Fitzgerald Sutherland

My name is Fitzgerald Sutherland, and I am the author of “Timmy Flyy’s First Flight.” This is my first published children’s book, and I plan on continuing this as a series. What inspired me to write this book is the fact that I am involved in the drone industry. I am also heavily involved in creating music which is my first love. I started playing the drums in the church here and there. The next thing you know, I got so good that they made me one of the head drummers. Eventually, I would start to write hip-hop songs; that’s why the book has a rhyming pattern. Knowing how to rhyme made this book experience so so easy in the beginning. At the end, I would find myself having writer's block and couldn’t figure out how to finish the story. But I got through it, and I thank all the times I wrote a song because I think that prepared me for this moment. I was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, California, until the seventh grade. Then I moved to the Inland Empire and lived out there for about 5 years. Then it was off to Fresno, California, where I really started writing and recording music. I moved back to Los Angeles some years later to pursue my music career. But having a film school background led me to fly DJI drones because of the video footage you can get. Then my cousin Megastar FPV started flying FPV and also learned how to build them. So I started using a simulator to practice flying FPV. As I was learning to fly FPV, I came up with the idea of a children’s book but with drones incorporated into the story. Surprisingly I came up with the title quickly once I got the main character’s name. Then I started putting scenes together on an online website just to actually see it. I found an illustrator and sent her the story. The story is about a kid that wants to be popular at school but doesn’t know how. It’s the popular kid’s birthday party coming up, and you have to fly drones in order to receive an invite. Timmy gets a drone and practices until he becomes the best in the school. Timmy flies his drone and does cool tricks to win everyone over. Through this, he discovers that he just has to be himself and be the best at whatever he does. I wrote this to inspire kids to just be themselves. You don’t have to impress anybody. Do what you want to do and be the best at it. With social media everywhere, it’s easy for our kids to get influenced by something negative. So I wanted to take it back to when I was in school, and all we had were books. But we used to look forward to trying to find the coolest book in the library so we didn’t have to read anything boring. That’s the feeling I’m trying to create for our kids. Give them a book they can be excited about and also introduce them to a positive hobby or even career. I feel this is a unique story that kids can relate to. We have to influence our kids in the right way. I feel like drones are becoming a part of our everyday life. In production, they are being used more and more. The drone community is still fresh and new, so kids can get a head start in an industry that still has room for major growth. I will continue to help push the culture forward and continue bringing you Timmy Flyy books. So stay tuned because Timmy has more flights to be flown.