Tackling Dyslexia and Author Interview with Willy Robins

What better way to kick off the new year than celebrating the new release of a book I worked on last year. Nogard the Dyslexic dragon is written by Willy Robins and is about an adorable little dragon who is going through the process of finding his wings. However things aren't plain sailing and he has a few obstacles to overcome first as he soon discovers that his dyslexia is a bit of a hinderance when it comes to map reading. Not one to give up, he overcomes all of his challenges thanks to some helpful new friends and his teacher. I absolutely loved bringing this little guy to life, well and truly fell in love with him.

Willy will be hosting a facebook launch party on Thursday the 19th of January to celebrate the release of the book. It will then be available to purchase through Amazon

I wanted to dedicate this post to the book and the author so I have asked Willy if she would kindly answer a few questions so that we can learn a bit more about the book and the creator of this little fella. So without further ado, I give you the lovely Willy Robins....

Willy Robbins grew up in the middle of the Ozarks in Missouri.  She was raised on the family farm, where she resides today.  Willy grew up with the love of reading, as her first grade teacher, Mrs. Chapman can attest. Willy was the first one to reach the moon that year with the number of books that she read.  Reading and writing continue to be an integral part of Willy’s life, she has taught them both for 17 years as an elementary educator.

What made you choose a dragon as your main character? 

Dragons are so cool to kids.  My favorite dragon as a kid was H.R. Puffnstuff and Pete the Dragon.  Dragons never get old for a character, as they can be portrayed with so many different personalities.

How long did it take to write Nogard? 

Nogard didn't take a long time to put on paper, it did take a bit of time to get him out of the drawer.  He was an idea that was put in my head about two and a half years ago.

Nogard is about an adorable dragon learning how to cope with dyslexia. What made you choose this topic for the book? 

Dyslexia is not a diagnosis that I see a lot with my students, but I see a lot of students with various symptoms of Dyslexia.  I started paying attention when so many kiddos, were flipping their letters or numbers all the time, not just once in awhile like we all experience.  I took it upon myself to start researching Dyslexia, but the whole time I did that research, my mind kept wandering to ways to get the word out that kids need to be monitored more closely in their formative years when learning reading and writing.

How does being a teacher affect your writing? 

It affects me by having an educational theme in my stories.  I just can’t seem to get school out of my writing, as it is a major part of my day to day life. You write what you know...right?  I also get to brag that I have books published...some of the kids think that is cool.

How long have you been writing and when did you publish your first book? 

I have been writing since forever, but I helped write a screenplay in 8th grade for an English project.  I don't remember much about it except it was titled The Adventures of Bleep and Bloop. Alas, I had to wait until 2014 to get published.

What is your writing process like? 

Honestly, I don't have a process that can be described in a text book situation.  But it begins with a funny story, joke, over heard idea, a piece of conversation that stands out, or an epiphany of something I have seen of years and think HEY, that is a good children's book topic...then I decide my hero.

What advice do you have for other writers? 

Write, network, write, oh, and don't forget to write.

Have there been any things that have surprised you with the publishing process?

What surprised me is how much time it takes to market.  If you have the ability, find 5 or 6 people you completely trust, and have them help you.  This is called a street team.  I don't have one, but need one so that I can have extra hands tweeting, google plus-sing, face booking for me a few times a week.  

If you had to do something differently as a child or teenager to become a better writer as an adult, what would you do? 

I would pay attention in Math.  Why Math?  Because, if I was better at Math, then my college career choice would be a HIGH paying job, so that I could save a lot, then retire early, like let's say 25, and write and write.  

What were your favourite subjects at school and did you always know you wanted to be a writer? 

My favorite subjects in school were History and English.  I had no clue I wanted to write, but I was always a creative writer.  The closest thing I can get to a professional reader (which is my first love) is to teach reading and write children's books.

What is the hardest part of being a writer and what is the most rewarding? 

The hard part of writing is realizing not everyone thinks your book or story is the best-it's a tough pill to swallow.  The most rewarding is being able to take a mini vacation with family to England and meet the person responsible for giving Nogard his colors.

Thank you so much Willy for taking the time out to answer a few questions and more importantly for giving me the opportunity to bring this little guy to life. I can't wait to meet you in person this summer and I wish you every success with the book launch.

