“My favourite saying is it’s basically like giving birth to an elephant” says Irene Davidson Fisher.

Davidson Fisher is talking about writing and publishing her children’s book Robbie Racoon and the Big Black Blob a 34-page journey written from a raccoon’s perspective.

“It’s an engaging tale of racoon mischief” she says.

The book which traces the adventures of two young racoons as they are trying to track down the source of a smell took four years to come to fruition.

“In 2011 I had the entire book layout complete with illustrations and a local publisher was interested in publishing it” Davidson Fisher says. “Then tragedy struck and our home burned to the ground. We lost everything.”

It took a while for her to feel like writing again.

“Basically after the fire I found it very difficult to get back into writing” Davidson Fisher says adding  that it was attending a memoir-writing workshop with writing mentor Melody Richardson that gave her the inspiration to pick up the proverbial pen again. “My writing colleagues and friends convinced me I should do that.”

Writing is nothing new to Davidson Fisher whose career include script- and speech-writing. She’s also had some work published in Our Canada magazine. However Robbie Racoon and the Big Black Blob marks the first time she has authored a book.

“When I retired I wanted to take my talent of putting words into people’s mouths and put them into the mouths of my characters” she says.

The racoon characters actually stem from a real-life encounter Davidson Fisher had with her grandchildren.

“We found two baby raccoons in our rain barrel” she said.

The book’s illustrations were done by Carolyn Johnstone of Ottawa.

Published by Hidden Book Press the book is available locally at The Spa in Minden  in Haliburton Village at Cranberry Cottage and Master’s Book Store and online at amazon.ca and amazon.com.