The Bear that Changed my Life

For the love of a Christmas gift bear and story

If you think you don’t have a novel to write, maybe you haven’t considered putting yourself in your story. The inspiration for a novel might be closer than you think. Maybe something happened to you when you were only a few years old that might be the seed and inspiration for a novel.

When I was two-years-old, my father brought me a surprise Christmas gift. This was not a book, but a bear. I named the bear Woedy Bear. I had no idea this was to be my last Christmas for many years, or that it was possible to fall in love with a bear, but what happened changed my life because it turned me into a novel writer; I wrote a book about it aged eighteen.

How I wrote my first children’s novel

My father had been hiding something in the cupboard and saying a few words of encouragement to desuade us from looking in the cupboard and managed to keep the surprise gift a secret. Years later, I wrote a book about that and about the day I lost my bear and found it again. I called the story Woedy Bear.

I sent the book to a few agents and publishers and began collecting the proverbial rejection slips, and then I decided to self publish it as a digital book in 2013 after gaining my degree in English Literature.

People wrote to me to tell me how much their children enjoyed the book, but it wasn’t until this year that I finally got around to creating a paperback and now a hardback book.

There is nothing like holding a book in your hands, is there?

So, if you are looking for a gift for Christmas, perhaps a book to read to your grandchildren, Woedy Bear would make a great gift. I have been told it is a classic. Let me know what you think. I would love a review as nobody has taken the time to write one yet.

See below for the link to take you straight to Amazon to the book:

Woedy Bear https://a.co/d/ftgXVY5

Hardback:

About the author:

Hermione Wilds also writes as Hermione Laake. The writer is an awards-nominated author of stand-alone fiction for adults and children, holds a BA in English Literature and an MA in creative writing. The writer has edited for various Medium publications and was editor for OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters, 2019–2023, and chair and secretary of competitions for Hampshire Writers’ Society, 2012–2013, is mother to five children, now adults, and can usually be found walking in a city somewhere amongst the trees, or sipping coffee.