Friday 27 March 2009

Fighting the Sads

Siobhan Dowd has another book out, Solace of the Road

It's my constant companion at the moment, a great way to get the writing juices flowing. I read a little bit, then write a little bit. Then read a little bit. Then write a little bit more.

It's fantastic. How Siobhan Dowd could write.

And though I am so enjoying it, I can't help but feel sad.

Because Siobhan Dowd died in the summer of 2007 and this is it, the last one. Bog Child was the other Siobhan Dowd book published posthumously last year. And I am sad because when I come to the end of this book, there won't be another Siobhan Dowd to look forward to.

And tomorrow morning, the last ever issue of the DFC will plop through my letter box. Oh woe.

And I just got a sad email from Lookybook, the 'Try Before You Buy' picture book website, that it had decided to close. It had been named one of the 50 Best Websites of 2008 by Time.

Sad. That's me.

And then I meet up with friends Sue Eves, whose book The Quiet Woman and the Noisy Dog
is selling very well indeed, and Steve Hartley who you won't have heard of but soon will (Steve has signed a contract with Macmillan for not one, not two, not three but EIGHT books featuring his hero Danny Baker Record Breaker). Correction: it was FOUR books (two stories each)!
Steve Hartley (Danny Baker, Record Breaker) and Sue Eves (The Quiet Woman and the Noisy Dog)
Steve and Sue


... and I remember that there is reason to hope and that the point of the whole exercise of trying to get published is that we are in the business for the sheer love it.

And to cheer myself up I watch the trailer for Where the Wild Things are
which was released today.

5 comments :

  1. What an amazing post.

    I thought Solace of the Road was brilliantly written, too.

    And Lookybook was a wonderful site.

    I loved your whole post. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Out of the ashes grow new and wonderful things. Siobhan was indeed a wonderful writer and an irreplaceable friend, but she goes on helping others through the Siobhan Dowd Trust http://www.siobhandowdtrust.org (and here's hoping they get you cracking SOON on that website, Candy!)

    I'm sure that much of the content of the DFC will survive in some form or another; fans should go to
    http://supercomicsadventuresquad.blogspot.com/ for any news there. But I agree that it deserved to be carried for longer; it was a wonderful thing, and we have hung on to every copy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I seem to have used the word 'wonderful' three times in my last post! What a rubbish writer.

    ReplyDelete
  4. solace of the road is so good! i've been sitting in a cafe, supposedly writing my book but instead i've been totally hooked. such a fantastic character, i never knew siobhan dowd but how i miss her!

    ReplyDelete
  5. just finished solace of the road. oh it's fab and my heart is broken.

    ReplyDelete

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