>Monsterology is scarier than Poutine!

>Just received the French version of Monsterology, published by Bayard. Look's great, eh?

Interesting that it becomes Monstrologie! I like it. And boy, it's ten times funnier in French. Here's an example:

L'ogre
Occupations: Etre gros et manger.
Il deteste: Se cogner la tete, Jacques, tomber de haut, quand les nuages sont bas.

Ha! Etre gros et manger! Etre gros et manger! If that doesn't tickle your funny bone I don't now what will. French really is the language of love. Uh, and laughter. Grosse Le Laughter!*

Monsterology's World Conquest is just beginning.

Adios, uh, I mean, Au revoir,

Art

*this is where I admit I did take French up to Grade Twelve but it was taught to me by a woman with a Scottish accent. "Ach, Monsieur Slade, you make the French sound like 3 day old haggis." Very sad. I was almost cultured once.

>Villains--on the cutting floor!

>Well, nigh over a month until Villainology comes out. Oct. 9th is "V" day!
Sadly not every piece of purple prose I wrote will be appearing in the book. Apparently they have page lengths to these things! Yes, I was as surprised as you. Which does make one wonder, are editors ruthless villains? Or are they ruthless taskmasters? (uh, this doesn't apply to any editor who's bought me lunch)

So here's a section on "Other Victorian Villains" that was left on the floor...

Other Victorian Era Villains:
The Victorian Era was the years in England when Queen Victoria ruled (1837-1901). Everyone was stodgy back then, practicing their stiff upper lips and drinking tea. Oh, and they also worked on their villainy. And not just in England.

Jack the Ripper: Ah, good ol’ Jack the Ripper. Back in 1888 he scared London and all the surrounding Brits by attacking and killing several women. He then wrote a letter to the paper, calling himself Jack the Ripper. Newspapers wrote story after story about him. Where is he? Who is he? When will he strike again? It sold a lot of newspapers. And later on books and then movies. No one ever found out who Jack the Ripper was. That’s not funny. In fact, that’s a little scary.

Tune in for more Villains from the cutting floor...someday...soon.

Art

>Cabin Redux

>Well, I’m 3 1/2 weeks into my 5 week stint at the cabin along with the family. It has been a time for us to relax. To go for walks down by the lake. To go to the fine dining establishment just down the road (It’s called The Hole in the Wall, built in an old Texaco station in a Spanish/Mexican style building and listed in the top 200 restaurants in Canada, I’m not kidding--we only could afford to go once, but it is soooo worth it). Oh, and we’re there to work, too.
Yep, work. I usually get my most work done in August because there are no interruptions. And my multi-project schedule seems to really be helping. Here’s my Monday-Saturday routine.
1st hour--write at least 1 page on my project for adults and work on a book that I’m writing with another author (it’s a secret project so I can’t tell you any more than that).
2nd & 3rd hour--work on the rewrite of Worse Than Starkers, a book about a boy who is struck by lightning.
4th & 5th hour--work on the 1st book in The Hunchback Chronicles, which is retelling of The Hunchback story set in Victorian times.
Lunch
1 more hour on one of the above projects, sometimes 2 hours.

The rest of the day I read, go for a walk with my family, listen to an audiobook or do odd jobs around the cabin (I’m listening to The Amber Spyglass by Pullman and reading Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay).
The whole process of switching from project to project has really given me energy and focus. When I know I only have two hours I tend to work harder. And I find myself at a higher level of excitement than what I would have if I spent the whole 4 hours on 1 project. Many fresh ideas for all the projects have been sprouting, so switching back and forth actually seems to help in the “brainstorming” process.
The other big change is I started using a writing program called Scrivener. It’s brilliant and, uh, it’s only for Mac (there may be a similar program for PC’s, I don’t know). But this program enables you to write in a word-processor, but there is also a window that lists all your chapters, a HUD (heads up display) that has all the keywords like characters and place names. And another section that keeps all your files or websites right alongside the page they are referring to. That info appears in a split screen view. So for instance if you’re describing a certain street in London and you have a jpg of it, you can open it up in the split screen with a click of a button and write about it, then close it. All your research is right there, easily clickable. Anyway, if you’re interested (and on a Mac) check out the website. The final version of any novel will have to be written in Word or Pages or something like that because Scrivener doesn’t do all the page numbering and other stuff, this is just for the first ten or so drafts.

Oh, and watched Firefly, the series. It rocks. Such a shame it was cancelled.

