living now, creating something, and especially feeling committed to my own promise made in July 2013 to myself.
A huge thanks to all the fans that have inspired me to carry on.

Milestone 2014 T-Shirts

Today we have a different entry, today I am not writing you another story.
Today I am writing something very personal, today I am writing about a milestone from my resolutions 2014.
I received today the T-Shirts for the family to use at the promotion day for the future book "We didn't fly to that cloud yet".

This helps me visualize and focus on what to do :) and it keeps the family on the timeline.
Small steps indeed, and I was so happy to see my daughter excited about the T-shirts that match Papi's book.
Also bought some new books to keep me inspired. I strongly recommend the following 4 books that has created new reading moments with my daughter.

English versions at Amazon.co.uk:

• Guess How Much I Love You Here, There and Everywhere by Sam McBratney
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle
• The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister

German versions at Amazon.de:

• Weißt du eigentlich, wie lieb ich dich hab? by Sam McBratney
• Die kleine Raupe Nimmersatt by Eric Carle
• Brauner Bär, wen siehst denn du? by Eric Carle
• Der Regenbogenfisch by Marcus Pfister

Resolution 2014

Today we have a different entry, today I am not writing you a story.

Today I am writing you something very personal, today I am writing one of my resolutions for 2014.
And from the results of my blog from 2013, I fully believe that I can achieve my goal. I received a little help from a friend and her blog "Marketing research without the jargon" by Ana Canhoto.

I have today a written physical draft of a book of what my final book can look like.

I just received in the mail via FedEx the first printed versions of the book. It came to life using the services of Blurb Books. It is far from being the book I want, but it is physical evidence that I can do it. And seeing it in hardcover format, allows to better understand what it can look like, and what it needs to be closer to what i want the book to become. A huge thanks to Angela Gaehtgens, my executive coach, that teaches me visualizing the success is part of achieving it. Today with this physical evidence, the exercise just became much more easier.

By writing my short stories and ideas in this blog, I am little by little compiling enough material to provide the content needed for the book.

The tip of writing, just writing, and especially doing it in a blog, I got in a book that I searched to coach me into writing it. This book "Write a Book in a Weekend" by Donna Kozik provided a lot on insight into getting your work on to the ground. But speaking of references, a real life changer was the book "Your Writing Coach" by Jurgen Wolff that puts everything you need to write a book into perspective with huge amount of information to make your book solid with content.

All my content are stories, short stories. And I found a great place to test this stories and get feedback on them. I strongly recommend you visit a Toastmasters Organization club. You will be surprised, there are clubs everywhere, probably extremely close to you and you have never noticed. Find one near you and ask for participating in a session. It was for me a fantastic place for telling my stories and get feedback on how I can make them better and how I can deliver them with more impact. A huge thank for my friend Filipa Valente that took me into one of this sessions for the first time at Young Entrepreneurs Toastmaster Club. A huge thanks to a lot of toastmasters that gave me a lot of feedback and enriched my life. I would like to say here the name of all of them, but where so many that it is difficult for me to not forget some.

In the beginning I was pictures of the events for the stories, thanks to the feedback of my dear friend Alex Frank, I use now my own drawings for enriching the message. After all it is easier to convey imagination in a drawing that it is in a picture. I will revisit my few blog posts done so far with pictures and little by little replace them with drawings.

So if I was able to produce a pretty decent book so far, I imagine that collecting a richer material will allow the content to become much more interesting and mold-able by the editor. So during 2014 I will definitively put a lot more investment into writing my short stories and keep them flowing. I believe by doing so I will have enough material for bringing the book to life in 2015. Nevertheless I will do a new print run by end of 2014 and hope to make it very close to a definitive book.

I just need one more thing for the success, I would like you as a reader to provide me feedback on what i have written so far. After all, despite the book being the result of my creativity, I do like to know that what I create links somehow to the readers. The book is for their joy as much as it is for mine.

You all have a fantastic 2014, and put in your resolutions to provide me feedback.
Happy New Year.

Alex.

Statues at the Swimming Pool

Ever been with your kids in an environment with only people without kids ? How did you feel ? Did the other people make you and your kids feel welcome ? Do you get the other people might have never in their life been children ? Or do you feel you invaded their small space the came to refuge from children ? Did you enjoy yourself ? Do you make sure your kids feel loved and enjoyed in such places ? Tell me your story, here is mine...

The little girl arrived at the swimming pool. She loved the water, she always wanted to play in the water, it was always an adventure. The little girl still remembered the crocodile swimming to catch up with captain hook.
But this time it was different, it was the first time the little girl came to this swimming pool. It was the first time the little girl saw a swimming pool at a castle. The castle was big, lot of people were walking around, but here at the swimming pool, all the people where just sitting in beds and chairs around the pool. The people did not move, they seemed to just stare emptily at the books in their hands.

'Papi, the people don't move ?'

´They are statues little girl, they are statues, we are alone in the swimming pool'
With this the little girl jumped into the pool, making a huge splash. It was true,the people around the pool were just statues. The little girl laughed loudly, she was playing in the water, she splashed, made waves, jumped, laughed and jumped again with a splash.
The statues did not move, but the little girl did not worry, she was happy, she was alone at the pool, nobody to tell her to be quiet. It was bad when she was at home and the bad man from the floor under was always complaining at the little girl, she laughed and the old bad man banged on the floor.
But this time it was different, the sun was shining, and she was alone in the pool with Papi, she could make all the noise she wanted, only Papi and some statues reading books.