For most parents, a child’s Christmas wish list incites some panic about how to make those dreams come true, but for Lisa Dalrymple, it inspired a book.
“My daughter, Natalie, said she was going to ask Santa for a polar bear,” said Dalrymple.
The request triggered a series of comical concepts for the writer, who admits that while the ideas were immediate, the writing process was not. Three years in the works, the manuscript took on a life of it’s own.
“There are so many revisions and changes the story went through,” Dalrymple said, such as different endings and scenarios between her fictional characters – all based loosely on her family – and the giant polar bear who arrives on Christmas.
Dalrymple began submitting the book to publishers across Canada, while continuing to submit other children’s stories to contests with the Writers’ Union of Canada.
Like the little girl in the story who gets her wish, on July 21, 2011, Dalrymple’s wish came true, too.
Tuckamore Books, out of St. John’s, Newfoundland, accepted her book entitled If It’s No Trouble … A Big Polar Bear.
“I got the email saying, ‘we want to move ahead,’ and I screamed in my kitchen, then called my husband Marc and screamed some more,” she recalls.
It was quite a day, as minutes later, Dalrymple learned she had won the Writers’ Union of Canada’s first place award in the category of writing for small children, for a manuscript for Skink on the Brink, a tale of a lizard named Stewie the Blue. That submission has now been picked up by publisher Fitzhenry and Whiteside and will appear on bookstore shelves in May 2013.
For Dalrymple, who has written since childhood, the excitement has not waned in the lengthy process of getting a book published and holding it her hands for the first time.
“I’ve always written,” Dalrymple explains. “I started making books myself at eight years old and started sending books to publishers at the age of ten.”
She adds with a laugh, “They were all rejected.”
If It’s No Trouble … A Big Polar Bear was Dalrymple’s first experience seeing her words come to life on the page, with images.
“I was really fortunate to work with illustrator Elizabeth Pratt, who is also from St. John’s,” Dalrymple said. “A picture book is a collaborative effort, 100 per cent.”
Pratt asked Dalrymple to forward pictures of her family and added aspects of their features into the characters, particularly the main character of Natalie.
“I’m so thrilled that my first book, that was inspired by my kids, holds true to that visually,” Dalrymple said. “Lizz did not have to do that. She did it just for me. That was so nice.”
On Oct. 20, with the support of a Writers’ Union grant, Dalrymple flew to St. John’s to launch her first book.
The stay-at-home mother of three graduated with an English degree from Western University and her MA from the University of Guelph, but admits raising children has taken priority. She writes whenever she can.
“I do what all other mothers do. We find whatever ways we can. We stress we’re not doing enough for our kids. We stress we’re not working enough and we burn out,” she said. “That’s how it goes, but we keep going.”
For her own family, Dalrymple credits the unwavering support of her husband Marc for encouraging her writing, but she says her children seem oblivious to the achievement of publishing a book.
“They’ve lived with this story of a big polar bear for years now, seeing different pictures and hearing the stories,” she said. “It’s been a part of us for so long, it’s not such a big deal for them to see it in a book.”
But that’s okay with the author, because audiences young and old have been enjoying the story.
“I don’t really read it; I perform it,” Dalrymple said. “That gets a chuckle out of them.”
Dalrymple has done readings at local schools, the Fergus library and even with the Frst Fergus Brownie pack.
“I want the kids to enjoy it,” she said. “I want them to cuddle up with their parents and read it together.”
Her book launch at Roxanne’s Reflections this weekend helps her bring the story home, to that first Christmas spent in her family’s new home in Fergus.
“It’s important to me … I don’t think books usually get two launches,” Dalrymple said. “It’s important that my friends and family and the community that have supported me are a part of it.”
Dalrymple will bring If It’s No Trouble … A Big Polar Bear to local audiences from 11 am to 1pm on Nov. 17, for a book signing and story time, with crafts and refreshments.
“It’s awesome to have my local bookstore support me,” said Dalrymple. Roxanne’s Reflections, located at 152 St. Andrew Street West, will sell the book for $12.95. For information about the author or the event visit lisadalrymple.com or roxannesreflections.ca respectively.
