About the Author
I was born at a very early age - so my Mother always told me - arriving on Earth in Manchester, U.K. in 1958, along with my Puddle Creature, where I was educated and worked until retiring finally in 2015.
Since then, I've been active in charity work and welfare rights with Citizens Advice in East Anglia where I live now. I've always written in my spare time whilst working - many poems, songs, a pantomime,
and this book - but my career continually got in the way of my literary ambitions - as did, singing, playing football, my guitar, and amateur dramatics. Puddle Creatures were "discovered" in the early 1990's and I was encouraged to 'go for it' after attending a creative writing course at Hill College, Abergavenny. The manuscript for the book was completed in 1998.
I chose to revive the project in its 25th anniversary year, after a chance meeting with Suffolk illustrator Suzie Minshaw, who understood the potential for animation, and who’s brilliance inspired me to give another go to enlightening the world about Puddle Creatures. She is an artist and designer in Oulton Suffolk, whose work you can find on her two Facebook pages - Suzie's Britain and Pathways Gallery.
Rainbowbox Publishing Limited came in at this point and the rest, as they say, is history...or soon will be! Grateful thanks to Suzie, and the friends and family who told me I should have “gone for it” a lot earlier. Also to Softwood Self Publishing for their editing skills, and for their wonderful assistance and encouragement.
This novel is for to the child in all of you. Sorry it's taken me so long! It's available to pre order here now, with a launch date around 24th October 2023.
Ray Hopkinson.
About the Illustrator
The superb illustrations here and in the Puddle Creatures book were given life by Suzanne Minshaw. She read the manuscript only once and brought my characters to life perfectly, just as I imagined. Obviously, she's in contact with her Puddle Creature! She lives and works in Oulton, Suffolk, U.K. where she is a painter, illustrator and designer. It's been great working with her to produce these images and you can see further examples of her brilliance on her Facebook pages - "Suzie's Britain" - and her gallery artwork on the Facebook page "Pathways Gallery."
