Taliba Morgan releases book series, Lizzy and the Magic Coat
Published:Wednesday | April 1, 2015 | 4:31 PMCurtis Campbell
Jamaican author Taliba Morgan has released her debut children's book series called Lizzy and the Magic Coat. Unlike her brothers and sisters of the Morgan Heritage reggae band, who are predominantly music practitioners, Taliba has directed her attention to writing and hopes her first effort will impact the socialisation of minors in a positive way.
Lizzy and the Magic Coat tells the story about a curious young girl who is a witch in training. However, in order to complete her magical training, she must learn important values such as obeying her parents, among other behavioural practices normally required by parents of their children. On Lizzy's journey, she also encounters various situations, which teach her important life lessons.
An excited Taliba Morgan told The Sunday Gleaner that Lizzy and the Magic Coat was inspired by her young daughter and her late mother.
"I have always had an interest in the arts - even as a child I used to write short stories. I started off acting and my father sent me to theatre school, so I later developed an interest in screenplay writing," Morgan said.
"I first wrote this story as a gift to my daughter. However, I decided that I wanted it to be published, because reading is fundamental and this is something my daughter can remember me for," she said.
PUBLISHED INDEPENDENTLY
The book was published independently through Amazon's 'CreateSpace' publishing arm. Taliba Morgan said she decided to push the book using her own resources, after being sidelined by several publishers who were more focused on lending their services to more established writers.
"I went to some publishing companies; however, they said they wanted me to get a bigger name first. So I decided to sign up with 'CreateSpace' as an independent writer. Persons who have read the book thus far have stated that it is refreshing and they want to see more books about characters of colour, because we don't have enough of that. It is relevant in places like the United States, which currently has issues with race," she said.
Lizzy and the Magic Coat is available for purchase on Amazon Europe, Amazon Great Britain, Kindle, and Barnes & Noble. Amazon digital outlets are selling copies for US$9.99 while Barnes and Nobel are selling their copies at US$10.28.
The author will also launch a literacy campaign called 'Dream 1000' this summer in support of the book. To keep up with the campaign, persons may log on to www.little-lizzy.com. A donation of 1,000 copies of the book will also be made to community-based organisations, and charities in New York.
"The campaign is geared towards building literacy. We will also partner with some companies to donate schoolbags and other supplies like calculators, pens, pencils, etc," Morgan said.
Lizzy and the Magic Coat will be a seven-part series, and Morgan, who owns her own production company called Nagrom Films, hopes the story will eventually be transformed into a cartoon. She is now looking for potential investors, plus a distribution deal in the Caribbean for the book.
"We are hoping somebody from the Caribbean will see this article and come on board because we want to be distributed in that market as well," she said.
Taliba Morgan also disclosed that she has the support of her siblings from Morgan Heritage, who have been promoting her work via social media.