By C.V. Aramakutu
Hidden in the back behind the socks and singlets, piles of paper with scrunched up corners lay in secret – possessing the childish stories only a seven-year-old could comprehend. The collection grew bigger and messier until the grownups could no longer stand the overflow of rubbish poking out from her top draw. Her mother, a neat woman, pulled each piece from the cave, unfolding it and pressing out the crinkles before stacking them one on top of the other. Two industrial staples held the collection together – her first book.
“No more paper,” her mother said, handing her a metallic gold notebook. The first page already had writing on it, it read:
“When the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.” – J.M. Barrie
A quote from her favourite story – Peter Pan. This girl never made it to Neverland, instead she grew into a woman, a mother, an author. This woman, is me.
I grew up in a town filled with artists and explorers, inspired by every inch of its beauty. The inspiration was not lost on me and from a young age I experimented with my creativity. I filled every white space in countless journals with stories of adventure, fantasy and magic.
My mother once told me that fairies were not only found in Neverland; young fairies fought the pirates and old fairies lived out their days sheltering from the sun under flower petals. Only those special children who believed would ever see one. I’m sure I saw countless – although I have no memory of them now.
For a short while I lost my inner child while adult life took over. No more papers with Loopy stories spilling from my drawer – I wrote only of sensible things in sensible books.
Don’t be sad though, I did meet some lost boys once. At University, a whole dorm of them – playing dress ups, face painting, and fighting, all while swinging from the ceilings! The dorm manager (it’s possible his name was James) was always in a battle with them.
Everything changed in May 2010, for this was when my daughter was born, and when her first laugh gave light to a new fairy I knew my stories must find their way out of the darkest corner of my wardrobe. It wasn’t too long before my passion for writing took over my spare time; Loopy Lucy: Flying with Hubble was born. Still, my work remained hidden in the shadows, in journals, and in simple yellow computer files.
Two beautiful baby boys later, I knew I must don my pirate hat, change course and set sail into the depths of my imagination – for they must learn too, there are crocodiles lurking, waiting to snatch up their childhood.
I resigned from my job and decided to put all my heart into doing what I loved – telling stories. I created new Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages under my author name C.V. Aramakutu and went to work networking and seeking advice from the most engaging creative minds I could find. I wrote and wrote and wrote between hours of working on my own website www.cvaramakutu.com. I constantly wondered if I was mad to follow this loopy dream but thankfully the thoughts always led me somewhere positive.
