DRAGONS and castles are coming to Coldharbour Mill thanks to an Uffculme author and her new book which has gone on sale there.
Jenny Scott, 35, penned Sammy Rambles and the Floating Circus, the first of a series of five children’s books following ten year old Sammy.
It follows the boy who is bullied at school because of his parents’ successful careers and is moved to a new school where they meet Sir Lok Ragnarok, headmaster of Dragamas School for Dragon Charming.
As he settles in, Sammy learns of a dark fate hanging over the school. An emery known only as the Shape is trying to destroy all the dragons and close the school. The story then tells how Sammy and his friends can find out what is behind the Shape and ensure the school can continue.
Jenny, who moved to Uffculme from Exeter three years ago has been a volunteer at the mill since January. The book has now gone on sale in the shop as well as on the Amazon website.
“The opportunity came up to the put the book in the shop so it’s really gone from there,” she said.
“It took six months to write and I had all my ideas on hundreds of notepads which then had to be written up.
“I then spent ten years finding a publisher. I sent it off to agents and publishing houses who have either been slow, didn’t reply or it wasn’t quite their thing.
“I then found some tools online to do it myself so in partnership with Amazon I put the book together, designed the cover, the back, the front and everything inside and gave it the ISBN number. It’s now gone on sale and it’s down to me to promote it.”
Since its release in January, the book has been read by youngsters across the country as well as by parents and grandparents.
“It’s been really good, very encouraging, lots of children take it into their schools for show and tell and to get their classmates to read it.
“Parents and grandparents are enjoying reading it to younger children and I’ve had some international sales in Belgium, Australia and America.”
Jenny says she draws inspiration from her childhood where Gill Murphy’s Worst Witch and CS Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia gave her ideas, as well as frequent trips to National Trust properties and castles when she was young.
Sophie Nicholls who runs the shop at Coldharbour Mill added: “We’re very proud to be able to support Jenny as a local author. It’s a great opportunity to launch a new book in conjunction with our new shop.
“Jenny has been a brilliant member of the team since she started at the beginning of the year, helping us with so much in terms of getting maps and posters and various things all up and running and I was only too happy to support her when she came to me about showing her work here in the shop.”
