pencilnotes

TREE - a fairy tale

2013-03-30T03:40:00.000-07:00

Tree

“Once upon a time there was a King who lived in a
Castle with his Queen, their family and retainers. This
castle, as castles do, looked severe and uninviting, its
great grey stone walls towering over the landscape,
each day casting a long forbidding shadow that swept
across the castle’s lands like a scowl.
“There was nothing in its appearance to recommend
it as hospitable to the passing traveller except for certain
rumours of a garden within the outer bailey walls
which, it was said, was cared for by the Queen herself.
This, if those rumours are to be believed, was lush and
vibrant with colour and the songs of birds; for, they
say, all her love and its power poured into this garden,
suffusing it with a beauty that was at odds with the
hostile ramparts of the castle itself.
“Beyond this bailey garden and deep within the
iron-grey walls of the castle keep was a small court-

yard cloister, enclosed all about by sheer walls of

unadorned stone. In this courtyard nothing grew, but

in its centre stood an ancient Tree, of which it was

said that its fast-rising sap had once brought forth leaf

in abundance and the most beautiful flowers every

spring with creamy petals about hearts of deep purple,

tinged with crimson. It was said that the fruit of this

Tree tasted like no other on this wide earth; that its

taste was both scented and sweet, sharp and yet soft,

like peach and cumquat, lychee, mangosteen and passion

fruit all rolled into one, with an honeyed afterglow

that went straight to the heart like a rich mellow

golden dessert wine.

“But that Tree had borne no leaf, nor flower, nor

fruit for many a year, according to those, and they

were few, who had seen it. When this Tree had thrived

long ago, it was said, its benign influence had spread

across the whole kingdom and that it had been a time

of golden fields and rich harvests and only weapons

and armour had rusted and decayed for lack of want.

“The King invited no one into the cloister where

daily he kept silent vigil, wandering for hour after

hour and sitting, when tired, upon a bench on its

northern side where the sun shone brightest into that

deep well of rock, contemplating that gnarled old

Tree. The precise form and every detail of that Tree

was reflected in the unmoving eyes of the King, eyes

once said to have been beautiful with the dark fire of

an unquenchable passion, eyes now lined with sorrow.

“The King would not permit the Tree to be hacked

down, despite his Queen’s protestations that it should

be cleared away to allow for new planting; for in that

Tree was a little nest of twigs and feathers which had

lain in a hollow between two great branches for a long

time now. And it was for this that the King remained

adamant in his refusal.

“For only the King knew that, once or twice, a

tiny bird had come and alighted there with a twig or

feather in its little beak, placed it carefully in that nest

and fluttered about, sometimes around the old King’s

head, sometimes brushing his cheeks with its softfeathered

wings, before departing up and away into

the freedom of the world beyond.

“The old King waited patiently. He knew that if

only that tiny twittering bird should return from its

wanderings and nest there, ever-so briefly, and fill

the great court with the echoes of its song, then this

gnarled and ancient Tree would feel the vibrancy of its

simple joy and once again burst into leaf and flower

and sing its own quiet melody through the rustling

of its leaves and proudly display the splendour of its

blossom and become heavy with its delicious fruit.

“For the King knew that the Tree depended upon

the bird as the bird depends upon the tree for a place

to nest and the materials with which to build its transient

home. The King knew that the little bird would

not stay. He knew that in its very comings and goings,

in the light touch of its tiny feet upon the Tree’s

rough bark, in the nestling warmth of its sitting for

long enough, that in all of these lay the secret of the

first stirrings of the Tree’s sap, which would bring the

old Tree back to life. He knew that it was in the sweet

fanning of that life in the fluttering of the tiny bird’s

wings in departing and returning that the old Tree

would be moved to re-create its bold display of green

in defiance of its grey confines, and to bring forth its

lovely flowers and from these grow its wondrous fruit,

the touch of whose skin was said to be so velvety soft.

“The King knew that once the little bird had tasted

of this magical fruit, the Tree could live again, trusting

in the return of the tiny bird and its offspring to

define its seasons and give ear to its whispered secrets,

enchanting tales.

“The King knew this because he was bound to that

ancient gnarled Tree as surely as if with the heaviest of

iron chains, for the King’s heart itself was in that Tree,

and this Heart-of-the Tree was barren for want of

that tiny bird which, of all the birds in the wide, wide

world, had once or twice found its way through the

lush gardens and meadows of the bailey garden and

over the high unassailable walls of the keep into this

cloistered retreat in which the King held daily court in

judgement over the fate of the Tree: each day postponing

its destruction for the sake of that tiny fluttering of

hope.

“I don’t know whether that Tree ever burst into leaf

and flower, and whether the King’s joy was restored in

the end or whether he ever tasted of that fruit again,

for this tale was told to me by a jester who once

passed through that place and witnessed the King’s

musings and was bold enough to draw from him the

tale of the Tree. But that jester has never since returned.

“Some say that there never was such a Tree, that all

such stories are but fairy tale, lies to deceive the gullible;

others that the very being of the story is proof

enough of there having been such a Tree, once upon a

time (the Rationalists of the first group point to these

Romantics and say, “case proven”). And we know

that jesters do lie sometimes, but also that in their

outlawry they are free to tell truths others dare not

whisper.

“ But I do not know. I would dearly like to believe in

such a Tree. For, if there were such a Tree and if such

a bird did exist, once upon a time, then they would

surely inspire such Tales as this one…”

This tale is from my book of short stories, poems and illustrations, ‘Ana Thema’ – Alan Howard (see previous three blog posts).

In a lighter vein...

2013-03-30T02:53:00.001-07:00

Among my observational ‘haiku’, one day I saw:

Gathered by

Salvation Hall –

Grannies, all.

…………….

Dwelling on misery, bent on salvation, blind to the beauty of life itself...

And tomorrow, Easter Sunday, I will post a short fairy tale, ‘Tree’, also from that book of short stories, poems and illustrations. ‘Ana Thema’ (see previous post)

On death and resurrection...

2013-03-30T02:23:00.000-07:00

On this Good Friday when people’s thoughts turn to death...

Night

Follows day,

Another night.

Death plays his bone whistle.

They gather round.

Their low notes of mourning

Subsume the shriller octaves

Of his precocious assumption.

Another day,

Another night.

His livid skull rises

Above the Eastern horizon.

Hand joins hand, clasped tight,

Bones with cloyed flesh, enflamed,

Crackle his ascendance.

Another day,

Another night.

His hollow shin-bone beats

Upon the quaking marrow of the world

The slow chime of their macabre minuet

Stamping their seven steps in time

Upon the living dead.

Night follows day.

Endless night.

……………….

