Alicia Chrysostomou and her son Sebastian, a Haringey native, were amazed to have recently become published authors. Their book, ‘The Chronicles of Cerberus’ was published by Mogzilla, a small independent publisher. It is a children’s book targeted at 6-9 year olds and is set in Ancient Greece, with Cyprus also playing a major part in the story.
The book had an interesting start in life. It all began when Sebastian started learning to write at school. In order to encourage his writing, Sebastian and his mother would together sit down to make up little stories. These were based on mythological characters from Ancient Greece and tapped into the stories Alicia’s Cypriot father told her as a child. Cerberus, the three headed hound of Hades, was an early favourite and soon became the focus of these tales.
It was fun to create these stories and draw illustrations for them. Alicia would type them up and scan in the drawings so they could be superimposed and printed out. Sebastian and his mother would then cut up old cereal boxes, Sebastian would add an illustration and after stapling in the pages of the story, they had their first ‘hardback’!
As Sebastian rose through primary school, these stories became more sophisticated and their collection of ‘books’ grew. By the time Sebastian reached year 6, they had quite a number of these little books. They all followed the adventures of Cerberus and his friend and dog-walker Sebastian as they cross Greece helping the many siblings of Cerberus tackle all sorts of problems. Strangely enough Alicia’s son bears an uncanny resemblance to Cerberus’s best friend Sebastian! It certainly made it a lot of fun for Sebastian to write himself into these stories.
Reading through the one day, Alicia felt there might be enough for a proper book so she put them all together, tidied them up and sent them off to a small independent publisher she had discovered which specialise in children’s historical books. They accepted the book and it is now published!
The book is based on the mythology of Ancient Greece, with Cerberus embarking on adventure with his friend Sebastian. Each story in the book offers an alternate viewpoint to the classic tales giving a twist in their retelling. So when Jason comes to take the Golden Fleece, all may not be as it seems when he sneaks off with it. Hercules also features largely in these tales especially when his labours mean he’s to take things that don’t belong to him. Cerberus and Sebastian have to use all their wit and resolve to outsmart Hercules to ensure he thinks he has completed his labour when actually he’s been tricked all along.
Alicia would encourage anyone to get writing, even if they have no literary background. It is a fun thing to do with your child and makes bedtime reading more interesting when you can read your own little stories. Right now is in fact a perfect time to embark on this sort of project. It’s a great way to pass the time, do something together as a family and practice all those writing skills learnt at school. And even if you go no further than having some pages stapled into an old cornflake box, it’s a lovely thing to look back on as your children grow, and maybe have something positive to look back on when the lockdown is finally over.
The Chronicles of Cerberus is available on-line from Mogzilla and other major bookstores.