It took local writer Dale Butler just 24 hours to hone the story for his latest children’s book to be released this month.

‘On This Island The Natives...’ written by Minister of Social Rehabilitation Mr. Butler and local artist and illustrator Lindsey George, will be launched at a special book-signing on April 17 at Broadway Bistro from 5.30 to 7.30 p.m.

The launch will mark the 30th anniversary of Mr. Butler’s company Atlantic Publishing House which has published more than 50 Bermuda books ranging from children’s to historical to pictorial.

Two other books will also be released at the same time, ‘The Wisdom of the Fishcake King’ — a collection of Mr. Butler’s articles, speeches and poems and the second edition of ‘To Catch a Smiling Raindrop’ illustrated by Angela Ming-Bean.

“‘On This Island The Natives...’ came from a speech I had to give at the opening of the 2006 Harbour Nights,” Mr. Butler told the Bookworm Beat. “Everyone who preceded me had a written speech, and I didn’t have one. Looking at the crowd, who were mostly tourists, I got up and said, ‘welcome to Bermuda. Did you know that on this Island the natives get up at 2 a.m. and paint the skies blue, just for you?’ They went crazy.”

Mr. Butler was so encouraged by the positive response to his speech, that the next day he was inspired to write a story to go with it, while on a flight to Barbados.

“I started looking at all the things that represent Bermuda from the lighthouse to Johnny Barnes to nicknames,” he said. “I made a long list. I kept on revising and rewriting. By the time I hit Barbados, I had my first real draft. On the way back I more or less polished it and sent it to one of my editors. It was edited by Bobby Christmas in Atlanta, Georgia.”

He enlisted Lindsey George, 24, to help illustrate the book after a chance conversation with her father, Kevin George, at the gym.

“He asked me if I was working on any projects,” said Mr. Butler. “I mentioned how I had done the book, but I wasn’t pleased with the first lot of illustrations I got. They were good, but they hadn’t quite done what I wanted; they had done what the illustrator wanted. He said, ‘oh, my daughter is an illustrator’.”

Miss George is relatively new on the Bermuda art scene. She has had a few art shows locally. She recently graduated from Savannah College of Art & Design and Illustration where she graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.

Mr. Butler said he gave Miss George carte blanche to do as she wished with the illustrations, as long as they reflected the multicultural heritage of Bermudians.

“We started meetings and I don’t think I rejected a single picture,” said Mr. Butler.

“Because this was a first book, and she is a young person, she was able to capture so many aspects in the book, right down to Tommy Tucker.”

Miss George said the biggest challenge about illustrating ‘On This Island The Natives...’ was the research aspect.

“The research was endless,” Miss George said. “Just finding images that I could extrapolate from was a challenge. I had to find pictures of cannons and people.”

She spent a lot of time online, looking to gain inspiration from various images she found. If she found a pose she liked, she would then have to invent a person to go with the pose.

“Several of the pictures went through six or seven drafts,” she said. “A few of them I had almost finished, decided I hated and started over. A lot of them, I liked certain pieces. So I would pick out a piece and glue it to another piece I liked.”

She said there were a million things she would do differently if she could do it over. She is her own harshest critic.

“I am rarely satisfied with any of my work for more than a week,” Miss George said.

“After a month of so, I despise it with every fibre of my being. I want to rip it to shreds and start over.” She found herself on a learning curve when it came to drawing illustrations of people. She said although she had studied figure drawing in some of her art classes, she never studied it in her illustration classes.

“So I had to teach myself in this shortest space of time, how to illustrate people,” she said.

Mr. Butler and Miss George hope that the book will sell well. Mr. Butler has already received positive feedback, while publicising the book. He said, at a recent reading conference held in Bermuda, he could have sold a thousand copies right away.

“There was great excitement from the reading teachers at that time,” said Mr. Butler. “This book really cements Bermudian traditions for our young people. It brings in focus my main thrust, which is, if you reflect local events, things and places in books, your reading scores will go higher.”

He said Bermudian children, who are used to reading about other people’s culture, be it North American, British or West Indian, are fascinated to see themselves reflected in books.

“When they open up and see their own Johnny Barnes they will get a tickle,” he said.

In the book, Mr. Butler has tried to teach a little about things like Bermuda architecture, characters and also traditional values such as politeness.

‘On This Island The Natives’ brings Mr. Butler’s authorship to a total of 57 books. Unfortunately, he said he would soon start to wind down the book aspect of his business.

“When I first started, there was a tremendous thirst for local books,” he said. “They would sell out in two years. Now it is ten years.

“Because everything is moving towards things like DVDs, videos and cable television, people aren’t doing as much reading as they used to.

“So we have a battle in Bermuda going on now for literacy. I am hoping to stem that tide, but I need more Bermudian support. It is frightening and painful that when I ask the children to tell me who their heroes are, the Bermudian children are silent.”

He said one of the bestsellers of the Atlantic Publishing House was ‘The Wooden Houses of Bermuda’ released in 2005.

“The first edition sold out in 10 days,” he said. “There are only a few copies of the second edition left in various stores. I have none.

“The other day, someone asked me for a copy, so I had to go to the store and buy it myself. I didn’t have a backup.”

To celebrate Atlantic Publishing House’s 30th anniversary, Mr. Butler will be talking on the radio, and visiting various school groups, organisations and churches about literacy and publishing in Bermuda.

He will also soon be starting work on a documentary called ‘Five Profiles in Harmony’ about five musicians in Warwick.

“It is showing how we are branching out,” he said.

“We are trying to ensure that we are part of recent technology. We are probably winding down as far as book publishing is concerned. This grieves me that the Triumph of the Spirit Series will probably come to a close. I am paying for this all of myself. Sometimes I will have $20,000 out on several projects. Sometimes it will take two or three years before that money comes back.”

During the last Saturday in April, there will be a special Rubber Tree Festival outside of the Warwick Post Office, where local authors are invited to come and sell their books, during the day.