An Accidental Children’s Writer

By Balázs Zágoni

Balazs and son
Children’s author and publisher Balázs Zágoni and his eldest son

I always wanted to become a writer. A novelist. While I was still a student I met a beautiful girl, we fell in love, got married and our first child arrived. I had to work and I still didn’t write my first book. I was frustrated. Instead of working on my novel, I told bed-time stories to my first-born son.

One day a friend who was editor of a Christian magazine heard my stories. She told me that if I wrote them down, she would publish them in her magazine. And so it happened. Later her publisher called and asked me, “How many of these stories do you have?”

“Three,” I said.

“Well, If you can write 25 then we can make a book of them.”

I wasn’t sure if I could write, but I said yes. So when my son was five, we attended the launch of our first book together. And we signed copies together.

Balazs Zagoni Barni book cover2Balázs Zágoni’s first children’s book, Czech edition

And my mother-in-law was proud, too. That was the really great thing!

Now I have one more book than child. Four books, three kids. God made me a writer in His own way. I never thought I would be a children’s writer. I wanted to be a “serious” writer. Now I am proud to write for children. They are such a faithful and attentive audience!

>>Read a sample from the first children’s book by Balazs Zagoni – The Book of Barni excerpt.

>>Did you fall into writing or publishing “accidentally”? Comment and tell us how it happened.

>>Check out these other related posts:
Writing for Children
Books for Different Age Groups

Balázs Zágoni is the CEO of Koinonia Publisher, a Christian publishing house in Romania that serves the Hungarian minority there and distributes to Hungary. He has written several fiction and non-fiction books for children. Balázs became a Christian in a student Bible study group after the fall of the communist regime in Romania. He and his wife have a son and twin daughters.

 

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