開花媽媽談出書感受，原來她退休之前，一直做新聞工作者。退休後才寫兒童小說。今年她67歲。
她是退休後，在西班牙海灘渡假，才開始對甲蟲的喜愛。 她說開花小時候很喜歡動物和狗。如果當時她有讓開花認識昆蟲更加好了。
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Friday, June 11, 2010, 08:00
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Bloom bitten by book bug
THOSE wondering how Hollywood movie hunk Orlando Bloom caught the showbiz bug can now blame his mum.
Sonia Copeland Bloom has come clean about her love of creepy-crawlies.
At the grand age of 67, the retired journalist has written her first work of fiction, Basil the Beetle's Scary Adventure.
Pirates of the Caribbean star Orlando and his actress sister Sam helped their mum launch the book at London's National History Museum.
Sonia, who lives in Canterbury, said: "The inspiration came two years ago when I found a caterpillar on a Spanish beach.
"I couldn't get it to eat, so I brought it home in a jar and put it in the kitchen. One day it turned into a chrysalis, and three weeks later I woke to find it had turned into a gorgeous brown and orange moth.
"I thought it was such an amazing miracle of transformation, from an ugly caterpillar, that it gave me the idea to write a story.
"It was very strange writing fiction, because as a trained journalist I had always been told it was a sin to make anything up. "But it gave me a new sort of freedom – like a butterfly – and opened the door to a new career."
She was helped by attending a creative writing course at the University of Kent.
After months of researching the habits of tiny bugs, she sent her manuscript to the 75-year-old Amateur Entomologists' Society for checking and was stunned to hear they wanted to help publish the book.
Sonia said: "The society is very anxious to encourage more children to take an interest in insects and it thinks my book, aimed at young children from age five, will help.
"If it stops them stamping on beetles or squashing spiders it will have done its job.
"Beetles, slugs, snails and worms are much easier to keep than dogs or cats, and can be returned to the garden during holidays.
"I just wish I had known about all this when Orlando was growing up. He loved all animals and had a dog. Perhaps I should have bought him some stick insects instead."
The 38-page full-colour book, illustrated by Nick Page, designed by Darren Gander and printed by the University of Kent, is the first of three in the series Tales and Truths about Garden Minibeasts.
There are also books about slugs, Woody the Wood Lice and Willie the Worm in the pipeline.
Dafydd Lewis, secretary of the AES said: "A child's imagination is best captured at primary school age, when lifelong passions are kindled. This series takes an audacious new approach to engaging children with the natural world, using a careful mix of fact and fiction."
Basil the Beetle's Scary Adventure costs £3.50 until the end of June (£4.50 afterwards), from Waterstone's, in Canterbury, or by e-mailing the AES at tales@amentsoc.org All first edition copies will be signed by the author. All proceeds go to the AES. |
