I Think My New Book is Summoning Animals!

There’s something slightly unnerving happening in my backyard.

It started with a rabbit.

While writing my new book, A Pocketful of Wonder: Little Stories for Remembering What Matters, I wrote a story called The Rabbit of Many Colours.

It’s about Scottie, a rather lovely little rabbit who discovers that perhaps being different isn’t something to be fixed after all.

A sweet story.

A completely fictional rabbit.

And then…

a real rabbit moved into my backyard.

Not metaphorically… an actual bunny.

And, just to make things a little more interesting, he appeared almost immediately after I had finished writing Scottie’s story.

Hmm.

I thought nothing of it.

Well… I thought something of it. 😂

Then there was the kookaburra.

I had also written a story about a kookaburra who has a rather unexpected conversation with a donkey.

And now, as we move into the beautiful beginnings of Spring, two kookaburras have started regularly visiting the backyard for breakfast and lunch.

Their menu? Lawn grubs and worms. Apparently, the backyard café is thriving.

At this point, I’m beginning to wonder whether my stories are actually stories…

or advance bookings for the local wildlife.

Because there are quite a few other characters in the book.

There’s a hippo.

A star.

Bandicoots.

Mice.

A mushroom.

Spiders.

An Echidna.

And goodness knows what else I’ve inadvertently invited into the neighbourhood.

I can just imagine opening the blinds one morning to find a hippopotamus peacefully washing itself in our wishing well.

I’ll probably stand there for a moment, coffee in hand, thinking:

Well… that’s awkward.

Then I’ll remember that I wrote the story.

And realise that apparently the universe has a sense of humour.

Maybe this is what happens when you spend too much time writing about wonder.

Perhaps wonder starts writing back. Or perhaps I should be very, very careful about what I put in the next book.

Because there are only so many animals my backyard can accommodate.

And I really don’t have room for a giraffe.

I don’t think the neighbours would understand.

A Pocketful of Wonder

Little Stories for Remembering What Matters

Available now through Amazon.