A Belfast mum took the plunge to follow her dream of writing a children's book during lockdown, and is encouraging others to pursue their passions too.
Emma Herdman used free time during the pandemic to write and illustrate a children's picture book titled The Lonely Pea, which was published last month.
The mum-of-two said the idea developed from a story she would tell her own children after cleaning up peas that would be dropped to the floor during dinner time.
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"I wrote this book during lockdown when everyone was at home trying to entertain themselves, and I thought I would do something I've always wanted to do and give it a go," Emma told Belfast Live.
"It then got picked up by a publishing agency, Austin Macauley. I'm loving life. I honestly did not expect anything to come from this, but I just thought now was the time to try it.
"Having kids, I was just constantly cleaning up peas from the floor. My kids' favourite vegetable is peas and no matter what, you could always bet there'd be one leftover you'd find on the floor the next day that you'd missed.
"I was always like 'there he is, the lonely pea.' It just sort of developed from that idea. It's a children's picture book aimed at two to seven-year-olds, it's basically about a pea that falls off the table and the adventures he gets up to. He ends up meeting an unlikely friend, a piece of corn, and it follows their friendship.
"It was really nice to get it down on paper, and I was allowed then to do my own illustrations too which was lovely.
"It felt fantastic to finally start. I wasn't sure how to go about it, I've never done anything like this before so it was all very new to me."
Emma said her children are excited to see the book out in the world, and even more thrilled to see their mum doing book readings at their school.
She said: "They're so excited because they have their names in it and there's a picture of the three of us in the back of it. I also got to go into my eldest's school, she's in St John the Baptist, so I got to go do a reading there for their P1 and P2. I got to go in and read to all their friends which was fantastic."
Looking towards the future, Emma already has two other children's books good to go, with plans to keep going with writing and developing stories.
She said it's a great outlet for creativity, and she loves being able to work on a project so positive.
"I work in a General Practice so it can be quite a stressful job, so it's lovely to have something else to work on that's just so uplifting," Emma explained.
"I have two books lined up ready to go, I'm just finishing up my illustrations for them and have had a few offers from different publishing houses. I'm just weighing up my options to see who to go with at the minute. I've got plenty of ideas so I'm just going to hopefully keep going with it."
For any parents who have something in the back of their mind they would love to do some day, Emma said they should take that first step and get started.
She said: "Follow your dreams, just do it. What's the worst that could happen?
"I had a bit of extra time, so I thought I'd just get it a go. Now it's a real, living book that people are buying. I've loved every minute of it. I hope other mums can do the same, to take the time doing something they just love."
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