How a Daisy Chain Disaster Led to Literary Magic: A Q&A with Amy Wilson

What is “Julia Peculiar and the Daisy chain Disaster” about, and what makes it a magical adventure for young readers?

Julia Peculiar and the Daisy Chain Disaster is the first book in the Julia Peculiar Collection, a trilogy all about the magic that is inherent in the natural world around us and Julia’s regular rendezvous with this magic. We meet Julia, her Teapot Cottage, her nosey neighbours and her trusty team of garden gnomes. In this particular adventure, Julia decides to take a break from pruning petunias to sit in the sunshine and make a daisy chain. A simple summer pastime, you would imagine, but once the daisies are interlinked they send a mischievous whisper along the chain one by one, formulating a plan to take Julia on an adventure that soon gets out of hand, as adventures often do in Julia’s enchanted garden. With the help of her garden gnomes, Julia must get her naughty nature under control before the nosey neighbours spot the mischief and mayhem going on over her little white picket fence.

Julia lives in a red teapot cottage with an enchanted garden - how did you come up with such an iconic, whimsical setting?

By taking lots of inspiration from my absolute favourite aesthetic: cottage core. Originally, Julia’s cottage wasn’t a teapot, it was simply a country cottage with a thatched roof and a brick stack chimney that had wildflowers growing out of it in a plume that cascaded across the roof, but then it occurred to me that she’d likely need her chimney cleared in the winter for fires, and the whole set up wasn’t very health and safety friendly, so the wildflowers in the chimney had to go and I needed something out of the ordinary to make it special. The idea of Teapot Cottage likely came from somewhere cottage core/fairy core related but I can’t specifically recall where. The entire genre is dripping with visuals that run through the core of The Juliaverse.

The garden gnomes play a big role in Julia’s adventures. What inspired their quirky personalities?

The garden gnomes represent the spiritual concept that we are divinely guided at all times to our highest possible potential in life, and that if we can relax and accept whatever situation we find ourselves in, no matter how deep the hole might seem at the time, life will always provide a solution if we are connected enough to receive it. They are an integral part of the garden, and always there to step in when things get messy, providing Julia gives up attempting to control the situation herself with her limited, human means.

The story features playful rhyme and humour. What was your process for writing in rhyme while keeping it engaging for children?

I work to a pre-conceived beat and a strict syllable count with everything I write. The beat comes before the words, the rhythm and flow precede both the content and the plot. If there are any parents reading this that are familiar with rhyming bedtime stories, you’ll know what I mean! The pattern of rhyme is by far the most important element, when you have that perfect syllable flow, the words come effortlessly (mostly). There is always the odd line or two that you just cannot seem to make fit in the way you want, but I never deviate from the beat and my syllable count is non-negotiable.

What inspired you to create The Juliaverse?

Oh, this is a question I could answer forever! There are two elements that inspired The Juliaverse initially: childhood play in nature, and the spiritual intelligence underpinning all of nature itself. As a parent I’ve been blessed to spend a lot of time observing children at play in toddler group settings, play dates, day trips etc. and I’ve always found that children play best when left entirely to their own imagination, with minimal toys and minimal adult interaction. Give them a field, a stream, a tree or preferably all of the above and they will bask in the magic of nature with an immersion that we seem to lose when we grow up. Some of my happiest memories of my children involve sitting by a stream with a flask of tea and a book, ignoring them completely as they entertain themselves for hours digging a wolf cave, or building a squirrel house, or creating a bug hotel. They have a connection to nature that I envy, and this connection was largely inspirational in the creation of The Juliaverse.

Also, We often overlook how intelligent nature actually is. How the blueprint for an entire oak tree fits inside an acorn, how a daffodil bulb knows just the right time of year to pop up, how a cuckoo bird has the biological ability and forethought to produce eggs that look similar to the eggs in the nest she’s dumping her offspring in because she’s too lazy to raise it herself. There is an underlying balance and relationship between every living organism on this planet, humans included, and the mere fact that our environment is the perfect combination and circumstance of elements to allow us to exist at all is a miracle. There is a force that holds this balance in place. Holds the moon at the perfect distance from the earth to influence the tides, holds the sun at the perfect distance from the earth to provide just the right level of heat and light, holds the planets in their same, predictable path of orbit in such a way that we can know the exact position they will be on this date in 50 years time. That is not random, it is intelligent and I will forever be fascinated by the world we live in and its cycles, wisdom and resilience.

