Erika M Szabo: Author, Artist, Publisher
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    • Who Stole Terry's Music Box?
    • Pico, the Pesky Parrot
    • Terry and the Number Fairy
    • Look, I Can Talk With My Fingers
    • My Book-My Stories
    • Me Too
    • Creepy Hollow Adventures
    • The Haunted Bakery
    • Mira, ¡puedo hablar con los dedos!
  • FICTION NOVELS
    • The Ancestors' Secrets
    • OMEN
    • The Curse
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  • 7 COZY SHORTS
    • Alone
    • Fake It
    • The Ghost of Prince Akhmose
    • Messenger
    • The Potion
    • Bittersweet Memories
    • The Worthless Painting
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Imagination

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​Imagination is the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality.
What kind of world would we live in without the dreamers, J.K. Rowling, Tolkien, Stephen King, Asimov, Mozart, Puccini, John Lennon, and so on?

It was my grandmother who discovered my storytelling skills and inspired me to continue writing when everyone thought I was wasting my time writing books. I followed my dream to become a writer. As an artist, I paint pictures with my brushes, and as a writer, I paint pictures with my words in people’s minds.

When my imagination is triggered

Anything can trigger my imagination, any time.
An overheard word, a sad or happy smile, a scent that wakes a memory.
​Read the captions below the pictures to find out what triggered my imagination to write the story. 
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My fiction stories

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I wanted to write story that I would enjoy reading and I asked myself. What if there is a secret society with strict rules and laws exist hidden among us? What if certain members come to possess magical powers? What if those abilities could be used to do good as well as evil?
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Quería escribir una historia que me gustaría leer y me pregunté. ¿Qué pasa si existe una sociedad secreta con reglas y leyes estrictas ocultas entre nosotros? ¿Qué pasa si ciertos miembros llegan a poseer poderes mágicos? ¿Qué pasaría si esas habilidades pudieran usarse para hacer el bien y el mal?
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I always loved Christmas time at Rockefeller Plaza and midnight mass at St. Patrick cathedral. The memory of ice skating, the wonderful feeling of peace and the smell of roasting chestnut in the air triggered this love story.
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I was watching the Musketeer series on Netflix and my mind wandered off. I imagined a painter in France in the 14th century whose painting ends up forgotten in a family's closet in America. What if this painting would be found and after lots of confusion would bring two people together?
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I wasn't sure about the meaning of the word "acolyte" so I looked it up. It made me think of potions and witchcraft , especially white magic. What if a jealous girl makes a love potion? I thought, and the story started forming in my mind.
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I thought about what an old Native American woman told me once when I was her nurse in the hospital. She said my totem animal is the badger because I'm courageous, aggressive, healer, determined, focused, and confident. My imagination created a story about a doctor who gets a warning message from her spirit animal, the Raven.
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I was walking in the cemetery when I spotted a young woman standing by a grave. Her quiet grief made my throat constrict when a gust of wind showered her with magnolia petals. She looked up, held out her hand and a faint smile appeared on her face when a petal landed on her palm. She lifted it to her lips and whispered something.
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I wrote this short story remembering all the seemingly perfect families I've met in my life. They show a picture perfect-family life but hide the struggles, heartache, compromises, and sacrifices they made to get there.
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The idea to write this book came to me when I found an old letter from grandma and I started thinking... what if this letter was written by and ancestor who lived hundreds of years ago? What if it would contain information that could save someone in the present?
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I wrote this book to help animal shelters and dedicated to the good people who open their home to unwanted animals and provide them with shelter, food, and most of all, love. There are several stories within this collection that explore the best - and the worst - of humanity.
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My children's books