...to resurrection, redemption, the possibility of enduring beyond death...

And so it goes

Here the blight blows,

And blasts right through,

Sucking into breathlessness your anguish,

Fragile as a hollowed eggshell…

Teeth will grind, guts ingest those shards,

Will integrate fractions of you and all like you;

Compound them into new Selfhoods:

Ones for whom your ‘once’

Never existed.

You are nothingness,

All of you.

And so it goes…

Always.

…………………..

two poems from my book of short stories, poems and illustrations, ‘Ana Thema’ - ISBN 9780955548635 p/b.

Are you listening, Folio Society?

2013-03-29T10:41:00.000-07:00

I have a great urge to illustrate ‘The Devil’s Elixirs’ by E.T.A. Hoffman. In this style.
Any takers out there? Folio Society?

and this

In black and line art with stipple and twenty colour plates. Come on, someone...
Sponsor me!

Check out this link my blog piece on their Audubon book – sort of: link

Once upon a time...

2013-03-29T10:35:00.000-07:00

I drew these out of my cupboard, today, feeling in a reminiscing sort of mood.
(You can tell just how long ago I drew them by looking at the superfast computer on the boy’s desk)

Naturally, I included one of my own heroes here: Buster Keaton.
And for the girl...

...the rag doll that was given to my daughter at her birth and, top left, Piglet, that my own mother made me and went to school in my back pocket for ages.

Greetings from a Desert Island...

2013-03-29T02:15:00.000-07:00

On this Good Friday, I came across an old drawing of mine that just reminded me of the the writer’s lot...

Staring at a blank sheet – awaiting sudden inspiration – writer’s block – the hunger and isolation – one might as well be on a desert island peopled solely by the creatures of imagination, to whose shiftless forms one cries: “Happy Easter, everyone!”

Limerick posted 3am

2013-03-21T00:53:00.000-07:00

After being woken by thumping and banging to see three men lifting manholes and dragging cables out and cutting them into 5ft lengths and dumping them in their open-backed truck with its engine running and no light on, I phoned the police on the off chance they might be cable thieves.
I was kept on the line for the 27 minutes it took them to arrive in two squad cars (or rapid-response teams as they probably prefer to be called) I gave a blow by blow account of their nefarious actions.
As it turned out (the police having released me from witness custody once the arrived) they were legitimate. The police kindly informed me half an hour later as I was trying to get back to sleep.
Aroused for the second time, my thoughts turned to the deeper things in life and I meditated on religion for a short while before this popped into my head.

There was an old lady of Ceredigion
Who suffered in silence for religion,
Though wracked by doubt,
She never ‘came out,’
For fear of being shat on by a pigeon.

What do you think of at 3 in the morning?

The Walrus and the Bookseller...

2013-03-20T11:52:00.000-07:00

Having just, in my previous post, attacked myself as ‘Le Petit Auteur’ in rhyme from the viewpoint of the agent/publisher, I thought I might as well share with you one composed earlier, upon the palindromic birthday (181) of that Janus figure of children’s literature, Lewis Carroll, which birthday anniversary enjoys a threefold symmetry, left-right, up-down, and rotational in two dimension, which, on that day, for some reason put me in mind of my relationship with a certain book chain...

It has, unfortunately to be presented as an whole image, for typographical reasons, which of itself maybe deemed a little Carrollian. But let’s see, now....
Voici!

[Seemingly the product of a fit of senility on the part of the dear deceased Reverend Dodgson, this remembrance of his fine work, needless to say, fits no reality I can think of.]

Agent’s Lament (or Publishers.. whatever)

2013-03-20T11:08:00.003-07:00

In response to a tweet an hour ago by Salt Publishing, bemoaning the weather in Cromer,

“SALT ‏@saltpublishing

1h Hello winter, my old friend, / When will you ever bleeding end? / And #Cromer pier is still so freezing, / And my chest is softly wheezing.”

I was moved to write this, on behalf of and in empathy with the sufferings of poor agents (and publishers) who do have to put with so much...

My Simon & Garfunkelian Blues.

Call it: “Agent’s lament” (Or Publishers?)

Here goes (and remember its humble origin as emanating from one of those so derided here)

“Hello writer, my old bane,

You’ve come to pester me again,

Despite rejection, are you so deranged?

My derision, was it not, all too plain,

Scarce restrained,

Within the bounds of license?

In endless reams you write like those,

Whose narrow feats of cobbled prose,

’Neath contempt, so deadly dull and camp,

Sputter sulphur like an old gas lamp,

Choking shadows along those blind alleys,

Your galleys,

That just astound my good sense.

In naked daylight can you not see,

You’re one of thousands, more maybe,

Writing words without thinking,

Writing sentences without linking,

Writing drivel that no one wants to share,

Friends don’t dare,

Disturb your profound ignorance.

“Fool,” said I, “you do not know,

Genius like a cancer grows,

So heed my words that I might reach you,

Take my advice that I might teach you

To give up now,” but on deaf ears my words fell,

And echoed

In the empty chambers of his mind.

And those authors stood and gaped

At the neon god they aped,

And the sign flashed out its warning

In the words that it was forming,

And the sign said, profitable words are written in the publisher’s halls,

Not tenement walls.

So just go drown in the sound of silence.”

Dear reader ,
If you like this (as we lonely Amazonians are wont to say), why not try:
The Walrus and the Bookseller.
or
A Limericked Look at Rude Reviewers
or, indeed,
Aloysius B. KattelBach’s, On Book Titles and other Tittle-Tattle
and many more scrapings from the floor of culinary creativity.

After an adventurous night, last night, this...

Fairytale Garden? Wealden Hall house for sale

2013-03-13T01:26:00.000-07:00

These are just a few of the plants through the seasons in this, to us at least, lovely garden.

I thought I’d share, with these links to slide shows, a view through the seasons.

We hope you all like our house and garden.
It was featured last week in Sunday Times ‘Houses of the Week’and this weekend in the Telegraph ‘Charming Country cottages under £500,000’

Here are the links.

House blog page 1 - house

page 2 - history

page 3 - garden May

page 4 - surroundings

page 5 - garden extra June

House slide show

General Garden slide show

Colours through the seasons

Garden slide show May

Garden Slide show June

Surroundings slide show landscapes

“Voici la Plume de ma Tante...”

2013-01-22T01:54:00.000-08:00

   In that curious state of wakeful sleep as images of dream are replaced by mundane consciousness, this phrase from my early childhood surfaced, together with images of a letter written by my favourite aunt, Dora (and we all did, as children, adore her), when she was a child, in the days when the art of letter-writing existed, even to be enjoyed by children.
   This much derided title quote, exemplar of rote, finds another meaning in the care and loving attention given here to a simple letter written to her older sister who had just left home for an hotel in London.

