Come Autumn I will officially be a published author after having secured a book deal.
Before I started on my writing journey, if anybody had told me the same of themselves, yes, I would have been impressed, though I wouldn’t have imagined that particular statement would ever be coming from me!
‘The Adventures of the Karillapig’. That’s the name of the book. It actually has quite a history, and though I didn’t realise it, I have been writing this story most of my life. The actual idea of ‘The Karillapig’ goes back to my childhood where myself, my Dad and my sister would make up silly characters. The stories behind the silly characters really began to evolve much later in my life. Team meetings in a previous job were one example. The thing you have to understand is this; team meetings at one of my previous places of work were long. And I mean long! A full day long. That’s far too long for a team meeting in my opinion, so to relieve the boredom, to keep myself from falling asleep, and more importantly, to take my mind off my numb bum, I used to draw characters, or ‘critters’ as they are referred to in the book. Alongside the drawings were little ‘tales’, which soon developed (with the help of my illustrator, Mark Rowe) into full-blown stories.
One thing I did learn was that in writing stories the first rule is to write for yourself. Don’t spend too much time stressing over what others will think of your writing, otherwise you may never get your true story out. [Mark] has often said that we all have a story inside of us – something to tell, something people will be interested in. And do you know something? He is right! Don’t tell him I said that though…
So, back to the point, by writing for yourself, you become free to create. Your imagination is let loose. There is nothing to stop anybody from becoming a writer. Whether that’s a blogger, creating articles, contributing to newsletters or indeed writing books, the technology is out there. Don’t be put off by your own self-appointed barriers. I took my own advice and began writing, though I should mention this was after a good length of time and effort on Mark’s part, who was constantly pushing me to put my stories down on paper (or a word document). Once I got over my writing insecurity, nothing could stop me! As well as the book, I have gone on to write a series of articles for a comedy news site, numerous blogs, and other articles.
As I began creating stories, Mark began creating illustrations. And with that combined effort, The Adventures of the Karillapig came to be. Before the book deal, Mark set up a website promoting The Karillapig. At this point I’m not sure of the figures, but I do believe that around 500,000 people world-wide have viewed this site. This is great news for the book, and indeed for the publisher.
I guess I should tell you a little about the actual story:
‘The Karillapig is from the dark side of the Moon and is here on Earth to carry out investigations to establish how Earth beings claim to have achieved space travel. Whilst on Earth, The Karillapig is not alone; it turns out other Moon critters have joined him, one such example being The Hippobuffafrog. Whilst on Earth, much mayhem and chaos ensues as our intrepid duo attempt to establish how Earth beings achieved space travel, and in doing so mistake many things for spaceships, such as a washing machine, a grandfather clock and a golf trolley. Home for the Karillapig and the Hippobuffafrog whilst on Earth is a discarded washing up bowl at the bottom of the ‘Bumblebottom’s’ garden. The Bumblebottom’s incidentally, have no idea their garden is a temporary home for critters from the dark side of the Moon’.
Last year, roughly around July time, I send a copy of the manuscript to a publisher along with the required synopsis. Bizarrely, writing the synopsis was the hardest part. It was late November/early December when the publisher got back to me and said they wanted to go ahead and publish the book. This whole process is new to both Mark and I, so we are learning as we go along, but what I will say is this: Don’t tell yourself you’re not good enough, or that you can’t do it – you can! If you put your mind to something, you can make it achievable. I’m not saying it’s an easy path, all in all, this has taken roughly six years, but I am saying that the hard work and the effort is certainly well worth it.
I am now working on my second book and Mark and I are also working on a script for screen.