Tai Manivong

A little about Me! 

I'm a teacher and a writer. I started my official writing journey in 2017 when I  wrote and published my first book.  My goal is to write a novel that wins a writing award and, of course, become a best selling author.  I started my first novel, Crimson, while teaching 3rd grade at Venetucci elementary. I was inspired by all the novels we were reading in class. I told a very good friend of mine that I wanted to write a book. She showed me a picture she had drawn of a dog protecting dragons and the idea was born.   I love writing. It helps me express my creativity. I want to create novels that mean something,  and look forward to creating many more worlds for you to explore! 

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Send me a question and I will post the reply here !

 Q:  What originally inspired you to write?
 A:  I cannot pinpoint the first time I started to write. It was probably one of my elementary or middle school classes. I love to write. I grew up creating songs and writing poetry.
     My high school English teacher made a journaling assignment in class and I already had a diary so I asked him if I could write I story instead. I wrote an 89-page story called “The Unbelievable Adventure.” I still have it and many of my early writings. I think writing for me at first was a way to release my feelings. I think after that class I started thinking seriously about writing a novel.

Q: A lot of your characters and place have unique names. How did you come up with those?
 A: All of the characters in my book, except Crimson, are named after real life gemstones and minerals. I love nature, and my third graders at the time were learning about the rock cycle when I was starting the first draft. The first name besides Crimson was Onixian after onyx. I then started finding other stones as names and that’s when I came up with the idea that all the characters should be named after stones. There is only one made up stone, and that was the one I had to make up for Crimson which is the Crystalline Sardonyx that just so happens to be crimson red. The dragons also get their powers from stones, so I guess you could say that the rock cycle is very important in the novel.