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Writer taps popular vein with mosquitos

With the stroke of a pen, Debora Broadhead may have redefined our relationship with the mosquito with her children's novel.
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With the stroke of a pen, Debora Broadhead may have redefined our relationship with the mosquito with her children's novel.

"It is an adventure story, a fantasy, in the same vein as A Bugs Life or The Bee Movie, where we look inside the fantastical world of insects," said Broadhead. "I came up with it because I find them pesky and annoying like any Canadian. Why is the mosquito even here? I asked myself that question as I was swatting at them one day. And thinking about that brought me to wonder what their life would be like, and that brought me to think up Prince George."

Yes, the name was not accidental. Broadhead is from Fraser Lake so when she was dreaming up her mosquito monarchy, the setting was predisposed to be the B.C. Central Interior of lakes and rivers and forests with which she was most familiar. When she centred on the main character being a prince, her regional instincts added the name George.

The royal couple naming their newborn George was, as it was to the namesake city, merely an interesting twist vtof fate. The story was long complete and in the hands of editors before England's infant heir to the throne was born. The folks at Topaz Publishing in the United States saw it as no impediment.

Broadhead's relationship with Topaz has been serendipitous all along. In fact, Broadhead's path from pen to printed page would make a lot of authors snap their own pencils.

Broadhead said "I didn't think of myself as a writer," with her literary arts career limited to poetry and news reporting at Fraser Lake's local paper The Bugle several years ago. She is a teacher's aid for a Grade 6 / 7 class in Fraser Lake, and it was from being around the children and the classroom atmosphere that the idea of a mosquito story first stuck, and the concept got into her blood.

"I just started writing down the ideas and mapping out a plot and the characters bit by bit," she said. "After thinking about it a lot for a couple of years, I had a passion to get it out. I wasn't hungry, I wasn't tired, I'd write for 10 or 12 hours at a time. And when I was done, I went back and rewrote and rewrote. I even went through the process of self-publishing and I was about to do that when I thought, hey, just for the heck of it, what would an actual publisher say?"

The first letter in inquiry she sent out was with the expectation of a rejection letter and, she hoped, some critical feedback.

Instead, she hit the literary home run on on the first pitch. The little world of our region's mosquitos, turned into cute caricatures, touched the hearts of the editorial staff at Topaz Publishing. Now the book is printed and available, first through online sales and soon on the shelves. The United States will be the first location for books in stores, then Canada and the world will get its turn to have The Meaning Of Life According to the Mosquito available at the cash register.

You can be the first in Prince George to read about Prince George on July 19 when Broadhead and another area author, Susan Thompson, will hold court at 1 p.m.