Winter’s Tale is the flagship title from Twelfth Planet Press’s new imprint, Titania. Written by Nike Sulway and illustrated by Shauna O’Meara, the Kickstarter is on right now and has some excellent rewards – go here and support it! Get an awesome book and other stuffs!
Today, TPP publisher Alisa Krasnostein talks about the new imprint and Winter’s Tale.
- What was the inspiration behind Titania?
My dear friends Kate Gordon and Deb Kalin approached me with the idea several years ago now. They had been working together developing the idea of the imprint and its focus. Both Kate and Deb have early readers in their house and had spent several years reading to their young ones. Out of that experience, they both felt that there is a very real need for more diversity and choice within children’s books. That obviously sits well within the Twelfth Planet Press mission and thus was born Titania.
- How did Winter’s Tale come together?
Kate and Deb fleshed out the imprint – naming it and approaching Kathleen Jennings to draw the Titania logo. They formulated the goals and objectives and once they knew what would be a Titania project, they then went ahead and approaching Nike Sulway about being involved. Nike wrote us Winter’s Tale.
- Did you match Nike Sulway up with Shauna O’Meara or did they come along as a package deal?
I matched Shauna O’Meara with Nike Sulway. As a publisher, I liked the freedom of choosing who the artist would be. I’d been wanting to work with Shauna for a long while and then this project came along and I realised she would really be the perfect fit for it. And she is!
- How do you feel it differs from a lot of children’s books already in the market?
Our focus is on offering children positive narratives with diverse characters. Winter’s Tale features an agender protagonist, gay adoptive parents, girls being awesome at skateboarding and sports, and a diverse ensemble cast of supporting characters. It’s a long book for a picture book and it’s aimed at an older child-aged audience. That said, my three year old has loved it since the first copies hit my house so I think Nike is right in saying it will have broad age appeal and the narrative will deepen to the age of the audience.
- What’s next for Twelfth Planet Press?
Just around the corner we have a second Kickstarter crowdfunding project! We will be publishing a sequel to a really popular Defying Doomsday anthology which featured disabled and chronically ill protagonists and heroes surviving the apocalypse. Editor Tsana Dolichva is coming on board again and bringing along Katharine Stubbs to coedit Rebuilding Tomorrow which will be set further in post-apocalyptic futures when societies are working towards a new normal. Rebuilding Tomorrow will be an anthology of post-apocalyptic hope, and again centred on disabled and/or chronically ill protagonists. Writers will want to know that there will be an open reading period in January for stories. Because Defying Doomsday was so warmly received and so important to so many readers, I’m so looking forward to this sequel.
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