Taking the plunge into children's writing

A Cavan writer will launch her first children's book at Johnston Central Library this Saturday (April 5).

Paula Comiskey has been telling stories for as long as she can remember. Being that bit older than her two sisters Moira and Carena she remembers often reciting stories to get them to brush their hair. One of the many things that older sisters teach their younger siblings.

As they grew up Paula parked her stories. That is until her own daughter Elizabeth was born three months prematurely almost eight years ago.

“The nurses said, as she gets stronger, she's going to be aware and she's going to know your voice and she's going to be developing.

“Talk to her, tell her stories,” the nurses encouraged.

“So I started telling her stories,” recalls Paula.

As she was telling the stories, the mother of one began writing them down into a book, which she brought to the hospital each day.

Upon returning home from the hospital with her beautiful baby daughter, Paula forgot about the stories with the hectic life of “being a mother”.

Having turned 50 in January, Paula thought to herself; if not now, then when?

“I just took the plunge,” she recalls, detailing how she completed a writing course with Nicola Kearns who also owns Butterfly Books Publishers, where she also got the book published.

Spoiler alert!

Aimed at five to nine year olds, the book is entitled ‘The Girl Under the Sea’ . The story is about a little girl who doesn't have a family and happens to have “extremely” tangled hair. One day, an albatross flies into her hair causing her to fall into the sea where more young sea creatures become tangled in her hair, and she can't figure out how to get them out until a shark comes along, taking everybody by surprise by combing out her hair with his teeth.

“When she's free, she decides that she's going to make a home for herself under the sea because she's actually part-mermaid herself,” Paula reveals.

While speaking to The Anglo-Celt over the phone, in the background seven-year-old Elizabeth rightly points out “because her mum was a mermaid.”

“It's a story that I told my younger sisters a long long time ago, I'm a good bit older than them so when they were small, they had long hair, the same as myself and the same as my own little girl, and they hated having their hair combed.

“I made up a story about a little girl who hated having their hair combed and when she didn't get it combed creatures got stuck in it and the only way to get the creatures out was to comb them out.”

The Gowna native has “always” written stories and dreamed of doing something with them.

“I've never really had the confidence I suppose,” she admits to the Celt. “I dedicated then to my two sisters and to Elizabeth because it was full circle, it was them I made it up for but then it was her [Elizabeth] I ended up writing it down for.”

Published just before Christmas, Paula now plans to read some excerpts from the book this Saturday during the launch, which will be very much “kid focused”.

She also has a colouring version of her book; ‘Adventures of Marina and the Sea Urchins’, which also has a shortened version of the story for younger children.

“Even if one person turns up because they like the book, that's enough for me,” she says.

Using the handle @thescribblingcrocheter on Instagram, Paula also enjoys crocheting and plans to bring along some sea animals which she crafted on the day. The books can be purchased on Amazon or at Cavan Genealogy Shop.