Today I got my first look at the finished copy of the book, and I'm very pleased with how it all turned out! Andrew's artwork looks amazing and it's a very satisfying feeling to have seen it develop from the nucleus of an idea in my head to final product.
Big thanks go to my friend and accountability buddy John Harris, whose suggestion in July 2020 to develop a project that I'd been sitting on for a while led me to produce the first draft a week later. I remembered seeing a book ages ago called Quantum Physics for Babies, and though I've not read it, I loved the concept and was inspired by the idea to try to do the same for evolutionary biology.
Thank you to everyone who read the initial manuscript and offered feedback on how to improve it; especially Stephanie Waters who had a heap of great ideas, which led to a much better version of the story.
In 2018, my mum published a book of her own poetry, and she suggested that I contact Rommie at Hardshell Publishing who helped her with the whole process. After an excellent chat with Rommie, I was off in search of an illustrator and came across a certain Andrew Plant and his book Pippa. I loved the look of the artwork and remember thinking 'yep - that's my guy,' so I reached out to him with my manuscript and asked if he would like to produce some illustrations for me. Andrew was keen to help, and as a passionate birdo, science communicator and established children's author/illustrator has been excellent to work with throughout the whole process!
The driving motivation for this whole project, which I've gone back to over and over again when I've been procrastinating or lacking passion, is that I want this idea in kid's heads. It really is that simple. If I can inspire some curiosity in young minds that I'll consider it a win.
Hoping to get my initial 200 copies in the next few weeks and then I'll be able to start shipping them out to you all!
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