Dancing on the Moon

Interview & Photography by Amina Touray

ina London is a mother, wife, and best-selling author from Los Angeles who wanted to create a safe space for her children during the lockdown.

Together with her, now, six- year old daughter Maliyah London, she wrote the children’s book Dancing on the Moon.

The book is a story about unlimited accomplishments and dreams coming true. London’s goal is to teach children to go after their dreams, which she instills in her children. And like her mother, Maliyah wants to be a mommy and author when she grows up, as well as a ballerina.

This story is about how a mother responded to the lockdown by building a legacy in her home through education and creativity.

Amina Touray: You and your daughter Maliyah wrote the book Dancing on the Moon. What is the book about, and what inspired you to write it?

Mina London: Dancing on the Moon is an inspiring story about a character named Nala, who has big dreams of dancing on the moon one day. Her dreams were so big that her peers started to think that it was impossible. They were like, - “there’s no way you can dance on the moon”. We wanted this book to be a motivation that you can do anything you set your mind to. As you read the book, you’ll see she eventually accomplished her goals.

AT: And I heard that you, Maliyah, like to read bedtime stories for your brothers. How do you come up with those stories?

Maliyah London: I like to use my imagination. I remember what my brothers like, and then add that to my stories, like dragons and dinosaurs and stuff like that.

AT: What stories would you like to tell?

MAL: I would like to tell more stories like Dancing on the Moon, and I want to make funny stories to make kids laugh.

MIL: I would love to make a book with my sons in mind on becoming a sibling.

I have three children that are 6,4 and 1. I feel as though it’s an adjustment for some kids to step into their new role as siblings. They have to share, learn how to look out for one another, and how sometimes the younger sibling wants to do everything the big sibling does. I want to shine more light on that but make it funny and relatable.

AT: And you have written another book. Can you tell us about it?

MIL: Yes, Shenomenal Women- It’s an anthology book with twenty-three inspirational storytellers that share our own stories of triumph and victories with transparency.

“

Women Who Gave Up Excuses and Made a Way Through Life’s Most Challenging Times”.

In this book, you can find women from all walks of life. Women who went through hardship and how we overcame it. For instance, I shared a little bit about my childhood. I told my point of view of living with someone dealing with drug abuse, schizophrenia, and mental health issues. Sometimes we focus on the person dealing with mental health, and we don’t realize how it impacts the caregivers. I was just a child, so I experienced and saw a lot. You can find Shenomenal Women on Amazon.

AT: What was the step-by-step process for you to write Dancing on the Moon with Maliyah?

MIL: Well, Dancing on the Moon came about in 2020. That was around the time Covid 19 had the world on lockdown. I was trying to find different ways for us to be creative and have a fun, safe environment at home. So we started doing what we normally do. Acting silly, telling jokes, rhyming words, then using our imagination to create our own stories. After creating the storyline. We begin imagining how we want our main character to look. Her hair, skin color, what she would wear, and how young she would be. Then finding the right illustrator. That was the most important part because we wanted our images to catch people’s attention. The next step would be figuring out if you want to do self-publishing vs. traditional publishing.

AT: I noticed the beautiful imagery in the book. How did you find an illustrator?

MIL: I haven’t told anyone but finding an illustrator was challenging. The first illustrator that we hired scammed us. We paid a little bit, and he started the work, but then he slowly stopped communicating with us. He didn’t finish the job, and it was very discouraging. However, I knew I had Maliyah’s little eyes watching me, watching how to handle this challenge we were facing. We couldn’t give up. We had to keep going. So then I just kept researching on Facebook. I joined illustrations groups/writers’ groups. So I pretty much was watching people put out their artwork, reaching out to different people because we al- ready had a certain image of how we wanted her to look. When I finally found Ananta Mohanta, everything aligned perfectly. They were very professional.

This book has opened up so many opportunities that we are thankful for. Inglewood Library put on a beautiful event for us where we did a book signing, and working with Gerber children’s wear was a dream come true.

AT: How did the book signing make you feel, Maliyah?

MAL: It made me super happy. I was very excited! People came out to support us and to hear us read our book. We got dressed up and played in the jumpers they had there.

Follow Mina & Maliyah London: @Lovehealthbeyond & @Dancingonthemoon2023

Dancing on the Moon is available at Inglewood Library & LA County Libraries. Online @ Walmart, Amazon & Barnes and Noble.