You can connect with Willy through the following channels....

Twitter

Blog

Much love to you all

Corrina

Inspirational Spotlight - Celebrating the new release of Patrick S Brook's first novel Deathcat Sally

Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone had an enjoyable festive break and are all bright eyed and bushy tailed ready to tackle the new year ahead. My break was quite an eye opener and I have had what can only be described as an awakening. I shall be letting you all in to my new outlook on life soon enough, I am still getting my head around it all, but I can honestly say I have never felt so uplifted and at peace with myself. I feel like I should be living in one of Patrick’s illustrations he he. His latest colour collective piece above is very fitting!

Anyway enough nutty ramblings, I have plenty of time to weird you all out over the course of 2016 ha ha.

Let’s get down to business. I can’t think of a better blog post to kick the new year off than with celebrating the new release of the super talented Patrick S Brooks first book release “Deathcat Sally” released on January the 21st 2016. 

I was lucky enough to read this on my holidays at the beginning of 2015 and I couldn’t put the book down. As soon as I came home I started reading it to my 11 year old son Dylan and he loved it too.  I have a huge soft spot for the main character, Zachary the cat. He has got a wicked sense of humour and I have well and truly fallen in love with the little fur ball. Really hoping it is not the last we see of Zachary.

If I were asked to describe this book in a simple sentence, it would be  “a Clive Barker for the younger reader, thrilling, captivating, funny and a little gruesome”… a winning combo in my eyes.

I have been following Patrick’s work for just over a year now and had a gut feeling that there was more to him than meets the eye. Not only is he a gifted artist but boy can the man write! On top of this he is one of the nicest people I have come across. So I wanted Patrick to tell us all a bit more about his work and his hopes and dreams. So without further ado I give you the genius that is Patrick S Brooks.......

Tell us a little about yourself and your background.

I’ve been drawing and illustrating since I was a child and was creatively inspired by Western and Eastern cartoons and animated films. Early favourites included ‘Kimba the White Lion’, ‘Thundercats’, ‘Battle of the Planets’, ‘The Real Ghostbusters’ and numerous Disney and Warner Bros titles. My Grandfather Brooks was a painter who specialised in oils and acrylics, so I was artistically inspired by his work also.

                             What were your favourite subjects at school?

Art and English were my favourite subjects – from an early age I would draw characters from Disney and Warner Bros shows and films. I studied Art through GCSE, A Level, Diploma and Degree. It was in High School that I began using pastels and found I particularly enjoyed using them. I started using Photoshop in college for my Diploma and have used it ever since.

How would you describe yourself as a child?

I enjoyed escaping into fantasy worlds through animation and films and particularly liked the original Star Wars trilogy and Ghostbusters. I would write and illustrate my own stories about them with my older sister. I was never really into playing sports or following football like many other children, I preferred to watch cartoons and fantasy/sci-fi films and play Sega Master System games such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Wonderboy. The style of early video games also inspired me and introduced me further to anime.

You are an author and illustrator, do you enjoy both equally as much? Did you always want to be both or did it just naturally happen?

I always liked creating characters and writing stories, but primarily focused on illustration for a while. It wasn’t until I suffered from a nerve injury in my neck in 2010 that I fully focused on writing – mainly because I could no longer illustrate as the injury affected my right hand.  

DeathCat Sally is your first book to be released in the big wide world. Can you tell the readers what the book is about and where the concept came from.

Deathcat Sally was inspired by a lucid dream I had on 7^th January 2011. I’d been struggling with the nerve entrapment since the previous September and was on a cocktail of neuropathic medication and painkillers. As I could no longer illustrate, I spent more time at the local RSPCA looking after a large group of cats. This combined with the severe neuralgia down my right side likely led to the dream I had. In the dream, a female teacher who had knocked over a cat later found that half of his talking spirit was fused to her shoulder. When I woke, I immediately started scribbling notes down and then turned on my computer and started typing.

The book follows a 17 year old teaching assistant called Sally Rancher who accidentally knocks over a cat named Zachary with her car while rushing home. Trying to help, she is hit by another vehicle and is comatose. When she wakes, she finds that half of Zachary’s talking spirit is fused to her shoulder. Sally finds she can communicate with other animals and that both Zachary and her keep being pulled into a dark place called ‘No Man’s Land’ – a realm of lost animal spirits. Together they must find a way to separate and uncover the reasons why they are bound together.

