Day 3 of My 13 Horrifically Silly Days of Halloween - Sandra Wilson

It's Day 3, and I've got another author for young people on offer for you: Sandra Wilson. Here we get a sneak peak at some of the artwork from her new book Spooky Stories and How to Write Them...

Just in time for Halloween comes a new book from Author Sandra Wilson that guides you to writing your own spooky story! Spooky Stories and How to Write Them was inspired by a painting the author created one day (and that will be on the cover). From the painting, Sandra began to imagine the Pumpkin Man telling spooky stories to his forest friends. She imagined each animal friend reacting differently to the story, depending on what might scare them, or how much they enjoy spooky stories. The idea of what kind of spooky story each character would react to became the inspiration for a lesson book on writing spooky stories.

A spooky story is a matter of perspective. Some things that may scare one person may not be scary to another. The book will take you on a story writing adventure where you can determine how spooky you want the story to be, what you think spooky is for certain characters and how you can put all your ideas together to create your own spooky story!

"Stories told in the dark around a campfire don’t need to have a lot of scare to them since the setting already creates a situation that would put people on edge. In fact, you only need one scary element in a story to make it scary. Elements of a story include the character (s), setting and situation. Picking something scary for just one of those elements is a good base for a scary story." And so the journey to your own spooky story begins!

I am Author Sandra Wilson, children's author and educator and founder of the Kindness Kangaroo Project. I have spent over 35 years working with children in some capacity; as a leader in Scouting and Guiding, as a tutor, as a drama teacher, as a homeschooler, in clubs and even in my education centre. For the last five years I have been working with children to create books. I have worked in classrooms, daycares and with other groups as part of the Kindness Kangaroo Project and together, these children and I have created nearly 40 picture books that embrace inclusion, acceptance, kindness and friendship.

With all my books I am looking to empower and inspire children and get the conversation started on topics like emotions (Emotional Animal Alphabet series), the environment (Super Kids Save the World series), bullies (The Unpleasant Pirates series), grief (The Feeling Empty series) and more.

I believe that words have power and we can use them to promote goodness in the world. We can offer them to children to inspire them, to empower them and to help express themselves. Stories are gifts that can be handed down, they are ways we can connect to what is happening in the world, to our feelings and those of others and to encourage us to do our best. I write stories with kids and for kids with the hope of showing them the magic of creativity to inspire and to empower.
​
I believe that children are our future
And we must nurture them and help them grow
Guide them gently on their own path
Then support them and watch them go

I believe we need to teach them what matters
Like compassion, understanding and more
We need to make sure they are comfortable to talk
And that we always have an open door
I believe that time spent with children
Is a benefit to both sides
And you can see for yourself
If you just look in their eyes
​I want children to know
No matter what chaos has swirled
I believe in the power they have inside
To make a difference in this world.

Find more from Sandra Wilson on Amazon