Hello and welcome to the Brentwood Buzz of podcast
celebrating all that's good about the people and places of
Brentwood, Essex. I'm Kay Bellwood, anyone who has
a garden or an allotment will know the feeling of weeds
getting on top of you or plants and vegetables shrivelling or
drowning depending on the weather.
Amanda Claire, a foot health practitioner and allotment
holder from Doddinghurst, has used her lack of green
fingeredness as an inspiration for a book.
Sir Douglas Mole and a lot of antics.
She's going to be at the Chicken and Frog Bookshop on the 23rd of
April to talk about writing and self-publishing.
So the Brentwood Buzz has been to the shop to meet her and two
of her children, Francis and Josephine.
So Douglas Mower and a lot of antiques by my mum.
I mainly grew up in Onga. When I moved out, I moved into
Brentwood with my husband and I now live in Doldenhurst.
Brilliant. OK.
And you are a foot health practitioner in your real life,
your real job, Yes. Yes, so that's what I do
everyday. I am mobile so I visit people's
houses, I meet some interesting people.
I love all my clients. I'm very lucky.
I never wake up and dread going to work.
I wake up and look in my diary and go, oh, I'm seeing Jean
today, or I'm, you know, seeing Pam or Pat.
And it's such a nice feeling to go and have a chat with
somebody. I hope I make their day as much
as I make mine. Yeah, I never dread going to
work. What a great thing.
Because there are some people that might go, oh, feet, Oh no,
I don't like my feet being touched or I would never want to
touch anybody else's feet. So it's it's it's a, it's a
calling. Maybe.
Yes. Well, I have to say I was one of
them people. I'm not going to lie.
I've told all my clients this story.
I worked in London for years in insurance, and then I had three
children. And I remember having a
conversation with my boss about what job you could do that would
never sort of, you'd never run out of.
I actually said making coffins. Yeah.
And she said feet. And I was absolutely not.
There's no way I'm ever going to do that.
Well, guess who my first client was?
My old boss. Because I kind of when I was
thinking of retraining, I wanted to go back to work.
I love working and the kids were all going to school.
My youngest was starting. I wanted to do something where I
could help people and be happy, but also be present with my
children. And there's not a lot of jobs
that allow you to do that, and this one did.
I'm my own boss, so I make my own hours and I absolutely love
it. Yes, fates, they're not the most
attractive thing to people, but I don't see it like that.
I see it as I'm helping somebody.
I have worked in healthcare when I was younger because I wanted
to be a nurse originally, which didn't go to plan.
I had two major operations. Realised I don't like
injections, so how am I going to give one?
That's how I end up in insurance.
But I worked with disabled people for two weeks and my
placement and I learnt a hell of a lot.
It changed me as a person. I realised that you can push
your boundaries. I was stronger than I thought.
I heard some incredible stories. I met some incredible people and
the joy of helping someone and just sharing a story.
I, I love that. So I don't see it as I'm just
doing their fates. I'm helping them and I'm also
being present. And yeah.
You keep saying the word story, you hear stories, you you talk
to people and here we are in the chicken and frog.
You've got your your book is next to me here, Sir Douglas
Mole and a lot of antics. You are now a published writer
and you're going to be doing a talk at the The Chicken and Frog
coming up soon. What made you decide to do this
as well as have three children and a job and an allotment?
So I'm self published. I self published myself in
January. I'm still trying to get
published. I will forever try and get
published. I have been writing since school
age basically and it's always been my passion for me.
You know how people get things off their chests?
They either talk or just don't know.
Like whatever you choose to do, they go for a run, go to the
gym. I write and when I had children
I started telling them stories and I started writing these
stories down and they have become a series of I have about
6 picture books that I've written.
They were written for my children, said Douglas Mole is a
chapter book, so it's slightly longer.
That is mainly about me and my children at the allotment or
lack of being at the allotment. The stories are they kind of
relate to my life a little bit. There are stories in there that
have happened to me. Obviously from an animal's
perspective, there aren't actually really animals that are
talking on my allotment plot, but it's great to think they
are. It's about MO and his friends
that do lots of different stuff in different seasons.
And have you been to the allotment and seen Sir Douglas
Mole or where he lives? No, you haven't.
Do you go down to the allotment at all?
Yeah. What grows there?
Weeds and food. So it all began, said Douglas
Mole. When I very first secured my
allotment plot, I had no idea what I'm doing.
I was doing. I still don't.
It's very I wing everything. Sometimes I will have an array
of carrots and sometimes, more than often, I will just have
weeds everywhere. Carrots are impossible.
They're just a nightmare to grow.
They are, and especially when the carrot fly come.
That is in my book, Yeah. I mean, I'm quite good at
growing beetroot, actually, very good at growing rhubarb because
you don't have to do anything with that.
