October 10, 2016
Deakon the Dragon will be making his public debut at this week’s Road of Recovery Mental Health Forum in Blackbutt.
And this is totally appropriate as Deakon is very sad …
Author and artist Karen Russell, from Nanango, has put her heart and soul into her first book which follows Deakon through his experiences of sadness, bullying and isolation and then his journey as he receives help and finally returns to happier times.
Karen, who has a major depressive illness, wrote the words, and did all the artwork for the children’s book.
The project began about two years ago with a poem Karen penned. She then realised it could make a good story to help parents and children understand mental illness.
“It could help a parent explain their sickness to their children, or children could relate to the story if they were being bullied themselves,” she said.
Karen entered the unpublished manuscript into a competition, and won a $2000 voucher from Officeworks which she used to buy a much-needed laptop as well as get some promotional copies of her book printed.
Karen will be selling fully bound copies of “Deakon the Dragon Is Sad” for $10 at Friday’s Mental Health Forum at the Blackbutt Showgrounds.
The forum, part of Mental Health Week celebrations in the South Burnett, will run from 10:00am to 3:00pm to provide information about mental health issues.
Some of Karen’s original artworks for the book will be featured at the upcoming disAbility Art Show at Kingaroy Art Gallery from November 1-30. Copies for the book will also be available to buy at the Kingaroy Art Gallery during the exhibition.
The books can also be purchased by emailing Karen
UPDATE October 12: An earlier version of this report said the Mental Health Forum would be supplying information about mental health services in the South Burnett. This is incorrect. Forum organiser Johanna Leonhardsberger contacted South Burnett Online to emphasise the forum would only be discussing mental health issues.
