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Children’s Ballet Book: The Furry Princess

December 16, 2018 by 4dancers

Furry Princess

Today we have a special guest – Vicki Crain, author of the new children’s book The Furry Princess. This book is centered around dance, and because of her background and experience in the field, she was the perfect person to write it. Vicki was kind enough to take the time to share some thoughts about the book, the illustrations, and the process of bringing everything together with us here today.


Can you tell readers a little bit about your background in both dance and writing?

I’ve been a dancer and writer for as long as I can remember. I was a dancer and teacher for a regional ballet company in Central Illinois. I also danced with a small modern company in Chicago for a season and performed for many years with a Chicago-based production company. In 2009, I started a dance blog – Rogue Ballerina – which covered dancers and performances in Chicago. That led to freelance writing opportunities with CS Magazine, TimeOut Chicago, Front Desk Chicago, SeeChicagoDance, and Dance Magazine, among others and eventually lead to my current job as Marketing Manager at The Joffrey Ballet.

What made you want to write this book? How did the idea present itself to you?

I was talking with my friend (and boss at the time) and he asked me what I wanted to do with my life. I thought for a second and said, “Write children’s books.” I think I’ve always wanted to, but never realized it as a real possibility until that moment. He wrote “furry princess” on a post-it (that was a nickname for his dog) and said, “OK then, do it.” I went home and wrote the original manuscript that night and gave it to him the next day.

The storyline is a very inspirational one. Can you give our readers the basic idea of the plot?

Princess Sasha is a tiger about to receive her royal tiara. She’s got big feet, she’s shy and clumsy, and is nervous about being presented to the kingdom. Her best friend and her Mom convince her to take ballet classes where she finds self-confidence, becomes more graceful, and falls in love with ballet. She meets many new friends (all animals) and learns a big lesson by the end of the book.

What do you hope children will take away from this book?

The main theme is Believe in yourself. If you fall down, get up and try again. Of course, I hope they fall in love with Sasha and find inspiration in her personal journey.

You have a very talented illustrator for this book. Would you share a bit about him and how you two met?

Chris (Christopher Scott Bell Illustrations) is so talented! We met at a restaurant where he was working. I was a former employee and came in for dinner and the bartender introduced us and said he was an artist. We immediately became friends and started discussing making the book. Chris was so enthusiastic and had so many great ideas to add – it was a perfect match! He went to art school and received a degree from the American Academy of Art, fine tuning concepts and the artwork for the book along the way.

What was your process for creating the characters? Were any of them based on people you know, or how did you form their personalities?

Sasha just came out of me. Her family and some of the other characters were initially named after and had some characteristics of my friends and family, but much of the original manuscript got cut once we started the illustration process where we decided what could be shown verses what we needed to say in words. The original story would have been a huge book if we kept everything in. Chris added some new characters and really built the world Sasha lives in. The three main characters – Sasha, Cami the Crane, and Mona the Monkey – all have different little bits of my personality.

Vicki Crain
Author Vicki Crain, photo by Cheryl Mann

Every creative project has a few magical moments. Special things that happen along the way. Can you share one or two of these?

The biggest magical moment was when Chris finally found Sasha. He had been revising and tweaking her style for a while. I loved all of them, but one day, he said “I found her!” He was so excited, and she was perfect.

Another is the addition of Cami and Mona to the story. One of Chris’s school projects was to create a cover for a book. He added in a monkey (he just likes monkeys) and a crane as a nod to my last name. They were so cute that we had to add them to the story. Honestly, I initially wasn’t thrilled about going back and adding to the story, but we are so happy with the final product. I can’t imagine the book without them.

Of course, the most magical moment was when we opened the first box and held the finished product in our hands.

It’s often challenging to collaborate with another artist. How did you stay on the same page for this project? 

Luckily, most of the time we were on the same page. There were a few instances when we had to talk through a change or addition. Chris can visualize what he wants, but I need to see it finished and then take time to think about it. For years, we met at least weekly (that’s how #tigertuesday started) and talked through every aspect of the story, the design, the text…everything! We took the book apart and put it back together to make it better many times. We really trusted each other and our talents and instincts.

What was the easiest part of this book project? What was the most difficult?

The easiest part, by far, was writing the story. The editing process was challenging mainly because it was so time consuming. Everything took much longer than we anticipated, but we wanted to take the time and make sure the final product was exactly what we wanted. That is the main perk of being self-published.

Can we expect another book from you? 

Yes! We are planning to publish three books in this series. We are tossing around plot ideas and hope to begin working on the second book in 2019.


If you’d like to purchase a copy of this lovely book, please visit the website for The Furry Princess.

Filed Under: Books & Magazines Tagged With: #tigertuesday, American Academy of Art, ballet book, chicago dance, Chidren's Dance Books, Christopher Scott Bell Illustrations, dance books, dance writer, dance writing, Princess Sasha, Rogue ballerina, The Furry Princess, vicki crain

New LinkedIn Group For Dance Writers/Bloggers

June 9, 2010 by 4dancers

Today I just have a quick post for you…

If you are a dance writer or dance blogger, come and connect with your fellow writers on the new LinkedIn group for networking, advice and general companionship. It’s a great resource for both new and experienced dance writers.

And while you are at it…look me up on LinkedIn and connect! I’m under Catherine L. Tully…

Filed Under: Editorial, Social Media Tagged With: catherine l. tully, dance blogger, dance writer, linkedin

Guest Post: Writing About Dance

January 19, 2010 by 4dancers

Today I’d like to welcome Nina Amir, author of the popular dance blog, My Son Can Dance. I asked her if she would share some thoughts on writing about dance, and she was kind enough to oblige…enjoy!

