New journey

Heather McLeod has fulfilled another one of her dreams.

The former CBC-Radio host hung up her microphone and decided to pursue her other dream – write a book. Her first book titled Kiss me! (I’m a prince!) follows the story of a young girl named Ella who, by a chance encounter, stumbles upon a talking frog.

The frog declares that he is a royal prince and if Ella kisses him he’ll change back into his former self. Instead of planting a big kiss on the frog, Ella decides to put him in her pocket and walks away.

"She decides she would rather have a talking frog than a prince," McLeod said in phone interview on Sunday. "In the original fairytale it’s a princess that meets a frog and saves her ball and in return she takes him home and treats him royally. She doesn’t really want to do that but her dad makes her. I’d rather have a more think for herself heroine."

McLeod said she has three dreams: write and perform music for a living, work for CBC and write books.

So far, she’s two for three.

Ella in the book shares the name with McLeod’s grandmother and her daughter who passed away five years ago. McLeod said there were complications during birth that led to Ella’s death.

"It’s really hard to lose a child," she said. "In naming the protagonist it was giving that name a new positive light again in my life. It wasn’t really a motivation to name the character Ella but it has certainly been a blessing."

For a long time, whenever McLeod heard the name Ella it brought pain. But by working on the book she said it helped her to reclaim the name.

"I want to hear the name of my daughter to be a wonderful thing," she said.

McLeod had a launch party for the book at Chapters bookstore in Thunder Bay on Saturday. More than 50 people attended the first official reading by McLeod.

She said she hoped "Kiss me!(I’m a prince!) will be the first of many books she gets to publish.