Local Mums in St. Albans, Hertfordshire publish a children’s book

I just want to reiterate that Suzy & I are local mums who live in St. Albans, Hertfordshire.  Even though we are equally fabulous (Suzy used to run an artsy jewelery shop) and (I am a jack of all trades) we still are two yummy mummies who have put this children’s book together.

Our children have inspired us to create this story as well as our little dogs, Bud & Roo.

I think that at ‘stay at home’ mums it still is important to be creative.  I work as a part time Counselling Psychologist; however, I enjoy staying at home, sitting in the sun at my desk and writing short stories, writing on my blogs, or putting together ebooks.  And, now nothing is more enjoyable then working on this new project with Suzy.  We were thrilled when we put Bud & Roo’s Spectacular Adventures- The Beach together and can I just say my three children cannot put the book down!

I am sure they are very supportive of my endeavours, but the book is so colourful and of course they can relate to the dogs in the book.

But, this was the main purpose of creating this book- and, that was getting my children interested in reading.

My three year old actually said ‘this is like Rosie’s Walk.’  Now in no way I am comparing our book to Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins; however, she was some inspiration of the design of Bud & Roo.  It is my daughter’s favourite book,  Rosie’s Walk that is.

Anyway, to all of the local mums out there- get out there and achive your dreams- because Suzy & I are on our way!

Don’t under estimate the process of self publishing- know your self worth

To be honest, I thought the art of self publishing was going to be cake.  And, by that I mean I thought it was going to be a smooth, straight forward process.  Boy, was I wrong.  Now, we have to choose a different printers because they can’t do what we want them to do.  I am not sure how all of that changed from the beginning of the quote to now, but so it goes.

And, one thing I am NOT prepared to do is settle.  I think Suzy and I both agree that we are sticking to what we had envisioned.  What we had envisioned was an A4 landscape looking book that was stitched.  Because the book is only 12 pages (including the cover) for some reason many printing companies don’t have the machine to do that.  But, of course that is why their quote was cheaper than most.  They wanted to staple the book.  And, of course we want to just get the book out there before Christmas, but not sure if I really want a stapled book that we worked really hard on.  There are many children’s books out there and for us to be even close to competing with some of the good ones I don’t think I want a stapled looking book.

Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins (illustrated by Red Fox) has 18 pages (including the cover).  That is the perfect size especially if you want the title on the side of the book.  Our book is not that thick so I am not sure if we will be able to have our title on the side of the page, but that is ok.  We are going for the stitched look (just like Rosie’s Walk) which I think is much more classier.

Plus, know your self worth.  You’ve written a good book, then believe in it.  We are!

Synopsis of Bud & Roo’s Spectacular Adventures- The Beach

In the first edition of our children’s adventure series, Bud & Roo’s Spectacular Adventures The Beach, Bud & Roo find a blue bucket.  But where did it come from they wonder?  They sniff their way to a gorgeous illustration of …(well, you just have to buy the book to find that one out).

The book targets little readers under 7’s.  What makes this book so special?  This book is different as it encourages independent reading.  There are so many books that my daughters bring home that are either un-interesting and don’t make sense or don’t really reach them on their level.

Bud & Roo’s Spectacular Adventures-The Beach. was inspired by one of my favourite children’s books Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins.  Once I saw Suzy’s art work I knew she was meant to be the illustrator of our children series.  When I saw her illustrations she gave me the same fuzzy feeling I had when I read Rosie’s Walk.  Plus, my three-year old is IN LOVE with Rosie’s Walk.  She can recite the whole book which is simply amazing.  Simple and amazing.  It was copy written 1979 or something like that.  It is the ultimate classic.

Having teaching as my background (I have been a teacher for over 15+ years and that of creative writing, reading and Language Arts – or as most know as an English Teacher) I wanted to create a book that also tickled the critical thing a bit.  I know that at around age 7 the brain develops and critical thinking skills are soon to develop (my many years of psychology studies).  However, I wanted to challenge the young person’s mind.  I wanted little readers to question where does the blue bucket come from.  Where could it come from?

Lastly, our very own children have read the book whilst in the process of creating the first series of our children’s adventure books.  They can read most of the words and can remember many of the sounds.  It is truly inspirational.