Jacqueline Mead

My name is Jacqueline Mead, I am 57 years old and I live in a very beautiful part of England, I live in the Westcountry which is a rural area and we are surrounded by Moorland National Parks (three in total, Bodmin Moor, Dartmoor and Exmoor) and beaches, too many to name all of them but Whitsand Bay is where my family holidayed for the first eleven years of my life. It is also where we took our children for their first holidays.

Growing up I had a wonderful childhood with many day trips and holidays to beaches and the moors.

We body surfed and climbed rocks and tors, swam in seas and rivers and to this day

I love being by water.

Currently I live in Exeter, England, about 45mins from the City I was born Plymouth, England and I live close to the River Exe and a Canal, about a 15mins drive to the moors.

My family, nature and my surroundings are and always have been my inspiration. The River Exe and its surroundings has been the inspiration behind quite a few of my Nature Poems from wildlife, flowers, street art, benches, bridges, the River, the Canal at some point they have all featured in my Poems.

I wrote my first book at the age of 55 and it was published in Nov 2017. The inspiration to write this book was my family. The story of the book is one that I made up for my three children at bedtime. They frequently asked “tell us the story of the Moon and Rocket Mummy” instead of reading them their favourite book. About Ten years ago I typed it up for my children and bound it for them as a keepsake of their childhood and for them to share with their children.

Currently I have three grandchildren and they all know the story of Fly to the Moon. In 2017 I was run over by a motorbike whilst crossing the road and it focused my mind on how difficult life is when you are incapacitated. I wrote my first Poem on a visit to our Capital City, London entitled “More” – it was an observation on mobile phone usage and how being on the phone, people miss out on the More in Life, such as “people dancing in the street, an artist drawing with their feet”.

Encouraged by how well my first Poem was accepted I decided to make Two Princes and A Princess Fly to the Moon into a rhyming verse book and publish it, this would be my childrens legacy.

I have kept my children’s names throughout the series of books.

I have two target audiences – the first will always be my children’s stories and these are aged at young children ages 0-7, ideal for sharing with your child at bedtime and for first readers as the structure of the storybooks is, that they all start the same and end the same, familiarity of words makes it easier for the child to engage with. In the middle the stories differ of course.

Pictures make the books come to life and there are ten picture pages per book, all illustrations have been drawn by the same very talented artist Kathy Kerber.

From this target audience, I hope my books fire their imagination and aspire them to be whatever their imagination lends them to, whether it is Doctors, Nurses, Firemen, dragon slayer, who knows the world is their oyster.

The second target audience is the older child and adults – I have been told my Poetry stories are written in whimsical style and I have a collection of Poems on Vampires, Ghosts and Knights, where Vampires fall in Love but how will it all end, Knights dream of marrying the Kings Daughter, A Girly Ghost recalls her family. Although there is no violence or sexual scenes – the target age is probably 13+ just because I believe the topics require an older mindlogic.

From this target age group, I would love them to read the stories and accept them for what they are fun Poems written with humour and a bit of a twist.

Music – another big love of mine. I love all sorts of Music, Country and Western, Pop, Jazz, Blues, Soul all of the genres. My favourite artists are Elvis, Bruce Springsteen, Cody Johnson, Simply Red, Robbie Williams, Coldplay, Elton John, Rag n Bone Man, Billy Joel, Westlife, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Rick Astley – I’ve seen all but Rag n Bone Man and Cody Johnson in concert. Yes, even Elvis in a computer- generated concert at the O2 in London, it was very emotional!

I recently saw Billy Joel in Madison Square Gardens and Westlife in Manchester, UK and next month I am going to the British Summertime Festival in Hyde Park where Robbie Williams is headlining and other acts are Black Eyed Peas, Feeder, Keane, Texas.

Once I had written my first Poem, I wanted to share it somewhere and researched Poetry Platforms. I came across Hello Poetry and this website is fabulous, I still use it, the community are inclusive and encouraging but its value is limited as currentl you cannot post images or make writing bold or fanciful in anyway and they do not run competitions other than a daily poem.

