Chronicling the worlds of CREATURAMA

Kindle E-Books ‘SPROUT’S DAY OUT’ 2020

Nearly thirty years ago I began a quest, and like all classical quests, I had no idea where that quest would lead. I have grown up in the shadows of incredible stories and with wonderful films and television to fuel my own ideas, but, I have to be honest, it’s taken 25 of those years to finally start chronicling some of my concepts.

In 2005 I began writing about my own creations, my cardboard and junk creatures, but these stories are not about that fun process of using junk to create creatures, rather these stories concern the creatures themselves, their lives, their struggles, their quests, in a huge universe created…well, in my head.

Every creature I create comes from a world and there are precisely 22 in the CREATURAMA UNIVERSE. Worlds of water, Ice, fire and metal, and these worlds are busy places, populated by a myriad of exotic and intertwined eco systems, much like our own worlds complex and diverse systems. I even have a map!

In many ways my childhood, defined by popular media phenomena’s such as STAR WARS and DOCTOR WHO has hugely influenced my creative path, however if I really examine where the inspiration for my written work comes from it may surprise you to learn that these hugely narrative creations are not the main influence on my written output. These help dress the ideas yes, but it’s Natural History programmes that really feed into what I have called The CREATURAMA CHRONICLES.

The mighty BBC’s Natural History department has created some truly remarkable work over the years, mostly fronted by the incredible David Attenborough, and it is these that I turn to in my head when I’m creating alien worlds.

One of these worlds is the weird world of ‘Rhondra’ created long before James Cameron’s ‘Pandora’. Rhondra is a tree, an ancient-huge tangle of roots and branches, floating serenely in space, nourished by it’s own biosphere and warmed by the giant Star RA. Rhondra is basically a rain-forest canopy, with no real surface. And on this world I’ve based at least three major CREATURAMA narratives, the first of which ‘Sprout’s Day Out’ I self published in 2009-12 (Depending on which Edition).

‘Sprout’s Day Out’ is my first ever children’s book. It’s been loved by many children, and is one of my daughter’s favourites (Thank goodness as imagine my fear when I was reading it to her should she NOT like it) luckily for me she did, and many more have too.

It’s illustrated by me too, and I cannot tell you how much I myself enjoyed visiting the weird world of ‘Rhondra’ and it’s wonderful inhabitants.

Why does it work? It’s a simple idea, a young creature, not listening to its parents, decides to explore where it shouldn’t, becoming lost and alone, meeting some unsavoury characters before it is rescued in the nik of time.

I make no apologies here too, if I say much of ‘Sprout’s’ structure comes from one of my own favourite children’s books ‘Stig of the Dump’ written by Clive King in the mid 1960’s. I still have my tatty copy of this wonderful story of a boy meeting a caveman and have re-read it in adulthood and still find it warm and compelling, qualities I hope I have instilled in my alien offering.

Why have I chosen to write about my children’s books at this time? Well it’s about time my work gained its wings. Today I have downloaded ‘Sprout’s Day Out’ to AMAZON. Its something I’ve been meaning to do for years but just haven’t had the time, but recently, as the world faces a threat like it never has before, I feel it’s the right time to let my escapist stories of distant worlds out into our world.

In the next few weeks I will be downloading more of my CREATURAMA CHRONICLES and my DINOSAUR TALES. And without any arrogance on my part, I honestly feel they are going to be loved.