As an author, what has been the most rewarding part of bringing Julia Peculiar to life?

Creating something that is more than the sum of its parts, more than its word count, content and plot. I have taken as much joy in watching Julia’s stories and adventures reveal themselves as I hope my readers will have reading them. I lost count of the number of times I found myself laughing at the next twist in her tales as I was writing them, because often I didn’t even know them myself! Sometimes, I’d be stuck as to what happened next, or how a particular element of nature might create mischief (I simply had to include toadstools, but how on earth can I make a toadstool cause trouble?!), but given some time and consideration the answer always came to me, and that’s super rewarding. The aha moment when something just clicks, I love that. And there is nothing more rewarding than finishing a rhyming piece then reading it back to yourself and finding that it all just flows exactly how you wanted it to, and tells the exact story you wanted it to when you set out to write it.

On a deeper level, going beyond the picture books and delving into the history of Teapot Cottage and how it came to belong to Julia was a process that came with many rewarding moments. It’s like peeking into a rabbit hole and finding an entire world just waiting to be discovered and crafting it into a storyline with characters that you seem to know even before you’ve written them. It’s all just there waiting for you, and every little discovery and successful chapter brings with it an enormous sense of achievement and gratitude.

What message or feeling do you hope children and families take away from reading “Julia Peculiar and the Daisy Chain Disaster”?

One of my main goals for my books is to create the kind of bedtime stories that are enjoyable for both parents and children alike. Beloved family classics that are not only easy and enjoyable to read, but look simply beautiful on the bookshelf and instead of going to charity, end up stored in the attic for possible future grandchildren. Anyone who has had children will tell you there are two types of books on the shelf at home: books that make you groan inwardly and books that make you smile. I want to create the favourites, the timeless classics that get read over and over again until you know the words off by heart and they become engrained in your mind (in a good way!).

It’s been a good 4 years since I’ve read it, but I can still recite “Aliens Love Underpants” word for word, and the times we sat and read that book will forever be treasured memories for me. There were 4 or 5 books in that category for each of my children, and I never tired of reading them and I’ll never part with them. Aliens Love Underpants, Steam Train Dream Train, and Father Christmas Needs A Wee are the titles that immediately come to mind. These stories will always have a special place in my heart owing to the countless times I’ve snuggled with my children reading them together. 

That’s what I want to create. I want children and parents to finish my story with a sense of wonder and adventure, and a renewed faith in magic and another brick in their wall of memories together. That fairy tale feeling that a good story leaves you with - I want that to be my legacy, a legacy built on countless happy moments spent between parents and their children.

How does this book serve as a gateway to the magical world of The Juliaverse? Are there more adventures in store for Julia?

Oh, yes. The Julia Peculiar catalogue consists of 3 rhyming picture books, 3 middle grade chapter books and 3 potential YA novels in the future. The picture books all take place in the garden of Julia’s Teapot Cottage, and all follow the same sort of structure. A natural element of Julia’s garden is causing havoc and she must prevent the situation from getting out of hand before the neighbours suspect, eventually handing the reins over to her garden gnomes who know just what to do to save the day. The picture books include naughty nature such as conkers having fist fights, toadstools staging protests, and grumpy toads plonking their bottoms where they do not belong. They are shaped around fun, rhyming, adventure, and magic and are best enjoyed by children under the age of 8. Following on from that, the trilogy of chapter books delve into the history of Teapot Cottage and its previous owner. We learn about Julia’s childhood and the turn of events that led to her owning the cottage and the creation of its enchanted garden, and just why her neighbours are so damn nosey in the first place.

How can readers connect with you and stay updated on Julia’s adventures and future books in The Juliaverse?

I have a social media page on which I will be sharing any and all updates 'Amy Wilson- Author And Story-Teller.' On here you can book upcoming live story time sessions in your area and follow me on my literary journey.

You can also follow Partnership Publishing on their social media channels for updates!

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Coming soon in 2025 from Magic Moon Publishing, the whimsical world of Julia Peculiar and the Daisy Chain Disaster will enchant young readers and open the garden gate to The Juliaverse. Prepare for rhymes, mischief, and magical mayhem!