Tales of POTOS
Pearl of the Orient Seas

About Mylene Leumin

Mylene Leumin is a nurse by profession and is currently working in the ICU. She is also a clinical nurse preceptor and teaches nurse interns who come in to join the ICU team.

Her love for picture books stems from her experience in her home country, the Philippines. In kindergarten, she remembers her teacher showing to the whole class, the pages of one picture book; she wanted to take the book home so she could look at the pictures without limits and touch the pages without restrictions. Not owning a book at home, she spent time reading a collection of fairy tales at a friend's house and borrowed the volumes of books to read at home.

The educational curriculum in the Philippines has English grammar from grade 1 and composition taught from grade 5 to college. This gave her a strong background to write in English. As an editor in high school papers and being Editor-in-Chief in the College of Nursing at the University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center, she was inspired to further her writing. She then wrote short stories, articles, and quotes for Philippine magazines written in English and got the writings published. Through correspondence school based in Singapore, she took writing courses while she was in New Zealand and took her full course in the US to earn her diploma in Writing for Children and Teenagers.

Raising a family made her take a break from writing. Eventually, the idea of publishing her books was inspired by her son reading her manuscripts in her compilation from the Writing School. Her son adored the stories and wondered how uniquely they would be with illustrations. This inspired Mylene to publish her own books and to make the series of tales. Finding a great illustrator to work with, she puts a lot of her culture in the books.

The Tales of POTOS is her trademark and comes from the acronym of Pearl of the Orient Seas, which the Philippines is also known as. The tales for children are full of action with beautiful illustrations in the settings based on the Philippines. Most valuably in the stories are the moral lessons that are a wonderful takeaway for both parents and children who would own the collection of Tales of POTOS.

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