The Adventures of Andy Greenleaves didn’t begin at a desk.

It didn’t begin with a writing course, a publishing plan, or some grand idea that I was going to become an author.

It began at bedtime.

More specifically, it began on my daughter Lilly’s bed.

When Lilly was little, bedtime stories were one of our rituals. Like many parents, I would lie next to her, trying to get her to settle down, and instead of reading from a book every night, I started making up stories.

The stories became our little world.

A secret place we could visit together.

At first, I was just telling her things off the top of my head. A little adventure here. A strange creature there. A young girl with courage, curiosity and messy hair. But the more I told the stories, the more Lilly became part of creating them.

She didn’t just listen.

She helped build the world.

I would ask her questions.

“What should they use for light if they don’t have electricity?”

“What should they do if they don’t have phones?”

“How would they send messages?”

And because children aren’t trapped by adult logic, her answers were often better than mine.

If Florentia didn’t have phones, maybe the characters could speak into the wind and the wind could carry the message.

That became Wind Whispers.

If Florentia didn’t have electric lights, maybe glowing little creatures could do the heavy lifting.

That became Glowbugs.

As I told Lilly more stories, she helped me think through characters, places and ideas. That made her more invested in the world because, in many ways, Florentia became ours before it became a book.

Then one night, while lying on her bed telling another Andy Greenleaves story, there was a very loud and very unfortunate crack.

I had broken the bed.

Not my proudest parenting moment.

But in a strange way, it became part of the origin story.

There I was, a grown man, running a business, building technology and trying to behave like a responsible adult, while also lying on a child’s bed inventing a magical world with my daughter, and apparently putting the furniture under more pressure than it was built to handle.

I still smile when I think about it.

Because that moment captures the spirit of the whole thing.

Andy Greenleaves was never meant to be cold or calculated.

It came from play.

From imagination.

From laughter.

From a father and daughter asking “what if?” at bedtime.

Over time, the stories became bigger. Florentia became more detailed. Andy became more real. Whee, the loyal Family Snail, became one of those characters who felt like he had always existed.

Eventually, I realised the story deserved to become a book.

Not because I wanted to lecture children.

Not because I wanted to tell parents what to do.

But because I wanted to capture something I believe matters deeply: the magic that happens when children are encouraged to imagine.

Today, I spend much of my working life in technology. I run an AI business and work with companies using technology to create better customer experiences.

So I am not anti-technology.

Far from it.

But I do believe that imagination must come first.

Technology can help us build amazing things.

But imagination helps us dream them up in the first place.

Florentia was born from that belief.

And from a little girl who helped her dad see that a world without phones could still have messages.

A world without electricity could still have light.

And a broken bed could still become the beginning of an adventure