A SOLIHULL mum has had her first children’s book published with a little help from her childhood friend.
Liz Butler turned her dream into reality, of having her story shared with children as well as her own, when she wrote The Space Race.
The book tells the story of how the two characters, Cat and Dog, go head-to-head with each other in a bid to get to the moon to prove who is best.
The 40-year-old said she was inspired by the saying “to fight like cats and dogs” and she wanted to see where the adventures could go to and what lengths characters would go to in order to prove their superiority.
Liz, who works at Solihull College and University Centre, said: “I have always had a passion for both reading and writing and love nothing more than settling down with a book.
“Since having two children of my own, it became a dream of mine to write a story that I can not only share with them, but know that others can share.
“I also love rhyming stories so I knew that if I was lucky enough to publish a story it would need to be a rhyming one.
“The underlying message in the story encourages children to realise that in order to achieve their goals, they need to work together.”
After penning the words she worked with borough artist Kate Gallagher to illustrate the book.
The pair then approached publishing houses.
The pair approached a number of publishing houses and in the end, headed to Matador, a self publishing company who agreed to publish as a Matador title.
Liz added: “I would love to be able to continue writing and publishing my stories as I genuinely love books and want to share these with others.
“I have written two other titles, but have not yet done anything in terms of publishing these.”