   So, in homage to her and that art, I present in full that letter (and some examples of her character, below):

Transcription of the text, below (or click to blow up pictures)

   If you have read this letter in full, you may see, even then, the infectious wit and sparkle that she carried with her, like a fairy godmother, all her days.
   As an old lady, she had only to enter a room full of random children and, despite her decrepitude and deformities, the patterns of attraction were as palpable as the re-reordering of iron filings in the presence of a magnet.
   Within minutes of sitting down she would be surrounded by eager children, listening to her hundred tales and witticisms, oblivious to to any physical fault by which an adult might judge her, fascinated by her laughing eyes and infectious chuckle.
   When the three sisters, Ruth (to whom this letter was addressed and who treasured it enough that I have it today), Dora and Mary (my mother, one of the small nonsenses of this letter) were together, hysteria swept through the house, bowling over any pretence of decorum such that even my father had to put away seriousness and the morning’s paper-reading (a sacrosanct hour that brooked no interruption).
   Two instances of that character spring immediately to mind, both shocking and a little comic.
   When her husband, Malcolm, an accountant with a kleptomania for documents to the point where their dining room could no longer be used, being piled with old newspapers, files and papers of no longer determinate provenance, on the bureau, under the table, on top of the table, seated on the chairs and lining the walls to the ceiling, died, we attended his funeral, staying at their house the night before.
   That morning, after stoking the old coal-fired boiler, preparing the breakfast and ourselves to receive the pall-bearers, come to collect the coffin, we filled in the time with Dora recounting stories of their lives together such that, when these drab top-hatted gentlemen came soberly knocking, the door was opened to the scene of a family in hysterics, to which the look on their faces merely added another fit.
   Later, after the funeral in a church packed with what appeared to be half the town’s population (he was a man of good works), we repaired to an hotel nearby for the wake.
   A suitably sad-looking lady of her acquaintance appeared, to offer her deepest condolences and sympathy, to which my dear old aunty retorted, “ Nonsense! I’m glad he’s dead.” Observing the shock on the faces of that lady and all around, she added, in her inimitable fashion: “You see, when you have loved someone as deeply and as long as I have, you cannot bear to them suffer so. His passing was a mercy.”
   Again, after continuing to manage for years alone in their house, she had a serious fall, cracking her hip and was hospitalized. On discovering her age, condition and circumstance, her doctors decided that she must, on leaving, repair to an old people’s home where she could be properly ‘taken care of.’
On hearing this,old auntie was heard to say, “No one is going to put me in kennels,” and she, returning as we do to our origins, promptly set about dying, ‘toute suite!’

Transcript.
P1.
Dear Ruth,
   How are you getting on hope you are enjoying yourself I am having a rotten time or am about to.
   The “Chinley Brigade” are going to swoop down on us on Thursday.
   On Monday I was going to have had Iris to-tea and play tennis she is (was) otherwise engaged worse luck and Mary is having two small nonsenses to tea.
   On Thursday as you know was the eventful day of the drawing exams.
   As soon as I got (to) school I was called for Division V and I was
P2.
drawing all morning till quarter past twelve and I mist an hours Arithmetic with MIss Glover.
   As soon as I got to school in the afternoon all the kids in the West-room and Hall started shouting “many happy returns of the day” at my bewildered self then Marjorie Sibald and another kid told me Miss Norbury wanted me and after trying to find Miss Norbury in vain I went upstairs the the classroom just as the second bell went.
   There sat Miss Glover’s green eyes staring at me. just as she was about give me lectures for being late for a Arith lesson someone dragged me out into the landing where stood Mis Lockyear and “Daubs” beaming and smiling all over and praising my Division V Paper which they had handed
P3.
nearly all over the school.
   The “Daubs” spotted me and told me run and get my Bonny Prince Charlie for her to see, and after showing me a few faults which I corrected she told me to get my pencils and “Glovey” glared and asked me if I was going to exam I said yes and she flew into a passion and shouted Git-tart,! Git-tart! Git-tart.! So I flew.
   Well Division VI came off spiffingly “I was pleased with myself”
   When all the girls had finished except Jean Trenfield and I they all crowded round my desk with Ohs! and Ahs! that Miss Levy had to shout before they would clear off
P4.
even “Daubs” praised it
   And ‘Locky’ said I was sure of honnours in both V and VI.
   “And as Fate will have it” being dead against the Millers I went and did the same Memory and the work there.drawing in both my papers which is not allowed (unknown to me) and this means that I am disqualified from both Divisions and so I have failed. “I could just weep”
   How did you like the “Lilac Time.” I suppose you’ll come home, talking à Londre, dressing à Londre, and behaving absolutely in an à Londrerish fashion.
   Donald’s bringing a sort of foriegn apparatus from the Office to have tea with us on Sunday and is taking it out in the car Molly Costines coming as well Mercy! but Auntie’s the limit she is forever shouting about the work here
P5.
and the work there.
   I walked to school with Pat and Marjorie on Friday morning and Marjorie told me to tell you she had actually got one sum right whilst you are away {“getting quite clever is she not”?) I may as well tell I am in the soup about Extra Arith myself and my French! Well its quite a nice little language all by itself. He! He! He! You should seen it.
   It was supposed to be about a day on the river and I spent my time getting there really only got on the river in the last sentence.
   Last night I had a dream and it was most extraordinary Stewart Rome, Ivo Novello, Rudolph Valentino, Owen Nare(s) and Herbert or Dick Kay you know the one with the brown suit well all these persons were seated at tables each posing
P6.
and trying to look sad and I think the brown suited Kay boy was easily the best He! He! if you had only seen him.
   Our room is finished at last. I also dreamt that Steve Linch gave me a fright with his horse and came and talked to me he is awfully mice if he is the same in real live (a double meaning.)
   Well I shall have to stop as Auntie is getting beyond endurance with love from
   ‘Wee Leon’.

P.S. We’ve got to go to Miss Rider’s house for our lessons on Saturdays to get used to a strang(e) Piano She did snap at me when I told her you had gone away and asked me if I was going too.

Let us celebrate Old Christmas Day!

2013-01-06T02:02:00.000-08:00

Why?
Because,
– whether it is the deemed the 6th or 7th of January,
– whether it because we in Britain lost the 11 days in 1752 with the calendar change from Julian to Gregorian (hence the ‘Old Christmas Day’ of 25th December fell on January 6th for those who refused to accept the lost days)
– or whether it is because the Orthodox and Coptic Churches, still using the Julian calendar, celebrate Christmas Day on the 6th January and Armenian Church on the 7th January...