How long did it take to complete the book and what has been the most challenging aspect to date?

It’s taken nearly five years to complete the book and it has altered quite a lot during the writing process. Originally, Sally was older and the novel was approx 133,000 words. Based on feedback from editors and proofreaders, I cut 44,000 words to get it to a more streamlined 89,000 words. Several characters and subplots were cut, but I feel this helped with the pacing of the story.

Originally the story was far more adult based – Zachary used excess profanity and there was more violence and gore. Due to feedback from others, I found that aiming the book at a young adult readerbase would suit the story better. Much of the dialogue had to be changed and the violence toned down to a more 12A movie certificate level.

Another challenging part was incorporating the changes from the publisher’s external proofreader and keeping track of everything through Track Changes in Word. Perhaps strangely for a writer, I have a form of visual dyslexia called Irlen’s Syndrome, which means I struggle to read large blocks of text in certain fonts due to severe migraines and visual disturbances. For me to be able to read extensive amounts of text, I require a pink coloured overlay and have to convert type into a handwritten font and increase the line spacing. Any time I get an email for example, I have to copy/paste into Word and convert the font/line spacing. There are some instances where this cannot always be done (for example scanned documents with proofreader notes).

I think overall finding how the publishing process works and having some things be very different to preconceptions was also challenging and a steep learning curve.

The options of getting a book out there is so vast these days. What route did you decide to take with Death Cat Sally and why?

I didn’t feel confident enough to self publish on Kindle for example – as Deathcat Sally is my first full novel, I knew I had to get more external feedback on the story and see how others were responding to it. Although it can’t be considered a mainstream release, I feel as though due to the external comments from editors, proofreaders, writers’ groups and associates I have become a better writer and know what things to watch out for when writing and submitting my next novel. My second book is called ‘Cyborg Critters’ – a young adult sci-fi/horror following an escaped bionic guinea pig, rabbit and ferret. I’ll be approaching agents and publishers this year when it’s ready and hope to make it into the mainstream. There’s potential for a Cyborg Critters trilogy, but the first book will also work as a self-contained novel.   

The publishing industry seems to be a bottomless pit of things to learn, I feel like I have only just scratched the surface with it all. Do you have any top tips or has there been incidents that have opened your eyes to the whole publishing industry?   

It is a minefield out there and you just have to learn from experience. I would recommend to fully research agents and publishers who specialise in the genre your novel is in. I’ve had a few horror stories with the industry - projects being cancelled, publishers going into administration etc, and unfortunately sometimes there are some things you can’t prepare for. Unless you get very lucky, getting a major bestseller with your first novel is going to be tricky, but although it is an incredibly steep learning curve, you will learn. If you persevere and believe you can accomplish something worthwhile that resonates with readers, then don’t let anyone dissuade you. That isn’t to say you shouldn’t be open to constructive criticism and comments that will help you improve your characters and story. If you want to be a writer, then dealing with and taking on board the feedback from others is essential – it’s not always easy to hear, but it might just help you improve in the long run.

How will you be marketing the book?

I designed and printed my own marketing and promotional materials. In my marketing packs are bookmarks, badges, postcards, toy cats etc. I’ve had banner stands printed and bought a cat puppet for any potential book signings/events. I’ve also hired an external marketing company to assist with contacting reviewers/bloggers to try to get the book more exposure. I need all the help I can get with the book really! I have no idea how successful the book will be, but as far as the marketing aspect goes, this is my test run to see what works and what doesn’t. Wish me luck! I hope those that read Deathcat Sally will pass the book on and recommend it to others as I think this is how the book will find its readerbase. I’m also intending to send copies to animal welfare and conservation charities/groups, libraries and schools/colleges.

What’s your views on social media for marketing and which social network worked best for you?

I’ve found Twitter incredibly helpful since I started using it just over a year ago. Primarily it’s helped me connect with other illustrators and writers and through the illustration group Colour Collective has allowed me to improve as an illustrator, gain exposure and secure representation by Advocate Art. I prefer Twitter to Facebook, which I’ve only just started using, but also see the potential to gain exposure through the Artist, Illustrator and Writers’ groups. 

