APPS, DOGS, COLOUR AND E-BOOKS, by Enid Richemont

This week, I had a second picture book app - MORE - published by utales. It's a re-telling of the traditional story about a magic bowl which must be properly used, and the misfortunes of the greedy

person who steals it. I've set my story in India, with a hungry small boy, a beggar woman who turns into a goddess, and a fat and greedy maharajah (it occurs to me that one could do a similar re-telling using a contemporary setting and a greedy banker). Setting it in India is the excuse for using all those wonderful Indian colours and patterns, and my illustrator, Claudia Fehr-Levin, has really gone to town on these. If you'd like to take a look at a sample, you can find it here. 

Speaking of colour and all its delights, we went to the David Hockney exhibition yesterday, and I was gobsmacked - no, eye-smacked. The opening paintings didn't impress me so much (I've always preferred his drawings) but when we went further into the show and found ourselves drowning in his celebration of everything around him, it became sheer joy, marred only slightly by the crowd.

For any child who's ever passionately wanted a dog, THE DREAM DOG is now available as an e-book (cover illustration by Jennifer Eachus). It was first published by Walker Books, and then sold to Japan. I have the Japanese edition, with its spare and beautiful pencil illustrations, which I treasure. And coming very soon (to use a much-hated TV cliche), DRAGONCAT will be my first never-before-published book, so I'll be holding my breath.

Yesterday a copy of MsLexia came throuh my door. Years ago, I subscribed to it, and through sheer inertia have never cancelled - and it does have some interesting articles - BUT... I'm beginning to feel that if ever I see the word 'creative' attached to the word 'writing' again, I'll explode - BANG! ('Creative Plumbing', now, or, 'Creative Brick laying' - that might be stimulating.  I'll pass on, 'Creative Dentistry', although 'Creative Brain Surgery' might produce some interesting results). But why do so many squillions of people want to be seen as writers? It's not a fast route to riches or celebrity (let's forget J K Rowling for a moment) and for most professional writers, it's a demanding, isolating, and extremely underpaid (but when it goes well, totally wonderful) job.