Books

(photo credit Nathan Myhrvold – this is NOT the cover, though)

Title reveal for my next novel!

Update September 2021

Now, why am I posting a picture of a snowflake?

I’m posting it because snowflakes play a small but important part in my coming book: the sequel on Maria. Today, I can reveal that the title of the book is going to be:

”Who’s Maria again?”

(Whether the novel will end up with a subtitle as the previous one or not is yet to be decided…)

Snowflakes, besides being extremely beautiful, each has a uniquely identifiable shape, and that’s a thematic thread running through the story which, by and large, revolve around identity. In this case, my protagonist. young Maria loses sight of hers and has to re-discover it, as many of us experience, particularly in the confusing phase that is adolescence.

I believe we are born with a unique essence but in an often overpowering, noisy world it can easily be lost, thwarted, exploited, swayed – scattered. This happens not only for sensitive people of course but maybe especially for sensitives. We’ll be lead astray in numerous ways: trying to fit into some familial or societal pre-defined role, blindly going down familiar, at times dysfunctional, paths. Often one has to remember, reclaim or retrieve that core identity over and over. Luckily many sensitive souls have a strong intuition as well as less tolerance for being out of alignment with their authentic self which is helpful in this regard.

Snowflakes are also frozen water. Flowing water is often a symbol of emotions while in its frozen state it can metaphorically depict a ”frozen in fear” state in us, places where chunks of energy and/or emotions, for some reason, were not able to flow but instead got stuck or suppressed inside.

Many people have to deal with their childhood coping mechanisms and/or freeze response growing up, and so does Maria in this coming-of-age story.

I feel the audience for my new book is probably primarily teens or young adults but I, as always, aspire to write conscious storytelling that speaks to sensitive, and maybe a bit softhearted, folks of all ages.

If all goes smoothly, the book might very well be published before Christmas 2021:)

I’m very pleased with the design:)

Here I am, showcasing and reading a snippet from it:

My debut novel is released!

The title of my book is “What’s the Matter with Maria?” with the subtitle “A tale of love and return” and it’s about a highly sensitive and spirited girl named Maria, who lives in a small village on the island “Matter Island”. It touches upon several themes: familial and cultural influences on a sensitive child, bullying as well as the importance of learning to listen closely to our feelings and honor the language of the body: the inherent value of our sensations and emotions.

It’s a somewhat sentimental story with a hint of magic. A timeless tale, parable and heroine’s journey: its own lovely mixture of genres:)

It is for highly sensitive and introverted preteens. Empaths and INFP/INFJ types, also; perhaps simply sensitive souls:)

You can find it as an e-book on Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/author/monakristensen or choose another preferred e-book store:

https://books2read.com/Whats-the-Matter-with-Maria-Mona-Kristensen/