She dreamed of writing successful children's books to introduce kids to her passion for Elizabethan history, the Italian Renaissance, and the History of Ideas - the series was to be called 'The Eliza-Bears' and the first book was to be called 'Out of the Bear-Pit', subtitled: 'the Mysterious Disappearance of Kit Miaow-Low, Poet-Playwright and Super-Spy from the School of Night'.
Then the poor author had a very nasty and serious motorbike accident that put her in hospital for a month. Whilst recovering she saw her Guardian Angel for the first time, and rainbow colours behind her eyes that were linked to her feelings and ideas. She had the idea of combining cats, angels, rainbow colours, and feelings into a book called 'Angel-Kat'. It took her a very long time to write and illustrate the book - how could you have a green cat or violet one? Now it is finished and the author is looking for a publisher and an animation/merchandising contract so she can share 'Angel-Kat' and all her adventures and ideas with the world.
That author/illustrator is of course me! I took the book to the Bologna Children's Book Fair last week (biggest of its kind in the world) and had a one-to-one chat with Jackie Ferguson, Head of BBC Worldwide Licensing after the opening keynote speech. She gave me lots of helpful advice and took three of my cards to pass on to interested parties at the BBC. She advised me to contact Orchard Books and Ragdoll Productions, which I have done and am waiting for return emails/calls. Fingers crossed!
It is a busy time in the book world and next week I am going to the London Book Fair to learn some more about animation, and marketing, and hopefully make some more useful contacts to follow-up on when the Book Fairs are over.
I have a dedicated website called http://www.angel-kat.com/ where you can see the book and illustrations in its entirety for free (but not download) and you can buy a signed copy there too if you want.
I have also set up a generic author website http://www.robynfree.co.uk/ which is still under construction but should go live in a couple of days, so you can see the range of books on which I am working: also this blog to keep fans posted on what's happening with my book(s) and my cats.
