• Windsong Wendy

Windsong Wendy is a children's book about a hatchling that gets separated from her mother and ends up at an adjacent farm, Windsong Ranch. She was rescued by a kind lady and is named Wendy by the house cat called Pepper. She is then introduced to the outside world where she is slowly accepted by the other animals. It's a charming story of a nearly lost soul that finds herself.

It seems like a story that is most suitable for young kids. I find that this is more of a storybook (where you read it to your children) than a reading book where they would read it themselves. Officially the target demographic is between the ages of 7 and 11.

The author is Windsong Valley resident Margie Amos and I had a chance to ask her some questions about the book.



 WR  What was the inspiration for the story?
 MA  About three years ago my daughter and I rescued a little chick in our front yard. One of the hens from across the street (she lives in the Windsong Valley development where it edges up to a pocket of rural homes) came across and laid a clutch of eggs in our sidewalk area. One was a runt and got kicked out so we rescued it. We got a little box, set up a little heat lamp, put a little water in there. We chased around Wildomar looking for some mash —actually for someone to take her, but it took a couple of days until we found her a home.

A lot of the animals [came from our life], like Pepper was our cat's name. Annie is based on our dog JoJo, Sheila is based on a dog we had 15 years ago. When I was young I raised a hawk for a few weeks, so I put a hawk family in there. Sparky the sparrow, with the dart through its wing, was an actual sparrow that lived in our backyard for awhile.

 WR  Tell me about the illustrator Victoria Barras.
 MA  She's our friend. We go camping with them. She likes to draw and she's very good at it. We were talking about it one time. I said, "It would be cool if you could draw some pictures for me for my book."  So we sat down at one of our camp outs and we went through the story chapter by chapter. 

 WR  What was the publishing process like?
 MA  Initially I started to write the story because I like to write. I like creative writing, I've written articles for our car club. When I got inspired to write this story it just kept growing and growing and growing and I thought, "Well, this is long enough to, maybe, get it published." 

I was looking at publishers and mainstream publishing, if you're a nobody out there, is impossible. They even tell you upfront, "You send us a manuscript, we probably won't even look at it."

So I looked into self publishing. After calling and emailing a couple, I chose Archway. They are affiliated with Simon and Schuster, so if the book does well, they can pick me up for mainstream publishing.

 WR  How can I get a copy of the book?
 MA  You can go to Archway Publishing, they have a bookstore there (here's the link). It's also available on Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. I do have a website for the book (link) and a FaceBook Page (link). Any bookstore can order it. We were surprised to go online and see it on ebay where someone in Australia and someone in England were selling it.

Margie Amos seen personalizing a copy of Windsong Wendy.

If you'd like a personalized copy visit the facebook page and leave a message. For those that don't do FaceBook, use this link to the "contact" page on her website.

•      •      • 

A Jewish woman had two chickens. One got sick, so the woman made chicken soup out of the other one to help the sick one get well. — Henny Youngman

If regular strength Wildomar Rap makes you roll your eyes at times, they might actually get stuck in that position if you were ever to peruse any of my creative writing attempts.