PEOPLE
LIFE LESSONS
‘Ezmerelda’ reveals secrets behind bullying STORY BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI | PHOTOS BY LUIS CHAVEZ
M
arissa DiSimone was bullied when she was younger. Wanting to teach kids to rise above it, she penned “Ezmerelda and the Discovery of Her Magic,” a middle-grade novel that mixes magic and self-discovery. “She’s an average sixth grader who has bullying issues,” DiSimone says about Ezmerelda Huffington. “I wanted to tie in real-life issues with her ability to hear people’s thoughts. “We always worry what other people are thinking. She starts to realize the bullying isn’t about her. It’s about their own insecurities. I like to throw magic into a life lesson. I want it to be about something bigger than magic. Each book will have a new magical power and a new way of looking at the world.” A 13-year Playa Vista resident, DiSimone “discovered” the storyline for the October 2020-released book when she and her husband visited the south of France five years ago. “We were just driving past the town of Eze when the story came to me,” DiSimone says. “I never wrote anything before. I started jotting down a couple chapters on this trip.” She took a six-week sabbatical from her job at Lululemon’s Ivivva to write the 254-page book, which came to her organically. When she was finished, she shelved it. In 2020, she moved forward, finding an editor and joining a Seth Godin Akimbo Workshop. “You write every day,” she says. “It helped me cut in half my 120,000-word manuscript. I did lots of rewrites and edits and had kids read it. When I was pregnant, I decided the due date for this book was going to be before the baby comes. I ‘birthed’ the book and she came less than two weeks later.” The mother of two girls, Kyle and
DiSimone with daughters Kyle Jolie and London Jaymes as well as husband, Michael.
London, DiSimone has been writing the sequel to her first book since March. DiSimone finished “Ezmerelda and the Discovery of Her Magic” in four years. “Ezmerelda: When Time Stands Still” is going quickly. “With the first one, I didn’t know what I was doing,” she said. “I was terrified of getting it out in the world. It helped when I sent it to kids and they returned with positive feedback. I knew I was on the right path.” She wrote a chapter a night once her children fell asleep. The Akimbo workshop encourages writers to finish a project in six months. DiSimone isn’t satisfied with that. She wants them to be a year apart. “It’s nice to have those people cheering you on and keeping you accountable,”
she adds. She is having 20 children — over half of whom live in Playa Vista — read the first draft of “Ezmerelda: When Time Stands Still.” She also rejoined the Akimbo Workshop. “Kids are always incredibly honest, and their feedback gives me the necessary changes to move forward with the next draft in order to publish this fall,” DiSimone says. “I’m going to make the changes they suggest. I love kids. They’re honest. You don’t get that as much from adults. It’s such a fun journey to do with kids. That’s why I wrote it in the first place. It’s for them and their feedback is important.” She said the kids had clever ideas for (Continued on page 16) PLAYA PLAYAVISTA VISTADIRECT DIRECT || AUGUST AUGUST -- SEPTEMBER SEPTEMBER 2021 2021 1515
