The Happy Puppy - launch day!

Over the last 48 hours, the love and support I’ve received since announcing that I’ve written and published my first children’s book, The Happy Puppy, has been nothing short of amazing.

Family, friends (old and new), colleagues, contacts and almost everyone I’ve spoken to about the book has been so positive and kind. I can’t help but smile when thinking of all the lovely messages I’ve been sent.

And for that I want to say a heartfelt thank you to you all.

Today is the official on-sale date of The Happy Puppy – and I can barely contain my excitement! It’s been a bit of a journey, but definitely one I’ve enjoyed and learnt a lot from. So I wanted to take this opportunity to share a little more about how The Happy Puppy came to be.

Beginnings

I wrote The Happy Puppy in February 2021, during the third national lockdown.

I was in the process of reconnecting with writing for fun and allowing myself the freedom to just ‘go with my thoughts’ and see where they lead me. As part of this I was writing every day – and it often felt like I was producing little more than a stream of consciousness. Then one evening I jotted down the idea of creating a children’s book. I have a niece and two young nephews who I adore, a lovely godson, and I’m fortunate enough to be surrounded by many amazing friends with beautiful, happy children. But the concept of writing a story for them had never really crystalised until that point. After reflecting on it, however, I quickly fell in love with the idea.

Poetry has always been something I’ve been drawn to writing, so having The Happy Puppy in rhyme was less of a conscious decision and more like a natural way for me to get the tale across. I wrote a few lines, and then a few more, and after that, as cliché as it may sound, the story really did write itself.

Now this is not the first time I’ve written something that I’ve been proud of or felt a connection with, but it is the first time I’ve felt compelled to do anything with it.

Undoubtedly, one of the main reasons I decided to ‘go for it’ with this book was due to a conversation I had with one of my best friends (and the mother of my godson, Ben), Chloe.

In addition to being a fantastic mum, Chloe is also an incredible primary school teacher and the literacy lead for her key stage group. So, one day when we were chatting on the phone, I mentioned to her that I’d drafted a children’s book and she graciously let me read it down the line to her. Her response was emphatic and more than I could have hoped or asked for. And I genuinely don’t think I would have pursued publishing The Happy Puppy had it not been for the confidence she gave me in the story that day.

Over the coming months, I contacted several publishers but heard nothing back, and by the time we got to summer, and the lockdown had finally started to ease, I’d put the idea of publishing The Happy Puppy on the back burner. And there it stayed until this year…

And now…

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting when I decided to announce the launch of the book on my social channels, but as I mentioned at the start of this post the response from everyone I know has been overwhelmingly positive. And I’m truly grateful for all the support I’ve already received.

So for now, I’m going to go and enjoy the moment and celebrate launch day – hopefully in style!

For those of you that want to read more about The Happy Puppy, please take a look at the book’s page here: The Happy Puppy

If you’d like to get a copy, you can now order one from Amazon or Waterstones at the below links:

Amazon - buy The Happy Puppy

Waterstones - buy The Happy Puppy

I really hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed getting it to this point!

Sophie x