I was leafing through an old sketchbook the other day and came across this sketch of Magpie, one of the characters from my picture book The Ghost Library. For some reason it triggered a comment made to me by a parent as I sat in a bookshop signing copies of the book at an event. I don’t think I even saw her face but I remember her voice very well. In tones that suggested her nose had detected an unpleasent smell she picked up a copy of the book and, speaking to her daughter said, “A bedtime story about ghosts? I hardly think that’s an appropriate story to send children off to sleep.’ She then unceremoniously replaced the book and left. The whole thing was less than 10 seconds so it’s unlikely she even flicked through the pages.
In truth I don’t think she was trying to be rude, just voicing her opinion out loud. I just remember thinking how amazing it is that some people think it’s okay to say stuff like this in front of the author. But hey, you can’t please everyone.
19/07/2011 at 8:40 am Permalink
I had a similar experience on Saturday when a father grilled me for about ten minutes on my books, what kind of ‘supernatural’ were they, did I believe in parallel worlds, where on a spectrum between Philip Pullman and JK Rowling my books lay and many things besides. Then he slapped a copy of Mortlock into his son’s hands and said, “I’m going to look at the non-fiction. This looks good, don’t feel under any obligation to buy it, though.” And left his son staring, red-faced at me. “Feel VERY obliged to buy it,” I said, leaning forward. “Very obliged.”
19/07/2011 at 9:25 am Permalink
Ha! Now THAT is funny! Maybe we should open this up to the others, there are bound to be some really great stories knocking around…?
19/07/2011 at 10:50 am Permalink
If that’s the way things are going – I’m in real trouble!
The book looks great, David!
26/07/2011 at 1:15 pm Permalink
Coming in late here, but funnily enough I was clearing out my son’s room yesterday and came across his sister’s copy of The Ghost Library, and was reminded how much they’d both loved it. What an INCREDIBLY rude woman that was! They don’t think aufors have feelings, no they don’t…
26/07/2011 at 1:18 pm Permalink
PS Jon, I LOVE your strategy…