Sophie Masson's New Venture

Hi lovely readers. This morning I got the following email from Sophie Masson, author of so many wonderful fairy tale books (some reviewed on this blog), this time producing a children's picture book which contains two Russian fairy tales:

Dear everyone

This is to let you know about an exciting new adventure which I'm embarking on with two artist friends: illustrator David Allan and illustrator/designer Fiona McDonald(yes, at whose gallery we had the expo and launch). We have started a very small picture book publishing house called Christmas Press(print books, not e-books), and are preparing our launch title: Two Trickster Tales from Russia, featuring my retellings of the lively, funny folk tales Masha and the Bear and the Rooster with the Golden Crest, illustrated by David Allan in classic Russian-inspired style and beautifully designed by Fiona McDonald.

We're going to be printing a limited edition of 500 softcover books, in full colour, with an Australian printer, and plan to publish in October. And we have just started a 'crowdfunding' campaign for the book to help with printing costs. The way it works is people directly contribute to the campaign through its Indiegogo page:  http://igg.me/at/christmaspress/x/3485227 and hitting whatever amount and perk appeals to you.

You'll see there's lots of possibilities for contributing, but basically a $25 contribution is a pre-order for the book. But even if you don't contribute(and I totally understand if you don't want to!) I hope you might be able to tell lots of people about it through your personal contacts and social media contacts.
Thanks so much for reading this!

Best wishes

Sophie

If you follow the link, you'll find that there are other options, including getting a print of one of the illoes, but really, if all you want is a copy of the book, the price asked is about what you'd pay in a bookshop and it includes postage! Why not buy a beautiful book, written by one of Australia's best children's/YA writers and full of gorgeous illoes? They're hoping to raise $3500, which shouldn't take long, given the track record of the author and artists.

I'm not sure what the deal is for overseas, but if you live outside Australia and your mouth is watering at the sight of this, it should be worth emailing Sophie Masson to ask about postage.

The style rather reminds me, not only of Russian art, but of the Victorian/Edwardian English artist Walter Crane. Take a look:

This is an illo from the new book, from the story Masha And The Bear.

And here's one from Walter Crane's Little Red Riding Hood.

Both are gorgeous, eh?

If you're interested, follow this link.