Rosanna is a bright and courageous thirty-something with an orthotic limb. She decided to turn her life-story into a large-format, illustrated book for children - and adults - to show that life's challenges don't have to stop you from doing what you want to do. She called her book, Brave Bold and Unstoppable and printed 1000 copies
Below: the final cover laid out printer-ready - front cover to the right, back cover to the left
1000 books is a large print-run for a first-time self-publishing author, but Rosanna is a woman who is not easily deterred. She is confident that with all the community, educational and special interest networks she is involved with, and her can-do approach to life, she will have no problem moving them on.
Rosanna found a Central Otago illustrator of children's books online and commissioned him to do the art . She also found BriarsBooks online and the project continued through her recovery from a hip operation. About Print in Wellington gave her a very special deal.
Brave, Bold and Unstoppable tells the story of bright, active kid called Kim who has a motorbike accident on the farm and loses her leg below the knee. The local ambulance crew, the doctors and physios who operated and fitted her orthotic - it's all there. Her new life begins and traces the author's own adventures, through New Zealand and overseas to Europe and many overseas destinations and back to New Zealand and her work as an early childhood teacher.
The book is kiwi-based with localities that readers will recognise. It is large format (240 x 250mm), 30 pages.
The art was presented as double page spreads and had to be split and re-matched to work to printer's specifications.
So - what's ahead? The plan is to get the books where they need to go and then - having learned the ropes - to write another book - in between teaching and more overseas adventures.