Local author publishes first children's picture book

YORKTOWN, N.Y.—After a decades-long career in journalism and writing nonfiction and thrillers, Yorktown author Susan Berliner has published her first children’s picture book – a long-imagined story about a flying car named Windsoar.

Berliner, a former newspaper reporter, menswear writer for Women’s Wear Daily and PennySaver editorial staffer, released the book this fall for readers ages 2 to 6. The idea traces back more than 20 years to a dream she had about a car that could take to the sky.

In the early 2000s, Berliner had a dream about a car that could fly. When she woke up, she wrote down all the details she could remember and recalled thinking, “that’s a neat idea for a story.”

She said she thought about working on it for years but never followed through. At the end of each year, when writing her annual “writer’s resolutions,” she added the goal of finishing the flying-car story, but it remained unwritten.

After completing her last book, “Resolve,” a post-apocalyptic survival thriller, she told Yorktown News she thought, “if I don't write ‘Windsoar’ now, it's going to become a true story,” citing innovations in flying cars and how close they are to becoming part of everyday life.

The book follows youngsters Emma and Liam, who spot their neighbor’s yellow car soaring overhead. The car belongs to Captain Shaw, a retired pilot who explains that after years of watching planes take off, Windsoar “decided it wanted to fly too.” The children go on a short airborne adventure, including rescuing a deer trapped in roots.

Berliner said Windsoar was always intended to be a picture book. It features illustrations by Lana Zajicek, an artist who sells her work on Etsy and whose mom is a friend of Berliner’s.

The Yorktown writer read the book to a group of children at the YMCA preschool, located in the former French Hill School on Baldwin Road, on Nov. 4. She has visited local schools before to read to students and emphasize the value of imagination, which she believes is increasingly absent from the classroom.

“I think creative thinking is an important part — should be an important part of kids' lives today — and adults lives too,” she said.

A news article she wrote in the early 2000s and saved, eventually inspired her first novel, "Dust,” a thriller set in the fictional Connecticut town of Rock Haven and sparked by a dust devil that destroyed an auto shop in Maine. In the book, condo resident Karen McKay notices a strange swirl of red, green and blue dust that follows her inside, lifts a porcelain ballerina from her shelf, spins it through the air and smashes it to pieces. The next night, after hearing her neighbor’s dog barking, Karen discovers the neighbor dead at the bottom of the stairs.

She went on to write multiple thrillers and speculative fiction works, including “Peachwood Lake,” “The Disappearance,” “Corsonia” and the post-apocalyptic “Touchers” series. She has also published three short-story collections and a memoir.

Though she offers Kindle editions for her novels, Berliner said she does not plan to release “Windsoar” as an e-book.

“I want children to actually hold the book and read the book and see the book,” Berliner said.

“Windsoar, the Flying Car” can be purchased through Amazon. To learn more about Berliner’s books, visit susanberliner.com.