It’s been revealed that two girls and their parents from our village are the main stars of a new series of adventure books by children’s author Ed Goodwin – the second of which has just been published.
Ed says it all started early in 2020 when the first COVID-19 lockdown meant he wasn’t able to see his Ruddington grandchildren, Suzy and Connie, in person. “We had Zoom calls but these were usually chaotic, an example being showing how good they were at jumping off sofas followed by them becoming bored and wandering away out of shot!” he explains.
“At this time, like the majority of the population, I had loads of free time. I can’t recall the exact moment but, at some point, I started writing a children’s story, recording it on my mobile and then sending a chapter a day to various family groups. Ruddington Library, Co-op and Rushcliffe Country Park were all referenced. After getting feedback on how much they enjoyed them I decided I would like to publish them as a whole story, which became ‘Journey to the Moon’.”
Ed admits that his own journey to get this first book published was a bit of a learning curve. “Initially I searched for publishers on the internet, but was concerned about their legitimacy, especially as I would have to part with a large sum of money up front before anything would be published. Eventually I contacted an author that I knew and asked his advice. On his recommendation I contacted The Conrad Press, who I discovered were very encouraging towards first-time authors.”
Initially The Conrad Press responded saying that Ed’s story was not long enough for one of their books. Undeterred, he decided to write some more. “I asked my eldest grandchild, Suzy, what subject I should write about. She said write about Punch and Judy. She was mad about them at the time and still is, following seeing a live show in Nottingham. So ‘Punch and Judy’ became the second story. Then I picked a topic that most young children are obsessed with, namely unicorns. Thus the third story emerged as ‘Unicorn Tales’.”
By this time Ed’s three stories together had grown to twenty-six thousands words. When he submitted them to The Conrad Press, to his delight, they agreed to publish them as ‘Journey to the Moon and Other Stories’. There was then a long period spent correcting grammar, polishing the text, and designing the cover until finally the book came out in June 2021, about fifteen months after Ed’s first WhatsApp recording.
Ed reveals: “While I was completing ‘Journey to the Moon and Other Stories’ I started a new story. Initially I gave this a working title ‘The Time Machine’. This again featured my grandchildren Suzy and Connie but (as in real life) they had in the story grown up a bit. In this story their Dad decided he was going to build them a time machine as a Christmas present, which would enable them to journey backwards and forwards in time. The children lost interest as several trial runs failed but their dad incurably optimistic, and convinced he would become a famous scientist, ploughed on. Many adventures followed which form the main part of the story.”
With lockdowns less frequent, Ed found he had less spare time – so writing this story took him a lot longer to complete. It was planned to come out in February 2022 but – after even more proof reading and editing than his first book – was not ready until August 2022. By this time he had changed the title to ‘Amazing Adventures in Time’ to avoid any confusion with the well known novel ‘The Time Machine’ by H.G. Wells.
This latest book – just published – contains even more explicit references to Ruddington than ‘Journey to the Moon’ did. “Once again the library plays a major part as does the Country Park” says Ed, however warns us: “Inhabitants of the village may come to view it in a different light?!”
Ed Goodwin’s first two books are available now via Amazon, either as paperbacks or Kindle Editions, >>HERE<<.
He is also busy writing another story featuring his Ruddington grandchildren, Connie and Suzy. However this time it’s based in a different part of the country.
