The Girl With The Green-Tinted Hair
Gavin Whyte is in The Book Room this month
Welcome to The Book Room! Come on in and take a seat as we talk about books and our journeys to get them written, published, and seen in the world.
The connection and support shown to me as a fledgling author from the writing community have been phenomenal, so I thought I’d return some love to authors with newly published books or books that are already out there that would like a bit of love, and invite them to write a guest blog here in The Book Room.
I first came across
when he sent me a message over on Instagram asking if we could have a chat about authorship. We chatted over Zoom a couple of times, and he kindly sent me a copy of his book ‘The Girl With The Green Tinted Hair’, which is tender, beautiful, and speaks to the heart.Since then, Gavin and I have forged a friendship, one of those that many writers develop with fellow writers who offer support and encouragement.
I value Gavin’s work, not only on the page, but also as a grief counselor who was gently there by my side, helping me navigate stormy waters, as I wrote about and grieved my mother’s death last year.
So, let’s hand over to Gavin and The Girl with the Green Tinted Hair, shall we?
Books Growing Up
I wasn’t a reader, growing up. I didn’t actually enjoy reading books until I was in my late teens, when I realised there’s a book for every single nugget of interest known to man. That’s when I became hooked. But I didn’t catch the fiction bug until years later.
As a kid, instead of books, which I associated with school and hard work, I gained immense pleasure from getting lost in the world I created for my toys. That’s how I exercised my imagination. The sofa became a scorched desert or a dangerous street at night, perfect for the battle between good and evil. Many of my men fell to their death from Mount Chair Arm, let me tell you. And they didn’t die quietly, much to my mum’s amusement. I played with my toys up until I was about 13 years old.
On rare occasions, however, my wild imagination did get tamed on a page.
My parents still tell me to this day how I used to lay on my stomach in front of the TV writing ghost stories. I was obsessed with the paranormal. When X-Files was aired (1994?), I couldn't get enough.
One morning, before he lost his speech, Dan told his family he woke up to angels at his bedside. Holding his hand, I told him I would write a book about him, for his family. He smiled at that. My mission was set.
But the idea of writing a book didn’t enter my awareness until a friend was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2007. He was 21. I was 24.
One morning, before he lost his speech, Dan told his family he woke up to angels at his bedside. Holding his hand, I told him I would write a book about him, for his family. He smiled at that. My mission was set.
(I was even more determined to keep my word, when he passed away several weeks later.)
But where to begin? I wasn’t a writer. I wasn’t even a fan of fiction yet. So I joined a creative writing class - that was held, coincidently, at the High School Dan and I used to attend.
I soon learned that writers read, so I joined my local library too.
(As a side note, how amazing are libraries! Hundreds of thousands of FREE books. These treasure troves of information and culture deserve our custom and protection. Please use yours.)
Back to it.
Discovering Skellig
I wanted to ease myself into the world of reading - I didn’t want anything too long - so I headed for the YA section. I must’ve been standing in the A section, because I remember seeing several spines with the name David Almond printed on them. Half of the books I got that day were his. One of them was Skellig.
I devoured the pile of books over the next week or so. But something clicked when I read Skellig. I had absolutely no idea a book could be written in this way, let alone be published and win awards. Our Dave made it look so easy! (I got the same feeling, years later, when I read The Catcher in the Rye.)
Because of Skellig, I knew I wanted my book, the story of Dan, to be told through the eyes of a young lad, maybe twelve or thirteen years old.
By this point, I had already tried several times to start writing the story, but nothing was sticking. I had spent more than a decade making music, so I had a firm belief that writing a novel would be a similar process. I just had to keep trying, and eventually, at some point, the pieces would fit.
One day, after yet another failed attempt at starting the story, I decided to copy, word for word, the first fifty pages of Skellig. I wanted to see a number of things: I wanted to see the word count on the screen grow. And I wanted to see what an award-winning book looked like on the screen - my screen.
It worked. It got the creative juices flowing.
Thank you, David Almond.
Waiting for Wings
When I finished the book Waiting for Wings I presented a copy to Dan’s family. I was incredibly nervous. But I was proud of my first book, and I thought it did Dan justice.
His family soon got back to me, saying they loved it, and that other people should read it. So I self-published it on Amazon. I did get interest from a publisher but, sadly, I panicked. It was too much too soon, and I turned them down. I’ve always regretted that. It’s left me with a big what if…
However, I continued to write. My next book is my current ‘bestseller’, with nearly 2k ratings on Amazon and Goodreads. I wrote it in 2012 whilst living communally in a Buddhist Centre in my hometown of Huddersfield. (That’s where I met my wife.)
The Girl With The Green Tinted Hair
The Girl with the Green-Tinted Hair is a short fable of around 8,000 words. It’s about a boy who meets a girl under his favourite tree, in springtime. She teaches him how to see things as if for the first time. Come summertime, he meets a young woman under the same tree, and it’s rather difficult for her to persuade him that it was she who danced around the tree with him a few short months ago. With every passing season, the girl ages, and teaches the boy something fundamental about life, such as finding purpose and how to accept death and dying.
It’s a book I’m immensely proud of, mainly because of how it’s impacting people from all around the world. Just check out these two reviews:
Enchanting and deeply moving. Short and sweet. So many lessons in one sitting. Beautifully written. And very enjoyable indeed.
What a super book! So beautifully written and so keenly observed that each unfolding petal of each blossoming scene brought a smile to my face, a smile of wonder, as it reminded me of the little things I used to notice when I was young, and innocently immersed in nature.
Amazing, right? And this is just a little book I wrote whilst sitting at my desk. It’s the power of books, of stories.
I would love to see The Girl with the Green-Tinted Hair illustrated and traditionally published. I think it would make a beautiful book, similar to The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse. People have likened it to The Little Prince, too, which is a huge compliment.
If you’re wanting to write a book, go for it. It’s not easy - believe me - but there’s no feeling like putting that final full stop on something you’ve spent months, maybe years, working on. And then to see how it can impact people you’ve never met. It’s truly amazing.
For links to my books and social media, please click here.
Many thanks to Gavin for being my guest author this month. If you have a book coming out, or have a book you’d like to share with us here in The Book Room, then do get in touch. I have a couple of slots left at the end of the year, and am happy to start filling the calendar for 2026.