Jake McFaull has just fulfilled a lifelong dream.
The 25-year-old Barrie resident and recent University of Waterloo graduate officially released his debut book today (Sept. 24), a children’s story that follows the adventures of a pumpkin named Presley after he gets left out on the curb after Halloween.
“To try to make it back to his family he begins to take up the roles of a bunch of familiar holiday characters like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy … but he is too spooky for these roles and keeps scaring people,” McFaull says of the book, titled Where Pumpkins Go After Halloween. “Eventually, he gives up and lays down to go to sleep. Then he wakes up in a pumpkin patch and gets chosen by his family again the following year.”
McFaull told BarrieToday that writing has always been a passion of his, adding seeing the book come to fruition is made even more special because it’s a project he worked on with his father.
“My dad is an illustrator based in Kensington Market, so naturally we just teamed up. This is the first one we are putting out there, but have worked on a few others in the past,” he said. “I feel like we’ve been collaborating on creative projects my whole life. We’d make home movies together and stuff like that so it came pretty easily.”
McFaull hopes to turn writing into a full time career at some point, he said, adding the experience has been “really exciting to date."
“Feeling all of the support and to hear it’s going to be stocked in some Indigo (stores) is really cool,” he said. “I am just going to keep writing. I am already working on the next project and have some stuff in the pipeline, too. I think I am just going to keep at it and hopefully turn this into something full time.”
In addition to being a fun story for kids to read, McFaull noted that $1 for every copy sold be donated to support mentoring efforts for at-risk youth in the community through a partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Barrie and District.
“They do really great mentorship work. It’s an organization that I have always wanted to support in some way so I reached out to them … and they were happy to support me as well," he said.
The book can be purchased online as well as locally at Manticore books in Orillia and at Indigo stores in Barrie.