This is my Epiphany:
Both are My Birthday!
Though my official birthday falls on the 7th January, as one born equatorially early on the 7th*, I moved GeoMeTrically to UKGMT where my birth actually falls late on the 6th.
Thus may I, CAPRICIously, if CORNily, lay claim to be the ONE, born on that auspicious day in the East and come to the West...

...a MOMENT-TOus SAViOUR!!

*2.35am, Bungsar Hospital, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Waffle and waving in Waterstones

2012-11-24T08:14:00.000-08:00

Discovered today meandering through the Images for Curd the Lion on Google:
from the website http://www.26.org.uk (way back in 2008)

THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF CURD THE LION (AND US!) IN THE LAND AT THE BACK OF BEYOND

Alan Gilliland
Raven’s Quill, £14.99 or £10.72 on Amazon

Strolling through Waterstone’s on a recent Saturday afternoon, we were virtually accosted by a man waving this book at us. Listening to him, it turned out he was in fact the author of this children’s book. I asked a few questions that revealed he was once graphics editor of The Telegraph. He waffled on a bit about four soft toy animals in search of a stolen brooch and then showed us some quite superb black and white illustrations. We were quite taken by the old fashioned storytelling and the nod towards Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear. He signed a copy and I merrily trotted towards the checkout with book under my arm. My daughter Martha (9) has not stopped reading or talking about this book ever since. John Fountain

What a nice young lady she is, and her father too.

A story of self-publishing – the hard way!

2012-11-24T05:40:00.001-08:00

About The Author

A Potted History:
Born in Malaya in 1949 and brought up on a garrisoned rubber plantation during the ‘Emergency’, Alan Gilliland’s first, mountaintop, boarding school was reached by means of a 1930’s American armour-plated car, WWII Dakota aeroplane and Saracen armoured personnel carrier. A year later, aged six, he was transferred to a new school, memories of whose white hot sandy beaches were to remain ingrained upon his psyche long after leaving for this drizzly island we call home.
With his departure, Malaysia became independent and its anti-colonialist insurgency lost its rationale. Alan quickly learned the uses of the cricket bat, macintosh and other essentials of integration into English society. Performing passably well throughout his boarding-school years, he fell at the final hurdle, being expelled for revising for his art A-level exam.
Undeterred by this setback, he did not go to art college, preferring devious paths to the realisation of his creative ambitions via film-making, architecture, photo-journalism, newspaper cartooning and news information graphics – with 18 years and 19 awards as graphics editor of The Daily Telegraph – before finally arriving at the decision to write and illustrate fictions less ordinary than his own life.
Casting himself adrift with his long-suffering wife upon a tiny barque of of talent with its pencil-mast, he draws from the very winds the inspiration to fill the sheets and carry them across the ocean of scepticism that lies between hope and fulfillment. On the shoreline, his six children and three grandchildren, wave their little hankies, litorally wondering if ever he will make it.

Now what happened next?
First he exhibited on a tiny stand at the back of the London Book Fair, to both promote his graphics to publishers and to promote his own work. He found some admirers, including the founder of Alibris, a website for books in the US, and a young lady, daughter of a US publisher.
She was so enamoured of his first book ‘The Amazing Adventures of Curd the Lion (and us!) in the Land at the Back of Beyond’ that she recommended he take the Ms to Cornerstone’s Literary Consultancy to get an in-depth report on it and ever-so-kindly offered to pay for that report.
The report, critical but also very enthusiastic about it, was carried out by a fine author of children’s fantasy. It advised changes which he mostly carried out (saddest of which was the ‘murder’ of one of the characters – in real life, not in the story).

Buoyed by her enthusiasm, and because his financial situation was becoming critical (the consequence of a near-fatal spinal infection that destroyed a disc at the base of his spine and his ‘seed-fund’ by the time he recovered) he decided to throw aside caution and take the plunge, completing the text and illustrations, designing the book with its 80+ pencil illustrations as a hardback and finding a Chinese printer for the first print run of 1,000 copies, to be sold at £14.99.

Next he persuaded nearly 60 independent booksellers to order a copy in advance of publication, and following that, Gardners wholesalers to order 400 copies.

He went, as a visitor, to the Frankfurt Book Fair and traipsed the stands, trying to sell his graphics to UK publishers (with some success) and his book to foreign publishers (without).
On the Saturday after his return, he did an inaugural book-signing at the Guildford High Street branch of Waterstones and sold, he was told later, more books than many of the authors invited to the Guildford Book Fest that week.
This mild success gained him access to that chain at which he has been assiduously signing ever since.

His micro-publishing company, Raven’s Quill Ltd., joined the IPG and PA and then exhibited under their aegis at the Frankfurt and Bologna (children’s) Book Fairs, receiving UKTI grants. Through these he acquired a South Korean agent, Amo, who immediately sold Curd to a publisher there, a Spanish/Portuguese agency, Ilustrata, and a Far East agency, Big Apple, who have just sold translation rights to a mainland Chinese publisher. At Bologna his exhibit was seen by an Israeli publisher who subsequently bought rights to Curd, and by Kassie Evashevki of United Talent Agency in Hollywood, who subsequently acquired the rights to Eat, Pray Love, the Twilight Saga last film and Stieg Larsson with the result that Curd was relegated to the twilight zone.

Meanwhile, back home in its first year, Lovereading4kids (the children’s bookselling website) discovered Curd and made it first a ‘Book and Debut of the Month’ then ‘of the Year.’ This drew the attention of a Fox Films executive who asked for it – but this was stymied by Disney announcing Toy Story Three the week it arrived there.

I had forgotten to mention Curd’s first positive reviewer was the political philosopher, John Gray (Emeritus Professor of European Thought in the Department of Government at the London School of Economics) who wrote an incredibly kind appreciation (link at bottom of article).

He made mistakes. The first print run of Curd the Lion had the two characters, Sweeney the Heenie (a hyena) and O’Flattery the Snake talking phonetic Oirish, which he had probably been advised against and which annoyed the pants off certain adults, though it seemed to affect children, with their more malleable English, not at all. Secondly, he enthusiastically put that first version of Curd up on an Amazon Vine program (whose reviewers receive free copies of any book they choose to review) and discovered exactly those people intolerant of phonetic Oirish. (For my own thaumaturgically therapeutic response to such rude reviews, see link at very bottom of this piece)

So he changed that and has received no negative reviews since then (touch wood) but has slowly acquired appreciative comments from book bloggers, academics and media people (see bottom link) along with a host of fantastically enthusiastic reviews from kids themselves, including some which can be read on this Lovereading4kids page, http://www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/book/3991/
and this lovely response to my half-term signings:

"Dear Alan,

I was thrilled with meeting you today in Bishops Stortford.

