Hello all, I am a children’s author looking to publish my first book. I have written a fantasy children’s novel, for the 6 to 8 year-old age group, entitled ‘Baggledorf and the Itching Powder Plot’. Baggledorf is a 147 year old troll (just early teens in troll years) who inhabits the mystical world of the Swedish pine forests. The story begins when Baggledorf befriends 8-year-old Poppy and introduces her to mud-splattered grass boarding, extreme cloud flying, free-fall tree slides and camping with crisps. The novel is approximately 13,000 words in length and split into 12 chapters. Each chapter focuses on a particular adventure, while a dastardly plot slowly unfolds. The foundations for subsequent Baggledorf adventures are laid and I envisage an entire series of children’s novels. The three main inspirations for Baggledorf’s story come from my childhood, my son and nephews, and my favourite Scandinavian children’s authors. Although I grew up in England, I spent many holidays in Sweden visiting my Grandparents in their summer cottage in the southern county of Skåne. The cottages lie at the end of a dirt track deep in the pine forest, near a lake. By the log fire in the evening, we would read stories of the magical creatures that inhabited the woods; trolls, elves and fairy princesses. All these imaginary forest dwellers were gentle, kind and mysterious, based on Swedish folklore. My son and nephews take up much of my time and their enthusiasm and imagination never cease to inspire new storylines. They are a terrific source of new ideas, whether its flying, den building, sliding, hiding, eating naughty food or the ever-present menace of cellar monsters. The format and style of my work is inspired by the books of my childhood. The humorous and unique stories of Astrid Lindgren and Tove Jansson have always fired my imagination, with the adventures of The Moomins, Karlson on the Roof, Emil and Pippi Longstocking. With Baggledorf being my first attempt at writing for children I am sure there is a lot of room for improvement so any comments on my efforts are much appreciated. I hope to pick up some tips in this forum and hopefully pass on some of my own experiences to date.. TTFN..
Hi Yes I hope your stay can be mutually beneficial though be careful not to post too much of your work on here so as to scare off your publishers. Perhaps just approach us with technical issues? Anyway any questions let us know and we'll see what we can do. Kind Regards
Hello and welcome to the forum. I hope you have a wonderful time here with all of us and do hope that you find what you are looking for here. Ever need a review simply pm a reviewer and we are more than happy to help out. See you around the board in the near future. Torana
Hi baggledorf, welcome to the Writing Forums. I look forward to your ideas, and hope you get some inspiration, challenges and viewpoints you can improve from in return. Gannon makes a good point about posting work here that you plan to publish. However, if you take excursions away from your baggledorf series to attempt some different styles, it can only help you in your commercial writings. Anyway, explore the site, get to know us, and have fun!
thanks Thanks a lot for the welcome .. I am writing another book at the moment in a slightly different style which I hope to publish through more traditional channels (if lucky enough!). The idea of giving Baggledorf away is to see if I can create a community around the book and to determine if there is any interest in my writing from the audience that matters. I have already received some lovely pictures of the characters from the children who have read it already which I aim to put on the website and thus, hopefully, encourage others to do the same. Having had a difficult time looking for an illustrator I cannot think of a nicer way to get the illustrations to put into the e-book edition. Thanks again...
