Back in 2012, I was the mother of two lovely boys aged 10 and 8 (I am still their mother, they are no longer 10 and 8). It was school holidays and we had had a big day. I told the boys to go to bed, it was their regular bedtime. They didn’t want to go to bed, so called me evil!
I was in the middle of the 12×12 challenge and had been looking for an idea for a picture book manuscript. When my kids called me evil, I had an aha moment.
I began to think of all the things we parents get our kids to do, that they don’t like doing. This included going to bed at normal time during school holidays, tidying their bedrooms, doing their homework, having a bath, and so many more. I then paired them with an ‘evil’ action, imagining that the mum in the story was an evil genius with plans to take over the world, along the lines of the cartoon evil villains in kids movies.
Then the manuscript started taking shape.
The initial manuscript was quite a bit longer than what ended up in the final book. There was some tweaking of the different activities, and the various gadgets included in the story, but once I had the template for the sections, the story took shape.
After some time, I began submitting it to publishers, with no response other than one saying ‘We can’t have kids calling their mother’s evil’. This confused me as some kids do… I tested the manuscript with kids and parents, and they all found it very funny. I decided to self-publish this book.
A friend had used Tadaa Book for their book, so I contacted them about My Mummy is Evil. I am so glad I did.
The team worked on it and it was published in June 2022. The illustrator,
My Mummy is Evil is fast becoming one of my bestselling books, and many buy a copy to gift their mother’s on Mother’s Day!
You can buy a copy in hardcover or paperback on Amazon.
