So far there are 4 books in the Brave Dave series. It is a series I started back in 2004 for my daughters – a way for a dad to tell his daughters a bedtime story. When I started I didn’t really know how to write story. And unless you have been taught literature, then, unless exceptionally lucky, you are not equipped to write coherently or correctly – I discovered this fact very quickly.
Because I needed my story to be the best it could for my daughters, before I sent it to them, I sent it to a literary agency for assessment – OMG!. There were positives and negatives; “+” the story was original; “–” I couldn’t write for toffee.
So I set about solving the toffee problem. I signed up for a creative writing course and then an advanced creative writing course. Once completed I rewrote the whole story, taking in the advice given by the literary agency, and ended up with two stories; “Brave Dave – The Makings of a Hero“, and, “Brave Dave and The Time Goblin“. I can’t remember who, and it really was not my initial idea, but it was suggested to me that I send the first story off to some agents – this was when I first found out about the “Writers and Artists Yearbook” – within 2 weeks I’d had a response from an agent telling me to take their offer. This was unprecedented, this was just luck, things like this are not normal. The agent tried to place the story for 12 months to no avail, but at least I had an agent. After 12 months – nearly two years since I’d intended to give my daughters a book – my agent suggested self-publishing, a new thing at the time, and I did – three Christmases after the original one I’d intended to give my daughters a book, written by me, they received it.
So this is how the Brave Dave “saga” started.
I am now releasing 2nd editions under the pen name “Simon Woods”. Brave Dave – “A Hero in the Making” being the first.
As they are released, all will be new rewritten editions that have been expanded to give a more info on the back story of these strange and genuine characters.