Meet Patricia Cardello, Author of The Magical Tale of Santa Dust

What inspired you to become an author?
I have always loved reading and writing and loved reading to my children when they were young. I would change my voice to adjust to the character in the story and drew my children in that way. I realized the power and impact that words could hove.
How did you come up with the idea for The Magical Tale of Santa Dust?
It was something that I would do with my children when they were very young. I would tell them that maybe Santa wouldn't be able to find them, and that we needed to let him know where we lived and guide him along the way. We made an event of it. We would mix whatever we could find in our kitchen into a large bowl and I called it Santa Dust. We then put our Santa Dust potion into plastic bags and we would then walk around our neighborhood sprinkling our little bags of Santa Dust hoping to guide Santa and his reindeer to our door. The kids believed in it''s magic and believed he saw the trail we left for him. Every year a few more children joined us on our Santa Dust walks and it became a tradition in our neighborhood. My girls are now 13 and we still do it as a Christmas Eve. family tradition.
What was your favorite book as a child?
I loved all the Cat in the Hat books and when my girls were young I would read a book called Corduroy to them - this was their favorite.
What do you hope readers will learn from your book?
The concept of the book is "Believe". You must Believe - to receive. This concept is the meaning of the last page of the book. As Santa is heading back to the North Pole he writes the word Believe across the sky - as in - believe in me.
Are you currently working on other books?
Not at this time. My ultimate goal is to segue the book into an animated feature film - similar to The Polar Express. When that is complete I will move in to the next book.
You can find out more about Patricia Cardello and her book by visiting www.magicdusts.com.
I have always loved reading and writing and loved reading to my children when they were young. I would change my voice to adjust to the character in the story and drew my children in that way. I realized the power and impact that words could hove.
How did you come up with the idea for The Magical Tale of Santa Dust?
It was something that I would do with my children when they were very young. I would tell them that maybe Santa wouldn't be able to find them, and that we needed to let him know where we lived and guide him along the way. We made an event of it. We would mix whatever we could find in our kitchen into a large bowl and I called it Santa Dust. We then put our Santa Dust potion into plastic bags and we would then walk around our neighborhood sprinkling our little bags of Santa Dust hoping to guide Santa and his reindeer to our door. The kids believed in it''s magic and believed he saw the trail we left for him. Every year a few more children joined us on our Santa Dust walks and it became a tradition in our neighborhood. My girls are now 13 and we still do it as a Christmas Eve. family tradition.
What was your favorite book as a child?
I loved all the Cat in the Hat books and when my girls were young I would read a book called Corduroy to them - this was their favorite.
What do you hope readers will learn from your book?
The concept of the book is "Believe". You must Believe - to receive. This concept is the meaning of the last page of the book. As Santa is heading back to the North Pole he writes the word Believe across the sky - as in - believe in me.
Are you currently working on other books?
Not at this time. My ultimate goal is to segue the book into an animated feature film - similar to The Polar Express. When that is complete I will move in to the next book.
You can find out more about Patricia Cardello and her book by visiting www.magicdusts.com.
Stacie Theis / beachboundbooks@yahoo.com / copyright 2012