One of the things I love about you is that you are a compassionate soul and like most creatives want to make the world a better place somehow. Can you tell us what your dream / purpose is with the book and future creations of yours.

Thanks! For Deathcat Sally I’d like to think it could raise awareness in young adults and older readers about animal welfare and conservation. I didn’t set out to write a lecture or have a preachy agenda, but aimed to create non human characters that the reader could empathise with. It also deals with mental health issues and is partly an allegory about Bipolar Disorder. I think it’s a very long road ahead with Deathcat Sally, but I’d love to see it as an animated or live action film one day. For my children’s illustration work I’m aiming to get picture books published and hope that my work brightens up the reader/viewer’s day. 

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Don’t give up! No matter how bad or hopeless things get, never quit. Have faith and hold onto the hope that things will get better.

Now going into what drew me to you originally.. your illustrations. As we know, big fan here he he. You create a whole new world with your illustrations, an ethereal world which both animals and humans would forever be at peace. Can you tell us where you get your inspiration from. Have you always created these worlds or is it something that evolved over time?

I think the human/animal scenes have evolved over time. As mentioned, I watched a lot of animated shows and films when I was young (still do!) and many have anthropomorphic animals. Most animated creatures from shows and films have human personalities, so you have more empathy for them. I think most of my illustrations have a dreamlike feel to them, I suppose some could be considered idyllic – where humans and animals co-exist peacefully, but I think this is part of the ethereal nature of much of my work. As a child, I was shielded from the harsh reality and raw brutality of nature, as perhaps many children are. Maybe some of my illustration work is in a way, capturing a glimpse of that innocent state of being. Deathcat Sally presents a reality where animals communicate with one another and have unique personalities and talk as people would. Cyborg Critters is set in a world where, aside from the cybernetically enhanced mammals, animals do not have human-like personalities and do not communicate with one another beyond basic natural instincts. Growing up and in popular culture, it’s clear that the natural world is so inspiring in the creation of captivating non-human characters.

I think another reason your work stands out to me is the story telling within. Illustrators are good at telling stories with their work, that’s what we are here to do after all, but your illustrations to me seem to have something extra, like a hidden meaning. Are there any hidden meanings lurking about in the background or am I just being weird ha ha

I’m very glad you think so! I always like to try to include a narrative in my illustration work and sometimes leave it open to the viewer’s interpretation. I try to convey a sense of fun in some of my illustration, while in others I try to convey a sense of wonder and discovery. I think some of my illustrations focus on being in awe of the natural world and the concept of the spiritual. Light, and the Sun/stars are often in my scenes – I like including these as to me they represent the beauty of life and the vastness of creation. Many times I try to have a sense of warmth from the Sun in my illustrations. I think having celestial elements prominent is about searching for meaning and answers too, whether that is through faith and the belief in a higher power, meditation, or learning about the natural order of the world and why the universe is as it is.    

Can you give us a brief step by step outline of the process behind your illustrations. Do you still use traditional methods with your work now?

I primarily work in Photoshop now and use custom pastel and paint brushes. I still use scanned traditional paint and pastel textures too though. I use a Wacom tablet for all my work. For most of my children’s illustrations I create the sky/background elements first. I usually start throwing down different colours and textures into Photoshop and experiment with the layer opacity and layer properties to get the colour tones that I want to use. When I have a good idea of the environment, I start planning the composition of where the characters need to be. Sometimes where they begin is not where they end up, other times I might start with one creature, then decide another would work better in the scene. The images are built up gradually in many layers in Photoshop and I use the custom pastel, paint and canvas brushes to create texture, giving the images a more traditional media feel.

For budding illustrators out there, what methods have you found to be the best way of marketing your artwork and getting people to notice you?

I think Twitter has helped me enormously to get feedback from other illustrators and writers. It’s also helped a great deal as I’ve become inspired by so many talented illustrators on Twitter. Becoming a regular contributor to illustrator groups is also an excellent way of getting more exposure. Initially, I started with Daily Doodles and Sketch Dailies, but then focused completely on Colour Collective. I like to try to support other illustrators by Retweeting and Liking their work and it’s important to regularly upload your illustrations onto social media. It’s incredibly competitive out there and you have to persevere and maintain a strong online presence with increasing and improving your portfolio.

