The first incarnation of this delightful under the water tale of friendship, falling out and fixing things was a carefully created paper book I made for my eldest daughter about 10 years ago now. I drew the illustrations with her pencil crayons and wrote the words in my best simple cursive script to make it easy for her to try and read and then taped the pages together!

The next version came not long after, when I discovered I could scan the illustrations into my laptop. I got rid of the handwritten text and typed it all out. I had been experimenting with book binding and so after several attempts managed a very dodgy looking copy which I used to read to my daughter.

I was eventually persuaded by my parents to let other people see my book and so I investigated how I could get it out into the world. I chose to make a Storytime video which I posted on my Facebook page and then made the book available as a Kindle Book on the 15th Feb 2015. It was quite awful if I’m honest, but at least it was out there.

Some years later I got the gift of a Wacom drawing tablet and so began the process of digitialising my books and I absolutely loved the way the illustrations for Stevie the Shark went from being grainy, quite grey pictures to vibrant, shiny, ‘professional looking’ illustrations! This in fact is one of the only books that I’ve never gone back to alter, as I just love the illustrations so much!

Anyway…why am I waffling on about a book that’s nearly 10 years old I hear you cry? Well, the simple reason is that a long-talked about venture between Flower Guard Books and the wonderful Caroline from Our Green Apple and The Potteries is finally starting this month!

In the summer of 2023 Caroline acquired the pottery painting studio, The Potteries, within Hornsea Freeport and we spoke almost immediately about how the space would be great for a Story and Pottery Painting event. As usual, busy lives got in the way and even though we said ‘we must get together and sort this out’ every time we saw each other, it was actually not until November of 2023 that we finally got the time to talk about the possibility of doing it. Cut to my first child-free Monday of 2024 and we were able to sit with a cuppa and biscuits in The Potteries to put the final plan into place…a monthly Story and Pottery Painting session…the very first one is this Sunday 28th January, and it will make a right splash (pun completely intended) as it is…

Stevie the Shark!

I truly do love telling this story and I even have my very own Stevie the Shark and Jellyfish Jake to accompany me to the event! There are very few tickets left, but if you are in the East Riding of Yorkshire and you think your little one(s) would enjoy a storytime session, followed by a juice break and pottery painting, then head here too book your space! Adults or older children in attendance can have 10% off bisque pottery during the session too, so everyone can have a lovely afternoon out!