JK Troughton sounds a lot like JK Rowling, laughs Jodie Troughton as she shows off The Zaahli Shloom-a Quiss Adventure, a children’s book she has authored.
Jodie hopes that some of the award-winning British author’s stardust will rub off on her to magically make her middle-grade, fantasy adventure a best-seller.
“A bit like JK Rowling, I haven’t held back in the book,” she says.
A dance teacher, who has been running the Believe Dance Studio at Pakuranga Heights for the last five years, this is Jodie’s first tryst with the publishing world.
She says that the idea of the middle-grade fiction idea struck almost 12 years ago when her daughter Isabella was a year old.
“Once the idea is born, the characters keep developing. It’s more about imagery, exploring it and placing the characters as we go along,” she says.
“Every time I have an idea, I quickly feed it into my phone,” says Jodie.
She realised that there is a lot to learn in terms of getting a cover artist, formatting the book and getting an ISB number once she got connected with author groups.
What started off as a 32-page rhyming story book for her daughter, all finally came together as a 283-page Quiss adventure for 8-12-year-olds.
The children’s fantasy adventure comes with a modern twist to old school values and revolves around Annabell Quiss who wakes up in a mysterious world due to a sneezing accident.
“As a child I used to love books like the Magic Faraway Tree,” says the self-published author.
One of Jodie’s dance students, 11-year old Mily Johnson, has had a read of the book and says, “It’s that perfectly magical type of story, one where you just want to curl up with by that fire as you’re transported to the adventurous world of Garneeth.”
Available at Amazon and other online bookstores, locals can get a copy from the website JKtroughton.com.
Currently, the dance teacher and once-upon-a-time successful cake maker is also writing an adult fiction novel.
And while a big launch party of The Zaahli Shloom has been postponed due to Covid restrictions, Jodie hopes to continue working on a series of the Quiss Adventure, much like the billionaire author of the Harry Potter series she looks up to.
