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Writing

Spivey’s Web, a Christmas Story: Interview with Author, Sandra Warren

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Spivey’s Web written by Sandra Warren; illustrated by Susan Fitzgerald. Available on Amazon.“Spivey’s Web, a Christmas Story: Interview with Author, Sandra Warren” by Joan Y. Edwards

Today, it is an honor to interview Sandra Warren, author of Spivey’s Web. Thanks for coming today, Sandra. I want to hear all about SPIVEY’S WEB, a picture book that’s out now that you had in your head for 15+ years! 

Sandra Warren

1.Tell us about Spivey’s Web.
I am very excited that Spivey’s Web is out now since it has a Christian twist at the end. It’s about a spider who wants to spin a web of her own design, not the expected web for a barn spider. After being ridiculed for her efforts, she moves to a window high in the loft and when the Star of David shines through, it sprinkles stars, like a disco ball, around a manger and calms a very special baby. Although the baby is not named, you can tell by the illustration that it’s the baby Jesus. I love the last line….My web didn’t catch flies. It caught the light!

Spivey’s web is more than a Christmas story, however. It’s also about having the courage to follow your heart and do what makes you happy even when everyone around says it can’t be done or it’s never been done like that. From Spivey we learn to never give up.
Writers take heed. When agents and editors say, no, no, sorry no, we have to keep at it and never give up because if we do, we’ll never know how close we came and we’ll never know what amazing things might come from our creative, imaginative minds. We all need Spivey’s courage to spin a web of our own design.

2. Did you submit Spivey’s Web to traditional publishers? Christian markets? 
Sandra: I tried for years to get Spivey’s Web traditionally published, but it was too secular for the Christian market and too Christian for the secular market. A major agent loved it until she got to the end and realized it was a holiday/Christian theme. She said she doesn’t do holiday books. Although I was still holding out for a traditional publisher, everything changed when I met an amazing artist. 

Spivey’s Web
https://www.amazon.com/Spiveys-Web-Sandra-Warren/dp/1981217673/

3. Marvelous illustrations. Who is the illustrator? 
Sandra: Susan Fitzgerald, oone of our part-time neighbors at Hidden Lake is a FINE artist who approached me asking if I’d LET her illustrate a manuscript of mine. I was floored because she’s an amazing artist who exhibits full-time in a gallery in Jacksonville. Her concept of Spivey and all her illustrations are fabulous in my opinion.

4. Did you encounter any problems with the formatting of the book?
Sandra: Oh my, yes! One problem we had that took us almost a day to figure out was that we were trying to put a landscape/horizontal illustration into a square template. A landscape picture book template was not offered by the company we chose. We also had trouble balancing the required minimum 300 dpi of each illustration for printing. It’s tricky to send illustrations through email without losing dpi. Now we know how to do it. Our original vision was to have a horizontal format with illustrations that bled off the page–flowed to the very edges. But because of issues with the horizontal formatting of the original artwork, we had to compensate by reducing the size of each illustration allowing for a border or frame around each. 

Here are suggestions if you’re self-publishing a book:

  • Make sure you download the publisher’s PDF Specification Guide from CreateSpace or other publisher and read it before beginning to make sure they print books in the size and format you want.
  • Don’t be afraid to contact Support if you have any questions. The folks at CreateSpace are very helpful! 

Despite all the formatting issues, we’re thrilled with the end result that Spivey’s Web is now available online. 

https://www.amazon.com/Spiveys-Web-Sandra-Warren/dp/1981217673/

Thanks for being a guest on my blog, Sandra. Thank you for offering a giveaway, too.. The GIVEAWAY was completed on December 21, 2019.

Thank you to all those who left a comment! You make my blog sparkle with excitement.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Sandra Warren’s website: http://www.sandrawarren.com
Sandra’s blog: http://sandrawarrenwrites.blogspot.com
Other books by Sandra Warren:

 

 

 

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Never Give Up
Joan Y. Edwards, Author
Copyright © 2018 Joan Y. Edwards
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