Hello.
This is Linda Lawrence or Lin to family and friends and I want to introduce myself to you.
I live in Chislehurst, Kent near to where I grew up in Sidcup and it was there I started writing around the age of seven - mostly short, childish stories and poetry as well as putting words to pieces of music.
I continued with my poetry writing as I grew older but then once I went to work in the City I stopped writing completely.
Just over three decades later I retired from the City and suddenly felt I wanted to write again. Firstly I wrote about sixty poems for greeting cards and then I wrote a book called Adventures of Bob, Fin and Honeybun together with a couple of other books, including a sequel to the Bob Fin and Honeybun stories. This particular book features friends Bob, who is a rabbit, Fin a squirrel and a water rat called Honeybun (Hun for short) who together, with their woodland friends, share many adventures. However, my manuscripts were put on a bookshelf and were completely forgotten for two decades until a friend was telling me about his experience of having a book published, and that reminded me of the stories I had written many years earlier. When I told him about my books he asked where they were but I couldn’t remember where I’d stored them, but I found them eventually and dusted them down - there was a lot of dust- and my friend said he’d give them a read and give me his opinion.
Once he’d read them he told me he thought I would be mad not to get them published. After some reflection I decided I wasn’t mad (hopefully) so I started the long and at times, arduous almost tortuous process of getting my first book published, and the book I chose to publish was the first series of the Adventures of Bob, Fin and Honeybun. I had to act as agent and author for this personal adventure and at every twist and turn there was a new challenge - research to be done about publishing, more rewrites, more edits, new terminology and more learning. At times, it all seemed as if I had a monumental mountain to climb. Fortunately, I did find, metaphorically speaking, my hiking boots, and climbed that mountain and the book was finally published in September 2023. It took twelve months. Yes it was frustrating and tedious at times but now I can, at last, hold the book in my hands I can tell you it was worth it. I hope you’ll agree.
The book consists of a series of 12 adventure stories for children aged between three and eleven years’ old. Each adventure takes around 6 to 7 minutes to read and so makes ideal bedtime reading not least because my aim was for a child to be left smiling at the end of each story, and make them feel comfortable, secure and happy and ready for sleep. Of course, these stories can be read at any time and I hope they are and I hope they will help to encourage children to read more to enhance their vocabulary and reading skills. I know children are reading less and less these days and many are only interested in such activities as gaming and that is a tragedy on so many levels. I’m not suggesting I can turn a gamer to an avid reader but then you never know. It could be a just the start of a personal journey they didn’t realise they were looking for ….
Here follows a brief synopsis of the twelve adventures
1 The Trap. In the first adventure Bob, Fin and Honeybun learn at first hand how humans can be so cruel and heartless to defenceless woodland creatures and what Bob, Fin and Honeybun decide to do about it. 2 Clive’s Holiday Mishap. The second adventure you’re introduced to their friend, Clive spider, and it tells what happens to him when the three friends and Clive go on their summer holiday to the beach. 3 Bob and Hun Fall Out. Bob and Hun have a nasty argument and this story tells how it nearly ruins their Christmas celebrations and their friendship. 4 Bobs Noah’s Ark. Bob by planning ahead saves the lives of his woodland friends. 5 Easter Bonnet. Each year Bob wins the Easter Bonnet competition as he always has the best Easter hat lovingly made by Fin and Hun. But Bob realises that on this occasion he needs to give someone else the opportunity to wear the best looking hat. 6 May Day Another happy day for the woodland friends dancing, singing, picnicking finishing the day with a competition to find the best one at playing their woodland games but then a shock as a thief runs away with the winning cup. 7 Sylvester and Francesca get married Such a happy day celebrating Francesca and Sylvester wedding day until some of the wedding gifts are stolen 8 Bob goes to the beach. Read how Bob planned to have a happy day at the beach until things went very wrong 9 The Blue Shoe. Clive the Spider loses one of his shoes and because of that a near tragedy follows 10 The Ice Skater. Brian Bear discovers he really shouldn’t go ice skating on thin ice. 11 The House Boat The three friends have built their little house on the sand which was perfectly fine until the fierce winds arrive. 12 Ding Dong Bell. Alphie Fox, by using his ingenuity, shows how he’s such a hero.
This book is a little unusual as it’s written in rhyme and each adventure contains one of life’s values, such as kindness, teamwork, ingenuity, honesty and friendship. I have deliberately also included some longer words to encourage a child to ask. ‘What does that mean?’ So, the book does have an underlying educational aspect, but not overly so as it’s all quite subtle as I’m not trying to make a child feel that he or she is reading a piece of school work. These books are primarily for the sheer pleasure, fun and love of reading….
Since embarking on this journey I have written three more books for children and the first of these - Everyone Needs a Hero - is now published and available online from all good book shops. It is the only book I’ve written that’s not in rhyme but I wanted to see if I could write stories without any rhyming or formatting and Everyone Needs a Hero is the result. I hope you enjoy it.
Linda Lawrence 2023