Where would you like to see yourself in say five years time?

I’d like to have picture books and at least one novel in mainstream publication. My dream is to have Deathcat Sally or Cyborg Critters (or both!) made into good animated or live action films one day. 

Now the most important question, where can we get our hands on a copy of DeathCat Sally?

Deathcat Sally is available to buy from 21^st January – please have a look!

It’s probably going to be a very long time before I make any kind of personal profits from book royalties, but if I do I’d like to donate percentages to animal welfare and conservation charities. In the meantime, I’ve become a sponsor for Cats Protection and hope to increase awareness of their work.

Thanks very much for the questions and all the best for 2016!

Patrick

Thank you so much Patrick, I really enjoyed learning more about you and your work and I absolutely cannot wait to get a copy.

If you would like to follow Patrick's work then here are all the appropriate links:

Website

Further information about Deathcat Sally

Online store for prints

Facebook

Twitter: @P_S_Brooks

I would like to end the post with one of Patrick's prints that I cherish. He included my little Pip and Squeak from Animania. One of my highlights from 2015....

A school visit to remember - Tips on how to have a successful school author visit

A month ago I had my first school visit for Animania at my children’s school. We had a whirlwind afternoon of visiting all of the key stage 1 children in the space of 2 hours. For my American friends that covers all years within the 4 to 8 age range, which is the perfect age for learning the alphabet

The visit was a huge success and I owe a lot of that to Critterish Alllsorts who Animania sponsors. You can read more about the organization in my earlier post Animania Sponsors Critterish Alsorts Dale from Critterish Allsorts kindly offered to come down for my first school visit so that we could read the book and introduce the children to some of the critters. I didn’t tell the children about Dales visit, it was all kept hush hush. So a couple of weeks before, I gave the school a load of posters and leaflets to pop into the kids school bags to tell them about the author visit. I mentioned Critterish Allsorts and said that all percentage of the sales will go to them. I said that it would be an author visit with a twist, but that was as much as I gave away.... I do like a tease.

We only had 20 minutes in each classroom which was a bit tight, so I decided the best thing to do was for me to go in and read some of the book to the children. After this I mentioned that Animania was sponsoring Critterish Allsorts and that I had a surprise for them. That’s when Dale came in with one of his critters. We had Stoosh the skunk, Connie the boa constrictor and Shiver the Blue Skink. Well, you can imagine the excitement that caused! The looks on their little faces was absolutely priceless!  Dale was amazing with the kids and told them all about what the organization is about and then gave a little talk about the animal he had bought in. The children then had a chance to handle the animals briefly before we rushed off to the next room.

The whole experience was so much fun! The children’s excitement was infectious and I felt like a big kid again. It was so rewarding to finally share my work with children and I was blown away with their enthusiasm and interest. Sadly due to distance issues this combined author visit will be the only one of it’s kind as we live quite a distance away from each other. Such a shame as we made such a good double act and the interest was definitely there for both the book and the organisation.

My plan with future visits is to use my artistic abilities to add the extra factor. Animania is about completely made up animals so I thought at the end of the session the children can help me create their very own Animania character which I can draw out for them. We could have a lot of fun creating a new character and discussing what their characteristics would be, what we should call them, what they will look like etc…hey you never know, it could well trigger a new book concept he he.

Another success was introducing the colouring book. At the end of Animania I included a couple of colouring sheets and some blank sheets for kids to create their own Animania character with. So when I finished reading the book, they saw the colouring page and there was alot of excitement over that. So when I heard the “oooo a colouring sheet” response it was the perfect opportunity to show them the colouring book which I had recently published. The colouring book is basically the entire book republished in line art so that the children can colour in their own version of Animania. The colouring book did very well and I took many orders that day so another little tip, colouring sheets go down very very well!

So how can you have a successful author visit?

Find something that stands out from the norm

I can’t thank Dale enough for helping me with the first visit. The combined double act really added a little something special to the visit and made it a more memorable experience for the children. Try and think outside of the box a bit. Have a think about what your book is about, is there anything you could utilise that would be a fun little twist on the visit? There could be organizations or people out there that could help out. So for example, say your book includes a magician… get a magician in to do a couple of tricks. If it’s about an animal and you know someone who owns said animal then ask if they could come in with you. You might want to dress up or have some friends that are happy to dress up for you, you might even have some budding actor friends who would like to act some of the scenes out.  The possibilities really are endless, you can be as crazy and whacky as you like, that’s the beauty of children, you really can’t put a foot wrong. They will enjoy whatever you do but giving them something that leaves a lasting impression will make the occasion more memorable.

