The Story

The adventure continues …

So I now have Birdham Bear sporting his distinctive sweater … is that it? Am I done? Absolutely not! Just as there had been a real imperative while knitting him I now felt a story bubbling to the surface of my consciousness that I knew I had to write.

I could feel his personality and knew that he was a very loving, curious bear who was in a real hurry to discover everything he could about life and the world he now lived in. Beyond that I didn’t really know much more about him or how the story would unfold.

As I try to do with all aspects of my life I trusted that, because I was listening to my intuition, inspiration would come.

I started writing and was soon describing a walk across the field adjoining our garden that I had done with my husband, Paul. Strictly speaking we were trespassing, but I wanted to go across to the oak tree we could see. We disturbed a fox in the long grass on our way out and then found him again on the way back. He was destined to become one of Birdham Bear’s best friends.

Describing Birdham taking that same walk was enough for the energy to start to flow, and his connection with nature to shine through. I realised that he could see and interact with the fairy realm and the magic in the natural world … that he’s part of the magic too. Birdham learns that he, like all of us, has a unique gift to share with the world. Now it was getting exciting … but I’ll say no more about the story here, you can read it for yourself soon!

Next came the need for illustrations; not being an artist I needed to find an illustrator, which isn’t something I have any experience of. Turning to the internet I braced myself for a long search but, as with all things Birdham Bear, I found Happy Designer almost immediately. The name hooked me, I loved the look and feel of the website – check it out – and knew after a chat with Sarah that she was the one.

It has been a steep learning curve for me. I was surprised at how nervous I was about handing the characters over to someone else. I’m one of those Harry Potter fans who resisted seeing the films for a while because I didn’t want to risk them spoiling the way I saw the characters in my head.

I learned to pay attention to detail, not something I usually do! As I knew she would be, Sarah was patient and helped and advised throughout – I’m not going to tell you about being so excited that I sent a low resolution proof to the printer not realising it wasn’t the print ready file – far too embarrassing! After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, tweaking, re-tweaking and adjusting the book is ready to print.

I’m hoping to have the books and other goodies by the end of the month … watch this space!