My teacher, Miss Jones, really enjoys reading 'Curd the Lion and Us' to my class. All my friends love to listen.

I wish I could be you. I can't wait to tell them I've met you.

When Mummy finishes reading the book to us I'll e-mail again and let you know what we all thought.

Thank-you,

William Shields (6 years old)"

(and mum's follow-up after I sent a pdf of a drawing)

"Dear Alan,

Thank-you for the picture that you drew for William.

He was absolutely thrilled and we'll get it printed professionally and put it on his wall.

Thanks again for making a little boy very happy and for helping him develop a love for stories and reading.

Lesley Shields"

Curd has been through five print runs (up to 3,000 at a time) and has now sold 9,000 plus copies at £14.99, with 42.5% - 57.5% (through Gardners – self-supplied at signings) return to the publisher.

In publishing his second book, ‘The Flight of Birds’ – a Gothic ghost tale – for which he confidently ordered 3,000 copies as a paperback with French flaps to be sold at £9.99, he made a second slip. The copy editor he thought had done the final edit before going to print left before doing so and that print run had its fair share of typos. He failed to double-check and the book went to print. He only discovered this mistake when a very literate teenager pointed it out, adding the rider that though she abhorred any typos in books, she adored the story.

This has now sold out of its first run and the author has introduced a ‘White Edition’ – which version has a different beginning and (happier) ending and was written at the same time as the original dark version – after receiving many reports from ladies who loved the story but were serious upset by the tragic ending. This version – and the Black – is being printed in digital short runs that are relatively unprofitable in response to an edict by James Daunt, head of Waterstones, that threatens the very continuance of his book-signings and the introduction of his books to new readers. See his BookBrunch article on that draconian edict here: http://alangilliland.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/my-book-brunch-piece-on-drastic.html

Until it becomes clear whether or not Alan may continue his business conducted through Waterstones so successfully to date, a decision to print the more profitable litho runs of thousands cannot be made.

This is a shame, since the author (of both) has personally put £140,000-worth of books (10,200+) through the tills of Waterstones and yet still finds himself under threat under this new regime.

For reviews of both books and a more factual analysis of Alan’s progress, see this earlier blog post:
http://alangilliland.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/updated-promotional-material-for-my.html

My own therapy, fresh from the South of Ireland: http://alangilliland.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/limericked-look-at-rude-reviewers-and.html

Oh, and a piece pertinent to the pervasive uninhibited vitriolic outpourings of some internet reviewers: http://alangilliland.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/on-unrestrained-nature-of-vitriol-on.html

Could this be why book stores support introducing unknown authors to new readers?

2012-11-12T05:58:00.000-08:00

I thought you might like to see this lovely response from a boy I met at one of my signings in Waterstones at half-term.

“Dear Alan,
I was thrilled with meeting you today in Bishops Stortford. My teacher, Miss Jones, really enjoys reading ‘Curd the Lion and Us’ to my class. All my friends love to listen. I wish I could be you. I can’t wait to tell them I’ve met you. When Mummy finishes reading the book to us I’ll e-mail again and let you know what we all thought.
Thank-you,
William Shields (6 years old)”

And Mum’s follow-up after I sent him an email pdf of one of my drawings.

“Dear Alan,
Thank-you for the picture that you drew for William. He was absolutely thrilled and we'll get it printed professionally and put it on his wall.
Thanks again for making a little boy very happy and for helping him develop a love for stories and reading.
Lesley Shields”

To the managers of Waterstones’ branches: Without your continued support, store by store, such responses would not be possible and I thank you all.

To any who read this: feel free to pass my thanks on to your colleagues in other branches, especially all those who supported me through the summer holidays and indeed, for the past three and a half years, resulting in roughly £140,000-worth of my books through Waterstones tills at signings (total sales £165,000).
I hope stores will continue to support my work and enable me to have a successful pre-Christmas (see 2011 autumn to Christmas results below).

On querying James Daunt on the purpose of the summer signings policy recommendations, I received the following assurance:
"Persistent, intrusive pitching to customers of books that often did not meet any reasonable standard which, as booksellers, we should have been maintaining, was unacceptable."
"If your books, and the manner with which you engage with our customers, is acceptable, the new policy on events will not hinder you."

I hope you share the view that the quality of my books and my manner of approaching customers are both sufficient to permit me to continue with my business conducted so far successfully through Waterstones.

Folio Society’s facsimile edition: David Attenborough’s Edward Lear Bird illustrations

2012-10-25T10:14:00.002-07:00

The Folio Society are bringing out the most amazing edition of David Attenborough’s bird illustrations. At £895 a snip!
‏@foliosociety

Delighted to announce a new limited edition: David Attenborough's bird prints by Edward Lear, published in facsimile http://bit.ly/XZ5JEd

My dear friend Shabby Tattler (Right) insists I blog his (hah, hah) own watercolour set of birds painted for The Daily Tussock-grass (the UK’s leading ornithological ragwort).

He apologizes for the quality of reproduction here, but reminds me he kindly donated the originals to “cheer up” the gloomy cancer ward where my daughter was treated (successfully).


This cormorant he feels closest to in spirit, he says.

Personally I prefer the subtle monchromatic hues of his arctic tern

He counters with the gaudy oriole...

And parry with a holy roller!

Lost for birds, he fishes about for a reply...

Wild brown trout makes better eating – farmed rainbow, boxed ready for supermarket shelves

“Nuts!” I say, that’s no watercolour, that’s just crayon

Check this link to a recent illustrated proposal in my blog, aimed at the Folio Society – or some illustration-loving publisher! LINK

UPDATED PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL FOR MY BOOKS

2012-10-25T03:32:00.001-07:00

Book promo material update (and why not?)

GENERAL, ABOUT PUBLISHER:
• Raven’s Quill member of the Publishers Association and the Independent Publishers Guild.
• We are in receipt of UK Trade and Investment, grants to exhibit at international book fairs (Frankfurt and Bologna).
• We have sold translation rights to three countries – South Korea, Israel and now China this week.
• RQ is represented by Big Apple across Asia, Amo in South Korea and Ilustrata for the Spanish/Portugese bloc.
• Top literary scouts, Anne Louise Fisher Associates, have been showing Curd to their clients.
Faber Factory distributes its e-books.
Waterstones sales figures in more detail at bottom.
I, as author, have a literary agent at Sheil Land Associates.
My intention when starting this publishing venture was to achieve a critical level of sales above which publishers would find it difficult to ignore the quality and appeal of my books.

