A new author, from Sale, is launching his first in a series of
children’s books, inspired by his daughter.
Stuart Rowson, 45, is creating a trilogy of adventure novels, the first
of which – ‘Izzy and the Tumble Thunder’ – will be on sale on 1st
November.
The books portray the challenges, worries and anxieties that children,
especially young girls, face growing up these days with the main
character Izzy, named after his daughter, showing how to successfully
overcome them.
The series has been snapped up by new publisher Whalebone, a subsidiary
of The Book Writers Resource.
Stuart, who has spent more than 20 years in the media, worked for a
decade at the BBC at MediaCity in Salford. At BBC Children’s, he led the
digital transformation of Newsround, oversaw the relaunch of the
Children’s iPlayer, as well as the digital and social output of the
department – from CBeebies apps to TikTok and YouTube strategies. He
also oversaw the team that delivered Bedtime Stories, which featured a
range of celebrities including Tom Hardy and Isla Fisher.
Prior to that he spent several years at BBC Sport leading on the digital
and social coverage of some of
the world’s biggest sporting events, from
London Olympics 2012 to Wimbledon and the football World Cup in Brazil.
Since leaving the BBC, Stuart now runs his own successful media company
focused on kids and younger audiences and counts Chelsea FC, Birmingham
2022, British Cycling and industry-leading production company Sunset &
Vine among his clients.
The coming-of-age story focuses on a young girl called Izzy, who lives
with her mum in a clock shop in London, plagued by visions of her
missing dad.
After discovering a magical time-travelling device on her 13th birthday,
called a Tumble Thunder, and a note she is convinced is from her dad,
she must travel back through history to complete the quest to find him
and realise her own destiny – all the while being hunted by an evil
character from the future called the Time Shadow.
Stuart said: “It has been a lifelong ambition of mine to write a novel
as I’ve always loved writing, but my main inspiration came after reading
all seven of the Harry Potter books to my daughter at bedtime over the
course of three years.
“The idea was to write a book to give to my daughter for her 13th
birthday, so I was keen to ensure it did two things: deliver a strong
female character who was an anti-hero in the modern world and to give
young girls a role model who wasn’t worried about fitting in or what she
looked like in a selfie.
“The original idea morphed and twisted over time to become Izzy and the
Tumble Thunder, and I named the main character after my daughter. Not
wanting to leave Izzy’s two older brothers out, Danny and Charlie got a
village named after them called Great Chardan. That’ll do them as
they’re grown-ups now!
“My hope is that it teaches children to stand up for themselves and
others, that it’s okay to not fit in, and to be happy being themselves.”
The sequel, Izzy and the Time Shadow, is already in the works and will
be launched in 2023. Part three of the trilogy will be launched after
that.
Izzy and the Tumble Thunder is available now on
https://tumblethunder.com and is available to buy on Amazon.