There, that’s about it.
Cheers,
Art

>Profile

>Yep, I'm at the cabin all this month. On dial up, so spending very little time online. Writing, writing, writing though. I find I get double the amount of work done out here than I do at home. So I won't be posting here much. But if you're bored there is a profile of me that Dave Jenkinson did for Canadian Materials. http://www.umanitoba.ca/outreach/cm/profiles/slade.html

Cheerio!
Art

>Happy Fuzzy Poster Feelings

>**Warning!***Happy Fuzzy Feelings Below

One of the nice outcomes of the Red Maple Awards was that they hung up a gigantic big huge white sheet of paper and asked young readers to sign it for the author. It arrived in the mail a few days ago. And I tell you, it's a great inspiration to have a whole sheet full of encouragement from readers.


Yep, every once in awhile I just glance at it and then keep on writing. It's like having your very own cheerleading squad shouting over your shoulder as you write (without the noise or stomping sounds). It's an instant rush of inspiration.

Of course, though, one of my favourite lines on the poster is on this pic:

See it? It's the one that says, "Sorry, didn't read it, too long!" Ha, at least you took the time to write out your apology anonymous non-reader. You and millions of other people haven't read the book. Billions actually. Anyway, I really appreciate the comments and the work of the librarians and other behind-the-scenes people at these sorts of functions. This kind of happy fuzzy stuff wouldn't happen without them.
Speaking of happy fuzzy, just received the CCBC Our Choice magazine and am happy to report that Megiddo's Shadow was awarded a star. This issue lists all the recommended books from last year. Yay!

I better go before I start getting maudlin and lose my tough-guy-from-the-west image.

Art

>Silverwing Came to Visit my House

>Well just the other night our household had a visit from Silverwing (or Shade, to be precise). My wife was awakened by a flapping sound and thought that something had briefly bumped her face. With her keen eyes she spotted an object on the blind that was much larger than a moth. She immediately vacated the room. Where was I? Sleeping in the basement because I had decided it was too hot to sleep upstairs. I had a very restful sleep. In the morning I was met with, "There's a bat in our house! There's a bat in our house!"
It somehow became my job to rid the house of the bat. But, of course, I've read the Silverwing saga and I knew that this was just some poor bat that was lost trying to find its colony or fleeing blood-sucking bats named Goth. So I googled "how to catch a bat in your house." Assuming you want the bat to live (I couldn't hurt poor little Shade), tennis rackets are out. It suggested a wet towel to throw over the bat wherever it lands, gloves (so you don't get bit), and a container (a pail) to trap it in if it is attached to the wall. I gathered my implements and went all through the upstairs. Not a bat to be found. But I certainly opened every drawer or door gingerly.
Not much else could be done, so we continued on with our lives and went out for the evening. When we returned my wife went into the house first and shouted, "There's a big bat in the main room!" I suggested she shouldn't panic and peeked around the corner at which point I shouted, "That is a big bat!" I sweated a lot and dialed 9-1-1. Well, okay, I just backed away slowly. I then gathered my bat catching tools, and went outside and opened the window (hoping the bat would just fly out, but apparently Shade wasn't being co-operative). Then I crept back in and started to look around. The bat wasn't flying anymore so, I deduced that it must have landed (See, aren't I a smart hunter?). I spotted a black thing on our blind.

"Shade," I said, "Shade go home. Get out of my house. Go visit Kenneth Oppel. He's in Toronto. That's only about 10000 wingbeats from here." Shade didn't budge.

So I realized I had to capture him myself. I took my handy pail and walked half way across the room and had a sudden bout of primal fear. At that point I took two steps back and said to my wife, "It turns out, I'm a chicken." Then we laughed and laughed. I don't think that was news to her. My wife's next words after that were, "don't wreck the blind." As if the situation wasn't complex enough! I got a sudden burst of bravery from some other dimension. I walked across the room, banged the pail over the bat, and it began flapping around inside and going "scree scree scree." My wife slid a lid over the pail and shortly afterward I had the bat outside. I left the open pail next to a tree (I'd read bats prefer to climb trees and drop to fly, taking off from the ground is hard for them). And that was the last we saw of Shade. So far. Oh, here's another close-up of his face

He looks familiar doesn't he? Now where did I see that face before?

Isn't it enough that I read the books? I don't want the real thing. That's why I'm a reader!
Oh, how did the bat get into our house? Uh, because I'd taken the screen off the window to look out at our eavestrough a few nights before (we had a downpour, more rain in a day that we usually have in a month). The screen was off for about an hour. So, uh, I guess it was all my fault.

I didn't wreck the blind though.

Art