A Global Hollywood by Nancy Stewart, author of Sea Turtle Summer

Our guest Nancy Stewart author of the children’s picture book, Sea Turtle Summer, talks about her adventures seeing movies in exotic places. She is on virtual book tour from December 5 - 16, 2011 on her second virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book!

Nancy’s web and blog sites are: http://www.nancystewartbooks.com and http://www.nancystewartbooks.blogspot.com

About Sea Turtle Summer  

Bella and Britt think living by the beach is the coolest thing ever.  When they discover a Loggerhead Sea Turtle laying her eggs in broad daylight, the girls go into action to help. 

No one, though, seems to care about the nest.  The beach is a busy place and is getting busier by the minute on such a beautiful summer day.  What can they do?  Who will help, and what do they learn about themselves? 

As a bonus, Sea Turtle Summer contains kid appealing facts about sea turtles.

A Global Hollywood

From Capetown to Morocco and Paris to Tel Aviv, I’ve been a film fan and have seen movies in those places and many others.  Today my mission is to speak a bit about my travels and films I’ve seen along the way. 

I’ve been fortunate to have been around the world and back again.  I’ve also had the great good fortune of living in London for eight years.  So, where do I begin?  London.

The UK in general and London in particular, have played a huge role in my adult life.  We loved to go to the Odeon Theatre in Leicester Square, heart of London’s entertainment world.  Another great movie house we attended was the Odeon Marble Arch.  Our favorite, though, was in Whitley’s mall in Bayswater.  So many Sunday afternoons, we’d see a film with our dear friends, the Elliotts, there; great memories. 

One of the most memorable films I’ve seen is Out of Africa.  The film was good, but where we saw the movie made it spectacular, Nairobi, of course.  There was something magical about viewing it there, within almost walking distance of the suburb of Karen, named for Karen von Blixen, heroine of the true story.  The film came alive for me and I cannot see it without reliving the magnificent experience of Kenya.

Another memorable film was The Green Mile.  We saw it in a movie theater in the Galilee area in Israel.  It was a wee day, and we were the only people in the theater.  In the middle of the showing, the film suddenly stopped.  My husband and I thought there must be a problem with the projection.  Within a few seconds, a woman walked down the aisle and stood facing us in the row of seats ahead and smiled.  She politely told us it was Intermission, and they had a full range of refreshments.  Of course, we went out, got a Coke Light and popcorn and returned to our seats.  Within a few minutes, the same woman came down the aisle, stood where she had before, and said the film would be resuming.  Ever since, I’ve had a soft spot for The Green Mile. I can’t say I particularly enjoyed the film, but the experience was fantastic!

The Lives of Others is a marvelous German film about the Stasi and the Cold War.  We were fortunate to have seen it in Berlin.  Again, what a backdrop for a film about the secret police in a time before the Berlin Wall fell.  The movie was a masterpiece, perhaps all the more so, as later that evening, we walked down the Unter den Linden Boulevard and through the Brandenburg Gate, where so much German history has occurred.

These are but a few of the film experiences my family and I have had over the years, as we’ve traveled this beautiful planet.  In my blog, http://www.nancystewartbooks.blogspot.com  I address many places I’ve been and the impact they’ve had on me and others.

In writing children’s books, I try to incorporate travels and the education I’ve received from being a citizen of the world.   I always call it “coinage in my head.”  Once the experience is there, it grows and becomes part of the collage of other travel memories.  And that becomes part of the whole person, ready to be visited to make a richer book.  How marvelous is that!

About Nancy Stewart

After having been both an elementary school teacher, a university professor of education and a consultant for New Options, Inc. in New York City, Nancy Stewart writes children’s books full time.   She, her husband and three sons, lived in London for eight years, where she was a consultant to several universities, including Cambridge. 

 Her travels take her extensively throughout the world, most particularly Africa. Nancy is US chair of a charity in Lamu, Kenya, that places girls in intermediate schools to allow them to further their education. 

Nancy is the author of the Bella and Britt picture book series, One Pelican at a Time, Sea Turtle Summer, Bella Saves the Beach and Mystery at Manatee Key. All are published by Guardian Angel Publishing. Pelican was nominated for a Global eBook Award. Pelican also won the Literary Classics Seal of Approval.

She was featured in the PBS Tampa (WEDU) series, Gulfwatch.  It concerned the writing of One Pelican at a Time:  A Story of the Gulf Oil Spill.

She and her family live in St. Louis and Tampa.

Nancy’s web and blog sites are: http://www.nancystewartbooks.com and http://www.nancystewartbooks.blogspot.com