Today’s special guest is children’s author Aleksandra Tryniecka. We’re chatting about her family Christmas novel, Bunky and the Walms: The Christmas Story.
Bio:
Aleksandra Tryniecka is an Assistant Professor at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Poland. In her free time she writes poetry and stories in order to accommodate her life with the right words. She enjoys the nineteenth-century British literature, especially everything written by Anthony Trollope and Wilkie Collins. One of her favourite literary characters is the Cheshire Cat. Without a doubt, Bunky is also her favourite literary character!
Welcome Aleksandra. Please tell us about your current release.
My character, Bunky, is the hero of this tale, but he is very much like the Readers – that is, imperfect, even though very noble and loving at heart. “Bunky and the Walms” is a story for the young Readers, aged 5-14, yet all the Readers can enjoy reading it if only they feel young at heart! It is a Christmas novel but, in fact, it narrates a universal tale of finding what is truly important in life – a universal theme that all the Readers might embrace.
What inspired you to write this book?
The events from my life are behind the plot of Bunky and the Walms: The Christmas Story. In 2019, Chris and I travelled to London for a conference. During our stay in London, we decided to take a walk in order to discover the city! While walking through Brent, we found Walm Lane and started wondering what are the origins of this name. This is how the idea of the Walms family came to life. Back then we also purchased a mascot – a blue hippo – and this is how Bunky was born! The hippo had such a unique face expression – his appearance was somewhere between ‘happy’ and ‘grumpy’ – I really liked the fact that the hippo wasn’t idealized but, instead, he seemed to be such a universal figure with a great variety of emotions. Also, he had beautiful blue ears. We started imaging his possible adventures and Bunky fully entered our reality! Essentially, Bunky is not a perfect protagonist – he constantly strives to be a better person, while staying faithful to his personal valuesand being good at heart. My hope was the create a character with whom my young Readers could identify – someone who is not perfect, yet noble at heart; someone who can become the true Christmas hero despite such natural shortcomings which we all possess. In the end, these shortcomings turn into victories and advantages. I am worried that nowadays there is a lot of pressure to be successful and perfect. I decided to share with my Readers the story of Bunky in order to convince them that the true heroes are the ones who struggle inwardly in their daily lives. While writing the book, I was also inspired by my personal feelings about Christmas. I wanted to invite the Readers to dive into my Christmas world filled with variety of scents, colours, warmth, peacefulness and magic – the world where one can smell spruce needles and admire distant snowy hills while sipping hot chocolate and playing with friends. The plot of the novel initially takes place in the Walmland village and it is the perfect Christmas place!
What exciting story are you working on next?
Bunky is the character who is very dear to me, therefore, I am working on Bunky’s further adventures! Moreover, I am working on a book about the literary Victorian female characters – it is an entirely different topic, yet equally fascinating!
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
It is very interesting, because I considered myself to be a writer when I was four years old. Back then I wrote my first book entitled “The Fate of the Hedgehog” and treated this enterprise very seriously. Since then, it was my greatest dream to write professionally. My Mum taught me how to read and write when I was three years old and we had a lot of fun together practicing writing and reading stories. It became something very precious to me.
Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I am writing in my free time. When I don’t have any free time, I am also writing, since I am working at the university! It is a dream job: I love conducting research, writing, reading, analyzing texts and, most importantly, I greatly enjoy meeting my students during our classes!
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
My writing quirks started from my first book written when I was four. I was writing “The Fate of the Hedgehog” while sitting at the piano. Later on, when I was somewhere between seven and twelve, I used to write poetry while sitting on the tallest cherry tree in our garden. Currently, during the summer, I love writing in the mornings after nights in my tent. Gazing at the stars is very inspiring. There are numerous references to the stars in Bunky and the Walms: The Christmas Story. I also cannot write without a cup of tea. Ideally, I wish I could swim in the lake full of tea and, afterwards, continue writing!
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be a writer! At some point, I also hoped to combine this passion with becoming an astronaut. I even built a cardboard space rocket but it didn’t work out! Eventually, I am still here, on Earth, and very happy to be here! It would be very difficult to keep writing in space and I would miss everyone too much.
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
I would like to invite my Readers to become lifelong friends with my protagonist, Bunky Hippo. When I was a child, there were so many fantastic novels featuring a single protagonist who would become this very important childhood friend. I would love Bunky to become such a friend to my Readers, regardless of their age. While writing “Bunky and the Walms: The Christmas Story”, I felt that Bunky became my actual friend! Our blue hippo from the conference trip initiated the very idea of Bunky, but I wanted to fully invite my protagonist into our reality: one day in August I took a thread and a needle and Bunky Hippo came to life – with his blue, fluffy ears, wearing his favourite red sweater with the squirrel and snowflakes. I would like to invite all the Readers to see Bunky on my website, aleksandratryniecka.com
We also have Bunky’s blog!
Thank you so much for travelling through Bunky’s Christmas world with me! Without the Readers it wouldn’t be the same, because the knowledge that Bunky and I made someone happy with our Christmas story is the greatest joy!
Thanks for being here today!