Together Ness: The tale of the forest

Self-publishers are passionate about their work and have the initiative and drive to get it into print without going through traditional publishing channels.

For those self-publishers who need a bit of guidance we run free print workshops, where we consider papers, printing methods, binding techniques and everything in between so that authors, illustrators and designers can make an informed decision on how their work should look and feel.

Other self-publishers need less hand holding and through prior experience or through their own research pretty much know what they want.

A case in point is author Christopher Evans, who got in touch with us through the magnificent Footprint worker co-operative in Leeds.

Christopher says:
“Mess With Ness started with a spark of inspiration from the news of our pregnancy. It didn’t take long, after that news, for me to start looking for children’s books that I could start reading to our baby before he/she had even arrived into the World.
I searched for books that carried messages that I would have hoped our child would learn, and after some time I decided that, I would try my hand at writing a tailored story that bought together our interests and values as a family. That is when the idea for the book was born.

During the writing stages, a dear friend’s dog, called Ness Tomic sadly passed away and so, using her name, I decided that her spirit would live on through the Mess With Ness series.

Together-Ness, which is the first book in the series, is about the connectivity of all life within communities of the natural world. I hope to ignite appreciation and a sense of wonder within children for this beautiful planet, and how we can live in harmony together, upon it. We can learn a lot from observing nature, in fact for me, we are not separate from nature and that is what I hope comes from this series.

Calverts have helped to make a dream come true. The quality is amazing, I could not be happier with the final result. So Thank you for the care and effort that you have given this book, it is very much appreciated.

Now our beautiful baby girl, River, has arrived. Her spirit is so inspiring and I have already started to think about writing a second book, which I’m thinking will be called Grateful-Ness, an appreciation of the life sustaining soils of the Earth.”

www.messwithness.com