No stress is key to book success

Medina mother Brooke Whitmore knows what it means to be busy.

In November last year, she gave birth to her second son, opened a business and published her first children’s book.

The part-owner of Rockingham cafe Kent Street Deli said the key to doing it all was not to stress.

“I take each step as it comes in life,” she said. “If you take that approach things have a way of falling into place.

“I just knew Riley would be born the same week the deli opened.

“I was stacking shelves while having contractions — that’s how close it was.”

Whitmore’s self-published children’s book Never Say Never, Nellie was a project five years in the making.

It’s a story about dreaming big, achieving goals and enjoying love.

“When my first son was born, I would always go running with him in the pram,” she said.

“After running at Cottesloe Beach, I stopped for coffee and scribbled a concept I had for a children’s story.

“The next run I went on there was a typewriter leaning against a signpost.

I picked it up, took it home and typed my first draft of Never Say Never, Nellie.”

Whitmore said the book was inspired by her life of travel and family.

“I grew up in a small country town but I’ve been able to do lots in my life,” she said. “My dad always said you’ve got to work hard, and that’s what it’s about. It’s good to have goals.”

Artist Jacq Chorlton illustrated the book.