I just can’t believe it’s been a year since I published my first book! The first of the A Dog Called Bear series was created a year ago.
Sending the first book out into the world was so emotional for me because it was, and is, Bear’s legacy. It’s been my way of making sure that his incredible personality, his silly, adorable and clumsy antics were shared with children everywhere.
The journey began with Bear gets a Bath, a true tale of Bear and his dislike of getting a bath. He always looked magnificent when he came out of the groomers, like the biggest fluffster you ever saw. It never lasted long though, muddy puddles were his revenge!
Then came The Windy Day, another true tale of Bear and his dislike of the wind or anything overly noisy. Poppy has always been totally unphased by anything [even aggressive tiny dogs] but Bear was not a fan of noises or windy days, and he really did send the dog walker flying.
A Day at the Beach came next, this tale was mainly true [a tidgy bit of imagination in there too] Bear loved his beach ice creams but did not like the noisy seagulls. Poppy licked her ice cream and usually left it for Indie to finish off. Indie, like most rottweilers, would scoff anything!
Bear Goes to School….. well, can you imagine your school letting a colossal dog like Bear in their classroom? This tale, I know, would have been true if Bear had gone into school. He could [and would] bash his constantly wagging tail into everything.
Capturing just a small number of his antics has been a delight, the hard part for me has been selecting a photo of him for the last page of every book. I still cry 2 years later when I look at them. I miss him so much but, creating these books is my way of sharing him with the children who never got the change to meet him. The children that did meet him absolutely loved him. Even the ones who didn’t like dogs or who were fearful of dogs, very quickly became friends with our gentle giant.
As we go…..
During the year, I began to develop the ideas that I had for other books. They’d always been there, lurking in the back of my mind and it was time for something different! This time it was a book for the adults. I had so much fun creating and developing the characters in Out of Date. It’s been a fabulous book to write and I have to admit, I’m a little bit in love with their personalities!
Out of Date came tumbling out in about 6 weeks, once I started, I just couldn’t stop. The kids went to bed, and I’d head to the keyboard, scrabbling round for the bits of paper that I’d written things on during the day. Bringing the characters together in a way that made me laugh so much. Yes, it contains adult humour, and some swear words, but that’s part of everyday life for most of us.
The feedback on both the A Dog Called Bear series and Out of Date has been incredible! I’m beyond happy that people are loving the books and are talking about them so positively.
I love doing the school reading for Bear’s books, watching the children’s faces as I read about Bear and showing them the illustrations is amazing. What’s even better is that some children have written their own stories, produced their own illustrations and brought them along to readings. They have presented me with their creations with such passion and enthusiasm, that I’ve been completely blown away. To be able to encourage even one child to read, to create and to be confident in their work, well, that’s an honour indeed.
Listening to the feedback from Out of Date, I realised that quite a number of adults don’t read as much as they’d like to due to time constraints or simply because they just aren’t ‘readers’. What I’ve also found is that some of you have MADE time to read this book, you’ve taken time out for yourselves for a precious half an hour and read my book. That’s mind-blowing. I know how hard it is, as a parent, to find time for you and when it does happen, you’re usually too knackered to do anything but stare at the ceiling. So, for you guys to have taken that precious time, and read the book. Thank you! And thank you again!
So, what now?
Bear’s latest book will be available in the next few days, of course, it’s a Christmas book! Bear and the Christmas Cookies will be available on Amazon, and I’m really excited for your little readers to discover it. Of course, it contains all things Christmassy and focusses on Bear’s obsession with eating things that he shouldn’t!
Also, I’ve recorded the audiobook version of Out of Date, I’ll be submitting that soon. I just hope my voice is clear enough for the narration because, believe me, my accent is far more ‘Yorkshire’ than I’d ever realised! I’m not sure how the person checking the audio files will cope with my Yorkshire accent, it may take a few attempts before it’s accepted – but I’ll keep you posted.
As I cannot sit and do nothing, I’ll continue to work on the follow-up book for Out of Date too. I’m also creating lots of artworks. I seem to be in a ‘purples’ phase at the moment! I’ve been asked about my paintings a few times, if I’m brave enough, I may just be adding them to the website……
