Going for the literary gold

by: Marilyn Owen (20 November 2014)

Talented story tellers love weaving their tales; but actually sitting down, writing a book and then getting it published takes a certain fiery drive and ambition, usually triggered by financial need. That was definitely the case with the famous J K Rowling who used to give her friends handwritten stories for birthday and Christmas presents, and who invented the famous Harry Potter while killing four hours on a delayed train between London and Manchester.

Indeed, J K Rowling started to write her first Harry Potter book as a poverty-stricken single mum, while sitting in a café with her baby daughter. In 1996, Bloomsbury agreed to publish Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone – and the rest is history.

Thinking of J K Rowling’s fame, wealth and success, I was drawn to a small article in the Plymouth News about a young librarian who has just self-published her first novel for children – also, interestingly, on the subject of magic and involving an academy for wizards and witches.

Abigail Cunningham (known as A J Cunningham) is launching her first self-published children’s novel The Flight of the Naturne. The young heroine is Teara Dream, an abandoned child who is adopted by another wizard. This does seem to be a very common theme in modern children’s literature. However, it is the kind of theme that children generally never tire of.

Abigail’s imagination was fired as a child by fairy tales. An avid reader, she liked to receive the latest series of children’s books, and preferred reading books to watching television.

Words of praise and encouragement were delivered by Plymouth Deputy Council leader Peter Smith, who mentioned that Abigail has always helped out at the library with the Summer Reading Challenge. He commended her literary achievement, saying: “Getting a novel published is a great achievement and we’re really proud of her.

“I hope this inspires other young people to pick up their pens and get writing.”

Don’t forget that however brilliant your novel may be it will be spoilt by typing, grammatical and spelling errors. For this reason, it is always a good idea to have your writing checked by a competent proofreader.

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