Another fellow author Rosie Russell shared with me what she does with her school visits to make them tailor made for her.....

I go and do a reading of my Maggie, Millie, and Merrie's Magical Adventure" book. There is an art project in the back so the art teacher I know invites me to do this with her 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. The students really love this project. I give them each a bookmark and they all enter a chance to win a box of school supplies. (The supplies are in the story.) I also talk to them about how they can become authors and illustrators.

Twitter @RosieRrbjj /  Facebook

Interact with the children

Kids love interacting with you so ask lots of questions throughout the reading and get them involved with the story.  Ask them if they can guess what happens next, or if any of them can relate to a scene in the book. You will find this happens naturally anyway, kids will certainly put their two pennies worth in.

Another indie author AJ Cosmo has recently had a school visit and I wanted to share one of his pictures with you.  I loved how AJ actually sat down on the floor with the kids, making himself at their level so that he in essence was just a big kid there inspiring them.  I thought it was a great idea for AJ to actually get on the floor with the kids, I am going to have to pinch that idea he he.  So  let your inner child out and be one of the kids for the day.

AJ also gave some invaluable advice on self publishing in a past blog post 

To Self Publish or not Self Publish

Twitter:  @AJCosmokids / https://www.facebook.com/ajcosmokids/

Dress to impress

You could go the whole hog and go for the full fancy dress costume, you will certainly get noticed that way and guaranteed to make quite an impact. If like me though you are a little more introverted than that, then choose an outfit that stands out. I am a bit of a girly girl hippy chick anyway so my style is a bit in your face at times. I chose one of my favourite long skirts, a bright purple layered number and the little girls loved it, they made me feel like a princess. I was sitting there reading and these little fingers kept playing with the ruffles on the bottom of my skirt, it was very cute. So go for something bright and cheery and if you are brave enough to go for a costume then go for it, they will love it!

Set some tasks so that the memory of your visit lives on

You want your visit to leave a lasting impression so set some tasks for the children so that they are still talking about the visit days after. For our one Dale came up with the idea that each of the classes were to create an Animania character based on the facts they had learned for each of the animals. They could draw the character or come up with a verse for it and then they could share it on the board outside of the classroom so that other classes could see each others ideas.

This will encourage the children to carry on discussing the book and characters after the visit too. Again be inventive and think of a task that specifically relates to your book.

Everyone loves a Freebie

                    

You can’t go wrong with freebies. I went for colouring sheets with mine, they are the most affordable option and kids love them! I have supplied a few sheets to other authors I have worked with in the past by using the preliminary line drawings as a basis for a colouring sheet . From an illustrators point of view creating colouring sheets are super easy to do. So have a chat with your illustrator and see if they can do some bespoke sheets for you. Or like Rosie Russel did for her recent book launch reach out to people to ask if they are happy to donate some colouring sheets.

There is a fantastic group on face book called Colouring in with Colour. This group is packed full of amazing creatives and are always offering free colouring sheets. I gave Rosie some of mine and so did Karen Emma Hall founder of the colouring group and the fabulous Kid Literature Authors group. I am sure there will be people on there happy to donate some of their colouring sheets, I am more than happy to share mine too.

Other inexpensive ideas are stickers, bookmarks, badges etc.  You could even bake something , again chose something that relates to your book.

Have you any other tips you would like to share with fellow authors on what particularly works well with your school visit? If so then please do leave a comment below.

Animania Meets Critterish Allsorts - We Learn About Animals and the Healing Power of Pet Therapy

Me and Stoosh

As mentioned in my previous post Animania sponsors Critterish Allsorts I decided earlier this year to sponsor Critterish Allsorts through my new book Animania. Well last month we actually went to visit Dale and his critters to learn more about the animals and the organization. We had the best day ever and learned so much. It will be a day that none of us will forget in a hurry.

