My five forgotten stories rediscovered in lockdown

A MOTHER has written five sci-fi adventure novels with the help of her two children.

Rachael Winterbottom, 47, from South Stoke, started writing the books when twins Thomas and Olivia, 12, were babies but then forgot about it.

It was only when the family were thinking of things to do during the first coronavirus lockdown in March 2020 that she remembered the idea.

She read one story to the children and they loved it so much they encouraged her to publish it so their friends could enjoy it too.

Mrs Winterbottom is to release the first book, called The Children of Pisces: The Two Pendants, next month under her pen-name
R E Lewin.

She said: “It was during the first lockdown that I thought, ‘Wow, I can’t believe I forgot about them’.

“I thought why not sit down with the twins and read them as it would be nice to see what they think, especially Thomas as I wanted them to appeal to both genders.

“I wanted to give the girls a strong role and for the story to be gender-neutral and positive.

“I was really choked up when we finished the first chapter as they begged for me to read another and another. We were up until midnight the first time we started reading. My daughter said to me, ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe you wrote this — you’re better than Jacqueline Wilson and you’re my mum.”

Ms Winterbottom is a former IT project manager who now works as a wellbeing consultant and energy healer.

She has lived in South Stoke since 2004 and has five dogs and eight cats. She decided to start writing after getting divorced as she wanted something else to focus on.

She said: “My husband had an affair and left when the twins were just 13 months old so I just threw myself into writing.

“I just wrote and wrote and wrote. I had written them all by the time the twins were four and then I went back to work and forgot about them.

“I threw myself into the books and it just poured out of me. It was like the story was already in existence and I was just telling everyone else about it.

“If I ever got writer’s block I would take the dogs out for a walk and it would come back to me.”

The book is about orphaned children living on earth after it has been invaded by aliens. The children soon realise they are part of a powerful quadruplet and all have metaphysical powers.

Ms Winterbottom said: “It went in a sci-fi direction because I’m a massive Star Wars fan, so I just threw in everything I was familiar with and my passion for aliens.

“It’s similar to The Hunger Games, Harry Potter and The Lost City Chronicles. I’d say it’s for children aged 11-plus.”

After reading all five stories to her children, they helped her make some improvements.

“My son helped with some of the fight scenes,” said Ms Winterbottom. “He was like, ‘Mum, that would never happen’.

“They also helped build up the characters more and perfect it for their age group. They just really wanted to see them published.”

Ms Winterbottom sent the manuscript of her first book to publishers in autumn 2020 expecting a lot of rejections but had a couple of offers.

However, she then decided to self-publish the book instead and the second book is due to be published before Christmas.

Ms Winterbotton said: “I designed the cover myself. I could clearly see the girl with the horse and the panther, who are her allies.

“We went back and forth with it about four or five times but I knew exactly what I wanted and was trying to convey that.”

She has also written a romance story for young adults which she also plans to publish.

She first began writing fiction when she was in her twenties and having a gap year from studying for a computer science degree.

The book was about a girl who could communicate with animals but Ms Winterbottom felt it was too similar to other books and films released at the time so didn’t do anything with it.

• The Children of Pisces: The Two Pendants (£10.99) will be available from March 28.