
My publisher David Fickling Books has decided to recruit their authors to post on their StoryBlog and I foolishly volunteered to go first! DFB, having just launched I Don't Believe It Archie! by Andrew Norris, asked us to write about something embarrassing.
So here's a piece called Why Candy Gourlay is Not Ready for her Close Up - about appearing on TV.
Why Candy Gourlay is Not Ready for her Close Up on the DFB Blog. Photo by he who likes rugby |
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Katherine Langrish author of the Troll Fell books and Shadow Hunt. Photo by Helen Giles |
She asked me to reflect on Fairy Tales in the Philippines - which was interesting to me because, growing up in the Philippines where most books were imported from America or the UK, I considered everything I read fairy tales. Read my blog post here.
I decided that the closest thing to a fairy tale was the Philippine penchant to make up legends and I thought the best way to reflect on this subject was to do my own re-telling of one Filipino "fairy tale" ... so here is my video re-telling of The Legend of the Pineapple, an old Filipino story.
I made the video with the help of my young neighbours, Christiane and Jacob (Jacob very kindly agreed to be the voice of a little girl as long as I used his drawing of a jet plane - watch out for it!):
The Legend of the Pineapple from Candy Gourlay on Vimeo.
On Wednesday, 24 August, I'm guesting on Canadian author Jan Markley's blog - Three Dead Moths in My Mailbox (realizing now that my author friends have cornered the market in interesting blog names). I'll be talking about my myth-making in Tall Story. Do drop in and say hi. Here's the link.
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I'm blogging at my friend Jan Markley's blog. She's the author of Dead Frog on the Porch which has been described as "Nancy Drew for the ipod generation" |
Meanwhile, my lovely friend Sarah McIntyre's new book is finally out! Do rush out and buy lots of copies for the sake of starving illustrators everywhere!
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You Can't Scare a princess by Gillian Rogerson and Sarah McIntyre |
At the beginning of the warm weather, Sarah and I drove up the motorway to visit our favourite author Geraldine McCaughrean (we can do that because we appeared in the Hay Festival on the same panel ... still I was kinda awed).
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Here's Geraldine bringing out the Bread and Butter Pudding. Photo by Sarah McIntyre |
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Sarah in the wendy house |
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Photo by Sarah McIntyre |
At the end of our visit, Geraldine turned round and said, "Now, anyone want some books?"
Well, duh!
I very politely requested Vainglory (one of Geraldine's adult books which is hard to find in a bookstore - mainly because Sarah said I just had to read it before I read any other adult books by Geraldine) ... though deep down inside I wanted to have ALL the books on the impressive book case of books she'd written.
Before I say goodbye for now, let me leave you with this photograph of a field near Geraldine's house. It looked like there was a highway to the sky in the wheat!
It probably won't be summer anymore when I blog again. So till then ... have a glorious rest of the holidays!