The Journey of a Storybook

On the eve of my first ever ‘real’ picture book being published I’d like to share the journey of how it came to be. “Let There Be Light” isn’t the first storybook I’ve written but it’s the first to be made into a real life book! After a long journey, yesterday was the first time I held it in my hands, and like a new born baby I haven’t stopped staring at it.

In the quiet of the 2020 pandemic I was making the most of lockdowns and being at home. To be honest it was a sweet season and despite the swirl going on around me I found it peaceful. One Friday evening I was about to pack away the work from home set up for the weekend and got one final call from our team, “Hey we have a book publishing meeting on Tuesday, we had an idea for some storybooks, do you think you could write something by Tuesday?”

“Of course!” I replied, in my usual ‘say yes and figure it out later’ approach. And what else was I going to do, it was the middle of lockdowns in Sydney, I couldn’t go anywhere! That weekend I wrote the storybook ‘Who You Say I Am’ (which will be a real life book soon too!) and sent it in to our team.

The Tuesday book publishing meeting came around and I didn’t hear anything for another few weeks until I excitedly met with the publishing director who said, “We love it, can you write five more?”

“YES!” (and figure it out later…)

Over the coming months and into 2021 I wrote ‘Let There Be Light’ and ‘Never Walk Alone’ and a few more (yet to be announced). I read a bunch of books about writing and publishing so I knew it was going to be a long journey, but I didn’t realise how long! So now mid-way through 2023 the dream is becoming real, people will actually hold a book in their hands and I pray will be inspired and blessed.

I thought once I handed in my ‘perfect’ manuscript that my work was done. It wasn’t. Next came editing and re-writes and more re-writes. Then working with incredible illustrators who brought the words to life. We went back and forth working together via emails and texts between London and Sydney, we worked through book size, page count, page layouts, questions, covers and colours, fonts and blurbs.

And after all this, holding the book in my hands - it’s better than I could ever have imagined.

Book Flat Plans

The wall of my bedroom, keeping track of changes and edits