Young writer’s puppy tale printed

CURRENT Loreto College year 12 student, Chloe, found time between her studies to recently publish her own children’s book.

Taking inspiration from the animals in her own life, the book titled, SPLISH SPLASH SPLOSH, follows a day of adventures of two dogs, Bindi and Tika, from playing in puddles to washing up.

“The idea came when I was sitting, watching my dogs play in muddy puddles one day and thought I would write about that, had a spark of inspiration, and then it just grew from there,” Chloe said.

“I’ve always really loved writing, right from a young age I was always writing stories and things like that.

“I started writing it a couple of years ago, put it aside for a while then found it again around this time last year, started editing it and one of my friends read the book to their little nephew and he really liked it so I thought, this could actually be something.”

After contacting Shawline Publishing Group for advice, Chloe said the company took it from there and guided her through the entire process.

“I thought I was far too young to publish a book,” she said.

“Initially, I had only really contacted them to find out a little more about the publishing process and they came back to me asking if I had a story.

“It’s so exciting, although I haven’t seen it in stores yet because it came out on Tuesday right in the middle of this lockdown but it’s so exciting to know it’s out there, it’s a real dream come true.”

In addition to Chloe’s playful puppy story, the pages of her book have been illustrated and decorated by artist Tess Dowling.

“The publishing group found Tess for the illustrations because I’m not a very good drawer at all, so I was looking for someone to help with that,” Chloe said.

“She has worked with Bradley and Jodie from Playtime Books on previous books and I worked closely with her making sure that I was happy every step of the way to bring my story alive with colour and imagery.

“Her drawings are absolutely beautiful and gorgeous.”

With one children’s book under her belt, Chloe said she has no plans of slowing down any time soon and hopes to write more for the genre, as well as branching into others.

“I would like to keep writing and especially children’s books but also books for teenagers and young adults like fantasy, dystopian, those kinds of novels,” she said.

“I’ll definitely be focusing on my year 12 studies this year but I have a couple of little ideas here and there for follow up books for Bindi and Tika’s adventures and other dogs as well.”