Ahoy there, and a Happy New Year to ye!

Over the next 2 months, the storyblog is going to be awash(ho ho) with nautical tales - of sea, sand, salty air, and sailing!   Last week, we published A Boy and a Bear in a Boat by Dave Shelton and Heart of Stone by Melanie Welsh, and next month we’ll be releasing The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan.  Although very different, all three titles share some common ground: a journey over water, a harbour town with magical history and Selkie legend.  That’s right, all three stories take place in, on and besides the sea!   So, the DFB Storybloggers – authors and ilustrators all – will be sharing their thoughts, memories and ideas based on the seaside – these might be photos, jokes, artwork, prose…  We’ll have to wait and see.   Watch out for the first post from Linda Newbery this Thursday!

I’m delighted to announce that we’ve just signed up a fantastic new trilogy by debut author Tim Hall!

The first book of the trilogy, Shadow of the Wolf, is set in Sherwood Forest in medieval England. However, if you think you know the story then think again. Tim Hall presents a Robin Hood more heroic and horrific than ever before: a blind, ruthless assassin and elemental creature of the forest. Fourteen-year-old Robin may not be able to see, but he learns to understand every sound that the forest makes – the heartbeat of a nearby bird, the sound of a deer drinking from a stream, the gentle rustle of an enemy boot passing through the foliage…

We don’t want to give too much away right now, but here’s a sneaky peek of what’s to come:

So many tales have already been told of Robin Hood. Already he’s the hero with a thousand faces.

First, forget everything you’ve heard. Robin was no prince, and he was no dispossessed lord; he didn’t fight in the Crusades; he never gave a penny to the poor.

His real name wasn’t even Robin Hood. Marian called him that as a kind of joke. Sir Robin of the Hood. A name Robin would cling to when he was losing grip of everything else.  Mind you, one thing you’ve heard is true. He was blind.

No, that’s not right. Let me put that another way. Truer to say, Robin Hood didn’t see with his eyes. In fact he was the only one who saw clearly in this place of illusion and lies.

Tim has previously worked as a news journalist, and this is his first book for young adults. Packed full of dark drama and unexpected plot twists, Shadow of the Wolf is an absolute page turner that will have teenage readers clamouring for its sequel. When the manuscript came in, I read it all in one sitting and couldn’t put it down. We’re all very excited to be working with Tim on this fantastic new project.

Watch this space!

Have you heard of Hay Fever?..

Several DFB authors and illustrators authors caught it this year! Sarah McIntyre, Candy Gourlay and The Etherington Brothers all went down with bad cases of the contagious fever this year, from attending Hay Festival 2011.

Symptoms?

Shivers of excitement, blistering friendliness and a rash of book-lovers..

The cure?

A strong dose of workshops, talks and festival antics, taken with a marquee-ful of your favourite authors and illustrators!

So what did these lovely DFBers get up to all weekend?? Well…

Robin & Lorenzo Etherington(AKA The Etherington Bros) -  sold out their workshop(!), and it sounds like they had a blast monkeying around with their 200+ fans(!!). . When I asked Robin what his festival highlight was, I was  hit with a wave of enthusiasm and a list as long as my arm. But I think that ‘Finally getting to perform our show for our respective wives and see them really enjoy it’ and ‘getting papped by ten year olds and knuckle bumped by a legion of new readers’  were probably two of their more memorable experiences! Check out what else they got up to on their awesome blog here. Or for more details of what these boys can teach and show you, have a look around their new Comic Club site..

Sarah McIntyre and Candy Gourlay appeared as part of a triple-decker event alongside a favourite author of theirs, Geraldine McCaughrean – what a treat for the audience!  And beforehand, when Sarah heard the weather forecast, she drew this fantastic picture of how their trio might end up -

 - but, of course, the event was far from a wash out.

And, needless to say our fantastic authors didn’t leave it at that, they also ran their own their own talks and workshops! You can read Candy’s hilarious blog about the group experience, and of course her own workshop here. Candy’s writing workshop was all about legends… and there were some brilliantly silly ideas.

Sarah was also full of fun and seemed to meet up with nearly ALL the festivalgoers at Hay – even the Duchess of Cornwall!! For the lowdown on how Sarah a)wangled and b)handled this, check out Sarah’s blog, here.

Hooray for Hay, and for our truly brilliant authors who helped make this year’s festival such a success!!

(And if all that wasn’t enough, see how much fun was had by the many celebrity and non-celebrity attendees here.)

……Introducing our first author blog on the DFB website! Jeremy de Quidt, author of the  fantastical, blood-curdling debut novel The Toymaker has posted for you all below -  the first in a series of guest blogs from DFB writers and illustrators. Hurrah! This sparkling post really tickled me, as they always do (if you haven’t read Jeremy’s previous posts, take a look at his author page). From now on, we’ll be asking a different author every month to post a blog on our website – so keep an eye out for glimpses of your favourite illustrators and storytellers!

