Daughter is a dream inspiration for new book
A secondary school teacher from West Lynn has had her first book published, The Gordians Are Good: Gristlelina’s Adventure.
Katherine Grimes, 37, was until recently a teacher at King’s Lynn Academy.
Married with two children, she got the inspiration for her children’s book from her daughter, who at the age of two declared that there were alien ‘Gordions’ living under her bed, stopping her from going to sleep!
Katherine, who said her daughter Rhiannon has “an awesome imagination”, said: “I decided to turn it into something positive, making the Gordions aliens who lived under your bed and took all your bad dreams away.
“I turned them from something scary into something nice.”
In the book a young Gordian girl named Gristlelina decides that she likes her human more than her bed. What follows next is a series of adventures she meets along the way.
Blending fantasy, comedy and silliness, the book presents a new idea to children that explains the strange night-time noises in a nice way.
Katherine and her husband Tarren and her girls, now eight and four, are emigrating to Australia this summer. She has written the book while waiting for visas to come through.
The 108-page book – dedicated of course to Rhiannon – includes black-and-white pencil drawings that she has done herself.
She said that although she had been an English teacher and knew how books were put together that did not make it any easier writing it.
“It is difficult making it interesting. . . making it fun!”
The book is aimed at chidren between eight and 12 but could be read to younger children.
She aims to write more and turn the Gordion series into a trilogy.
Katherine is a former Clenchwarton Primary School pupil who went to Terrinton St Clement High School and then sixth form at King’s Lynn Academy, before staying on to teach there.
She said the family were taking advantage of her husband’s dual nationality to go to Australia.
“We are looking on it as an adventure,” she said.
The Gordians Are Good: Gristlelina’s Adventure is published by AuthorHouse UK and available on Amazon – hardcover £17.99, paperback £9.99.
The Amazon site said this week the books had proved highly popular as they were almost sold out, but promises more are on the way.
