In May 2017, we were lucky enough to start our own family, introducing our little boy Harris to the world. Without the support network of family close by, we had to learn through trial and error how to raise our baby into the cheeky toddler that he is today.
Sleep Issues
As the majority of parents reading this will empathise, it’s a tough job and without anyone supplying a rule book or an instruction manual, you find yourself with a severe lack of sleep and at your wits end when things don’t go as expected.
One morning, when Harris finally went to sleep – yes, you read that correctly as he’d kept us awake almost all night…again, I decided to put pen to paper and write a children’s picture book about his sleeping issues. This was a way that I could express and document what we were going through and make some sense of why Harris wouldn’t sleep.
Having read my short story to family, friends and other parents, I received overwhelming feedback which inspired me to begin the journey of publishing my first book, “The Koala That Couldn’t Sleep”.
GoFundMe Campaign
I launched a campaign (click here) to raise money to self-publish the first print run of my book and begin to distribute it around the world with a hope to become the next Aaron Blabey (Pig the Pug) or Julia Donaldson (The Gruffalo).
The shipment of hardcover books arrived in Brisbane in late 2018 and I proceeded to stock bookshops, gift shops, hospitals, libraries and day care centres with my book! It is also available as a softcover book from Amazon Australia, Amazon US, Amazon UK and Amazon Canada for people outside of Australia that don’t want to pay for the overseas delivery of the book (although I would definitely recommend the beautiful hardcover one if you can stretch to those extra few pounds/dollars).
I have now written another book along the same theme but covering a different parenting/baby issue which was released in October 2019, coinciding with the 1st birthday of our second little boy, Riley.
Thank You
I would like to thank every person that has contributed to the publishing and launch of these books and those of you that have supported me throughout this whole process, especially the first book. I hope you all enjoy the books and I look forward to releasing more stories that my wife and our two boys will inspire me to write.