Full Circle

It's been a year since my journey with Blueberry Publishing and what a year it has been! Working with Blueberry helped me to materialize a dream of getting my poem "The Storybook Witch" published as a children's book. It had been 25 years in the making!

It began when I was back in England at the end of the nineties, while my husband was working overseas in Saudi Arabia. I'd gone home for a vacation, and was babysitting for my sister. My youngest niece, Sophie, came home from school one day and said,

"Auntie Rosie, can you find me a witch poem for school?"

It was October, and Halloween was fast approaching. I looked online, and couldn't find anything. There were plenty of fairy tales with witches as characters, but I couldn't find a single witch poem. So I wrote "The Storybook Witch" for her.

She loved it, her teacher loved it and her classmates loved it. I was happy that it had been a success.

As the years went by, I shared it around Halloween, on Facebook, and with friends, and the comments were always so positive. People loved it. 

"Oh, that'd make a lovely kid's book!"

"You should turn that into a book, Rose."

I'd had a similar idea myself, that - with illustrations - it would be a nice picture book for younger children.

I started looking for an illustrator. I spoke with various people over the years and met with locals who had talent, but whose vision and mine didn't quite come together for what I was looking for. I even tried AI and just wasn't getting what I saw in my mind. The idea was there, but it got pushed to the side. 

Twenty five years passed. A quarter of a century. I published a book of poetry titled "Twilight", and had various poems published in "Poetry Now" magazine, and others, but "The Storybook Witch" remained simply a poem. Its evolving into a book just wasn't happening.

That changed in 2024. I was about to turn 69, and I realised that if I didn't do it soon, it might never happen. Thus began the search, again, for an illustrator.

Facebook must have read my mind, as ads for illustrators and book publishing began. Among the ads I saw, was one for Blueberry Illustrations, and out of all those that I looked into, Blueberry appealed to me the most.

Even before I made the decision, Sean was emailing me and answering any questions that I had. Since I was totally new to this, I decided to opt for a complete package of their services, and so I began my Blueberry family journey in March 2024.

I like the relationship with their team. The initial sketch of each illustration, and then the revisions to hone it to my preferences. On some, I was a bit of a pain (I think) but they worked with me and we got it right in the end. After the revisions came the addition of colour, and that made them pop. My dream was becoming a reality.

July 21st 2024, "The Storybook Witch"

was published and is now available on Amazon. It was neat to see I had sales not only in the USA, but Australia and the UK as well. My friends joked that I was now an international author. 

Now, I was in the same predicament for another book, a story this time. "Mister McAfferty's Cat", a project requiring 19 illustrations, and having no luck with AI, nor with a local lass who was very talented but who felt she coudln't commit to 19 drawings ... so I came back to Blueberry and we are, once again, collaborating on it. 

So, I've come full circle, and starting in the same month of this year. I'm excited to see what we come up with. Who knows? Maybe "Mister McAfferty's Cat" will earn as much love as "The Storybook Witch".

Favourites

I think every writer has their favourite creations.

I think my favourite book so far is "In The Forest".

I just love everything about it. I created the illustrations using AI, and it came out absolutely beautiful. I am so pleased with it. 

I want to help make childhood a magical and innocent time.

One of my favourite poems - more of a ditty really - is a poem I wrote about my brother back in 1998 after an incident when he was biking home from Kings Lynn to Hunstanton.

Ode to Jed

Astride the bike, and pedalling fast,
our Jed, en route to Huns'ton wast
whence overtook by wasps, was he,
who stung with marked ferocity.

He dropped the bike and tried to run -
the wasps did follow. Oh what fun!
Five welts - their trophies on his skin -
Jed swears he'll ne'er do that ag'in!

So much going on

I'm still working on "Phoenix - Out Of The Ashes" and "Rose's Rhymes For Children" but am also now working with a young lass who is beginning to illustrate "Mister McAfferty's Cat" for me. She is very talented and I hope we can enjoy many years of collaborations, ahead.

I created a new character, Maisie, for a poem that I'm hoping to turn into a book. She's a quirky little miss, so I'm hoping I can get the illustrations to match her demeanour.

It feels good to be doing this. To finally be doing something consistently with my writing. It's amazing!

It's been a good year!

December arrived pretty quickly. Somehow the previous post didn't publish back when I wrote it. That's ok. It still shows my progress. This has been an amazing year for me, it's hard to think it took me this long to get this going and get into a routine of picking my brain for ideas and inspirations, and then following through on them.  

I finally transcribed and re-published "Twilight - A Collection of Poems"

which had been out of print since 2000. I'd had various requests for it over the years. It's on Amazon, Amazon UK and other Amazon outlets (I apologise for only having the direct links to the US and UK sites).

So far, my 2 most popular books have proven to be The Storybook Witch

(Amazon, Amazon UK) and 

In The Forest (Amazon, Amazon UK). I'm (naturally) thrilled that people are enjoying my books. 