Realistic Poetry International is a Poetry website where again the community are inclusive and encouraging but this website comments on your Poems, encourages your work and has competitions such as Picture Prompts, Word of the Week etc. You can post images and format your Poems and you can promote your books, order reviews, order social media promotions, you can even publish your books with them. It has been invaluable in my growth as a Poet and Author.

I chose to write children’s books as I loved reading to my children growing up and watching them adopt the same keenness to read. My three children have different tastes my eldest child Prince Simon loves Adult Fantasy born out of reading J K Rowling and Harry Potter. My second child Prince Jason loves reading Lee Child adventures of Jack Reacher and my youngest Princess Sophie loves anything Winnie the Pooh, despite being quite grown up now she still collects anything winnie the pooh related including the original books.

I want my books to inspire children’s imagination in the same way and they are about dressing up and having fun, using a wardrobe as a rocket to take them wherever their imagination roams. They should be a release from the many television shows and videos on parents’ phones that are available today and definitely meant to encourage shared reading with your child.

The three main characters of my book are based on my children. The names are the names of my children the colouring of their hair and the clothes they wear are taken from their childhood. I haven’t thought about it until now, but I am the Queen in the book. Once you have the characters and you know them well then you can write as many stories as you like about them.

Outside of the Two Princes and A Princess story books I have also put together a collection of Poems written about Vampires, Ghosts and Knights and I originally released the book titled Vampires, Ghosts, Knights and other Whimsical tales. I released the book and a couple of weeks later I decided to revamp the book as some of the Poems in the book were not related in anyway to the title. I wrote a couple of new Poems, took out the Poems that I didn’t believe were relevant and relaunched the book as Vampires, Ghosts, Knights and other Poetic Tales.

Princess Sophie was inspired by my daughter Sophie Elizabeth Lauren Mead – my doctor told me when she was first born, she had the name of a Princess. I would describe my daughter in five words as beautiful, strong, intelligent, loyal and fun.

The story of Two Princes and a Princess Visit Lapland was an easy story to write. Over the years I have watched a lot of Christmas Story Films and read a lot of books from Elf to Miracle on 34 th Street. The inspiration behind Prince Simon finding a snow globe came from my Grandson Alfie who asked us to bring him back a snow globe when we came home from our holiday. It was the middle of summer and his Mum asked him why and he replied, “we used to have one at Christmas, but I think it got broken because we don’t have it anymore”. Obviously, his Mum had put it away after the Christmas holidays. It is a child’s unique outlook on life that inspires me.

I wish someone had told me that writing would become an addiction, that when I can’t write or am struggling to write I would be sad. Writing is a pleasure and I love to make the time to write my Poems and stories. I keep a journal by my side if I am watching television, I keep my laptop switched on and try to spend at least half an hour an evening on poetry websites, my Facebook pages, twitter, Instagram or entering competitions.

I love my kindle and I have read lots of books on my ereader, but I equally love paperbacks and have bookshelves full of books. If I am going on holiday, I can download several books on my ereader and take them with me it is much lighter than packing a couple of paperback novels in my luggage. However, you cannot beat the feel of holding a paperback and if I really enjoy a book on my kindle, I will order the paperback version too. Mainly though I read classics and poetry in paperback, everything else on my ereader.

The hardest criticism is not being able to get my books to sell, it is a tough market the children’s market. Anyone who has bought my books love them, but I don’t seem able to get them to place a review on Amazon.

The best compliments come from children, when you finish reading the book and they smile and say “I love that the words rhyme” and then the questions come, are the children real children? “Can I go to the Moon?” you know they were fully engrossed in the story and that is the best compliment ever. .

I have about four books on the go at the moment. I have a new Two Princes and A Princess in the pipeline, this time they stay at home and go on a real adventure in their car. I have one about an Alien who visits a pretty hamlet in England called Hamlet Boulay and makes friends with the whole village after wreaking havoc in the first place.

I came across AllAuthor on a free book promotion page on Facebook and thought I would take a look. I liked what I saw and decided to join as a member and promote my books. I love the way you tweet about all of my books and the weekly mockup banner, which is even better now I can select the banners I believe are applicable to my books. I like the way I can track how many people have seen my books and how many have followed the links and I like the way that allauthor are constantly updating the review ratings for all of my books. I find All author a very valuable promotional resource.