A Thursday evening, last year. I am in a pub in smelly London attending the very jolly and well-attended launch party for Sarah McIntyre’s magnificent Vern and Lettuce book. (Buy it. Buy it now). I have had some champagne and some cake. Rude not to. Now I have some beer. Mr David Fickling has given a rousing speech which has, as usual, entertained and roused. There is more cake available and there are any number of talented cartoonists knocking about the place with whom I may converse freely about pens should I so desire (and I so do). In particular I spend a good deal of time catching up with my good friend Faz Choudhury. In short, all is very much well with the world.

Into this personal paradise enter a man, a woman and a boy. The man approaches me in familiar fashion, smiling. Says hello. Says, “This is my wife, Lucia”. I think, “never mind your wife, who are you”. Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, I have Archie moments.  I have so many that when I look back they all blur into a miasma of misunderstanding and confusion.  Only the really grisly ones stand out clearly, complete in themselves.  You know - the ones that make you scream when you remember them.  (And then of course everyone in the room turns round and looks at you: another Archie moment.  They breed, you see.)   

It was my first ever publisher’s party.  My debut novel was due out the following month.  I went up and down the crowded room, proudly wearing my badge John Dickinson – Author and introducing myself to everyone: ‘How do you do? I’m John Dickinson‘ just in case they couldn’t read. Everyone was very nice. They are, at publisher’s parties.

‘How do you do?’ I said to the next person. I squinted at their badge. This too said Author. ‘What do you write?’

The author laughed dismissively. Not much really, was the answer. Bits and pieces. Non-fiction, mostly.

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Here is the Canadian trailer for Ken Oppel’s fantastic new title, THIS DARK ENDEAVOUR:

In this prequel to Mary Shelley’s gothic classic, Frankenstein, 16-year-old Victor Frankenstein begins a dark journey that will change his life forever. Victor’s twin, Konrad, has fallen ill, and no doctor is able to cure him. Unwilling to give up on his brother, Victor enlists his beautiful cousin Elizabeth and best friend Henry on a treacherous search for the ingredients to create the forbidden Elixir of Life. Impossible odds, dangerous alchemy and a bitter love triangle threaten their quest at every turn.

Victor knows he must not fail. But his success depends on how far he is willing to push the boundaries of nature, science, and love – and how much he is willing to sacrifice.

This atmospheric, romantic thriller - from the author of HALF BROTHER - will be published here in October.. And we can’t wait! Learn more here.

Out in the UK on October 6th.

When I saw the topic for the new DFB blog about comic misunderstandings, I thought, ‘Cool, that’s happened to me loads of times’.

The first thing that came to mind was something that happens quite frequently. My girlfriend is French and I am English; we both speak each other’s language quite well, but at certain times when I try and explain something to her, a word will come up that I don’t know in French. So I say it in English… she won’t understand it… so out of frustration I say it again, and again, and again… until eventually I give up. Just at that moment, pretty much every time, she’ll say ‘Oh, you mean…’  – followed by exactly the same word that I have just tried to get her to understand. The only difference is that she will say it with a French accent.

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In the Sea is the true account of Enaiatollah Akbari’s escape from Afghanistan to Italy. Enaiat was only around ten years old when his mother took him to the Pakistani border and then disappeared in the night, leaving him alone. In doing so, his mother had made an impossible decision. Either Enaiat could stay with the family, where as a young boy he would live in constant danger of being attacked, indoctrinated or made to work as a slave (this had happened to his father, who was eventually killed), or she could give him the opportunity to escape and make his own way to a better life. In the Sea follows Enaiat’s treacherous journey through Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Greece, and documents the memorable acts of human cruelty and human kindness that he experienced along the way. Thankfully for Enaiat, he eventually found safety in Italy. Many other boys were not so fortunate.

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Continuing our series of author storyblogs about misunderstandings*, we have a charming post from none other than M L Welsh.  Merry Monday!

‘Tilda

 *akin to Archie’s antics in I Don’t Believe It, Archie!

Misunderstandings are a daily occurrence in our house; I’m easily confused, my husband doesn’t really listen to anything anyone is saying and our two sons arguably don’t help by providing a constant backdrop of car/tractor/lorry/digger/drill noises, shouts, squeals and shrieks. Dear reader, it’s a disaster. But by a country mile my favourite misunderstanding has got to be the ‘hol’d’y home’ incident of 2008.

That was the year we took an ill-advised trip to Cornwall. It was not a success. Although we broke the journey into two sections, our elder son Joe felt the eight-hour drive to be too long and made his views on this known by screaming from Dorset until arrival. And it was downhill from there really.

We’d booked a cottage by the sea. ‘How lovely it will be,’ I thought. But Joe took ag’in the house from the start. In fact, he hated it. ‘Joe no wan’ go hol’d’y home,’ he would explain several times each day to my long-suffering friend Victoria, who was staying with us. ‘Joe wan’ go Joe home.’

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I can’t think of any Archie-like embarrassment I’m prepared to admit to in public, so instead I’ve decided to write about my misunderstanding of what it would be like to be a Real Live Author (EVERY writer who visits schools quickly gets used to being introduced as one of those.)

As I wanted to be an author from the age of eight, I’ve had plenty of time to think about it. Here’s how it looked: I saw myself sitting at a magnificent writerly desk, by an open window (no, let’s call it a casement) – overlooking a luxuriant garden. I’d be writing in fountain pen, of course, in a large and impressive book with lined pages, and I’d do that for hours on end, writing confidently all day long and well into the night, while Someone Else took care of mundane things like shopping and cooking (and gardening, presumably). Occasionally I’d meander down my rose-walk, deep in contemplation, before returning to my book-lined room with its squashy sofas and arty bits of this and that from my travels. There’d be a purring cat or two for company, naturally.

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I find life to be bizarre and inexplicable on a pretty much daily basis, and I’d like to share with you the tale of one recent misunderstanding. I should warn you up front, it’s a baffling and nerve-shredding tale of tension and terror, and you will need all your deductive powers to help decipher it. Join me, if you dare, for…

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At DFB, we love stories – and who better to tell them than our award-winning writers and illustrators?  That’s right, our new storyblog is going to be jam-packed full of writing, photos and exclusive artwork posted by over 30 DFB storytellers.  We’re really excited about this new project, where you can follow posts by your very favourite writers and artists, as well as meeting new DFB debutants!

Our group of DFB bloggers will take it in turns to post on a different question or topic, brought to mind by our new DFB titles.  For this first wave of storyblogs, they’re thinking about I DON’T BELIEVE IT ARCHIE!, and the unlikely situations and rib-tickling predicaments that Archie ends up in. You see, due to his incredible luck – and a fair few misunderstandings and bizarre coincidences! – Archie never quite ends up where he plans to..  Our bloggers will be sharing their silliest, funniest and most embarrassing stories with us – so you can expect a new post every couple of days, direct from the DFB authors themselves. So, enough from me - look below for the first post from author Candy Gourlay!

‘I Don’t Believe it Archie!’ is written by Andrew Norriss and illustrated by Hannah Shaw.

Talking of stories, Candy Gourlay – author of TALL STORY and blogger extraordinaire – is here to spark off our first wave of storyblogs. Thank you Candy!

‘Tilda

I love taking pictures but I hate having my photo taken. I can happily go for years without having a single picture taken of me.

But last year I became an author.

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