We were introduced to every one of the critters and had a cuddle with a few too. What amazed me was how all of them were more than happy being handled by complete strangers. It just shows how much time and commitment Dale puts into looking after and caring for his animals.

I wanted to explain in more detail what this organization is about, so here is an interview with the man himself.

Interview with Dale Preece Kelly, founder of Critterish Allsorts

How long have you been running Critterish Allsorts?

Critterish Allsorts was founded in August 2010 so a little over 5 years

What made you decide to get into pet therapy?

I got the opportunity to work inside a secure psychiatric hospital with people with severe mental health problems (like paranoid schizophrenia, psychosis, severe depression etc) with brain injuries and severe forms of aspergers and autism. I saw the difference my visits made to these people and had psychologists and speech therapists asking how it managed to get the responses it did. The fact I was helping people, well I was facilitating my animals to help people, made me feel very proud and fulfilled. It’s such a great feeling. I decided there and then this was the direction I wanted to follow with Critterish Allsorts rather than the traditional animal man route - this was a really special thing to do. So I set about researching everything I possibly could about pet therapy and realised that nobody else was using the animals I was using in this way, people were just using dogs cats rabbits and horses. That was in 2011, I am now recognised worldwide as a pioneer in the field

How do you become a qualified pet therapy practitioner?

At the time there were no college courses I could attend, no degrees to do, I was the only person doing it in this way with this range of species. I found an online course with the British School of Yoga. It was based around dogs and horses but the course materials and content were excellent. It taught me a lot - the history, techniques, counselling methods etc more importantly it taught me why and how it worked and allowed me to understand exactly what I am doing with my animals. At the same time, I taught the college a lot about using different types of animals in different ways - they were blown away by my assignments and case studies, using skunks and reptiles and insects. I won their student of the year award!! There is now a degree course at a university in Yorkshire, but that too is a distance learning course. A lot of universities teach about my work when students courses touch in animal assisted therapy, and every year I get approached by anywhere up to 30 students who want to do dissertations on my work or come and make academic studies of its effects. That’s a great feeling. I believe I am still the only "animal man"/animal encounter company who is qualified as an animal assisted therapy practitioner. Many companies offer pet therapy, but many give a type of animal assisted activity, they do not practice the therapy side, which has real identifiable and measurable goals. I do both working one to one with patients and mental health professionals, to give measured results to the patients. If it was not a successful treatment there is no way that we would have the contracts that we do with the huge public and private corporations that we do

How many animals make up the Critterish Allsorts team?

Somewhere between 50 and 60 unless the stick insects have babies in which case it can increase by more than a hundred!!

Can you tell us a bit about the healing powers of pet therapy?

There are so many. Animals don’t judge for starters, they expect nothing, they ask no questions. Animals just exude love and thats all that many people need. For psychiatric patients it offers a focus that takes their minds off everything else thats going on, to be able to just sit with their thoughts and feel loved and wanted by another being. The most profound thing I have had a patient tell me came from a paranoid schizophrenic who told me that when he was with my animals all of the voices in his head disappeared and he was free of noise. That made me cry, to think you have done something like that for somebody who has been plagued by voices for decades just blew me away. He was able to have rational lucid conversations with his doctors for the first time. For others its the only session they will attend because it offers them respite from the pressures. Patients who identify with snakes (each person identifies with a different animal as their therapy animal) get 4 dimensions and snakes do wonders for self esteem...imagine feeling really down about yourself and then doing something nobody else is prepared to do. Suddenly you feel like a hero and so good about yourself. I am currently developing a new revolutionary form of animal assisted therapy that will go into territory as yet uncharted but more on that when its developed (thats an exclusive)

What is the most rewarding part about your job?

Seeing what it does for people. When we are educating it’s how it affects the kids. The looks on their faces when they meet and interact with the animals and the interest they take. With the therapy work, its’ just watching in awe at how amazing my animals are, they seem to know what they are there for and act differently in both settings. They make me so proud, and the results that they achieve are phenomenal. Such a satisfying aspect of it. I also love that I am one of the only people in the world doing what I do the way that I do it, it makes me very proud of what I have accomplished. I’ve always said from day 1 that if I won the lotto or for some other reason became a millionaire, I  would continue to do the work but I would do it for free

What future plans do you have for Critterish Allsorts? 