TWO BOOKS (so far - several in pipeline):
The Amazing Adventures of Curd the Lion (and us!) in the Land at the Back of Beyond - Alan Gilliland author & illustrator. 176pp. Hardback £14.99. 20 Oct, 2008. ISBN 9780955548611. An illustrated nonsense quest story with a real map. Sold nearly 9,000 copies to date.
The Flight of Birds - Alan Howard author (my pseudonym for adult books). 400pp. Paperback £9.99. 31 Oct, 2010. ISBN 9780955548628. A Gothic ghost tale set in Sussex between Elizabethan England and today, based upon a Greek Myth transposed into an Elizabethan context. Sold nearly 3,000 copies.
The Flight of Birds White Edition. Short run summer edition, 2012. (Different start and ending to original, Black, edition. This version produced in response to feedback from, mainly, females who loved the book but were often very upset by the ending. Both versions were written before original publication).
     I also have available a book of short stories, poems and illustrations, Ana
           Thema, 100pp. Paperback. ISBN 9780955548635. £6.99.

CURD THE LION:
 •The Amazing Adventures of Curd the Lion (and us!) in the Land at the Back of Beyond” – Alan Gilliland author & illustrator. ISABN 9780955548611. £14.99. publ. 20.10.2008.
Sold nearly 9,000 copies to date in hard back at £14.99.
Translation rights sold to three countries – South Korea, Israel and now China this week.
Very nice reviews/articles from (see below): a Bookselling website (Lovereading4kids, Book of Year), an educationist (Margaret Mallett), an award-winning writer and radio broadcaster (Brian Sibley), a political philosopher (John Gray), an established children’s fantasy author (Katherine Langrish), a well-regarded children’s book blogger (BookWitch), the editor of Australian Children’s Book Council magazine (John Cohen), a well-known e-book pundit and organizer of international conferences (Mike Shatzkin), several regional newspapers and lots of children and adults.

REVIEWS for CURD:

• Recently, Brian Sibley, author & broadcaster, WINNER of BEST ADAPTATION for The History of Titus Groan in the BBC Audio Drama Awards, 2012, and author of the official Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film   guides, wrote: “Alan Gilliland's delightful book for children is a heady mix of the tried and trusted format featuring nursery-toys-come-to-life with riddling, punning, nonsense in the style of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear punctuating a twisting, turning roller-coaster adventure story filled with dangers, outlandish encounters and weird and wonderful beings.
There are a mass of subtexts and literary and historical allusions within the story (it is not accidental, for example, that the creature encountered named the 'Dodongs' is an anagram of that Carrollian alter ego, 'Dodgson') and readers armed with the map can trace the route of Curd & Co's adventures in the real location of Brimham Rocks in the Yorkshire Dales.
   With delightful illustrations by the author, this a perfect read-aloud book for bedtime readers - and their listeners! A unique and wonderfully quirky book.”

Lovereading 4kids website: Book of Year, Debut of Year and Personal Choice of Founder, wider age-range than ever given before: “Reminiscent of the writing of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear, this brilliant debut children's novel is completely unputdownable as well as being almost uncategorisable. …a terrifically funny yet mysterious story, full of larger-than-life highly improbable characters that I couldn’t begin to do justice to…other than to say they are wild and wacky and completely original. …full of tongue-in-cheek humour and skilful wordplay …will be loved by anyone from 7 to 107.”

British academic, Margaret Mallet’s book ‘Choosing and Using’ (for student teachers) won the UK Literacy Award: “In a necessarily selective account, I have been concerned to pick out some of the best writers and most memorable titles which have survived over the years and which I think are likely to continue to be read.” On Curd: “It is not surprising that this story has been compared to the work of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear: riddles and word play, mysteries and surprises are wonderfully interwoven. The play on names is superb.”

The philosopher, John Gray:“Gilliland's mix of upside-down logic and serious whimsy is nonsense of the highest calibre. The best thing to have happened to children's literature since Alice went through the looking-glass. I was particularly taken by the Labyrinth chapter. The whole seemed to me delightful - in the magical tradition of George Macdonald, but with an extra dimension of nonsense and wit of its own.”

Author Katherine Langrish: “I agree this is a really unusual book – with brilliant illustrations, too. Think Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll, lots of wordplay and paradoxical fun, and you’ll be there. Not for every child, perhaps, but any budding chess players or crossword puzzle fiends will have a whale of a time. It demands something of the reader, and that’s not a bad thing at all.”

HiT Entertainment (TV company) wrote of Curd: “We really enjoyed the inventive witty narrative and surreal humour in the book. We can see that Curd the Lion might work very well as a family feature film.”

John Cohen, Editor, Reading Time (journal of Children's Book Council of Australia, Feb. 09, extracts from review). "This is an extraordinary book from a former graphics editor of The Telegraph, UK. What Gilliland has done is to lift what might have been another toy story onto a literary gold plate. His ability to play on words as well as to keep the story moving is a rare skill. The result is that the story can be enjoyed as a simple adventure as well as for its tongue-in-cheek word repartee that is reminiscent of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear."

Mike Shatzkin (the US e-book pundit and adviser to top publishers): "Alan, what a great story! I'm glad you didn't ask me before you undertook to do this because I would have told you it was nigh on impossible! But, having achieved this much, I think your Korea sale is just the first of many you'll make around the world. You should find a literary agent to sell rights for you in the US, Canada, and Australia right away." (He organizes international e-book publishing conferences)

THE FLIGHT OF BIRDS:
The Flight of Birds - Alan Howard author (my pseudonym for adult books). 400pp. Paperback £9.99. 31 Oct, 2010. ISBN 9780955548628. A Gothic ghost tale set in Sussex between Elizabethan England and today, based upon a Greek Myth transposed into an Elizabethan context. Sold nearly 3,000 copies.

REVIEWS:

• Steve Sharpe, SVP, European Goldfields: Tweet to @OnundTreefoot: “Just finished The Flight of Birds - fantastic! it had me deferring theTimes Crossword on the commute to London each morning.”
Review: “This is a truly astonishing book. The cleverly spun threads will draw you into a web of intrigue and mystery that will have you gripped throughout. If you enjoyed the Quincunx you will love this - I can't recommend it highly enough.”
[Times crossword expert – 11-28 mins]
Waterstone’s staff reviewer: “The reader is thrust straight into an atmospheric drama, weaving history and fantasy together in this Gothic Danse Macabre, in parts reminiscent of some original brothers' Grimm tales, and the writing is so addictive there's never a good place to put the book down. As for the ending, nothing prepares you for that! I really was not expecting when I started this book for it to have such depth and diversity, horror and enchantment. It combines the magical twists of Neil Gaiman with atmosphere of Poe or Machen.”
Egmont on The Flight of Birds: “The Flight of Birds and its intended sequels make up what is obviously a very ambitious project, but after much discussion our editorial team felt that in some of its themes, and taking into account the literariness of its prose and complexity of its structure, it might be more suited to an adult publisher, or perhaps a teen imprint that is part of an adult publishing house.”
Martyn Drake Blog: “The story itself is hugely intriguing. After the death of her mother, Kate Pegler moves to a small village with her father where she befriends a local boy whose father works on the estate of the Tercel family. But things take a strange twist when Kate encounters the mysterious Shabby Tattler whose very appearance triggers a series of strange events in which Kate finds out about the terrible massacre that took place back in the village during the Elizabethan times. Kate’s future lies in the past and terrible secrets and revelations come to the surface. Intrigue is the key here. I absolute loved the story. Alan has created a rich history filled with high drama through to delicate relationships and some truly shocking moments. Buy this book.”
• Cyberbookworm Blog: “The flight of birds is a modern gothic novel with a twist. It is full of lyrical prose that transports you back into the world of the gothic novel. Full of dark metaphors and an uncomfortable back story that brings the horror alive. It is a story of love, hate, and vengeance on a grand scale. For those that love the gothic genre this will hit the spot. The flight of birds is the first book in an exciting series that promises more thrills and chills to come. Look out for The Toadman and Reprise, the second and third parts of the “Danse Macabre” trilogy.”
LOVEREADING WEBSITE: top of their ‘Horror, Fantasy & Sci Fi’ in December. “The reader too will feel utterly drawn in to follow Kate's story through the author's masterful storytelling powers and the two worlds, modern and historical are woven together in to a web in which the reader has no desire to leave but instead continue turning the pages to the surprising denouement.”
• Littlewriter, Waterlooville (age,18): “This is a book which fills your mind with wonder. The characters live on in your mind long after the last page has been turned and the story is clever, deserving applause for the gripping plots. This book is a book to read if you want to experience a beautiful piece of writing which will stay with you forever.”
• Catherine Hodgson (Teen) Blog: “I really, really enjoyed it. Okay, maybe it was a little bit gory in places (maybe a lot), but I thought that it was really clever and a
really good read. It’s what I’m always looking for - a mystery, stuff from the past, betrayal, horrid stuff like that; but that's just the sort of thing that is really very exciting. There is as much interest in the chapters set in the present day as there
is in the tales from the past; I love it I love it I love it. Thaaaank you, Mr. Alan Howard!”
Chris Bushe, 53: “A book that's sounds frankly weird. A girl goes back in time, whilst remaining in her current time and follows her family’s history back 400 years. This sounds all nonsense but in reality is one of the best books I have ever read. Readers of medieval whodunit novels (CJ Sansom lovers) will love this book. This is an author with great ideas, way beyond many others. He also could easily write separate books about many of the characters in this book.”
OK, these may not carry the same weight as the Curd reviews, but they give you an idea of the sorts of people who like the book.

O/A SALES FIGURES (WATERSTONES ONLY)
Rounding up the business aspect of what I explained there: over the last three and a half years I have built a successful business around the Waterstones group through signings, selling a total, through Waterstone's signings alone, of 10,197 books, or £139,643.03 worth through tills from Oct 20, 2008 to 1 Sept. 2012, earning me £59,348.29 through signings over 46 months at av. £1,290 pm. or £15,482 pa..
   The last financial year was my best, with Raven's Quill income (before costs) from sales at over £19,700. (Compare with traditionally-published author average in Britain)
• Last summer I sold over 1,103 books (£13,459 through tills) over 28 events averaging 39.4 per day (boosted by 3for2 offer on all fiction pb)
• From autumn half-term to Christmas 1,058 (£13,638) over 26 events av. 40.7. [more Curd books sold]
• This summer 809 books (£10,769) over 31 events, av. 26.

And finally – lots of lovely Children’s reviews for Curd on
www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/book/3991
(If you are tempted to buy – support them and buy from them!)

Comment to Janet Reid’s Hard Numbers piece

2012-10-24T10:04:00.002-07:00

Janet Reid, US agent with sharp teeth, wrote a “hard numbers” piece in her blog:
http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.co.uk/

It starts (forgive me for lifting a few lines – my comments won’t make any sense to anyone otherwise):

“Wednesday, October 24, 2012

some hard numbers

My query in-box has a new category these days: authors who've self published with the goal of a larger publisher noticing. There have been some amazing stories in the news about authors who've done just that.
We watch those stories very carefully of course. We're in this biz for money, not love, and if there's a place to find projects we can sell, you bet we're there. If you're thinking of doing this, here's what to consider:
1. To get noticed, you have to sell a lot of books. By a lot I mean more than 20,000.
If this number doesn't daunt you, ask yourself this question: have you ever sold 20,000 units of anything?
If the answer is yes, ask this next question:
Have you sold something to 20,000 people, one by one?
If you self publish you are no longer just the author, you're the salesperson for your book. Do you have any experience selling?...”

Seeking clarification regarding what she deems significant, I wrote a comment to that piece that I reproduce here because I think it may have gone AWOL:

“The Agent Game retweeted your link to this. Query. Are the units sold e-books, hardbacks, paperbacks? At what price? I’m curious to see how you rate a smaller sum sold (in UK) as I have? I’ve hand-sold at signings 7,936 of my first book, an illustrated nonsense quest story, putting £118,960 through tills (of approaching 9,000 sold all told). 2,642 at signings of second Gothic ghost tale (£26,393 thro. tills) of nearly 3,000 all told. ie. 10,578 or £164,880 sold at signings. I collect 42.5 - 60% list depending on distribution method, but have to organize and pay for printing and warehousing. £15 book cost £1.75 per unit on 2,000 run including delivery to UK warehouse from China. £10 book cost £1,32 per unit on 2,000 run. Gardners wholesalers take from 300-1,000 at a time, saving some warehousing costs. Sold transl. rights for first book now to South Korea, Israel and this week to China. Have nice reviews from a political philosopher, educationist (UK Literacy Award winner), writer/broadcaster (winner of BBC Radio drama award this year), a Book of Year for Lovereading4kids website. My SP co. is a member of the IPG and PA in UK, receives UKTI grants to exhibit at international book fairs (Frankfurt & Bologna - but neither this year – terms became tougher). My company represented by Big Apple, Amo (Korea) and Ilustrata (Sp./Po). A lot of effort quite apart from the writing. I do this in my spare time when not illustrating for several publishers (adult non-fiction cutaways, 3D battlemaps – science through to archaeology). Now have UK agent. Shatzkin wrote he would have said beforehand what I have done is impossible and urged me to find US agent ASAP. I also illustrate for architects and developers incl. one several times winner of World Architect of Year. Previous careers in newspapers as photographer then graphic journalist – graphics ed. of Daily Telegraph (UK national) winning 19 international awards incl. UK Press Awards, Graphic Artist of Year (winner 3x and runner-up 2x) and quite a few of your US SND awards.”

