Hopwood resident publishes first children’s book
Hopwood resident Eliza El has recently had her childrenĢƵ book “Dragon Tail: Book 1 — Adventures on the Mango Island” published with Austin Macauley Publishers.
The book is a story about a young dragon named Max, and the story line follows his innocent dragon routine on the beautiful and intriguing Mango Island — from bathing in fire, to flying around and stretching his wings, and then even making some new friends.
Inspired by her children and the relationships they have, El took it upon herself to create a story embodying the unique and adoring sociable qualities of these children.
El is originally from Siberia, Russia, and wrote several books before this — some of which were published in Russia.
Today she is a a stay-at-home mom.
Her idea to write the book came after her son told her he couldn’t find anything interesting to read.
“My oldest son is a great reader – he reads tons of books – and his younger brother Max wanted to be just as good of a reader, but he said he couldn’t find anything interesting to read,” El said.
“I asked him if he would read a book about himself,” she said.
When he replied “yes,” she said she would write him one, which she did – in one day.
“ItĢƵ actually based on a true story,” El said. “Some boy was mean to Max at school, and he told me about it, so we needed to find a solution.”
It took her one week to translate it to English, and from there she began looking at publishers.
“I knew for sure that the book was good and would be helpful not just for my son, but for any kid, so I didn’t even question myself whether I should or should not publish it,” El said. “As soon as it was written, I started to surf the internet learning how to do it.”
Austin Macauley was the first one to answer her and even though she got several responses after them, she decided to go with the one that responded first.
El has several more books in progress.
“Right now, I’m working on a book for my oldest son,” she said. After I wrote “Dragon Tail,” he said he wanted a book, too, so thereĢƵ going be a new Young Adult Fantasy book coming up.”
She also has two more smaller children who want their own books and “Dragon Tail” is planned to be a series of books, several more stories of which have already been written.
The book is available online at Amazon as well as Barnes & Noble and other bookstores around the country.