“I wrote my first children’s book in 2006. It was a story for a writing contest, managed by the Singapore Book Council and the Media Development Authority (Infocomn Media Development Authority today), with an aim to nurture local stories for print, animation and film.

Twelve years and 28 books later, I am still writing for kids. My storybook characters have morphed from garden critters to a feisty Peranakan girl to a boy writing in the toilet, to a boy born out of wedlock looking for a father he never knew.

Have I always loved writing? No, not really. To be honest, it was only after becoming a mother that I discovered the interest to write. My first boy was one of those kids that you’d read about, where trouble would always find them. When Ben was 2, I had to tie blown-up rubber gloves and stick them all over the house, as the toddler wouldn’t stop ransacking cupboards and hurting himself.

He was curious about everything, but terrified of rubber ‘hands’. When Ben was 6, he had this little secret he kept, seeing to a changeable lizard that morphed from baby to an intimidating size. This, despite knowing that I absolutely abhor and am terrified of reptiles.

When he was 9, he came home from school after almost getting into a fight because a kid wouldn’t believe him when he said his mother was an author. “Yeah, my mother wrote Harry Potter!” the kid told him.

That incident gave me the idea to write The Diary of Amos Lee, as I felt that my son, as a cross between Adrian Mole and Greg Heffley, would be proud to take ownership of a book that was inspired by his growing pains.

“To be honest, it was only after becoming a mother that I discovered the interest to write.”

He was always that child in the uncool crowd, the bottom half of class, whose idea of tragedy was getting a pimple that oozed pus, and what’s worse, always facing outright rejection from girls. How was I to know that the series would be a bestselling hit? I just had to see how long Ben kept at his misery, it was like forever.

So, how have my books influenced my children’s lives? For one, they have become unforgiving critics because they have to give mum constructive feedback on her writing. As they risk being lashed out at, they had to learn to devour other authors’ books.

Ben, now 18, has an insatiable appetite for comics. He reads like 200 plus comic books in a year. He is a walking encyclopaedia of all the characters in the Marvel Universe (including their origin stories, love interests and mortal enemies).

My daughter, Tessa, now 15, is into fantasy and sci-fi. She has read all of Brandon Sanderson’s books ― his books run to between 250,000 and 380,000 words each. As an idea, The Diary of Amos Lee averages about 24,000 words. Ouch. That author definitely has stamina.

My youngest son, Jeremy, now 13, reads everything that his sister reads, and more. He used to be a voracious reader, averaging about 70 books a year; but these days, he has turned to the dark side, consumed by gaming. His interest in reading has waned, but he knows he has to read, at least one book a month, failing which, he will find his gaming time severely crimped by a Tiger Mum.

“Maybe there’s something that touches the inner child in us to see our kids’ faces light up when they read about something they’d experienced in school, in our books.”

Everyone knows that writing isn’t a lucrative job ― an author pulls anything between 5 and 10 per cent royalty in earnings. You’d have to sell truckloads of books before you can give up your day job. Then, why do we write?

For the many mothers who are out there writing, I dare say that maybe there’s something that touches the inner child in us to see our kids’ faces light up when they read about something they’d experienced in school, in our books. That look, so priceless, is what we crave, since it validates what we do.

One day, my boy came home from school and told me that a girl in school became friendly when he offered to get his mother to autograph the book she was holding in her hand, When you see a hint of puppy love shining on his face, you simply convince yourself that you shouldn’t stop writing.

Has my life changed since I became an author? It's still pretty much the same. Every morning at 9am, I report to work at Starbucks where I would read and write for about four hours before I rush to buy lunch for my kids who are coming home from school. While I used to write at least one book a year, these days, I have turned my interest these days to writing TV scripts.

This is because my kids who have grown up reading The Diary of Amos Lee now enjoy watching the TV shows I’ve worked on. Maybe my boy won’t be able to impress a girl with an autographed copy of his mother’s book anymore, but I hope that one day, he will find an interest in writing, in any form, on top of being a reader.

Until then, I will keep on writing as there’ll always be a child out there whom I would love seeing his face light up when he reads my books.”

Adeline Foo, author of The Diary of Amos Lee and Whoopie Lee: Almost Famous, is mum to Jeremy, 13, Tessa, 15, and Ben, 18. The second season of Whoopie’s World will be screened on okto from 18 April to 6 June on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 6:30pm.

Photos: Adeline Foo

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