Victoria Harwood from Barton in Fabis has self-published three children’s books from her series called Bush – Hog Tails.
Each copy includes her own woodland illustrations and the proceeds from every sale goes to wildlife charities. So far, she has raised an incredible £3,000.
Victoria grew up in East Leake and now works as a carer in a specialised unit for the elderly. She uses her spare time to write, illustrate and research for her books plus participates in special book signing events at libraries, parks and more.
This series of books are not only popular with children but are loved by adults too. Victoria has even received orders from across the seas in America.
Her most recent addition to the series is titled Bush-Hog Tails: Bushy’s Night-Time Adventure.
Victoria said, “I have to be honest when I say that book three is by far my favourite! My character meets a hedgehog and learns all sorts of interesting facts about our spiky friends. I add a little humour in my books as well as the facts to try to make them educational and fun.”
During lockdowns, Victoria had more spare time as she couldn’t organise or participate in her usual book signing public events, this led to her becoming more creative and finding other ways to keep busy and help bring positivity during a difficult time.
She continued, “During the pandemic I’ve been donating copies of my books to different people in the hope of trying to help them smile a bit. I’ve also been raising money in other ways whilst I’ve been unable to do my book signings. I gave up chocolate for a whole month which was very hard for me as I love chocolate!
“I’ve also tried to encourage people to do a bit of writing during lock down last year. I wrote a small piece of story and encouraged people to add to it. They had to read what the person before them had written to make sure it made sense what they were about to write. I put this story onto a platform where I can just get one copy printed and am currently in the process of doing some illustrations for it so it can be made into a single book and auctioned for charity. The story is called: Fluffy’s Holiday. I encouraged people via social media and had eight people participate.
“I’ve also written another story which is not related at all to my other books. The process is still pending at the moment with that though as work has been pretty busy. I need to just get it on a PDF so I can get some copies printed and once again all profits from the sales of those books will be donated. I can’t say too much about this book though as I haven’t yet launched it but it involves a lot of magic!
“My hopes for the future are that I can continue with my hobby and hopefully make lots more people happy whilst also helping animals.”
To keep up to date with the Bush Hog Tails plus read news and information on Hedghogs and other wildlife, visit the Facebook page: www.facebook.com/Bush-Hog-Tails-563458233738596