Jolly Fish Press

Stages of the Reader

What stage are you on? I’m about to escape number 5… my first book will be published on Tuesday! I’m hoping to land somewhere between 7 and 8. 

You can find my book via Abrams Books, on Amazon, or wherever books are sold.

Selkie. A mythological creature found in Irish folklore. Are said to live as seals in the sea but shed their skin to become human on land. They’re magnificent.

British rationing did not end until 1954 (that’s still 8 years away from the time this scene takes place).  Rations applied to all food staples, soap, clothing, fuel, and paper.  In some cases, they became worse or more stringent after the war.  In 1946, when this story takes place, Britain instituted bread rationing for the first time, food packages weighing more than 5lbs from foreign countries sent to private citizens were subtracted from that citizen’s ration book (so decreasing the amount of food they could buy), and gas was rationed again.   While America also rationed during the War, the rations were never as severe as the ones in the UK and were lifted immediately after peace was declared.

Ride of the Valkyries

This was meant to be for a book that was put together by about a hundred women professionals, all illustrating females in Fantasy. The project got too big and unmanageable, and officially ended this month. The book won’t happen, unfortunately, but fortunately, I can now show this!

William had a dream of bringing electricity and running water to his village. And he was not prepared to wait for politicians or aid groups to do it for him. The need for action was even greater in 2002 following one of Malawi’s worst droughts, which killed thousands of people and left his family on the brink of starvation.

Unable to attend school, he kept up his education by using a local library. Fascinated by science, his life changed one day when he picked up a tattered textbook and saw a picture of a windmill. Mr Kamkwamba told the BBC News website: “I was very interested when I saw the windmill could make electricity and pump water.

“I thought: ‘That could be a defense against hunger. Maybe I should build one for myself’.” When not helping his family farm maize, he plugged away at his prototype, working by the light of a paraffin lamp in the evenings. But his ingenious project met blank looks in his community of about 200 people.

“Many, including my mother, thought I was going crazy,” he recalls. “They had never seen a windmill before.” [x]

In 2014, William Kamkwamba received his 4 year degree at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire where he was a student.

LCPL link to the adult book