The Story of the Story by Mariosa

"Madame’s Journey Home is a true story that happen many years ago when my son was young. We had found an injured Monarch butterfly we named Madame, just before a killing frost and took her home. Each time I would tell someone the amazing journey we had with her, they would say, “ what a beautiful, touching story. You should make that a children’s book.” So the idea of creating a book began to take seed. As Antwan grew into his teen years he became interested in art and I encouraged him to illustrate the story . He did, but before getting it to the publishing stage, he suggested that I illustrate it as well. Although I have always been creative, I had not drawn since high school , so beginning was very difficult and a few more years went by. Antwan was now out of art school and in 2010 I moved to Mexico and had more free time.

Mexico had been an important part of the story of Madame’s Journey Home and now I was actually living very near the Monarch wintering grounds. It had been a long time dream of mine to go the Monarch reserve in Michoacán, Mexico. In the spring of 2011, on a very important birthday, my brother and I traveled there for the most amazing experience of being with millions of Monarchs in the silence of the deep forests where they have made their epic journey for eons. After the trip I again thought about how lovely this story was and what an impact it had had on those who heard it. I had a deep desire to bring this book into fruition once again.

The Monarch story is amazing, yet delicate, since humans have effected the eco-balance they need to survive, both in the United States and Mexico. I felt it was more important than ever to keep their story in the public eye and especially in the hearts of children, who will be their future caretakers.

I was now living in a town ranked as one of the top 10 artistic towns in the world, San Miguel de Allende. So with many peoples encouragement I began the process of illustrating the book myself. The colors of Mexico are so very different than the United States and I was excited to experiment with them for depicting this colorful story. I had loved the illustrations Antwan had done with his very refined airbrush and colored pencil technique but I needed to find my own style. I used some of his original pictures as inspiration but eventually my pictures took on a very different look. It took me months and sometimes I would work for many hours in a day. I was finding real joy and enrichment in the process of illustrating the story as Antwan had suggested I would. I hired an editor who helped me find some new embellishments for the story . I felt she helped me make a good story great. Antwan came to Mexico to visit for several months and with his technical knowledge we collaborated with Createspace, an Amazon.com company, to get the book up for sale.

Using Madame’s story to illustrate the idea of life being an amazing cycle of transformation has since become a continuing story of personal transformation.

I hope to connect to use it to connect to children both here in Mexico and in the US. I a looking for an individual or company who will fund the purchase of a large quantity of the book so that it can be given to children in Mexican schools and also reading programs in the US.

This past winter my son, Antwan Ramar, came to Mexico and he drew people inside the book at art fairs. It was a great gift idea and so well received. The book can be ordered directly from him in Orlando, where he works for Universal Studios as a caricature artist. You can then email him pictures of the persons you would like drawn into the book and the address of the recipient. He then sends it out to them.

I have a great facebook page called madamesjourneyhome where I post lots of information of Monarchs and also maintain a blog. The book is available in both English and Spanish."

www.madamesjourneyhome.blogspot.com

www.antwizzle.blogspot.com

The book can also be ordered on createspace.com and amazon.com

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Hi Renee, thank you again for you support of our book.

Hope you cruise experience was good.

Much love m