I’ve been a journalist for more than 30 years. However, when I began writing back in high school, I never thought I’d one day write about dance, since I didn’t dance. It took having a son with aspirations of becoming a professional dancer to set me on the road to becoming a dance writer.

In fact, back in my high school days when I received my first by lines, and even after graduation from college with a degree in magazine journalism, I knew nothing about dance. I took a few dance classes in elementary school, but I only wanted to pursue tap, and the instructor insisted that I had to also take ballet. Although I understand why she imposed that rule now, at the time I had no idea and quit. It was only tap or nothing as far as I was concerned. Beyond that, I’ve always enjoyed watching dance and “going dancing.” That served as the extent of my dance education…until my three-year-old son decided he wanted to learn how to dance.

I have a tendency to focus my writing on the issues in my life. By that I mean that I like to find solutions to problems by seeking out experts and writing articles based on the information they provide. For example, when my son and daughter were forced to change schools three times in three years, I wrote an article about the affects changing schools has on children. When my children both found themselves in competitive situations—she as an ice skater and he as a member of a competitive dance team—I wrote about the risks and rewards of competition for young children. So, as my son got more and more involved in dance, I took the issues he faced as a young male dancer onto the written page…and into dance publications.

The first article I wrote tackled the issue of how to keep boys involved in dance and appeared in Dance Teacher magazine. At the time, I was thinking about the difficult time young boys have as dancers, since they are almost always the only males in their classes. This led me to begin on a larger project, one I continue working on today.

I began research for a book about how to mentor boys who want to become professional dancers. My premise revolved around the fact that boys who do want to dance as a career have at tough road to hoe to get onto that stage. Yes, the spotlight tends to be on them whenever they hit the stage, but when off the stage they get teased, ostracized and generally feel different then their peers who play football, soccer or do gymnastics and other “acceptable” male activities. They also have little time to socialize if they have friends outside the dance studio. I interviewed several professional dancers, wrote a book proposal and began marketing the book.

In the meantime, I began building a platform for this book. In other words, I began trying to build my name in the dance world. I continued to write for dance magazines, such as Dance Spirit, Dance Teacher and Movmnt, and I began a blog about my son’s issues in dance and outside of dance and my own issues raising a dancing boy.

These activities have actually proved quite rewarding. They’ve helped me become more knowledgeable about dance. They’ve also helped me open some doors for my son. And they’ve helped me find solutions to problems my son has faced as a dancer. (Once, when I wasn’t careful, my blog created a problem for him…but I learned about the boundaries I needed to stay within when writing about him and his dancing experiences.) Additionally, writing about dance has turned into a rewarding avenue for me as a writer. Since I have become quite interested in dance in general, I love writing about the subject, speaking with dancers, helping dancers, and generally supporting the art form.

For other people—writers and dancers—interested in writing about dance, here’s my advice on how to get started as a dance writer:

  1. Think about what issues you face or you see in the dance world. Propose these to editors, and do so with a personal twist. You don’t necessarily have to say that you experience the issue yourself, but let them know that you have seen the issue first hand or that you know people who have. If you or some other dancer you know has experienced something, in all likelihood other dancers have, too.
  2. If you can suggest professionals in the industry to interview, do so. Editors love it when you have new sources to offer.
  3. If you see something exciting happening regionally, don’t be afraid to send a query on the topic to a national magazine. However, you might want to try and give the story more appeal by tying in to a trend or other similar happenings across the country.
  4. Be sure to tell the editor why you are the best person to write this story. Don’t just include your dance credential; also include your writing credentials. You must be a good writer and researcher to write for a national magazine.
  5. If you’ve never done much writing and have no published clips, try suggesting a short piece for a section of the magazine that features short articles.
  6. If you don’t have published clips, try writing about dance for the local parenting magazine, regional publications or newspapers in your area. Once you can show that you can and do write about dance on a regional level, you’ll have an easy time convincing national editors that you can do the same—or better—job for them.
Human Kinetics Book

BIO: Nina Amir is a seasoned journalist, nonfiction editor, author, consultant, and writing coach with more than 30 years of experience in the publishing field as well as the founder of Write Nonfiction in November, a blog and writing challenge. Currently, she also serves as the Jewish Issues Examiner and a staff writer at Grocery Headquarters magazine. Additionally, she is the author of the popular dance blog, My Son Can Dance.

Using her degree in magazine journalism, she has edited or written for more than 45 local, national and international magazines, newspapers, e-zines, and newsletters on a full-time or freelance basis. Her essays have been published in five anthologies and can be found in numerous e-zines and Internet article directories. She also has a proven track record as a nonfiction book editor; her clients books have been successfully self-published and purchased by Simon and Schuster, William Morrow, Sounds True, and O Books.

Amir is an inspirational speaker, spiritual and conscious creation coach, teacher, and the regular holiday and spirituality expert on Conversations with Mrs. Claus, a weekly podcast heard in more than 90 countries and downloaded by 110,000 listeners per month (www.thefamilyyak.com). She has written and self-published 5 booklets and workbooks and currently is writing five books, including  So You Think You Wanna Dance, Advice and Encouragement from Professional Male Dancers for Those Who Want to Follow in Their Footsteps. Through her own writing and speaking, Amir offers human potential, personal growth and practical spiritual tools from a Jewish perspective, although her work spans religious lines and is pertinent to people of all faiths and spiritual traditions.

Amir lives in Los Gatos, CA , with her husband and two children.

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Filed Under: 4dancers, 4teachers, Online Dance Resources Tagged With: blog, dance spirit, dance teacher, dance writer, movmnt, my son can dance, nina amir

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