“Charlie’s Dream” Children’s book Debuts at Tecolote

Come join author and illustrator, William Dalziel, when he debuts his second children’s book, “Charlie’s Dream” on Saturday, Dec. 3   from 2 – 4pm at Tecolote Books, 1470 East Valley Road, in Montecito’s Upper Village.  This is the sequel to “Ulma, The Kidnapped Tree.”  The author will be signing copies of the books. 

In a fantastical dream our protagonist, Charlie, the Eastern Blue Jay, imagines he brings together a gathering of his finest feathered friends – the Blue Jays, Crows and Ravens – to rescue Ulma, an American Elm tree, from a fate sure to destroy the tree.  The birds visit an arachnid of amazing size known to be a soothsayer – to find out how to free Ulma.  She closes her nine eyes and sees her “beloved California” as the safe place to take her.  When another Blue Jay, who got blown across country in a jet stream, mentions a town with the name of a saint next to the ocean on the West coast, the destination is decided.  Ulma, the elm tree, can be found here in Santa Barbara… with a view of the ocean.  

This elm tree story began in 2019 with Bill’s first children’s book based on an event in his life when he was brought on as an architect for the design & construction of the Northridge Fashion Center Project.  J.C. Penney & Co. wanted a live tree showcased in their courtyard. Dalziel was sent back East to visit a 150-year-old tree nursery, and decided on ‘a Liberty Tree,’ a young American Elm tree, already 30 feet tall. This true story inspired the first book’s magical journey of the elm, that symbolizes liberty and freedom. 

Bringing attention to the elm is one of the keys to the book, as the Dutch Elm Disease has ravaged most of the elm trees on the East coast of America. In these books we find lessons of friendship, determination, environmental concerns, and the magic of nature, creating a pair of inspiring books for children, with a message of hope. 

Great holiday gifts for the children on your list. 10% of the book purchases at the event will be donated to Storyteller Children’s Center, a local non-profit. 

Both books are available locally at Tecolote and Chaucer’s as well as on Amazon.com.

Meet the Author

William “Bill” Dalziel was born at the Lansing College Hospital on the campus of Michigan State. He grew up in Michigan, leaving at the age of 19 for Art Center School of Design in Los Angeles, CA where he studied Architecture, Industrial/Auto Design, Graphics, Painting and Illustration. He left for the military in 1955 to French Camp at Camp LeJuenne, NC and then to Camp Pendleton, El Toro Marine Base, CA. as a liaison between the US Marine Corp and the US Navy. 

Dalziel, considered an Abstract Expressionist from the early 1960’s, evokes feelings of strength and passion. His paintings are vibrant in color and depth, his language romantic, tender and direct. His bold geometric shapes evolve into intense coloration and sharply formed edges.

The author and artist’s enthusiasm for creativity, life and the environment are communicated through his heart-filled stories, resonating poetry and honest musings, continually weaving intense color in word and paint, and multi-layers of line and shape. His Sandbox Productions TV Series hosted lively conversations with theologians, scientists, bankers and more.

A world traveler from New York to Paris on the Concorde, to Rome, Spain, Germany, Russia and Panama, Bill Dalziel sailed across the Pacific to Honolulu in a K50 Kettemburg sloop. A few of his lifetime influences include Buckminster Fuller, Mies Van der Rohe and the Bauhaus, Rumi, Hermann Hesse, Leonard Cohen, Akira Kurosawa, Toshiro Mifune, Eric Satie, John Cassavetes, Marlon Brando and Sam Peckinpah.

Currently, Bill Dalziel is producing a book of his poetry, Zen Poetry and Musings and his Book of Portraits, to be released early Spring of 2023.

Bill’s Bio in Bullet Points:

-Author/writer/illustrator

-Sailor/yacht racing

-Painter/sculptor

-Producer/TV/film

-Director/Stage/TV

-Restauranteur

-Builder/Lic’d. Contractor

-Inventor/Engineer

-Furniture Designer

-Real Estate Developer

-Set Designer/TV/Stage

-Actor/member SAG

-E.M.T./L.A. County

-Architectural Designer

-Graphic Artist

-Mason

-U.S. Marine reservist

-Father of four.

-Hedonistic

Don’t you want to come to this event after learning all that about this guy? When he was asked what do you want to be when you grow up Bill?  I have a feeling he said, everything.