{"id":19890,"date":"2021-11-24T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-24T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/?p=19890"},"modified":"2021-11-23T17:26:55","modified_gmt":"2021-11-23T16:26:55","slug":"maghera-mum-turns-storytime-for-kids-into-publishing-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/2021\/11\/maghera-mum-turns-storytime-for-kids-into-publishing-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Maghera Mum Turns Storytime For Kids Into Publishing Business"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a>
Yvonne Fleming, The Weatherbies founder<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d better start writing down the bedtime stories \u2013 and The Weatherbies were born<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Maghera mum, Yvonne Fleming, began to tell her two children night-time tales, little did she know that she would end up with a series of books, animations and a potential TV deal all based on her Weatherbies characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yvonne was encouraged to make her idea of the Weatherbies characters into a career after her husband Peter overheard the stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was walking past the bedroom door and heard me telling the story,\u201d Yvonne explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe listened for a while and then when I came downstairs, he said he thought it had potential. His background is in the music industry, for years he has been writing and creating music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI started writing stories and songs, and then Peter would write and record the music for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019d have been putting my kids to bed and would have read them a story,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf I was tired, I would have made up my own stories about The Weatherbies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey kept asking me for these stories and I couldn\u2019t remember what I\u2019d said two nights back, so I thought I\u2019d better start writing them down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now her children are grown up she still runs ideas past them, but she is also dealing with publishing deals and working with Peter Rabbit script writer, Jodi Reynolds, as well as UK production company, Threewise, with the potential to have a 52-week series of Weatherbies TV programmes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first time she read her stories beyond the walls of her home was to a very special focus group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe very first time I went into a school was my wee boy\u2019s P1 class about 12 years ago,\u201d Yvonne said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey had invited the parents in to read a book. I had said to the teacher what book am I going to read, and she told me to read my own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI went in thinking I was going to be in the school fifteen minutes or so. I was in that P1 class for two hours and then it was lunchtime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe other P1 teacher came in and said, \u2018you do know you\u2019re coming into me after lunch\u2019. I was in the school nearly a whole day talking to the kids and reading some of my stories without a lot of artwork and they all loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the Weatherbies stories are based around a group of weather-themed characters who live in Skytown including Sammy Sun, Rosie Rainbow, Colin Cloud, Flo Snow, Ronny Rain, Willy Wind and many more. As well as being a fun set of stories, there is also learning for the target age range within Key Stage One and timely environmental messages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cChildren are like sponges and sometimes people underestimate the knowledge a child has and their ability to retain information and understand it better than some adults,\u201d she explained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere have always been environment issues, but it is now at a stage where it can no longer be ignored and needs to be addressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor me it has always been very important, and I\u2019ve always taught my kids the importance of recycling and not wasting electricity \u2013 teaching them to do their bit. If kids are more aware of how their actions can affect the environment, they can adopt a more sustainable lifestyle at an early age\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As well as the environmental messages, the Weatherbies also help children learn about the different forms of weather and their characteristics and roles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur Colin Cloud Is Making Shapes book is a fun story about the cloud changing shapes but also educates children about the water cycle,\u201d said Yvonne. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt helps the kids to understand the importance the water cycle has in keeping the plants and forests alive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She has incorporated all the eco-messages into Skytown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe eco-friendly community of Skytown all do their bit in sustaining the environment. They do this by using renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power, while also recycling their rubbish.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yvonne believes that no matter the age of children they can take on board the positive messages from the Weatherbies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the help of her husband, songs have been developed to accompany the books, although Yvonne confesses that she had to get a singer to record them as she isn\u2019t a great singer herself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yvonne has been determined to see her books grow and flourish into other media such as animations and online content, looking back at how far the Weatherbies has come since the first self-published book \u201cSammy Sun Is Coming Out To Play\u201d motivates Yvonne to keep moving forward on her Weatherbies journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe self-published that as our first book,\u201d she said, adding: \u201cit did well and then six months later we published Rosie Rainbow\u2019s Recycling Day and we got a good response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe went to the London Book Fair, where we met Tiny Tree Children\u2019s Books and they published our third book \u2013 Colin Cloud Is Making Shapes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re also exploring animation. We have developed an animation pilot with Flickerpix Animation Studios, which has led us to work with Michael Ford.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMichael Ford from Threewise Productions is working with me to build a team of professionals in this industry to help further develop the Weatherbies for animation\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s when Michael Ford\u2019s network paid dividends for Yvonne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe sent my work out to five or six writers to see if they were interested, ” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJodie Reynolds had come back and said she thought it was a phenomenal, very strong concept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe said sometimes you get things sent to you and you read them and you don\u2019t see a lot of potential \u2013 maybe one movie or maybe one series and nothing else. But she said The Weatherbies had it all. She was very excited about it and wanted me to know how strongly she felt about the project and how much she would love to work with me on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was blown away by this because you always second guess your work. So, for someone with her track record in the industry to see the potential and want to put her name to it was just amazing for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yvonne is currently working with Jodi developing scripts and creating the character and story \u2018Bible\u2019 for the series, while also working with her illustrator, James Salenga on a new Weatherbies book \u201cSing a Song With the Weatherbies\u201d. However, Yvonne always keeps in mind who her audience is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cChildren are very blunt. If they like something they\u2019ll tell you, but if they don\u2019t like it, they\u2019ll also tell you. I feel relieved that none of the kids have actually said they don\u2019t enjoy it. I think it must be okay if I\u2019m still pleasing the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To purchase the book and listen to the songs go to <\/em><\/strong>theweatherbies.co.uk<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019d better start writing down the bedtime stories \u2013 and The Weatherbies were born When Maghera mum, Yvonne Fleming, began to tell her two children night-time tales, little did she know that she would end up with a series of books, animations and a potential TV deal all based on her Weatherbies characters. Yvonne was … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19890"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19890"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19892,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19890\/revisions\/19892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}