The Lonely Tiger by Terenia Edwards
Aspiring picture book authors, this is the blog for you. Terenia Edwards shares the origins of The Lonely Tiger in her guest blog for us today and it is hopeful and helpful to read!
I’m so pleased The Lonely Tiger is my first mark on the world of children’s publishing. I’ve had aspirations to write stories and plays for young audiences for a long time and hadn’t previously had the courage to share any of my work, but The Lonely Tiger was something I wrote with no intention of ever sharing to anyone – I was really writing it for me.
The book actually began its life as an email to a friend who was, at the time, struggling with loneliness and a deficit of self-compassion in the same way that Tiger is in the story.
I remember feeling helpless in trying to find ways to comfort him and my head began to quickly run away with a group of animals in the Jungle, throwing parties in an effort to cheer up their friend. It was then a case of, ‘and then what happens?’ and, ‘how do they find the answer?’.
Once I’d finished the first draft, I read it back and was struck by three things: the way I had been able to completely articulate what I had wanted to tell my friend, that it would be strange and inappropriate to send as an email in those circumstances and that it made quite a good picture book story. I felt confident in my writing for the first time, so I sent it to a few friends who were all very supportive.
I took a deep breath and sent proposals to a small handful of indie publishers accepting open submissions for picture book manuscripts, throwing my hands up and acknowledging that I had nothing to lose. A month later, I received an acceptance email from Tiny Tree Books. I’d been drawn to Tiny Tree as some of their previous projects explored similar themes and had strong messages, without being overly didactic.
I think The Lonely Tiger’s success so far is largely down to the story having come from a real place. Like Neil Gaiman says, “all fiction has to be as honest as you can make it”. Readers of any age will be able to sniff out inauthentic writing – even in fantasy fiction, set in worlds far away from ours. Unfortunately, we’ll all feel lonely at some point in our lives and we can all be too hard on ourselves. I hope the book will remind children and parents that they are not alone in those feelings and to see themselves through the loving eyes of a friend.
The Lonely Tiger by Terenia Edwards and illustrated by Severus Lian will be available to buy from Waterstones, Amazon, Foyles and Barnes and Noble from July 20th.