While most of his childhood friends enjoyed their teddy bears, Morgan Kostival was more partial to sword-wielding animated skeletons, and giant monsters of old Hollywood's special effects. That is why Kostival decided to combine his love of that old art form with the new graphic arts techniques of today to illustrate his children's book. Kostival's process mimics the techniques of special effects artist Ray Harryhausen and other film pioneers of that time. He starts by actually creating the creatures for his story out of clay, plastic and other standard materials, like a master toymaker. Next, he photographs them against custom backgrounds, sometimes editing them into the picture using computer-aided tools. "The photo illustrations I create to accompany my stories do not tell the story by themselves. Instead they support the story and inspire a child's desire to want to read and find out what is happening in the photographs." Said Kostival, artist and author of the new children's book 'Flight of the Christmas Witch'. "So my goal in all of this is to produce books that will fascinate and fuel kid's imaginations no matter what their age." Morgan Kostival holds a BA in Motion Picture Production from Point Park University, in Pittsburgh, PA. He has worked on numerous independent stage, film, and television productions as well as professional stage productions. He currently lives and writes in Lake Worth, FL.