While his initial response may not have suggested it, we’re pretty sure four-year-old Declan is proud of mum Denica Bowden’s first effort as a published author – especially since he’s the star of the children’s book. Photo: Supplied.
A man’s love of motorbikes has morphed into a heartwarming story of a little boy who just wants to explore the world on two wheels thanks to a Weipa mum who can now add “published author” to her resume.
Denica Bowden surprised her friends and family this month when she used her son Declan’s birthday party to unveil Away With That Trials Bike, which stars the four-year-old as the protagonist who adores his trials bike but cannot find anywhere to ride it without people telling him to put it away.
Ms Bowden explained the concept for the book had grown alongside her son over the past few years.
“It kind of came about by chance,” she said.
“When my son Declan was born, my husband was mad, he still is mad, into motorbikes, and had not long before bought a trials bike, and no one really knows much about them.
“We got talking one day, and I was like, ‘oh, maybe I’ll write a little story’, but I didn’t really know if it would turn into a book; I sat on it for a while, a couple of years, and then gave it a bit more attention … before I sent it to a couple of different publishers and got three different offers.”
The colourful children’s book is illustrated by Laura Wood, and Ms Bowden said it still felt surreal to see her story idea in print.
“I hadn’t told anybody about it apart from one friend and my family a long time ago, because it was a two-year process from contract to book, and I thought I’d just let my family forget about it and then give them a surprise at the end,” she said.
“When I revealed it to my friends, we did a surprise reveal disguised as my son’s birthday party on the weekend, and they were like, ‘where can we buy it?’ and I realised I actually didn’t know, so I googled it that night; I just googled the title and there were all these bookshops listing it and I was like, ‘oh my goodness, how crazy is this?’
“It was my book, and my name, and all these places like Booktopia and Dymocks and that were selling it – that was a bit of a crazy moment for me.”
And what does the star of the story think of his mum’s literary effort?
“He has such a skewed reality,” she laughed.
“We opened the book, and I hadn’t told him that I’d written it, and I started reading and the first couple of lines are ‘my name is Declan’, and he goes, ‘why do we look so different?’
“And then when I asked him if he knew I wrote it, he’s like, ‘yeah’.”
Weipa author Denica Bowden says seeing her story Away With That Trials Bike transform into something people can touch and read has been a bit of a “crazy moment”. Photo: Supplied.
