My Inspiration
Book 1
My older daughter was in grade one, reading anything to do with magic. My younger daughter also loved books about magic, but found some of the characters in her sister’s books a bit scary. So, one day, I decided to write a book – a book about magic that wasn’t scary. Writing a book without negative characters was my main focus, but I also thought it was important to include a ‘life lesson’. The girls would tell story after story of their classmates running and pushing to get to the front of a line. We decided that ‘going first’ would be the perfect ‘problem’ for my first book.
Book 2
When I started book 2, all I knew was that it had to be about mermaids – a request from my older daughter. But other than that, I had no idea what to write about. Then one day, while discussing my daughter’s upcoming birthday at an indoor playground, I reminded her that she needed to play with everyone. I didn’t want anyone to feel left out. Suddenly, I knew exactly what I was going to write about.
Book 3
Travelling to New Brunswick, or as I call it in the books, ‘Brookside’, is a big part of our lives. So when we decided to spend Christmas there, it was easy writing the first part of the book.
Book 4
After watching my daughter and her grandpa devour their ice cream, I thought it would be fun for the characters in Flower to create their own flavours. Bunny Hugs was named after my daughters – they’d hug each other tightly and declare, ‘bunny hugs!’. Floating Balloons was inspired by the colourful Playdoh balls my daughters would make.
Book 5
My younger daughter really didn’t like bees. Knowing that we were headed to New Brunswick for the summer, and that we would be outside for most of the day, I decided to write book 5. I wanted to explain, in a humorous way, why bees do what they do.
Book 6
Before I wrote book 6, I asked my daughters for ideas. They told me they wanted Anna and Bella to take a tour of the palace, dress up in princess dresses, and have a fancy tea party. I took their suggestions and then added a few extra surprises.
Book 7
Around Halloween, we went to a pumpkin patch with a corn maze. We didn’t split up and race to the middle, but I thought that would make an interesting twist for the beginning of the book.
Book 8
There are a lot of little things in book 8 that I took from real-life (e.g. the costumes, the Halloween parade at school, the squishy feeling of pumpkin guts, motion sickness, carnival games, and the maze). But the most important part of book 8 was the lesson – that the older sibling isn’t always better at everything. With two daughters, so close in age, I knew this lesson would be very helpful as they grew up.
Book 9
Neither of my daughters have fallen during a cross-country race. However, one year, there was a dangerous spot along the route where someone could have fallen. That, along with my younger daughter’s fascination with doctors and broken bones, was all the inspiration I needed. As for the games played in Flower, they came from my daughters’ Right to Play day at school.
Book 10
Every New Year’s Eve, my daughters begged us to stay awake until midnight. But, we’d always fall asleep. I figured if we couldn’t stay awake in the real world, at least Anna and Bella could. The perseverance lesson came easily because my daughter, who had never been on skates before, had just started taking lessons.
Book 11
One day, during my daughters’ gymnastics class, I noticed that both of them kept rushing to be first. So before their next class, I told them to try going last instead of first. It was humorous watching them both try to be last. I had already written a book about going first, but thought this particular lesson needed to be reinforced.
Book 12
My daughters are very kind and caring girls. I wrote book 12 because I thought it was important for all children to learn how easy it is to be kind. And, as for the spilled smoothie? Well, that has happened to us on more than one occasion.
Book 13
The book was inspired by a Spring Break trip to Great Wolf Lodge. The girls loved racing around the halls solving MagiQuest riddles. As for the penguins and polar bears? They were introduced after an author talk in my daughter’s classroom. Her classmates wanted their names in the book, so I had to create some extra characters. I wanted these characters to play a game, but I didn’t know what type of game. Luckily for me, while chaperoning a field trip, my daughter’s friend suggested I have the polar bears and penguins play a game like curling. I loved the idea, and decided to call the game Blizzard Bowl.
Book 14
My daughters were super-excited about performing in their school’s spring concert. They had a bit of nerves, but luckily never caught the flu. I added the part about the bags after my daughters and I sewed purses together.
Book 15
Every year, I create an Easter egg hunt just like the one described in this book.
Book 16
When I picked my daughter up from Brownie Camp, she was exhausted because she hadn’t slept very well. As she was telling me about her weekend, I knew exactly what my next book would be about.
Book 17
Gracie is our sweet, loveable dog, and we couldn’t imagine our lives without her. But it wasn’t always this way. When we brought Gracie home we were in for a shocking surprise. The moment she walked through our door, she started chewing on everything. And I mean EVERYTHING! She was a LOT of work. There were definitely times we asked ourselves, ‘Why did we get a puppy?’.
I wrote book 17 to help my daughters understand Gracie’s puppyish behaviour.
Book 18
Learning how to dive can be difficult, especially when you only do it a handful of times during a lesson. I knew once we got to New Brunswick, my daughter would figure it out. And she did – by diving through a hoop!
Books 19 & 20
Some of our favourite New Brunswick moments include eating sugar snap peas straight from Nana’s garden, reading Dad’s old picture books, sharing a room, swinging in the park, and watching Gramps’s trains as they circle around and around the tracks.
Book 21
My daughters thought it would be fun if Anna and Bella got new looks. I agreed, but didn’t know what else to include in the book. When I saw a family of birds nesting outside of our kitchen window, I suddenly knew exactly what I would write about.