That does itself. Yeah.
So I, I secured the plot and this lovely man called Don from
the allotment down the road. He came to help me because I
went over there and I said can you help me?
I need to know what I'm pulling out is actually weed.
And he stood there and he said, Dale, just to let you know, if
you see a mole, hit it with a spade and all of a sudden that
was it. That was the trigger.
My stories just grew from there. And that's how said Douglas mole
came into play. But yeah, it's very much about
the animals taking the Mick out of the the humans abilities.
Or not, as the case may be, because she's never there.
And when she is, it's just weeds and she's looking for an excuse
to go and all she does is write. Now that was my dream, a lovely
allotment plot where I could sit and write all day, but the weeds
grow quicker. Oh.
The weeds and it is the thing about you could plant hundreds
of seeds. I have an allotment and you
plant hundreds of seeds and you might get 1P and a glut of
courgettes and either no carrots or all the carrots and rhubarb
is a joy because, as you say, you don't do anything with it.
I actually remember once when my youngest, Francis, he was
probably about 3 at the time, we had one pea growing from the
ground. I had planted so many and
nothing had taken apart from this one singular pea.
And he went over, he bent down and he pinched it and pulled it
out. And I just stood there and I
laughed because what else can you do?
I thought, well, now that's it. There's no more peas.
Yeah. I mean, I do my best.
It's time more than anything. As you know, with an allotment,
as you said, you've got 1. You need to be able to put in
the time. And with three children, a job,
a house to upkeep because my husband went seven days a week
as well. So it's mainly on me.
Yeah. It's tough.
It's hard work. Oh, and my writing.
Yes. Yeah.
I mean, it would be lovely to have a, a lovely little shed at
the allotment and you can look out over your array of beautiful
plants and the wind just gently stirring the the chamomile or
something like that. And it's never life is never
like that. No, but as you can tell with my
storytelling, I live in a fantasy land so I'm always
coming up with ideas. I'm always on to the next thing.
I think my husband sometimes looks at me and wants to walk
away because I will be on right move constantly.
Look at this house. I know we can't afford it, but
isn't it amazing? I just want somewhere where I
can put my allotment plot in my garden and stare at the weeds
out the window. So you've got the this book
you've self published. How easy is it to self publish?
I, I think you're going to be coming and doing a talk at at
chicken and frog about this, but how easy is it to self publish?
Do people want self published books?
So self-publishing is very much each to your own, everyone's
dream. I think I could be wrong in
saying this, but most people's dreams as a writer would be to
come become published. It's very difficult.
It is very difficult. I've been trying for years,
sending off to literary agents, publishers.
I've had near misses. I had one who absolutely loved
said Douglas Mole and asked for the full manuscript.
He then came back and said it didn't fit in with her internal
plans for the next two years. So at that point I thought, do
you know what? I'm going to be brave and I'm
I'm going to do it myself. I met my illustrator at a chat
at the Chicken and Frog and I fell in love with his
illustrations and I, yeah, got him on board and he illustrated
my book. He helped me a lot actually,
because he's self published as well.
He pointed me in the direction of the printers that he uses
mixer, so I used them. I used Reed Z to find my editor.
It was quite quick actually, because I was scrolling down the
list and I just saw the name Sorrel Pitts.
And my squirrel is called Sorrel.
So it was a no brainer. I was like, I have to have her.
Yeah, she's she was lovely, brilliant.
And once I'd had it edited, obviously the illustrations were
complete. We had a mock up and then I had
them printed. I'm really happy with it.
I hope it makes people laugh. A lot of the stories are, like I
said, true to life. Buzz, buzz, buzz, leave my
friends alone. You're all smelly and dumb.
If you rot them with a spade I'll sting you up the bum.
Buzz, buzz, buzz. I actually sat on a Bush of
stinging nettles while I was going to the toilet.
Yeah, that was years ago. I was in Ireland of all places,
and there's not a lot of public toilets there.
Well, not where we were anyway. We were fishing and my friend
said to me, well you have to go in the in the Bush.
I was mortified but I thought, well, we haven't seen anyone for
hours. So I went into this Bush.
I basically started to go into the toilet and two strangers
started walking towards me. I got lower and lower and lower
and realized afterwards when my bum started burning and my whole
body I'd sat in a massive pile of stinging nettles.
So yeah, that is in the story. Write what you know, I suppose
is the thing, isn't it? Do you have other stories inside
you? Is is this the the beginning and
you want to move on with more Sir Douglas Mole?
Or have you got other ideas and other stories?
So I'm currently working on a book that I wrote about 10 years
ago. It's called Grandma's in the
Sky. It's really dear to my heart.
I wrote this one for my son because he used to point at the
picture on my wall and say, mommy, who's that Lady?
Who's that Lady? And I'd say it's great grandma.
