About the Author
“Tod B. Steward has been writing in one form or another since he was a boy. Much of his writing for children has been inspired by travels with his wife, son and daughter, where he keeps finding stories just waiting to be told. Currently living in Virginia, he has finished Painting Aalesund and Juliet’s Opera, both published or soon-to-be-published by Tate Publishing.
He has recently finished a story about a cat named Enzo, who lives in Rome, Italy and has just sent to Norway for review the manuscript for another story from Norway. He is in the midst of writing a second Evelyn Burke Adventure and also a story that takes place in the north of Italy. And sitting on his desk are stories from France, Great Britain, the United States, and even from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.”
I finished the first story, Painting Aalesund, a year ago last January. My wife read it and my children read it and they liked it. And my mother listened while my daughter read it very well and she liked it, too. But I was still not sure what to do with the thing. Would anyone else like it? So there it sat. Then I was sitting on a train with a man who owned a self-help publishing house. “What should I do?” I asked. “Send it in,” he suggested. “What have you got to lose?” After that the story sat for a while longer until I decided to test the waters by sending it to just one publisher. Six weeks later that publisher - Tate - called to see if I would like them to publish the story. Well, since then the publisher and I have worked hard to get the story ready to be a book. And in the meantime I have shown the story to everyone who was interested. And they’ve loved it!
It has been a real pleasure to hear that people enjoy Painting Aalesund, Juliet’s Opera and a third story which we have not yet scheduled to publish. In fact, it was an extra thrill to hear from two people who have read all three stories, “Well, I like them all, but THIS ONE is my favorite!” Who’d have thought?
So I hope you enjoy reading Painting Aalesund and Juliet’s Opera and when the next one is published, I hope you will like it as well. I also hope you will write to tell me what you think. And if after reading them you have a favorite, I hope you will tell me that, too.
