The Making of Saturday Magic: A Behind-the-Scenes with Co-Author Nyasha Williams
As we close off Black History Month for 2024 and welcome Black Children's Book Week, I wanted to share more about one of my books coming out this year. I have two pub dates this year. One is the book I co-authored with my mother-in-love, my husband's mom, Kenda Bell, and we wrote Saturday Magic. The other book I have coming out this year is a seek-and-find book, so think, Where's Waldo?, but diverse because I had yet to see Black representation in seek-and-find books. Where is Koketso? comes out at the end of this year. I wanted a playful book that visually challenged what has been done and seen.
I speak that my work ripples out as a catalyst for present and future dreamers to be inspired, critique, and create beyond.
You can pre-order Saturday Magic and Where is Koketso?. Pre-orders are super important for authors because it informs publishers of interest in an author, lets them know they made a good choice in investing in us as an author, and shows that there's demand for the book, which helps get the book into more spaces. Target, Barnes and Noble, and tons of different bookstores are more likely to pick the book up if they see that the pre-orders are doing well.
My mother-in-law was a huge part of my spiritual awakening, and while I believe we have many spiritual awakenings in our lives, she was part of the one that encouraged me to step into Ancestral Veneration, so it seemed very suitable to collaborate on this project. It is the second co-authored project I have traditionally published. The first was my Oracle Deck with my sister, Grace Banda. Together, we wrote our Oracle deck, Elemental Alchemist, which came out in the fall of 2023.
Saturday Magic is about highlighting our practices in working with our Ancestors. It centers on being in connection with one's Ancestors through a child's point of view and moving in relationship with their neighborhood and family. That's the roots of where the story started stemming from for the both of us. If you want to learn more about the book's birth, join me on Substack.
Ways to support me as an author:
Subscribe to my Substack
Pre-order my upcoming books: Saturday Magic / Where is Koketso?
Support around starting my publishing company
I am working on building a publishing company, Fire + Honey Press. There are so many needs in the publishing world regarding the evolution of the systems that are the current state of publishing. The publishing is still super white. What's being published is still stuck in old paradigms. I want to be a spark toward transformation in literature and publish to people that traditional publishing wouldn't take on due to the risk of their bottom line. It's always about money, profit, and editing stories for their audiences. Editing stories to what is palatable to the white world because we are still measuring things based on these systems. Looking at success in terms of whiteness. I am intentionally shedding and breaking free of that, which is the work I'm doing right now.
Read further on Substack: