Conversation Between Elisabeth Paige and Maria Castellucci Moore: Children's Author

I've chosen this moment to introduce you to a lovely picture book, Vivienne in Paris,  introducing children to the beauty of mindfulness. As the world around us is in chaos and horror, I believe we can have a reprieve using our senses to appreciate what we have . 

Maria is as lovely as her book. She talks about her journey as a mother of four young kids, an entrepreneur, a journalist and finally a children's books author. I hope you enjoy.

You can find more about Dr. Paige on her website: www.mindfulhappykids.com.

You can find information about Dr. Elisabeth Paige at www.mindfulhappykids.com.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:01

Mindful Happy Kid, Created and Married by Dr. Elizabeth, consists of interviews with children's authors and poets and illustrators. And yoga and mindfulness practice. Dr. Page also reads from her own children's books on compassion, gratitude, mindfulness, and yoga. Pippy the puppy and Dr. Page practice meditations or pet-centered meditations, which are recorded as part of the videos. So this is Maria. And how do you pronounce your last name? Pastelucci Moore. Pastelucci Moore. And she has a whole host of hats that she wears. So I'd love for you to take a couple minutes to introduce yourself.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Absolutely. Thank you, Elizabeth. Thank you for having me. It's an honor to be here. So I am a mother of four young children and the proprietor of Castellucci Napa Valley, which is a wine and estates brand in Napa Valley. I also oversee some real estate in San Francisco with my family and love to write. So children's book author. That's a new uh new tagline for me. So very fun and exciting.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

How new is your writing career?

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Well, this is my first newly released book. Um, so I would say the process started about two years ago. And um, you know, so exciting to share with the world now that you know my my story is in tangible form and able to be shared with the community at large. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:02

Can you tell me about your writing process?

SPEAKER_00 2:05

So the writing process um, you know, is probably maybe a larger long-winded. Um I I first started my writing career as a journalist uh for a magazine here in the Bay Area called Hotel Living Magazine. Um I wrote all about, I interviewed the most incredible, incredibly talented artists, musicians, um, choreographers, sculptors. Anyways, it was a lifestyle magazine, and my responsibility was writing about um the art and culture piece of the San Francisco Greater Bay Area. So I kind of found my love of writing during that process. And um then I realized that, you know, it was time for me to pursue my own project. And, you know, the children, my children really inspired me to write. So whenever I could carve out some time for myself is when I would put ideas, you know, from pen to paper. And um, you know, it just it was a it was a project that kind of came together quickly, but in my mind it was drawn out for quite some time. So um, so yeah, you know, just creating space for myself when I could when the children were asleep. Um, I actually wrote this book when I was pregnant with my fourth child. So I think just kicking your feet up, you know, more than normal, just when you're expecting I was I use that time to be creative.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

So I loved having in Paris. Thank you. That was fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

Thanks, Elizabeth.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

What made you write about mindfulness in kids?

SPEAKER_00 3:51

You know, I learned on um this is truly a true story as an adult. Um I learned through my own self-discovery journey that happiness and finding unique joy to oneself is a very personal and you know, a very self-reflected process. And um I learned that through my own challenges as an adult. And I thought, gosh, if I could kind of bring this story to a younger audience so they don't have to wait till they're adults to realize that there's no one size fits all for happiness. And I think experiencing um through you know your own self-reflection and then creating that deeper connection with yourself and then the greater world around you really translates into profound joy. And I experienced that myself. And I thought, gosh, what a gift to give this to a younger audience. So that's where the storyline came from. And I thought if I could, you know, if I could bring inspiration to a younger group and actually just create that connection between the adult and the child. Because really the book is also for grown-ups. I mean, to have to foster those, you know, deeper questions with your child, I think is is one of the things I really wanted to um inspire for adults as well. So that's where that's where the story came from. And, you know, I I thought that children would be the perfect audience for something like this.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

Well, I'm gonna give a little bit of a synopsis of the book so that people know about it before they go out and buy it. Great. So it's um about a little girl whose poppy, her grandfather, tells her that on her bike ride on a Sunday morning, she should pay attention to her senses. So she really creates the entire bike ride through her smelling of her breakfast and this smelling of flowers and the beauty of flowers and hearing the birds and just the entire creation of her bicycle ride, which was so beautiful and beautifully illustrated, I have to say, that it just created this whole new world for her. Instead of just sort of going through her everyday life, she really was mindful of it, which is a lesson that, as you said, we can all learn.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Yes. Now, why Paris? So Paris is magic for me. I was proposed to in the Luxembourg Gardens of Paris, France. And you'll see actually, I could show it to you. There's a picture. Uh, here's the book. There's a picture in the front uh few pages where she um is in the Luxembourg Gardens with her grandfather, and that's actually exactly where I was proposed to. So um, you know, aside from Paris being a city to delight in all of your senses, um, it does have a personal and meaningful connection to me. So that's why I said it in Paris.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

I also really like the connection between Maria and her grandfather.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

Do you want to talk about that a little bit? So I'm first generation American. My parents were born in Italy, and I grew up where family is everything. Every Sunday, long family dinners and lunches. It was actually you just ate and we're with family all day. Um, so I grew up in a very tight-knit community of family. And um, you know, I I used so my grandfather, so my my father, I'm sorry, the grandfather to my children, who's my father, is kind of where this came to be because my parents are very close to all my children. My children are very close to my parents. And so I used um basically my father, who's my children's grandfather, as the catalyst for the the story and the question. Um and you know, I'm just I'm very I'm a huge proponent of family and um yeah, so that's why.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

Yeah, that was it was a very touching part of the book, I have to say.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

How has parenting your four children affected your writing?

SPEAKER_00 8:42

Oh, that's a great question. Um I would say that you know, patience, patience and and carving time for yourself, which is sometimes feels impossible. Um I think it's really allowed me to bring those elements into my story also, because a lot of the the themes around mindfulness and self-reflection and self-discovery are about taking that time. Um, you need to carve out that time for yourself or for your child in order for these themes to to prop up and resonate in in your life. So I think I've learned to be more patient. I've learned to take better care of myself. Um, I've learned to, you know, just um carve out that time that I think can start the conversations and start, you know, be being able to pay attention to your senses. You have to have time. You have to be able to take things in and feel things in a different way than if you're just kind of rushing through life and your parents dragging you from one thing to another. And so it's kind of really a message about slowing down. And um, I was raised very Italian, very European, um, kind of slow food movement, uh, you know, family, yeah, these types of cultural themes that I think are super important for children, especially in our modern world, that are, you know, racing around keeping up with technology and and all of that. So I think uh that's a long uh that's a long-winded answer for carving out some time. And you taught me that. Do you have a mindfulness practice? I do. Um, I have this routine that I would recommend to anybody, but it's waking up at 5 a.m. and having your you know meditation and some light exercise, and whether it's journaling or for me it's writing. But um yeah, and I I think just taking time to slow down, um, which is you know kind of the opposite of what our world, the world we live in now. So I hope that this book will bring some kind of inspiration to parents and children that less is more, and sometimes that it's the smallest things that bring you the greatest impact. Um, so yeah, I think, you know, I try to incorporate these things into my own life and and and they work. I mean, that's why the story was created. It was like, this works, I want to share it. So thank you for asking.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

I wholeheartedly agree. Talk a little bit about your meditation practice.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

Yeah, um, I would say it's a couple years old. It's it hasn't been going on for forever, but um it better late than never, right? So um I use it's a very simple practice. Um, you know, I have my own space in my house that I created that's kind of curated just for me. Um, so I encourage everyone to carve out, even if it's, I mean, mine is literally like a corner of a of a room. Um and, you know, it has just little knickknacks and things that remind me to slow down and remind me to, you know, explore my inner self. And it has some of my favorite books. Um, and I use an app called Calm that I really like. And so it can be anywhere from two minutes to 15 minutes, um, depending on on the morning. So I really um I couldn't recommend it enough. Great.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

So you are an entrepreneur with an educational background in economics. How does that fuel your writing?

SPEAKER_00 13:07

I mean, you know, the it's like economics, you have this analytical mind, but there's also a lot of creativity in economics. It's like the value add of what art and culture provide in a society, or, you know, and like just works of art and literature are such are so integrated into our society. So I think, you know, this book was truly my love of art, music, dance, uh, flowers. I I kind of threw everything in there through the kitchen sink of all my favorite things, uh, travel. Um, so I just think there is this kind of deep-rooted uh analytical way of looking at things when I studied, you know, business, economics, finance, and and all of that. Um, but there is a lot of creativity to, you know, the value add of art, culture, literature. And and so, yeah, I I do think that played a role, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 14:08

I'm going to talk a little bit more specifically about some of the things that you talked uh talked about your book. And if you if any of them sort of hit you as super important, just stop me in and talk about it. Okay, so you talked about a chocolate croissant, which was just like mouth watering. I was just like, I was like, oh my goodness, I wish I had that chocolate croissant. And then she had some brie later. And she had birds and music for hearing. Yes. And she went, she got to go in to sit in the backseat of a ballet.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

Yes, I I personally experienced all of these things when I was on my uh proposal vacation, which I had no idea that that's what was going to be happening to me on this trip. But um the Palace Garnier, that the ballet that she went to in the story, um, is truly the most exquisite piece of architecture I have ever seen. It was and truly, my illustrator was incredible in depicting so much emotion in her drawing, but also exactly what the Palace Garnier looks like when you walk in. So that was a really fun part of the story for me because it took me back to when, you know, I was there watching this ballet and listening to the music. And it and this is one of the most extraordinary settings I've ever I've ever been to. So it was it was just awesome. So part of my travels, all my travels are in this book in this particular city, but that that one was very, very special to me.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

So you also talk about flowers a lot. Can you talk about what flowers mean to you? And there was some symbolism there.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

So for me, flowers just exude happiness. It's like the souls of nature. They are probably my favorite thing. I love to grow them, I love to arrange them, I have them dried, I have them fresh, I buy silk flowers. Um, they're my favorite thing. So, you know, not to give too much away to the story, but the end of the story is, you know, Vivian, which is really a reflection of myself, is um, you know, she's encounters her most favorite thing. And and she feels it, it's like a metaphysical feeling. It's a, you know, it's a it's a body, bodily expression as well as, you know, it's just a sensorial experience for her. And that's what flowers are for me. So um I give, you know, in the book, I give a little bit of science around what flowers mean and how they, you know, trigger certain chemicals within your body, dopamine and all those feel-good receptors in your body. So yeah, it's um it's personal to me. And um, you know, but everyone needs to find what theirs is. So that's really what I hope the story will inspire is like, oh, what can I feel that you know is something personal to me that feels great.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

So well, I just spent two days planting a flower garden. So I hear awesome!

SPEAKER_00 17:38

Yay! Don't you feel good? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

Oh, it came out beautiful. It was just came out beautiful. We have a small backyard, so we don't have that much space, but I was able to make a lot of space with pots and we have a bed and it's oh that's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

That's great. That's great.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

So let's shift gears a little bit. So what's on the horizon?

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Oh my gosh, so much. So um I would like to write a book for each one of my children set in a different city that is meaningful to me. It's either a place that I've visited or a place where I've lived. And um, I hope to make this theme of a story a series. So that is what's on the horizon.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

Oh, great.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

Oh, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 18:31

And you know, I I have two girls and two boys. So there'll be four more books coming out. And, you know, I'm excited to this book was extremely girly. It took after me, but you know, it'll be nice to have um books coming out that are also male, you know, um male-driven and inspired by my sons. And um, so it's not just for girls. So how old do your kids? They are 12, 9, 8, and 2.

SPEAKER_01 19:05

Wow. You have your hands full.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

Yes. Yes, that's great.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

That's that's awesome. I love series.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

I have to say it's junkie.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

I absolutely, I mean, you can't see it because I have me small, but my I have collected so many series of children's.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

That's great. That's great. That's great. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

Are they all gonna be picture books?

SPEAKER_00 19:28

Um, yes, they'll all be the same, um, you know, same theme, uh, same illustrator, because I absolutely loved um Emanuela did an incredible job for me. Um, so yes, they will all be the same style of book.

SPEAKER_01 19:43

Do you want to show some more pictures from a book?

SPEAKER_00 19:45

Yeah, definitely. Um, so this is the cover. And I'm really grateful to have won the mom's gold choice award. Um and this is Vivian.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

She's so cute.

SPEAKER_00 19:59

Yeah. Um, this is her waking up on her Sunday morning. Um, it's one of my favorite pictures.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

Yeah, that was one of my favorite pictures also.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

I I loved uh the colors, and this is exactly what the Luxembourg Gardens looks like. So if you've never been to Paris, this is a typical boulangerie. Um so she did a great job. This is my favorite opera house, and her cheese shop, um the hat shop that she goes to, and of course the flower shop in the end. So she is depicted with a lot of emotion, and that's exactly what I was looking for. And then she is on her way.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

That's great.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

Thanks, Elizabeth. Yeah, it's just I'm so looking forward to your next books. Do you have any idea when one is gonna come out, or you're still working on it?

SPEAKER_00 21:06

Um, I hope to release one a year, so probably this time next year. Yeah. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

So what's on your personal bucket list?

SPEAKER_00 21:18

Oh my gosh. Well, to be a successful children's book author is right up there. Um, I hope to do more traveling, honestly. It's travel is something that really opens your eyes, your ears, your mind. Um, it changes the way you think about things. You become it's kind of a selfless act to go to another country and immerse yourself in someone else's culture. And um, I speak a few different languages. So in order, so to go into another culture and to be able to speak to the people who are native there is really an amazing experience. So um, I hope to travel more is my uh probably. Definitely on my list. And um what else? I mean, there's so many great things. I I don't know. I love I love lots of things, but I think my focus now, um, this new path of writing children's books has been a really rewarding experience. So that's where my energy um has been.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

So I can understand that. I um also write and have found it to be a really um I spent a couple hours yesterday in a cafe writing and it's just so releasing.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

For me, it's it's my calming down mechanism.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 22:46

It's very meditative for me to write. I was going, I used to write children's young children's books on mindfulness and gratitude and stuff. Yeah, I will.

SPEAKER_00 22:55

Something really cool about writing too is that not everything you write needs to be published, right? So, like some days you'll have just amazing content that flows through you. And other days you're like, ah, writer's block. Like, I have nothing, I have nothing today. So I think what's kind of fun is that you don't need to come out with your best A game every day, all day. It's like it's a it's a journey, it's a process, it's kind of working through. Um, and it's kind of a reflection of yourself. It's like when things are feeling light and great, is usually when a lot of good content comes out. When you're not feeling, you know, so much on your A game, you know, sometimes you have trouble, or sometimes really good things come out of that too. So it's a it's a really interesting journey. And I I encourage everyone to kind of see see what they have, because you know, you might surprise yourself.

SPEAKER_01 23:56

I interviewed an author illustrator, Jessica Lannon, and she was basically saying that no matter what, as an author illustrator, you will eventually get over writer's block. You just need to work at it. You just need to put pen to the paper or paintbrush to the paper, and you will get there. Yeah, you can't get discouraged.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 24:17

But if you stop and put it away, that's when you run into trouble.

SPEAKER_00 24:21

Yes, great advice. Great advice. Is there anything that we missed? Oh my gosh. I mean, well, I can tell you, Vivian is my favorite girl's name because people ask me, who's Vivian? I was like, well, it's kind of it's me. It's my favorite girl's name that I was never able to name my, you know, I love my girls' names, but that this was one of the names that I loved. And if my fourth child was gonna be a girl, that was gonna be her name. And it was a boy, and so I said, Well, I'm gonna create Vivian just in a different form. So, so there, there you have it. That that's uh the why I named the book Vivian in Paris. Oh, that's fun. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

Well, I'm glad you didn't name your boy of it boy Vivian.

SPEAKER_00 25:13

That would not have been good for him, yeah. His name is Theodore, and we call him Teddy. So it's pretty great. But this has been so fun. Thank you so much for chatting and taking an interest in my work. I'm really grateful and I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 25:28

Okay, hold on one second while I close up. Well, thank you so much for doing this with me. This was great, and your enthusiasm is contagious. I'm gonna go sit down and write after this interview. Good. And your your um inspiration about mindfulness, especially for kids, is really important. I think it's a really important lesson. I think there's so much time on screens lately.

SPEAKER_00 25:58

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 25:58

And that actually sitting down with a hard-covered book and having a parent read to their child, or having a child, and and the other thing I really liked about the book was it wasn't dumbed down. Yeah, I there was a lot of text there.

SPEAKER_00 26:16

Yeah, yes, I intentionally brought in some greater vocabulary that maybe was beyond uh a four to eight-year-old's uh reading level, and that was actually done on purpose. So um I've never written a kid's book before, I've always written for adults. So that was a challenge in and of itself. It was like, how do I dumb this down? But I thought, you know what, I don't really need to dumb this down. They are so intelligent and they don't get enough credit for how smart they are. And I think if you can read a little slightly above your reading level, you will always um get ahead. So thanks for noticing that was uh intentionally done.

SPEAKER_01 26:55

Good. Well, thanks again, and I will keep in touch with you and I will definitely hold on to uh your information so that I can keep keep a lookout for your next books. And we'll have you back on when your next book is out.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

Awesome. I can't wait. Thank you. Okay,