HELLO!
I’M DOUGLAS CALEB.
I love to bring fantasy into reality and write exciting middle-grade books that parents love too. This is probably because I grew up in the startlingly normal town of Reading.
Early years
As a boy, my mum took me to the library every week, where I promptly ignored all the sensible books and became hooked on ghost stories, strange mysteries and unexpected adventures. Throughout my formative years, I avidly devoured every curious tale I could find: from The Faraway Tree to Doctor Who, Tintin, Narnia, The Owl Service, The Dark Is Rising, 2000AD, Winnie The Pooh, Star Trek, Neverwhere, The X Files and many more… But especially the legendary Reader’s Digest Book of Strange Stories & Amazing Facts at my grandparents’ house. I went back to that book again and again.
The first spark
Fresh out of Art college, I started writing a book for kids called ‘The Princess of Pockets’. However, I realised I needed more than just a wild imagination, love of stories and a way with words to make this work… So began a journey through various roles as a playscheme leader, artist, photographer, music industry agent, copywriter and dad to gain all the skills I’d need as an author. All the while filling up notebooks with ideas, watering the seeds of stories and starting to write the tales I would have loved as a kid.
Writing and ideas
I started writing ‘Spring Heeled’ when our first son was just a baby, and progressed to ‘Door-To-Door Sally’ (mainly writing on train journeys to and from the day job). Then I heard about something called National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short), which made me use an intense month of focused writing to create the first draft of nearly one book a year (and start new series such as The Aeronauts and Bug Squad). Then came the months (and years) of re-writing, editing and shelving while working on new material and, often, life just taking over.
and now…
Finally, in 2024, the ‘Our Weird World’ series was ready to be revealed. Aimed at middle-grade readers aged 8-12, these exciting children’s tales involving ghosts, magic, mysteries, time travel, weird creatures, quirky characters and UFOs will also appeal to imaginative adults, too. Which is handy if you have to read them to your kids!
Other series are also in the pipeline… Bug Squad, about a team of AI micro-robot special agents. The Aeronauts, where an airship crew are framed for crimes they didn’t commit in a future without oil. Jet Pet – cute animals from the future save the world from an evil salmon. Downloadable Arthur, about a boy and his strange hologram friend. And also Archie Sharp Adventures, The Infinity Office and The Wizard Of Colchester. Phew. Got my work cut out.
I live with my wife and two sons in Colchester, where life can be as weird as you want it to be. And The Princess of Pockets? Perhaps the world will get to see her one day.
Meanwhile, get high-quality PDF posters of the first four ‘Our Weird World’ book covers for free when you join my entertaining mailing list. Simply click the link at the bottom of the page.
Or follow my Facebook page to peek behind the curtain of my own weird world… https://www.facebook.com/DouglasCaleb5678
Or come check me out on TikTok, where I have fun reading excerpts, talking about writing and showing lime-lapse videos of the illustrations for Jet Pet! – https://www.tiktok.com/@douglascalebauthor
