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<\/p>\nAlice Barker has never let her cerebral palsy hold her back \u2026 and now she\u2019s become an author.<\/p>\n
The 30-year-old from Meltham has just had a book published with three more to come between now and Christmas.<\/p>\n
Three of the books have storylines featuring disabled heroines and Alice, who needs a wheelchair, feels it\u2019s important to represent disabled people in books.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe it\u2019s incredibly important to represent disabled people as we are often marginalised in modern society,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m also trying to inspire some passion and hope in a world that\u2019s currently so in need of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI may have cerebral palsy but life is a gift and I want to make every day count and also make my mark on the world while I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Alice was educated at Meltham C of E Primary School, Newsome High and Huddersfield New College before doing a degree in Film Studies and Screenwriting at Sheffield Hallam University.<\/p>\n
She graduated with First Class Honours and received the Dean\u2019s Prize for \u2018rising to challenges and demonstrating outstanding personal achievement.\u2019<\/p>\n
She wanted to be a film director and won an award at the Holmfirth Film Festival for a short film she did about Meltham called The Spirit of Where You Live.<\/p>\n
She also went on to be runner-up in an international film competition called Film Your Issue which was judged by world-famous actor Hugh Jackman. Alice\u2019s film was about disability rights.<\/p>\n
Alice did some online volunteering for The Polynesian Voyaging Society in Hawaii and for The N\/a\u2019an ku s\u00ea Foundation in Namibia, Africa, where she was a brand ambassador for four years, giving talks to English schoolchildren about life in Namibia and supporting a young native San woman called Anaki who also had cerebral palsy.<\/p>\n
Her efforts have seen her receive messages of support from Oscar-winning director James Cameron,\u00a0Star Wars\u00a0actor Mark Hamill, children\u2019s author Jacqueline Wilson, naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, as well as the late Queen Elizabeth II.<\/p>\n
James Cameron, who directed the 2009 film Avatar which has been a major inspiration for Alice along with its main character Jake, said in an email to Alice: \u201cI\u2019m proud of you for being who you are and for having the hope and courage to look life in the eye and succeed where many people who have so much more than you, physically, will fail for lack of spirit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look around our world at so many people with good strong bodies but weak, tiny souls. They waste their gifts. They waste their precious days.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour spirit is mighty and you will overcome the frailty of your body. There are many forms of heroism and you are as much a hero as Jake.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Alice has been writing since she was six and really started to concentrate on it in 2017 after graduating.<\/p>\n
Her new book, published by Big Thinking Publishing based in Preston, is a children\u2019s novel called\u00a0The Mermazing Adventures of Penelope Pond and is available online at Waterstones and Amazon.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s ideally for readers aged seven to 12 and the plot sees main character Penelope often zooming down to the beach in her customised wheelchair to explore her secret cave and seek out some peace away from her hectic home and school life.<\/p>\n
But everything changes when she sees a strange girl swimming in the sea with dreadlocks in her hair and a shimmering mermaid tail.<\/p>\n
Penelope must discover who she really is and when the rules of land and ocean threaten their new friendship, together they must find the courage to stand up for what\u2019s right.<\/p>\n
Alice has written three other books which will all be published by\u00a0Big Thinking Publishing.<\/p>\n
Sketching Scarlett\u00a0is a romantic comedy featuring shy and quiet Caleb, the nerdiest boy in town who works at a comic shop.<\/p>\n
One day he meets Scarlett, who is nothing at all like Caleb. She\u2019s loud, brash and uses a wheelchair \u2013 but should that make a difference to their relationship? This book is due to be published later in September.<\/p>\n
Paraplegion \u2013 a futuristic sci-fi book due to be published in October \u2013 is about a 21-year-old girl with disabilities called Valerie who has trained to be a super soldier to fight a mysterious plague but not everything is as it seems.<\/p>\n
The fourth book called On The Stroke of Twelve is a re-imagining of old traditional Christmas story The Nutcracker and is due out in December.<\/p>\n
Alice, who lives at home with parents Simon and Claire Curtis, is now working on a sequel to The Mermazing Adventures of Penelope Pond and what she says is a \u201csecret project.\u201d<\/p>\n
To buy The Mermazing Adventures of Penelope Pond from the publishers go to\u00a0https:\/\/shop.bigthinkingpublishing.com\/products\/the-mermazing-adventures-of-penelope-pond-by-alice-barkerpreorder<\/a><\/p>\n Sketching Scarlett\u00a0can be pre-ordered at\u00a0https:\/\/shop.bigthinkingpublishing.com\/products\/sketching-scarlett-by-alice-barker-preorder<\/a><\/p>\n