About the Author

Martha M. Goguen
Martha Goguen enjoys Salt Spring Island living with her yellow lab, Sam. When she isn't writing, editing or reading books, Martha spends hours in the garden contemplating the next story.

A graduate of St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Martha enjoyed a successful 20-year career in human resources management before retiring to take on new challenges. She decided on writing children's books and maybe some other stuff... as yet to be developed. Thus Martha's Musings Inc. was born. (See www.MarthasMusings.com for more!)

Martha's goal is to give every child what Martha herself experienced with The Wonderful World of Disney and Dr. Seuss. These book series provided laughter, excitement and the thrill of possibilities. From that ideal, the Dream Believe Achieve(tm) series emerged.

About the illustrators

Amanda M. Nolan -- EMILY
To create the illustrations for EMILY, I used watercolour pencils on paper, and also washes of colour with watercolour paint. My influences were probably the bright, bold colours of Ted Harrison's artwork for such books as The Cremation of Sam McGee (by Robert W. Service) as well as Michael Martchenko's illustrations for Robert Munsch's children's books. I tried to imagine myself as a child again, and what sort of things I liked about kids' illustrations: quirkiness, bright colours and friendly faces. Family, friends and pets (I have 2 friendly bearded dragons) are also a source of love and inspiration for me.

I'm currently living in Vancouver with my boyfriend Devin, on the 13th floor (although they label it as being the 14th) in a tiny one bedroom apartment, overlooking English Bay. At the moment I am in my final year of studies at Emily Carr University, studying Visual Art, and also working at a First Nations Art Gallery (Lattimer Gallery) here in Vancouver.

My personal thoughts on dreaming/ believing/ achieving: Following your dreams is the key to living a happy life, and believing that you can achieve what you dream about will only lead to success and happiness. "If at first you don't succeed, then try, try, try again." Don't be let down, or give up on your dreams. Live your dreams.
-- Cheers, Amanda

Jessica B. Sanderson -- GLOBAL HEART WARMING
Jessica has been chasing her dreams since elementary school. Inspired by her 9-year-old son Dreyden and her Mom, editor Jae Desmarais, she fulfilled a lifelong dream to illustrate a children's book! Jessica lives in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and is studying to fulfill another dream -- becoming a veterinarian.

About The Books

EMILY: Dream Believe Achieve
Emily's dream is to move back to their family farm that sits uninhabited on land ruined by a bug infestation. This is a story about how Emily's dream comes true in a fun and inspiring way.

EMILY: DREAM BELIEVE ACHIEVE encourages children to believe in themselves and in the power of their dreams, appreciating what they have and being excited by possibilities.

Beautifully illustrated in colour throughout. Ideal for age levels 7 - 11 years of age ("I Can Read" Level 4 "the perfect bridge to chapter books"). A lovely gift for grandparents to give. A fun read for the teacher, parent and babysitter too!

In the spirit of paying it forward, for each DREAM BELIEVE ACHIEVE(tm) series book sold, ten percent of the net profits will be donated to one of five charities. At Martha's niece Emily's request, donations from the sale of EMILY: DREAM BELIEVE ACHIEVE books will be donated to Oprah's Angel Network (www.oprahsangelnetwork.org).

GLOBAL HEART WARMING: book 2 of the Dream Believe Achieve series

Join the fun and fly along with Dream Star as he looks for a way to send an important message that every human on Earth will understand.

GLOBAL HEART WARMING: DREAM BELIEVE ACHIEVE encourages children to believe in themselves and in the power of their dreams, appreciating what they have and being excited by possibilities.

Beautifully illustrated in color throughout. Ideal for age levels 7 - 11 years of age ("I Can Read" Level 4 "the perfect bridge to chapter books"). A lovely gift for grandparents to give. A fun read for the teacher, parent and babysitter too!

In the spirit of paying it forward, ten percent of the net profits received by Martha's Musings Inc. from the sale of GLOBAL HEART WARMING: DREAM BELIEVE ACHIEVE will go to World Vision (www.worldvision.com).

Read an Excerpt

Check soon at Amazon's Search Inside and Google's Book Search.
Or, download this PDF EMILY sampler (first few pages), and this PDF GLOBAL HEART WARMING sampler.

Buy this Book

Available now:

• EMILY - ISBN 978-1897435-21-2 trade paperback, and GLOBAL HEART WARMING - ISBN 978-1-897435-34-2 through Amazon.com, Amazon.ca and Amazon.co.uk via Agio's bookstores
• eBook editions as PDF download at www.lulu.com/content/4670673 for EMILY and www.lulu.com/content/7322372 for GLOBAL HEART WARMING.

Martha reads EMILY!

Reviews/Appearances

"Loved your book. Hey, it isn't often I read a whole book in one sitting! Once again you have struck a nice balance between uncomplicated language and clever wording. I enjoyed the many humourous nudges which only the older readers would get. The concept and telling thereof were most illuminating. Great illustrations too; a most attractive presentation." -- Joseph Casey

"Greetings Martha, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you so much for sending me a copy of your newest book, Global Heart Warming. We are so blessed and thankful that you have generously decided to donate 10% of the book's net profits to World Vision. It is through generous gestures like this that we are able to help the world's poor children. Blessings." -- Dave Toycen, president of World Vision.

RECENT AND UPCOMING APPEARANCES

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To arrange to interview the author, please contact us or go to www.MarthasMusings.com.