I wrote Skating Late fourteen years ago, just a couple of months before my grandfather died. He always loved my nonsense rhymes and silly stories and I will never forget his first reaction to Skating Late. He glowed with pride and excitement, telling me the story needed to be illustrated and published. He also told me that I should title the story “A Bestseller”.
“So I can tell people my granddaughter wrote A Bestseller,” Bumpa explained.
I’ve thought of my book as A Bestseller ever since that day, and thought of my Bumpa every time I recited it over the years to my kids, nieces and nephews, daycare kids, Bridgeway kids, and Dream Candy kids.
Even though they loved my story as much as my grandfather did, I never considered submitting Skating Late or considered my writing to be good enough for publication.
If I’m being completely honest, I didn’t publish Skating Late because I wanted to or because I deeply believed in myself or my story. I did it because I needed to. I had no other choice.
After Covid and Kidney disease interrupted my career, I was on disability for almost three years. I couldn’t return to work at Bridgeway Academy because of my health, there was no Dream Candy to go back to, and I sold my events business to a friend.
I was so done with disability. I was not only a single mom barely able to make ends meet, but I am also a lifelong community servant who takes great value from my work and had been immensely rewarded by my twenty year career in the Human Services field. I needed to find a way to get back to doing what I love.
I remember sitting in a career counselling session expressing my desire to get off disability and back into the workforce. I had just finished telling the counsellor how scared I was to start from scratch without my health or any traditional education.
“What DO you have?” he asked, challenging me to look at my skills, strengths, interests, needs and goals. “If you’re going to do this, you’re going to have to think outside of the box.”
I knew that if I wanted to continue my mission to improve mental health education and literacy, I needed to create a new platform to reach youth and families. It was with great hesitation and without any great belief in myself that I decided to make Skating Late that platform.
With the help of GO3D, an incredible self employment benefit that helps people return to the workforce from disability as entrepreneurs, I created Sunnyside Self Wellness and published Skating Late in March.
Debbie Adams, one of my favourite teachers from GO3D, says that confidence is the result of bold action, not the other way around. We don’t wait for confidence in order to act, we act— that is what builds confidence. This was certainly the case with Skating Late. I acted on the idea with next to no confidence that I would succeed.
As a result of that bold action, my confidence in Skating Late (and myself) has grown enormously. My limited local prerelease has included over 700 copies sold to rave reviews, over 200 copies donated, books in every province and territory, books in America, Australia, New Zealand, Finland, England and China, and over 20 class visits!
It is finally time to release Skating Late to a wider audience, and I am so grateful to everyone who has supported me and my silly story, allowing me to reach this milestone with greater hope and confidence than ever before. I am allowing myself to believe what my Bumpa always did: this story could really be A Bestseller!
Skating Late will be released on Amazon and Ingram Spark and will be available for distribution worldwide this month! With the support of this community, it has an excellent chance to climb the charts and reach readers across the country and beyond.
As a very small token of my immeasurable gratitude, I am including a free printable tool inspired by the work of Jay Shetty. It asks the “Three Most Important Questions” and challenges us to look at our wishes and goals and consider the impact we can make. These questions helped me shape Sunnyside and solidified my decision to publish Skating Late.
I am so grateful for your contribution to Skating Late and Sunnyside’s success! It is thanks to this community that I am back to work building my dream career as a writer and educator.
The future is Sunnyside Bright!
Wishing you well,
Camilla
free printable resource
3 Important Questions
This free printable resource asks three important questions to assist you in your self reflection and goal-setting.
These three important questions will help you to live the life of your dreams filled with passion and purpose.
✧ Read About Us ✧
Among Friends: Camilla Thompson’s many endeavours include releasing a children’s book Camilla Thompson’s entrepreneurial streak runs as deep as her passion for self-wellness, motivating her to launch a business and a book… [Read More]
10 Rural Nova Scotia Startups to Watch in 2023 Sunnyside Self Wellness promotes mental health and pro social skill development through children’s literature… [Read More]
Skating Late
By Camilla Thompson
After sleeping in and waking up to a Canadian conundrum, Skating Late to school is the only solution. Faced with some slippery situations along the way, is it possible to make it on time?
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