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The Witches Three Count on Me! (Booking Authors Ink) and you can count on them to provide some spooky and magical mayhem to your bookworm lifestyle. It’s created by authors Lynda Bouchard and Yates Davis along with the gifted illustrator Kody Kratzer. 

Get ready for an extraordinary night: Halloween. One mischievous runaway boy disappears into the deep dark woods and what does he find hidden in the eerie wilderness? Three witches practicing some mysterious magic and maybe preparing to use it on little boys like him! Will he make it out of the woods alive? Our young narrator’s mind whirls with a vivid imagination even as the world around him becomes supernaturally charged on the scariest night of the year. 

When faced with the unpredictable, there is a certain arsenal of skills that come in quite handy; courage, a willingness to take risks, resilience and a healthy dose of clever quick thinking. There’s no one way to handle it, and no one knows what’s the truth when magic comes out to play. This delightfully bewildering book is a fun teaching tool for parents and educators and a captivating adventure for school-age children. We managed to pin down the terrifyingly talented Lynda Bouchard to ask some fun questions about her book, perfect as the haunting holiday fast approaches. 

Q: How did The Witches Three Count on Me come about?

A: As a literary publicist for high profile and emerging authors for more than two decades, I know the Sisyphean effort of launching a book into the world. So I’ve been quite content on this side of the writer’s fence. Until now. Several years after the death of my husband, Yates Davis, I picked up his unfinished children’s book manuscript and finished it as a way to honor him and the legacy he wanted to leave behind. This was a story he poured himself into. There was a sense of joy as he wrote and it speaks to the healing power of stories as medicine for the soul. Writing is always an act of courage and I felt a great responsibility to share this story with others. His unfinished manuscript was a precious parting gift. It made me an author.

Q: The book is filled with teachable moments and life lessons. Tell us about some of those important messages.

A: The underlying themes of bravery, thinking differently and self-confidence are through lines of The Witches Three Count on Me! The boy in the story runs away from home on Halloween night and comes upon three witches in the dark forest behind his house. As they try to capture him, he uses his wits to escape. Children believe that anything is possible and, for the little boy, failure is not even an option! We all have a choice in how to act in challenging situations. The little boy chooses to react with confidence and by doing so he discovers he can do extraordinary things by believing in himself and that grownups don’t have all the answers. There is no greater magic than childhood!

Q: You say that facing your fears has never been so much fun. How so?

A: The little boy is delightfully precocious. When he discovers the three witches and they see him, too, he is initially frightened, but he musters up courage even though he is outnumbered. He uses a clever riddle to outsmart them. It’s great fun to see the way he uses humor to diffuse the tricky situation. 

Q: Why did you decide to write the book in rhyme and employ many “whimsical words” for children?

The original draft, written by my husband, was in rhyme. It was still a very rough first draft and so I revised and tightened it to make it more lyrical. Yates and I were creative collaborators throughout our marriage. We believed in raising the bar linguistically in our own vocabulary and used new juicy words every day with each other and incorporated them into our conversations with others. It was fun. He never believed in pandering to children. He wanted to make the reader run to their dictionary to look up the meaning of a word! There were words in the manuscript that I didn’t even know such as “Bombazine.” Hello!

Q: Talk about the collaboration with your illustrator. 

A: Typically, illustrators are matched with an author when traditionally published. They may never meet or talk to each other, and this was a huge consideration for me and one of the reasons I decided to self-publish. It was important for me to retain creative control. I found Kody Kratzer through SCBWI and we had the same creative sensibilities. She was a joy to work with. I learned so much about the importance of having a happy marriage between the words and the illustrations. Ideally, the words should enhance the illustrations. Often the pictures fill in where the story can’t because of brevity so the illustrations enhance the narrative. One thing we spent a lot of time discussing was the cover. I knew that it had to be GREAT because it is the #1 marketing consideration. We spent a lot of time perfecting it. People mistakenly think it is easy to write a children’s book. Because every word must count and move the story forward together with the illustrations, editing is enormous and time consuming. And worth it. 

Q: What is your next writing project?

A: I am never not writing. As a literary publicist my secret weapon is writing. I write articles for various publications on behalf of clients and about the craft and business of the publishing landscape. I write creative press releases and media pitches, and I am currently working on a draft for a nonfiction book about lessons from the road: what I learned while traveling with and working alongside some of the most high-profile authors on the planet. The most beautiful thing about working with writers is that I have met so many diverse and special people that I never would have … were it not for books.

Q: What words of wisdom can you offer parents who are considering this book for their children?

This is a book you’ll want to return to again and again, even when it’s not Halloween. It is rollicking good fun to read and it introduces new words for children and adults! The centerpiece of the story is the riddle which is a creative way to introduce math and make it enjoyable and interactive. This story engages readers on every level. It’s a whirlwind adventure, it introduces new words and it makes math fun! Think of it as the trifecta of childhood learning.

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About Lynda Bouchard:

Lynda Bouchard is a literary publicist, podcast host and accidental author. She’s the founder of Booking Authors Ink, a boutique marketing firm dedicated to Southern authors. Lynda created a niche for herself in the publishing world by being the first literary publicist to focus on the Southern (U.S.) region. She has been working with, traveling with and creating ‘outside-the-book’ marketing campaigns for high profile and emerging authors for over 20 years. Lynda is also the host of the Literary Latte podcast where she goes beyond the book and talks with Southern writers about their back-story.  

Lynda is a popular speaker and podcast guest. Lynda believes that book marketing is all  about collaborative storytelling. She shares her unique advice about publicity and marketing as a columnist for Where Writers Win and Southern Writers Magazine. Lynda holds a Masters Degree in Public Relations from Boston University and did post-graduate work in Literature at Oxford University in England. When she isn’t busy creating insanely creative publicity campaigns, Lynda spends time volunteering for Literacy Councils in North and South Carolina and for her local chapter of Donate Life helping create awareness for the importance of organ donation. She is the author of the children’s Halloween book The Witches Three Count on Me!  (2021)

Judy Moreno

Judy Moreno is the Assistant Editor at BookTrib and sincerely loves the many-splendored nature of storytelling. She earned a double major in English and Theatre from Hillsdale College after a childhood spent reading (and rereading) nearly everything at the local library. Some of her favorite novels include Catch-22, Anna Karenina, and anything by Jane Austen. She currently lives in Virginia and is delighted to be on the BookTrib team.

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