Obviously he'd never met her. I was very close to my grandma
and my granddad. My granddad was still alive at
the time. Anyway, I wrote this book and I
used to read it to him and when it when my granddad died, he was
older so he could understand more.
I never once had to explain to him.
It was obviously it was heartbreaking and you always
want to stay strong in front of your children.
I never had to explain to him where granddad had gone because
he already knew the story. He already knew that grandma was
in the sky. And when I went to say goodbye
to my granddad again, I never let on, I never told him I was
going to say goodbye. But I looked at him and I said,
Michael, what would you like me to say to granddad?
And he said, can you give him a kiss and tell him I love him and
to have a good sleep. And that was it.
And it that, that was it. He just knew.
So it actually made life a lot easier for all of us to not have
to go through the heart ache or explaining it to a child.
So although I wrote it 10 years ago, it was always my next
project after Sir Douglas. It is currently being edited as
we speak. I had my first edit back
yesterday. So I have some work to do.
Thankfully not too much, but I do have some work to do and then
I think it's going to be finished on the 8th.
And you're illustrating that one yourself.
I am attempting to illustrate that one myself.
We will see how that goes. I can draw, but I'm no
illustrator, so I'm going to do my best.
But if at the end of the day, this story is so close to my
heart, I need it to be exactly what I want it to be.
And if I can't achieve that myself, we will have to find
someone else who can. And do you have other projects
after that? Obviously that's from 10 years
ago, but now coming to fruition. You've got Sir Douglas Mole,
which you've published. What else is lurking?
I don't want to steal ideas, but you know what, What ideas are
kind of like in there? So I have have a monster and
mummy that I wrote that that was probably actually my first
manuscript. I woke up at 4:00 in the morning
to my husband snoring, which normally annoyed me, but this it
actually gave me an idea and I wrote a story from it.
I have a picture book about pirates.
I have a picture book about a fox walking through woods and
not being happy with anything he eats.
Basically he likes a beige diet. So you can see where we're going
with that one because that's children all over.
And, but I am currently, currently also working on a
middle grade and it's the first time I've written anything this
long. So we'll see how we get on with
that. But this was inspired by my
friends, they and unfortunately they lost their son when he was
17 to suicide. I'm sorry, it's a bit of a
upsetting subject, but they have a, it's called the Niall
Stringer Foundation. Niall went to old Brentwood's
rugby club. So we're, we're all a big part
of that. And they did a presentation on
mental health and mental health awareness.
And I went along to it and it really opened my eyes.
It taught me a lot. 1 of the main things I took away from
that was don't ask your children yes and no questions.
And I, and I stood there and I remember picking them up from
school and I said, did you have a good day?
And it was either yes or no, but there was no follow up on that.
And I thought, Oh, no, this is what they mean.
So instead I changed it up. What did you do today at school?
And I'm so hot now on asking questions that are open rather
than yes and no. But yeah, that that inspired my
middle grade book. It's not quite as deep as
obviously what Paul and I went through, but it just shows you
that everyone can have a head crash sometimes.
And Lillian, in my book, comes to the rescue of Maisie by
talking. But yeah, there's quite a bit
that's going on in it. I'm just working on it and
working up the plot and hopefully I can come up with,
yeah, a full story that's readable.
And and what? Will keep you in Brentwood.
What a side, of course, of your allotment and your weeds.
Probably needs to get down there actually this holiday.
So we were actually thinking of moving.
We were planning on moving to Ireland and then a few things
happened. Number one, one of my children
got sick and the other one was in a school show.
I couldn't take him because he had a sickness bug and she was
very upset. So I rang my mum, good old mum
and dad and they came round and they sat with, with Francis
while I went and watched this show.
And I did think what would I do without my family?
You know, they're always there. And it's not just my like my
direct family and my husband's direct family are always there
as well. We have, so I have three sister
in law's that will always babysit a brother-in-law.
He actually took Michael to rugby last night because my
husband had to work last minute and I've got my sister as well.
So we're very lucky. We've got a very good support
network. The other thing that happened
was my sister in Laura and now she was pregnant and I thought
Oh no, like this is amazing, but I can't go when I'm going to be
an auntie. So yeah, I've got, well I've got
a nephew come in on the 3rd of August, which is my son's
birthday. Well, he's due on the 3rd of
August. And I just thought how can we
take them away from this and start again?
So maybe one day, but when they've made their own paths, we
can go off and they can either follow or do whatever makes them
happy. Amanda Clare will be at the
Chicken and Frog bookshop with Natasha Radford, Arden Jones,
Mike Young and Richard Pond on the 23rd of April.
So if you've ever wanted to write or illustrate a book, book
your free ticket now. For now, like, share and comment
on the Brentwood. Buzz and we'll.
See you soon.