Looking for adventure? Zartana may be your girl!

4 Oct

Our pal Tara Platt is running a fundraiser to help produce a new book. We want to share part of the press release- which I think explains why we’re excited to help support this project…

Tara Platt, author of the award-winning Voice-Over Voice Actor: What It’s Like Behind the Mic, and actress (Naruto, Ben 10, The Call), is sponsoring a crowdfunding campaign for the month of October for her newest creation, Zartana.

This fully-illustrated interactive book is a journal-style tale of a traveling Romani girl named Zartana. Set a hundred years ago in the European wilderness, the book takes readers along with Zartana on her adventures over the course of the year as she goes about her daily life while searching for her missing family

“I wanted to create the type of book I wish had as a kid — a book to get lost in.” says Platt. “Zartana is a book you can climb into and be a part of.”

Filled with instructions for tasks a young gypsy girl might need to master, from fishing, to making a skirt, to mapping by the stars, Zartana has funinteractive elements: pull-out recipes so readers can make the food Zartana is eating; herb cards that explain the types of flora she encounters and their uses; and even a few tarot cards and maps that help guide her journey.

To imbue the book with an exotic, timeless quality, creator Platt collaborated with illustrators from around the world, including Heavy Steam’s Peter Johnston (UK), Cards and Quests’ Francesca Baerald (Italy), and Blake Bradley (US).Zartana’s pictures literally spring from the pages via removable inserts. Each page also features hand-written calligraphy done by Blackwell & Bell Mysteries’ Maisie Yang (US), detailing Zartana’s thoughts and experiences as if the reader has picked up the adventurous young woman’s journal.