Book goes from on air dare to reality
SAM WALLACE is a popular TV and radio personality, best-known as the weatherman for TVNZ. He has also appeared on Sticky TV and Celebrity Treasure Island. Now co-hosting the breakfast radio show on Coast FM, Wallace lives in Auckland with his wife and young family. He talks about his debut book, Duggie the Buggy.
Tell us a little about Duggie the Buggy.
Duggie is your classic over-thinker. He’s down on his luck and needs the spirit of friendship to draw him out of the dark. His good friend Ronnie is the opposite. Ronnie is a rocket and he knows it . . . Ronnie is blissfully unaware of the fact he’s not from NASA, he’s the run-of-the-mill, made at an intermediate science class, bottle rocket. But ignorance is bliss and Ronnie’s lack of inhibitions allows him to worry less and dream for the stars. Just the friend worrying Duggie needs.
What inspired you to write this book?
In 2019 Lynley Dodd sold more copies of Hairy Maclary than the Bible (don’t we live in a fascinating country). And I said to my radio co-hosts, “how hard can it be”. To which Toni Street said I wouldn’t stand a chance of writing a decent kid’s book. So I wrote one and read it live on air. And they all concluded it wasn’t too bad and we should do something with it. So we put it in front of Scholastic and they saw some magic in it. Then the hard work began, fine tuning with the Scholastic team, removing half rhymes and making it easy for the kids to pick the words up off the page.
But it was also amazing to get back to my roots. I spent nearly 10 years writing and co presenting a kids’ show called Sticky TV. The key to good kids’ TV will always be disguising education and positive messaging within consumable content. And I think I have achieved that with DTB.
What research was involved?
The passion for this book is my Can Am off-road buggy. I drive it as often as I possibly can over dirt tracks and sand dunes. It’s my passion. I won’t bore you with the details but it’s a 300 horsepower off road weapon. It’s got a whopping turbo charger and runs on alcohol. So in terms of research, I spend every waking moment that I’m not changing the nappies of my three kids researching how I can make my buggy go faster.
What was the process with working with the illustrator, Shaun Yeo?
Scholastic instantly knew who they should partner with. Shaun took my words and sifted over my social media where he stumbled through hours of videos and photos of my off-roader. When the first drafts came through I couldn’t believe how he had brought the story alive. The buggies were on point. And all the scenery in the book feel like the trails and dunes I have spent the last three decades riding. I was so delighted to have Shaun illustrate my book, I was already a fan of his work after he drew the image of the crying kiwi after the Christchurch mosque shootings that were shared all around the world.
What’s next on the agenda for you?
Surviving 2021. We have just had twin girls and we have a son that’s 2 years old. At the time of writing this we are averaging 21 nappies a day.