An Interview with Author Leoni Robens | “ MAGIC COMPOSITIONS”

About the Author:

The author goes by the nom de plume Leoni Robens, loves writing poems of love, valour, knights in shining armour, giants and mermaids. She has won a scholarship in English and won certificates for elocution, drama, singing and handwriting. The author loves cooking, gardening, painting and singing and has sung in her mother-in-law’s choir for many shows performed on stage. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Commerce. An ardent fan of funny Mister Harindranath Chattopadhyay, as well renowned poets like Oscar Wilde, Mary Howitt, Christina Rosetti poems, that inspired her throughout childhood schooling. Her previously published books- “A Fairy’s Quill”: Poetry Book for Children, “Maguk World- Wonderland Carousel of Fairy Poems” and “The Maguk Well” are quite popular among young readers. “Live life to its fullest Blossom and Bloom Forever” is her motto! She lives in Mumbai with her husband, son, mother and her pet moustache Parakeet, Charlie Brown and Alice Liddle.

Exclusive interview with the author

Q: What Inspired You To Write This Book?

A:I was always drawn to the magic world of wonderment and as a child I loved reading fantasy fairy tales and short illustrated stories of magic with happy endings. As I grew older, yet very young my beloved mother introduced me to a vast array of children’s books and novels from the book vendors on streets as well as well known book shops like Sudarshan and Happy Book Stall in Bandra. It never ceased to add to my wonderment and form my own ideas for writing short stories and poems from an early age. “Magic Compositions, Stories reflecting Sea Creatures and sprites of the earth” is one of my latest book – magic world of inspired creations full of quirky and enjoyable stanzas of poetry, you wouldn’t want to miss and will thoroughly enjoy!

Q: Can You Tell Us About The Book?

A: The book contains a selection of 40 amazing poems of sea world and sprites of human kingdom about fairy tale heroes and heroines, of limerick and pun right from mermaids, mangroves, dolls, queens, kings, horses, robots, urchins, doll houses, fairy magicians, knights in shining armour and creepy Addam’s Family coming from Eden’s ancestors! It guarantees to fill your moments with promise and magic and infuse your spirits with right proportion of ingredients enough to quench your thirst for beautiful quirky and enjoyable stanzas of limerick and poetry!

Q: What Does The Title Mean?

A:The title “Magic Compositions, Stories reflecting Sea Creatures and sprites of the earth” Integrates sea kingdom and earth kingdom the beautiful sprites and creatures of both, woven into a fantasy dream world of magic compositions come really to life where the actors and heroines take form into magic mushrooms, mermaids, knights, princes, princesses, Kings of oyster shells and Prince Rocky Balboa, Prince of fairy tooth dreams, even Mango Kings and Mushroom Fairy. The Princess of Gravity, a sequoia tree and the Prince of Light as light as feather galloping on his winged horse through a wrinkle in time in space, the Mermaids Red Umbrella referred to as a Bumberella as the magic sea creatures help her find the ingenious creation of all history a beautiful Red Umbrella!, the Baobab tree of Life- Twenty Five High Rise Storey and its ghastly residents, lively animated creatures living on top of it, the monkey and his entertaining confabulation with the interesting witty groundnut, the mermaid who always sighs and cries inspired by Hans Christian Anderson’s story- The Little Mermaid, the Ebony and Ivory mermaidens and their beautiful awe inspiring love stories, even about the marvellous adventure of the Untouchable and Many more to inspire and outwit your gauntlets, mind and senses with thought provoking inspirations and its hypnotizing characters.

Q: What Did You Learn When Writing The Book?

A: All good things are the circle of life and come to us in various forms and circumstances. Though I took up to writing from early years, I cultivated its creativity and art in a spate of my recent prime adult years and I learnt one should never give up on their hopes and vision to one day achieve what they truly dreamed to accomplish even though it may seem longer than it expected. The circle of life from birth, old age to its end just as the leaves, flowers, animals, and every living aspect seem to evolve should make us truly inspired to jot down every beautiful theme and example we can portray in our vivid inspirations to come alive through hard work and practise whenever we get a moment to jot down on pen and paper. Just like a spider climbs each time it falls through a web, like in one of my poetical compositions ‘The Amorous Spider and the betrothed Blue Bottle Fly’

Q: How Many Books Have You Written? Which Is Your Favourite?

A: My several published books- “A Fairy’s Quill”: Poetry Book for Children, “Maguk World- Wonderland Carousel of Fairy Poems” and “The Maguk Well” are quite popular among young readers. My favourite book are one and every those mentioned because they bring out a dream like the one in one of every child’s favorite dream “Alice in Wonderland” which is penned in a spiritual fantasy adventure in another realm far better that the one we live in, topsy-turvy though, good, gooder and goodest- a new one invented, the sky below and world on top which has an audio to it, narrated by me, Alice and handful marvelous Bengali Artists. To sum it all up, those who love poetry compositions would love MAGIC COMPOSITIONS to have and comb through its beautiful and spectacular poetry stanzas, each and every one crafted with an aim to inspire and allure with it magnetic black and white and colour illustrations all hand drawn by me!

Q: What Advice Would You Give To Aspiring Authors?

A:Keep a diary, pen and sketch pad ready. While on the go passing through nature and surroundings you can strike a chord and still make notes in your mobile notepad and later jot them down together to invent your imaginations and caricatures into branches of a tree growing leaf by leaf, fern by fern, and stem by stem into a sprawling story for keeps! Thus it can be organic even infusing a natural style stemming through nature and its beauty. My advice to budding artists, poets and authors would be “WRITE AS YOU IMAGINE AND SPEAK WHAT YOU ILLUSTRATE.” But before I bid you a hearty goodbye only to meet you again through my heroines and heroes of fantasy, may you too be like a heroic knight, kind princess and a good fairy as you climb through those ladders of success higher and higher, may my audience be like the “Hebrew Eye”…. “Ayin” (Ayin is not only the name of a Hebrew letter but also the Hebrew term for eye)….. Tall yet humble, simple yet precise, noble and sweet, “Eyes that are windows to the soul” Looking at these poetically charged organs one may proceed to read into my ‘Beautiful world of MAGIC COMPOSITIONS!’ So folks out there enjoy my book “MAGIC COMPOSITIONS, Stories reflecting sea creatures and sprites of the earth”.