Heidi Tattrie Rushton penned Pet Tales over the past few years and has seen it hit the print run and now on shelves at various local bookstores and available online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tattrie Rushton, who volunteers in the community, said it\u2019s been a dream of hers to see a novel she wrote in print.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m so thrilled and grateful for everyone who pre-ordered Pet Tales or will be buying one,\u201d she said during an interview recently at Fall River Dairy Queen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate group=”6″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”34″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pet Tales is one that is for those in middle school, or rather ages 9-12-years-old. It\u2019s about a girls who struggles with social anxiety, so she spends a lot of her time at a local animal shelter, volunteering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe makes up all of these imaginary back stories for each of the animals,\u201d said Rushton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of the stories the girl writes indicates how this animal might have been an astronaut before it came to the shelter; or another was a secret spy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe then discovers that the shelter may be closing so she wants to help save, but she\u2019s not sure she can do it with her anxiety,\u201d said Rushton. \u201cA friend of the girls comes along and suggests using the stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe wasn\u2019t so keen on that, but they have to use their skills to work and save the shelter.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”192″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”31″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”188″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rushton said she\u2019s always writing. The first draft for pet Tales was done in December 2020, and she entered it into a contest with the Writers Federation of Nova Scotia to see how it did. It won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am always writing things,\u201d she said. \u201cI thought that maybe it had some legs after it won.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s when she started working at editing it more and editing more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI even added a whole new section,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That new section included parts on local author Margaret Marshall Saunders, and a story she had done fit well with her story, so she edited that into Pet Tales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBy the time all that was done it was probably another couple of years before it was ready and I started to send it around to different publishers,\u201d said Rushton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She connected with Trap Door Books (an imprint of Nevermore Press) based in Lunenburg, who published the book, and they were working on getting it out since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The day she sat down with The Laker News in Fall River was the official book launch day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/440414526_122142373604052405_5848416634724529326_n-860x1024.jpg\")