(image: Copyright: Eleanor Segall and Shelley the Artist)

In 2019, not long after I wrote my first book ‘Bring me to Light‘ , I had an idea for a story about a little girl, aged 7, who had worries- Arabella and the Worry Cloud.

As a child, I was a big worrier! I remember feeling anxious from about aged 4. I don’t know if its just my personality/ genetics or what was going on, but I was always a worrier.

So, I decided that I wanted to use my experiences to help children with their mental health too. Poor mental health often starts in childhood. For me, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at 16 , and was off school with intense anxiety as part of a depressive episode at 15. It runs in my family and I know there are families now who were like mine or children living in more difficult environments. Children in loving, supportive homes (like mine was) can still experience anxiety around nursery, school, after school clubs and friendship issues, bullying and something I did not have contend with.. social media bullying. Other children have special educational needs or disabilities that impact them day to day. The spectrum is huge and I wanted to create a positive book to help.

Arabella is 7 years old and her special talent is worrying. In the book, her worries are represented by a cloud, known as the Worry Cloud, who comes down to see her from the sky. He reminds her of all her worries and she tries to run away from him. However, once she begins to think of positive thoughts and memories with her family like eating ice cream at the beach or swimming with her brother, her mind becomes lighter and happier. These positive thoughts are represented as light beams of positive energy and she finds she can put her worries into perspective. The book also serves as a reminder that the storm does not last forever!

(image copyright: Eleanor Segall and Shelley the Artist)

I am very blessed that my Dad has a close friend who is a renowned artist- Shelley. Shelley’s art work and illustrations are beautifully drawn, colourful and were perfect for how I wanted Arabella to be. She is an esteemed digital artist, mural maker, painter and sketcher. She really brought Arabella to life! So the process began….

Once Shelley came on board, we met every few weeks online for about 5/6 months so she could show me the illustrations she had created and I could give my input as the author. We had lots of fun while Shelley sketched the characters on her ipad for me over Zoom and we really love working together. Shelley is super talented and I am so thankful she is the illustrator of Arabella! You can see her work at www.shelleytheartist.com

So self publishing… why did I self publish? I had sent the manuscript to agents and had meetings with my old publisher and another famous publisher I had worked with on another book. They for different reasons eg budget and having a similar type of children’s book, did not want to take it on. Submitting books to agents means constant rejections and so I felt that it was slowing down time to get the book out there and thought why not self publish through Amazon instead? I could have submitted to more places as didn’t submit to as many as I could have. I would still love to be represented one day by an agent and major publisher so I will need to send out more manuscripts- watch this space!

Once Shelley and I had finalised the illustrations and pages, she resized them for me and then (through an author friend, Joanna Gutkin) I had the recommendation to Abid Hussain via Fiverr, who formats books! Abid then formatted (laid out) the pages for me and created the PDF files for the ebook and paperback. Once this was finalised and looked at by me, he then put it on Amazon KDP for us. I also spoke to a printer friend (of my Dad again as he has an amazing network) Hak Huseyn of Absolute Print printers who helped me to size it, choose the right paper and printed copies of the paperback for us too. As I am new to self publishing, Hak reminded me I would need an ISBN, so once that was paid for and barcode put on, we were good to go! Thanks Hak and Abid!

(image copyright: Eleanor Segall and Shelley the Artist)

This entire process was not as quick as I describe… it took us 9 months .. oh and I also forgot the trip to the bookshop I took with my Dad to find the right size of children’s book when we were about to format. The bookseller even got a tape measure to size it for us in inches, so thank you to Books on the Hill St Albans.

I also want to thank author friends Joanna Gutkin , Esther Marshall, Lauren Posner and Shani Singer who answered my queries about their books and self publishing and the Empowered Author Group on Facebook too.

Thanks also go to my Dad who believed in this book and helped me so much with it! And to the friends and family who read early copies. Rob, my husband has also been so supportive. And to Shelley for working with me!

If you buy a copy for your child, niece or nephew, cousin, friend’s child or your class at school I hope you love reading it and that it helps your child to understand that worrying happens, but we can talk about it, process it and find healthy ways to cope.

Arabella and the Worry Cloud is out now on Amazon