Interview: Sunshine Coast Kids Today Magazine

https://sunshinecoastkidstoday.com.au/sunshine-coast-author-samantha-starshine-first-book/

By Melissa Grant

Mother of five and author Samantha Willcocks is passionate about encouraging children to connect with each other and the environment.

The Sunshine Coast writer – better known as Samantha Starshine – has just published her first book in a series she hopes will help families create a better world for themselves.

The book, Annie Ant’s Awareness, is a story about a little ant with a log of big feelings, such as anger, worry and sadness.

“It’s all about how her thoughts influence her feelings and her actions,” Samantha explained.

“It’s a powerful story about how we are the creators of our reality.”

Samantha has dreamt of being an author since she was a child herself, but it was only last year that she finally felt confident to start putting her books and ideas out there.

“It’s been a labour of love – more than a decade ago I got the idea (for the series),” she said.

“I’ve wanted to be an author ever since I was a little girl. I just remember how proud I felt when other little kids enjoyed my books.”

Released in December, Annie Ant’s Awareness is the first in an alphabet series called The Awareness Boosting Collection.

Each title will have an accompanying workbook full of hands-on activities and questions to get children thinking about their futures.

The stories are a lot of fun – they all rhyme and have a very distinct style.

“It’s kind of Dr Seuss meets Deepak Chopra – it’s a real blend,” Samantha said.

With three children and two step-children, Samantha has the perfect audience to test out her books.

“The kids were my inspiration and I tested the books out on them and my friends’ kids,” Samantha said.

“The younger kids really liked the pictures, and the older kids really liked the language and the concepts – they could understand it from a deeper level.”

She also drew inspiration from the subjects in she studied in her Arts/Science degree at the University of the Sunshine Coast, including sustainability, sociology and creative writing.

So with five kids and studying for a university degree, how did Samantha find the time to sit down and write?

“If I felt like writing I just would,” she explained.

“If the kids needed me I just would do what I needed to do in that moment.”

Samantha also had a hand in the illustrations.

“I designed the illustrations, sketched them up and then worked with a Spanish illustrator,” she said.

“I’m not a great artist but I do enjoy drawing cartoon images.”

Samantha has been busy working on completing the Awareness Boosting Collection – she has already written another eight books for the series.

So far the feedback has been very encouraging.

“I’ve had some humbling feedback. Some people ordered (Annie Ant’s Awareness) in the UK – a mum there said her special needs kids really get a lot from it. That was just so lovely to hear that.”

After being funded to nearly 200 per cent on crowd-funding site Kickstarter, Annie Ant’s Awareness is now stocked by major online bookstores including Amazon and Booktopia.