Who knows what the future holds? I have never had a business plan, I just let the universe guide me (try explaining that to a bank manager) but its worked so far. I come into contact with people by chance and they change the direction of my life. I am a completely different person now than I was in 2010...better, more grounded, I have a better understanding of how all sentient beings work, I work personally on a higher plain than I did then (if that makes sense - I don’t mean I’m above anyone but that I understand more about life about what makes me tick and everything else...in the last 5 years I’ve discovered myself), I have also grown with my animals (I am connected spiritually with each and every one of them and we have a true relationship, they are not just my pets, they are my friends, they are my heroes, they are my equals, they are my colleagues, they are me we are one, they speak and I hear – that’s one of the most important and special things that we have and it’s what makes it work so well).....this possibly sounds like a really pretentious answer – it’s not meant to nor is it my intention but its honest. I have no plans for the future I take everything a day at a time, recent events have taught me that lifes too short to plan anything, you just have to live for the now because truthfully tomorrow is of no consequence until tomorrow. Makes living life so easy. I’ve also discovered a spiritual side in the past 6 months that I never realised I had and I am very much in touch with that, and I know from 4 years of believing the universe will see me right, that whenever I am in need the universe will provide (I could cite so many examples of when it has) so long as I lead my life in the right way and think in the right way too (if any of that makes sense)

You are also the author of the life changing book Organic Guniea Pig. Have you ever thought about writing books based on your animals?

Haha...many times Corrina, but I never thought I could write. Then I met Gerry Roberts when I attended one of his talks, completely random decision. Went on my own, took it all in, and got really excited about it. Went away and wrote that book in 3 months !! I am now working on my 2nd book "You Can" which will hopefully inspire people to follow their dreams as I have for the last 5 years - this one is taking me longer to write unfortunately, due to current demands on my time, but its all good it will be written. I also have another 6 which I have titles for. Now that I know how, nothing will stop me !! I love writing.

In terms of writing about my animals....there may be a book about my work at some point.  I did consider writing some kids books about the animals adventures and that would be really kewl, but I had no idea how to do it or how I would illustrate them - Success Skunks has allowed me to become connected with a few children’s authors and illustrators, but I think I'll leave the children’s books to the experts (hint hint!)

I wont write any kids books now, when I had the opportunity the time wasn’t right for me. If someone else wanted to write them, emphasising the great work they do, then that would make me very happy because they deserve the recognition and kids are always so interested in the idea of animal assisted therapy esp in the States. I visited a high school in Virginia last year to take part in a class and debate on the subject with a group of final year students. I became the mentor of the student who organised it all and she graduated with top marks

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Thank you so much Dale for such a fascinating and insightful interview. I am sure a lot of people will be enlightened and touched by it, I certainly was. I am also a great believer in the power of positive thinking and trying to live your life to it’s full potential despite what life may throw at you. I wonder if anybody else out there can relate to this spiritual side too. Do you ever feel that sometimes your life is mapped out? I do at times, you try and go down one path and then things happen forcing you down another. I see any failure or disappointment (and trust me, I have had a few !) on my part as a stepping stone to something better. I may not be where I want to be right now but I am quite content living in the now, even if it does get hard going at times. There is a lot to smile about and meeting Dale and his critters was an experience that my little brood will never forget.

I can’t explain why I was drawn to help Critterish Allsorts, I had never met Dale before, I hadn't even spoken to him before yet something touched my heart and I wanted to help. People didn’t get why I was doing it and it certainly raised a few eyebrows. I can’t explain it myself, it was never part of my plan… it just felt right and things just slotted into place naturally. Over the last few months I have got to know Dale well and we are very similar with our beliefs and outlook on life. He is one of the nicest and kindest people I know, it’s another example of how some people come into your life for a reason. 

I have no idea where things are going, Like Dale I am leaving it all up to the universe, yes I will work really hard but not a clue where it will take me. I am just looking forward to what other fun opportunities come up. For now I am really looking forward to Animania and Critterish Allsorts first joint school visit in October at my children’s school. I am sure there will be other collaborations between the two of us in the near future. I would love to think one day we can work on an animal book together, watch this space.

Have you had any experiences with pet therapy or using the power of positive thinking? If so I would love to hear them so please do leave a comment below.

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