…then all of a sudden they zip past. I looked out of the window yesterday and realized that it was almost Christmas. Actually, it wasn’t so much the looking out of the window that did it, it was the annual arrival of the mice.

Each year at about this time, we start to get mice in the house. Where they come from I don’t know, but I think they’re here for the presents and chocolate. One year they neatly trimmed off the gold paper wrapping from all the chocolate coins and took tooth size scrapes out of each one. Another year they chewed through an electricity cable and left us without lights for ages while we tried to track down where the damage had been done. We eventually found the culprit turned victim beneath the floorboards, its teeth, in death as in life, firmly clamped into the power cable.

But I’m soft hearted when it comes to mice. They’re just doing their best.

So when Alice announced that she’d heard one under her bed the other day, we laid out the trusty and well tried traps – not the ‘put your head here and it gets chopped off by a steel spring’ variety, but the ‘catch you in a box and let you go somewhere else’ variety. I’m convinced that the mice we let go are the same ones as come back, but there you go. The way these traps work best is for you to wait until morning, and if the trap is closed, you lift it to your ear and listen very carefully for the scratching sounds inside. What you don’t do is what Alice did. You don’t get up in the pitch dark and armed with a torch open the trap to see if there’s a mouse inside. If you do that the mouse pegs it for all it’s worth and you don’t catch it again for days.

But we did get him in the end, and he is probably even now slowly making his way back. I reckon another week and we’ll have to evict him again.

So, the year has moved on, and this is the view from my window as I look out today.

Alice has been getting on with the world atlas across the kitchen wall, but it has come to halt recently what with exams and school plays and the like. This is where she has got to.

And the post brought the original artwork of the German cover to The Toymaker. The artist, Betina Gotzen-Beek, very kindly sent it to me as a present, along with sketches to show how she had started, which was really nice of her. This is it propped up on my laptop.

All of which brings me to now – summer has been and gone, Christmas is in the offing, and at long last I have nearly finished the next story. Maybe by the end of the year I will have it done.

Now, that would be very nice. I might even read it to the mice.

….er, um,  for some reason I have been putting this off.   Okay then, I confess, I am a blog virgin. This is my first ever blog. Not really something I should be boasting about these days I suppose. And not really of interest to anyone else but me.   But then   I loudly promised everyone at the very well attended (including the Philippine Ambassador no less) launch  that my first blog would be about Candy’s book Tall Story.  And not wanting to let his excellency and everyone else down here  it is.  And a bit late.   I think the danger for a publisher is that you want to say ‘Read It, just read it, it’s wonderful’ about every single  new book you publish.   And that really isn’t very interesting is it? Here’s what springs to mind about Candy:   Of all the writers I have ever edited and published only one other writer has ever inserted herself into her prose in quite the same way Candy does.  And that is Jacqueline Wilson. I am not saying they write the same way. Not at all. They don’t.   But both of them,  just like with Brighton rock , have their own personality and tone of voice echoing all the way through,   in every sentence, every phrase and every lick and curl of their prose.  They both write inimitably, with passion and humour and intelligence.  And when you are lucky enough to  meet them in person you can see exactly why they write the way they do.  I think this quality is particularly important in a children’s book.  Candy’s story just flows into the reader, like a jug of story being tipped into the head.  And its a very good story.  And I am very proud and pleased to be publishing it.

Now go and read it dammit.

..from our new blogspot here at DFB! We’re both excited and nervous about this new space on our site, where we’ll be updating you on our goings-on both in and out of the office – it’s a bit like first-date nerves! We really hope you’ll love it.

We’ve found a heady match with Candy Gourlay though, and her loveable debut novel, TALL STORY. Candy’s jaunty humour really sparkles in this story, but she also manages to weave in some exotic Filipino magic, making this a really flavoursome read. Mmmm!

…And we went to Candy’s fantastic launch for TALL STORY last night! It was a really vibrant event at Waterstones, Islington, buzzing with family, friends, neighbours, and a whole host of other Candy supporters! We even got badges!! You can see me sporting mine in my photo, but here’s a close-up!

It was a really fun, energetic and emotional atmosphere. The Ambassador for The Philippines - Antonio M. Lagdameo – even attended! 

But I think that for me, the highlight was the collective performance of Bob Marley’s ‘One love’ – which Candy’s family and extended family (from her neighbourhood & beyond!) had filmed, sung and practised to perform for us all. There were both English and Tagalog verses that were performed live alongside pre-recorded footage of singing, dancing and general hilarity both in The Philippines and the UK. It was really emotionally-charged and uplifting, really bringing home Candy’s TALL STORY themes of family, home and unity, despite distance. And I was really impressed with the young performers!! You may want to keep your eyes glued to Candy’s site for a glimpse of it..

Anyway, enough rabbiting for now – I’m sure the others want to tell you more about our antics!..

TTFN,

Tilda!