WallaceBriggs
The Amazing Adventures of Jimmy Crikey
WallaceBriggsAbout
Wallace Briggs (1943 – present). Happily married to Pat who I first met at the age of eleven walking a common route home from different schools. Married aged 21 we celebrated our Diamond Anniversary in September 202424
Early years were experienced in and around Durham never living more than 5ml distance from the Cathedral City. Pat and I spent many happy years in the North East of England before employment almost took us off to emigrate to South Africa. But plans were changed in the final weeks and the company moved the family Sussex.
After more than twenty years in Sussex, and Hampshire, employment was again responsible for the move to beautiful rural Lancashire, where we still reside. I am now retired from a long career in sales and marketing of technical products in the UK and international markets.
Jimmy Crikey was born one rainy day during a family holiday in Great Yarmouth, to entertain my son and his new-found friends for an hour or so. The story expanded over the following showery afternoons in the cramped confines of a beach tent, and more and more adventures were required to keep the children entertained.
I look forward to sharing the adventures of Jimmy Crikey with a wider audience in the hope that they will bring a sense of wonder and enjoyment to another generation.
In the meantime I have become a multi-award-winning author eg on Firebird, Global Books, Page Turner Awards, with many accolades.
What inspires you to write?
The wonderment on the face of children enjoying my stories is all the inspiration I need.
Tell us about your writing process.
I pick up a pen (or open a file on the laptop) and go where the mind takes me. Sometimes it goes nowhere and other times my fingers cannot keep pace with the flow of the story. I rarely know what direction the plot will take.
What advice would you give other writers?
I don't feel qualified to advise other writers – other than to develop a thick skin and never stop trying. There are mountains to scale before you can reach the promised land. You may never reach it but there's some fantastic scenery to take in on the way.
Website
wallacebriggs.wordpress.com
Inside the Mind - WallaceBriggs
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Can you tell us a little about yourself and how you started writing children’s books?
About forty years ago my wife and I were holidaying in Great Yarmouth with our 4/5 year old son. He had made friends with a small group of children who took shelter in our beach tent during a heavy afternoon shower. The decibels rose to unbearable levels for my wife, trying to read a book,. She pleaded that I try to keep them quiet by telling them a story. So, for the first time, I had to make up a story on the spot. One of the children in the group, the smallest, happened to have ginger hair. I had noticed that he was being picked on by the older members of the 'gang', "go there", "bring this", "do that", "don't do that", etc. He became the story’s hero Jimmy Crikey, the boy who looked different. I needed a spot of magic to entrance the youngsters and so Witch Matilda was born. The story needed monsters and in an underground world there was no shortage of creative opportunities. Jimmy needed a friend and I chose that his companion should be female, to widen the interest factor. And so was born Gemma, the young lady who lived at the bottom of the well. And to add to the mystery she did not know how she came to be there. Out of such beginning grew The Amazing Adventures of Jimmy Crikey and my imagination was allowed to run riot to create a story around them and the errant Weatherman who lost control of his Cloud HQ because he kept falling asleep. The stories did not appear in print for many years and I have just released the sixth (stand alone, complete) fantasy adventure of The Adventures of Jimmy Crikey: Radioactive! https://www.amazon.com/dp/BOCTY9PV6G
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What inspired your first story, and what inspires you now?
A story to lift the spirits of the underdog was the first inspiration. Lately I write about self belief and release of the inner self to achieve,
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