Dubbo mum's first children's book teaches all the colours of the rainbow

"From a young age I've been interested in writing poetry and creative writing, but it got put on the backburner for a long time. But when I had COVID six months ago I couldn't sleep well and then one night at 3:00am the entire idea for the whole collection came to me," she told the Daily Liberal.

"So I got up and wrote down my ideas. It was kind of strange. The whole thing was just in my head and I just knew that I had to do it."

In November, Ms Wright released the first book in her collection titled 'Kate Learns the Rainbow'. She said she wanted to centre the first book around learning the colours of the rainbow as her four-year-old daughter Aria - who the book is dedicated to - is a "rainbow baby".

"A rainbow baby is a healthy baby born after losing a baby due to miscarriage, infant loss, stillbirth, or neonatal death," Ms Wright explained.

"I've had a long battle with fertility issues myself. It took me five years to have Aria and I lost five babies in the process to get there - and I've lost babies since then too. So dedicating this book to rainbow babies is kind of important to me."

Ms Wright has already sold copies of the book to customers across the world but said being able to sit down with Aria and read the book she wrote and published was the most "incredible" part of the experience.

"Some books just teach kids the worst possible lessons in life and I really am not inspired to read them to her. I wanted to write a book that will teach kids something useful," she said.

"'Kate Learns the Rainbow' goes beyond just teaching them the names of the colours and teaches the difference between primary and secondary colours and how to mix colours to make different ones."

"It's kind of surreal that something that was in my head six months ago is actually physically here now."

Getting the book from concept to print was not a cheap or easy journey for Ms Wright who decided to choose the path of self-publication for her books.

"I had to do a lot of research into how to do it because - even though I could see what I wanted it to look like in my head, when it comes to illustrating I'm hopeless," she said.

"I was very lucky I found a local company called Australian Author Services and I was lucky they've done quite a few children's book publications. With their help I found an editor and an illustrator and a formatter and we liaised over the couple of months getting it right."

"I couldn't have done it without their help. There was no way in hell I'd know what to do."

Ms Wright already has plans for the next books in her series in the works including one teaching children about the body, another about seasons and one teaching children how to deal with grief and loss.

"That one would be dedicated to my grandmother who we lost at the beginning of this year. It was quite difficult to explain to Aria about funerals and what happens there," said Ms Wright.

'Kate Learns the Rainbow' is available online and Ms Wright hopes to see it on the shelves at local bookstores and libraries very soon.

Information about where to pick up a copy for yourself can be found on The Kate Collection - Children's Books Facebook page.

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