If someone had said to me September 2023, I would begin writing a non Big Blue Boat sailing story, I would have laughed them out the room …

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One foggy morn …

Diary

March 15th 2025

After almost eight months of effort, Patricia completed the last of the illustrations three days ago. Her artistry is mind blowing. Each character is an individual and their expressions have grabbed the attention of the few close writing friends I have shown.

Over the coming months I am looking forward to sharing more teasers with you.

The Beginning

In the early hours – 3am to be exact – of September 6th 2023, this treasure of a story was born. Hurrying out out bed and staggering to the dining area, I grabbed pencil and paper, then began to create a mix of sketches with text of the first pages. Job done back to bed trundled I.

Within days, I had the first few drafts completed and it was ready for its first critique. The feedback was great, but it was the response of my writing friend, Aly, that set my imagination soaring and took me back to the drawing board full of excitement.

Two weeks of full time working on it later, the manuscript felt completed and was ready for a manuscript assessment.

This fell to Kellie Nissen of Just Right Words (https://justrightwords.com.au/). I love working with Kellie. She tells you what you need to hear, not want you want to hear and is always available to connect with when required.

A few backwards and forwards later, I was able to call the manuscript completed – or was it?

August 2024

There was no intention to take this frog story through to illustration stage for some time to come.

That was, until I came across the stunning imagery created by a couple of illustrators. Their work was going to perfectly align with my vision for this story. The long story short, I made contact with both, and finally made the decision to work with Patricia Braga (https://www.patriciabraga.com/).

Through the use of pencil, she has an ability to connect with each character’s traits – a talent I dream of having, but don’t. Her ability to create minute detail, texture, and atmosphere via the computer world leaves me in awe.

In the last days of August, Patricia set to work …

Oh, remember that comment I made about the manuscript being completed?

Initially a 40 pager, Kellie and I worked hard to make the book fit into the 32 page format so it would suit what is seen as the ‘norm’ in today’s world of children’s picture books. Soon after Patricia commenced working on the illustrations, it became apparent this format would severly impact the story.

One thing I refuse to do, is to continue on with a decision that does this. The book had to be a 40 pager. A short discussiobn with Patricia to check she was onboard with this, it was back to Kellie to just recheck the original layout. Problem sorted, it was full steam ahead!

To be continued …