A HELENSBURGH author is encouraging children to “take a chance” on their dreams in his debut children’s novel.
Paul Arthur’s new book, The Dreamling, released last month, is the 58-year-old electrician’s first ever publication.
It tells the story of a boy who is whisked away in his sleep on adventures that take him to all sorts of ordinary places, such as the pier and the beach, and - Paul hopes - will teach young readers something about having dreams and hoping they come true.
Paul told the Advertiser: “My wife and I used to do foster care, so some of the story is in relation to that, not too much, but wee snippets of things - the childminder aspects of it, a kids adventure story.
“My wife works at Parklands School, and one of the teachers read the book to their two children and said they enjoyed it so much that they didn’t want it to end.
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“That’s as good a piece of feedback as you’re going to get.
“I gave it to my oldest sister to read before I decided to do anything with it. You never know. If you don’t try you’ll never know if it’s going to be successful.
“It’s taken about a year, from May last year to May this year to get it all prepared and on the shelves.”
Paul has no prior writing experience, and insists the the idea of becoming a children’s author happened when he “decided to try it” - which is a theme also seen in his debut book.
“I just decided to write children’s books,” he continued.
“I always had a bit of imagination, and I could always make up stories.
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“I never thought I’d just try and write a book at 50-odd-year-old.
“Everyone’s got to try new things at the end of the day. If you sit in the doldrums and wish you did things, well, just give it a go, and at least if you tried then you tried.
“The message in the book is that people have dreams and they never seem to expand on them.
“If you’ve got dreams, then take a chance. Try and make a bit of effort and you might succeed at something you thought you would never succeed at.”
The Dreamling is now available for purchase by clicking here.
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