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Joe and I became friends on social sites, and I love his quirky sense of humor. When he approched me with the idea of co-authoring a children's book, my artistic talent was triggered right away. We had a lot of fun exchanging ideas while we wrote the story.
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This story is close to my heart not only because it's based on a childhood memory, but because Johnny, a nine-year-old cute as a button little boy who had leukemia, never had a chance to find out what happened to the kittens when I told him the story as a young nurse.
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I wrote this story after a train ride when I watched an adorable Spanish boy trying to make friends with an other boy on the train. The children seemed to have fun trying to understand each other for a few minutes until the blond child was pulled away by his mother. "Don't talk to him, he doesn't speak English," she said. The little Spanish boy had a disappointed, sad expression on his face when his mother tried to console him close to tears.
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This story popped into my head when I noticed that my dog, Lucky, made friends with a pregnant hedgehog and shared her treats with her. It reminded me how much my daughter loved stories with animals, and I added a grumpy elf who had a good reason to turn into a thief.
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This story was triggered by watching a hard of hearing lady struggling to understand what people were saying. The life of any disabled person is no fun and living with a disability has many challenges, but we can help to make their life easier and not harder.
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Esta historia se desencadenó al ver a una mujer con problemas de audición que luchaba por comprender lo que la gente decía. La vida de cualquier persona discapacitada no es divertida y vivir con una discapacidad tiene muchos desafíos, pero podemos ayudar a que su vida sea más fácil y no más difícil.
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Becky had the rough outline of a story of two boys who went into the bakery at night, on a dare. When Becky showed me the rough manuscript, I accepted the challenge of making the sketchy ideas into a great story together with Becky.
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I was reading about dream learning and the study immediately triggered this cute story how the Number Fairy help Terry to make sense of numbers.
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Read about me in my portfolio

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Erika M Szabo: author of fiction novels and children's books, publisher and artist.

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Copyright author Erika M Szabo, 2012 Read the privacy policy and disclaimer HERE If you find a picture and you recognize it as your own and not a public domain photo, please let us know ​CONTACT
  • HOME
    • PRESS RELEASE
    • VIDEOS
    • Photos
    • Privacy policy
    • Paying it Forward
    • DONATE
  • CONTACT
  • ABOUT ME
    • PORTFOLIO
    • THERE
  • NATURAL HEALING
    • ASTHMA
    • BIZARRE SYMPTOMS
    • Natural Skin Care
    • Healing crystals
    • Natural remedies
    • Aromatherapy
    • Pets and Fleas
    • Detox Your Body Naturally
    • HIGH CHOLESTEROL
    • Természetgyógyászat
  • READING ROOM
    • IMAGINATION
    • Magyar Könyvek
    • BOOKS on AMAZON
    • Read With Lucy
    • READ for ANIMALS
  • PUBLISHING
    • EDITING
    • Book Promotion
    • Book Formatting
    • ILLUSTRATION
    • Book Cover Art
    • Publishing Coach
  • My Thinking Board
    • Just For Fun
    • WRITING ESSENTIALS
    • THIS-n-THAT
    • Fun Shop
    • My bragging post
    • JUST FOR FUN
  • CHILDREN'S BOOKS
    • The Chunky, Dumpy, Spunky Monkey
    • A Basketful of Kittens
    • Who Stole Terry's Music Box?
    • Pico, the Pesky Parrot
    • Terry and the Number Fairy
    • Look, I Can Talk With My Fingers
    • My Book-My Stories
    • Me Too
    • Creepy Hollow Adventures
    • The Haunted Bakery
    • Mira, ¡puedo hablar con los dedos!
  • FICTION NOVELS
    • The Ancestors' Secrets
    • OMEN
    • The Curse
    • Rainbows and Couds
    • LIBROS ESPANOLES
    • Book Reviews
    • Book Characters
  • 7 COZY SHORTS
    • Alone
    • Fake It
    • The Ghost of Prince Akhmose
    • Messenger
    • The Potion
    • Bittersweet Memories
    • The Worthless Painting
  • AUDIOBOOKS
  • LIBRARY
  • ART
  • BOOKS
    • BUNNY