I'm currently trying to work with an illustrator for Mister McAfferty's Cat but we don't seem to be making much headway, despite the artist making numerous revisions. I want an older gentleman that's appealing to children and, so far, all the renderings have been very unappealing. Not happy and content at all. I don't want a miserable scrawny looking old man. It may be that this won't work out, since I need 19 illustrations, and if we can't get the first one right then that doesn't bode well for the rest of the project. We shall see what prevails in the new year. I'm just getting over 2 weeks of being ill so didn't want to be stressing over it over Christmas and New Year.

But that's where I'm at, at the moment, with my writing. 

Then, I've been creating songs of some of my poetry, and some songs that I've written as songs, on an AI music creation site. My personal favourites list of my creations so far is here. They are different genres depending on the writing content, so some are gentle songs, some rock, some bluesy. I hope you like them, and it's a great site for young people (or oldies like me) who like to write and try setting their writings to music. I love it!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Greenville Library System Now Has 3 Of My Books, And More News

Having already donated a copy of "The Storybook Witch" to be placed on the "local author" shelf in our local library, yesterday, I donated a copy each of "Daisy May And The Life Cycle of Plants" and "In The Forest". I was extremely chuffed that both the librarians who helped me were impressed by them. I mean, it's one thing to write and think you've done a pretty decent job, and another to have somebody else think that you have, and say so.

Another bit of excitement this morning, notification of my first royalty payment - $22.22. OK, so it's not like winning the lottery but it feels like it. It's hard to put into words the sense of validation it gives, that people like what you've done, and want to own it. It's for Amazon sales back in  July, royalties are paid a couple of months in arrears, so this was when I first published "The Storybook Witch".

I do wish I'd begun doing this years ago, but it's easy to see that without the technology being what it is today (and Amazon KDP) that wouldn't have been possible, and I definitely find AI Imaging to be awesome, albeit frustrating at times. It's in its early stages still, and despite many improvements, images still come up incorrectly with prompts, with extra arms and legs, errors in the background, or the prompts are misunderstood. It's evolving, and I'm learning to edit more, so as to be able to get to the pictures that I am trying to create to go with my writings.

Those who have known me for decades know my passion for early childhood education, and my belief that childhood should be a magical time, so the children's books that I am publishing are aimed at tryingg to incorporate both.

I have so many years of stories and poetry to use, and have a lot of ideas to work on.

I've decided to keep my Daisy May character and have her "exploring" different things. Currently I am working on "Daisy May Explores The Heavens" which ventures into the solar system, comets and more. Hopefully to spark interest in those things, in younger minds. 

Having published a book of my poetry ("Twilight") back in 2000, when I was in England, I am also now working on its follow up, "Phoenix Out Of The Ashes". This will just be a book of my various poetry, so more geared towards regular poetry readers than children. 

I have a children's story, "Mr McAfferty's Cat" that is ready but have been struggling to illustrate. My great-granddaughter loved the story, but the creations that come up in AI just aren't understanding words like 'clean shaven', bare-faced', 'no facial hair' and keep producing images for an old man with Santa style beards and moustaches. I've tried erasing them, but even then, that finished product just doesn't work. It's very frustrating!

Later today, I will be taking some of 4 of my book titles, to a local Outlet Store and Boutique to display, on a shelf, for sale. I'm hoping it'll maybe get me some new fans.

2 New Titles Published!

 August was an amazing month for me. I published "Daisy May and the Life Cycle of Plants" (which all 3 of my great-grands here liked), and had most of the manuscript and editing done for "In The Forest" but had some minor issues with some of the submission process for that one. It was finally finished over the weekend. Just little glitches but they had been time consuming and irritating to try to correct. The third time was a charm though.

I've been exploring AI for making my own illustrations and am trying now to create consistent characters, so that I can make a series of Daisy May books that teach different things. I'm trying to bring my years of preschool and early learning knowledge to a whole new generation. I always had a passion for opening little minds and giving them a love of learning. 

I'm also trying to learn how to do "layers" in the programmes I'm using, how to edit and change the pictures that I create. Quite honestly, I'm quite impressed with myself and the fact that my rain is cooperating. Even when my results are not perfect, I am - at least - comprehending what I'm watching (in the instructional videos) so I know what I'm supposed to do and am just having to play around with it, to "get" it fully.

I am excited. Gosh 69 years of age and starting a "new career" albeit that I've written since I was younger but hadn't really "done anything" with it. And, surprising myself, learning new things too!

A new Daisy May illustration for 

an idea for another 

Dairy May learning book

New Book!

Hi again everyone, and yes, I have another book available on Amazon. It's not a quality picture book like "The Storybook Witch". It's 8.5" x 11" and is a children's colouring book with 12 poems suitable for little ones, and just to introduce some additional cadence and language to their little minds. Children that are read to, and where the rhythm of words are also a part of the experience, grow up with a greater understanding and use of language. My love of early childhood education and early reading just makes me want to share that love with children, and hopefully pass it on.

Each poem is followed by a few pages of illustrations, pertaining to the poem, for children to colour, and at the end there are additional colouring pages.