NJ Author and Illustrator Bring Cinderella’s Ever After Story to Life
Cinderella found her prince and they lived happily ever after. The shoe fit and she danced the night away in the kingdom. We all know how the story ended. But then what? Where did her life go from there? This is a question asked now and again, and finally author Joseph Miloscia has answered it. In “A Cinderella Story“, a picture book for adults.
This book is a beautiful merge of art. From its words to its illustrations to the idea that it sat for 18 years waiting for its happily ever after. There is so much inspiration produced from first time published author Joseph Miloscia and illustrator Danielle Ramirez. After working in the non-profit sector for many years, Joe Miloscia has a tremendous respect for everyone involved in the process of bringing a book from an idea to a tangible artifact, including the ones a casual reader may not even know about. He says, “The term ‘labor of love’ sounds trite, but those are the two enduring passions behind every book, movie, magazine, everything: hard work and a kind of love that makes everything worthwhile in the end”.
Written by Clark native/Westfield resident Joe Miloscia and illustrated by Mason Gross/Rutgers graduate and Sparta resident Danielle Ramirez, the story takes a modern spin on what’s after “happily ever after”. Miloscia stated that eighteen years ago he wrote a poem and let it sit in his desk drawer until it came to life this year. Miloscia says “The text of the story (which is actually a poem) was inspired a night of celebration with a dear friend Amy Boright who took me barhopping to celebrate my coming out of the closet. She wore the open toe, slingback heels the story mentions. We actually met Harvey Fierstein on the sidewalk between sets when he was playing at the (now-defunct) piano bar called Eighty-eights. I wrote the poem the next day and, with the help of her then- boyfriend, slipped it into her purse to find the following morning on her way to work.”
His adult picture book takes the classic Cinderella and mixes it with life and the truth about happily ever after. Danielle Ramirez bring his words to life with beautiful illustrations.
Miloscia says “After the publisher said yes to the idea, we knew we’d need an artist, so I contacted all my artist friends and one of them steered my toward a friend of his, Danielle Ramirez, and invited us to “make magic”. I invited her over to see some samples from her portfolio: portraits, interiors, landscapes. As soon as I saw her aesthetic, I knew I’d met the person I wanted to work with. I gave her a copy of the poem, and told her how the evening unfolded. Danielle loved the idea and the story. So, about a month later, Danielle and the publisher and I sat down to see what direction the illustrator was going to take the story. We loved her work. Not only the attention to detail and the dreamlike quality of the illustrations, but the quantity of work she had churned out, including three completed panels, several rough sketches of upcoming panels, and studies of how all the characters would look. I love how she has views from overhead, inset illustrations, images that are a collage of several storylines from the individual fairy tales. Danielle managed to convey the story through image, and threw elements of her own interpretation and style in as well (naming the bar The Red Apple, for instance). Neither the publisher nor I ever had a negative criticism of her work. To this day, as I flip through it, certain details will catch my eye that I never noticed before, and I fall in love with the images all over again. It was a remarkable experience.”
In this story “Cindy” goes on a journey. She has married her prince and started her happily ever after, but what we all know so well is around every wonderful corner there is a new journey waiting. On a night of discovery she finds what her next happily ever after truly is with appearances by some other royals you may recognize.
This picture book couldn’t be more perfect for the child in all of us that has grown up. This adult journey Cinderella takes is truly one we can relate to. Cindy has found the one with her prince but she must find the others to balance it all out, because no one’s life is ever perfect. What she finds on her journey is another ever after to balance out left up toilet seats and smelly socks.
When I asked Miloscia what he hopes people get out of the story he said “I hope readers enjoy the story, of course, and it is partially a love letter to New York, a city that has given me so much. But I wonder if they will understand the message that I spelled out in the acknowledgements at the end of the story. Before I came out, my dear friend Amy Boright (to whom the book is dedicated) had it in her mind that she would get married, and I would get married, and one day we’d throw fantastic dinner parties and her kids and my kids would grow up playing with one another. After I came out, she kinda felt that that future went out the window. I wrote the book partly as a way of letting her know that, come what may, good times can still be found, and that, if one is very lucky, a good friend being present is the best part of any experience.”
These New Jersey residents definitely make us proud with their unique telling of this story. New Jersey publisher Blydyn Square Books has really brought this not so children’s story picture book to life.
You can purchase your copy of “A Cinderella Story” on Amazon
Author: Samantha Gallo
Samantha is a Brooklyn made and Jersey raised traveler; who is a combination of cotton candy, pixie dust, and coffee. She knows the fairy tale life exists and is seeking it out in New Jersey. Because the little things in life are what makes it great, and what better place than one of our smaller states to collect these moments.