This is not intended as any sort of boast, but posted to discover just what she means by significant.
It will deleted as soon as she responds here, if she does, to affirm she did receive my comment.
Have to ring off – blinded by a migraine..

See newer post for more detail on what I have managed on my own:
http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2892592229930113987#editor/target=post;postID=7845014395628244484

Curd the Lion on the Long March into China!

2012-10-18T04:27:00.000-07:00

We’ve just agreed to sell translation rights for Curd the Lion* to a Chinese publisher, Aurora Publishing, through Big Apple Agency.

Looking forward to seeing how their treatment turns out!

That’s now three countries: South Korea and Israel are the other two.

*The Amazing Adventures of Curd the Lion (and us!) in the Land at the Back of Beyond.

Brian Sibley’s Blog on Curd the Lion

2012-10-06T03:25:00.000-07:00

Brian Sibley is an author & broadcaster,

WINNER of BEST ADAPTATION for his six part adaptation of the Gormenghast novels by Mervyn Peake, The History of Titus Groan

in the BBC Audio Drama Awards, 2012,

and author of the official Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film guides.

(The Hobbit film guide is out on 6 Oct. in UK)

and, just out, a behind-the-scenes look at Aardman Animation’s new film, The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists (or for American readers, The Pirates! A Band of Misfits)

(see his blog, http://briansibleytheworks.blogspot.co.uk/)

Now, what on earth has this got to do with me, you might ask?

Not a lot,

except that a few days ago he very kindly wrote in his Ex Libris blog (excerpts): “Alan Gilliland’s delightful book for children (their parents and the young at heart in general) The Amazing Adventures of Curd the Lion (and Us!) in the Land at the Back of Beyond, is a heady mix of the tried and trusted format featuring nursery-toys-come-to-life with riddling, punning, nonsense in the style of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear punctuating a twisting, turning roller-coaster adventure story filled with dangers, outlandish encounters and weird and wonderful beings....

There are a mass of subtexts and literary and historical allusions within the story (it is not accidental, for example, that the creature encountered named the ‘Dodongs’ is an anagram of that Carrollian alter ego, ‘Dodgson’) and readers armed with the map below can trace the route of Curd & Co’s adventures in the real location of Brimham Rocks in the Yorkshire Dales. With delightful illustrations by the author, this the perfect read-aloud book for bedtime readers and their listeners.”

For full article with pictures, see http://briansibley-exlibris.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/

It never rains but it pours

2012-09-25T02:45:00.001-07:00

I awoke this morning with the fuzzy-visioned annunciation of that homunculus, migraine, sitting pregnant upon my head.
Three hours later, I look out at intermittent streaks of sunlight trying to break through this dark depressing rain of the soul that sucks the very breath away from one’s lust for life.

Reminded of the thoughts of the dying Amelia in my book, The Flight of Birds (White Edition):
Amelia watched her daughter hunched over the books, writing furiously, pausing, looking up into the air and then resuming her scribbling.
“Such purposefulness,” she thought to herself, “such concentration – as if there were some meaning to it all.”

We strive and strive and just as we think we achieve some success or stability and come to convince ourselves there is, after all, some meaning or purpose to our lives, something randomly steps in to destroy it.

The ludicrousness and the beauty and the triumph of man is that, in face of this utter meaninglessness, he can still pick himself up and carry on trying.

But how much the more so if he is able to do this without the crutches of faith or belief in some ultimate purpose or teleology, whether that be through religion or science.

Alice’s White Knight lives!

2012-09-03T09:13:00.000-07:00

Sketched once by Tenniel:
a funny masterstroke;
he’s still alive and well
in sunny Basingstoke.

His hair is now neater,
a bit thinner, of course;
a chargeable scooter
he’s swapped for his horse.

Waterstones Summer tour results good

2012-09-02T04:55:00.001-07:00

Final tour result 806 bks (541 Curd) @ £10,769 through tills in 31 signings.
Av. 26 @ £347.39 per day.

Top scores on tour.

Sat:

39 – Colchester

35 – Portsmouth

34 – Basingstoke

29 – Berkhamsted

28 – Bedford

[Compared to top this year: Fareham – 48; High Wycombe 43; Basingstoke 41; Manchester Trafford 40; St Albans 38]

Wkdy:

31 – Colchester

30 – Poole

29 – Bridport / Witney

28 – Ipswich

27 – Lymington

26 – Bury St Edmunds Arc

[Compare top this year: Colchester – 35; Woking /Windsor/Fareham/Bishops Stortford – 33; Reading Oracle – 32]

Curd max on tour:

25 – Colchester

[Top this year: St Albans – 32; Basingstoke – 30; High Wycombe – 28; Fareham – 27; Colchester – 26 sold out by 3.30pm; Reading Oracle – 26]

Conclusion? This summer holidays has been quieter than the year in general vis-a-vis my signings.

My Book Brunch piece on the drastic directive from Waterstone’s re. author-signings

2012-08-05T03:28:00.000-07:00

I earned over £19,500 last year from book sales, the great majority of which were sold through Waterstones at signings.
It was roughly half my total income. I have committed to print runs which will likely now have no chance of being sold. If this directive is strictly enforced, I will in all probability be in severe financial distress by the year's end, after all that effort building a brilliant relationship with Waterstones managers over three and a half years.
Though I had thought there was a possibility of my business failing if Waterstones itself failed, I never dreamed they would do this to authors like me who have a successful business relationship with them.

I hope people will understand why I feel the need to speak up.

(the headline is theirs)

BookBrunch article:

Waterstones' faulty logic (http://www.bookbrunch.co.uk/pid/article_free/waterstones_faulty_logic)

Alan Gilliland • 03 August 2012

A new Waterstones "directive" apparently requires branches to cancel most local author events. Children's author Alan Gilliland, who has sold over £150,000-worth of books, mainly through signings in the Waterstones chain, is but one author dismayed at this latest move.

Simply put, this latest directive suggests that all Waterstones branches should cancel their local author events, with the exception of local book launches or those that are expected to create a queue. The events they retain should last no longer than 90 minutes and be staffed by booksellers throughout. I will add that this means that travelling out of your area is now impossible unless you have a very, very serious following.

Tweeting to my reviewers, I have been receiving a "this is outrageous" reaction. One immediately tweeted to Neil Gaiman and vowed never to buy from Waterstones again if this new policy is strictly enforced. Smaller shops are also apparently disgruntled because good "local" authors help achieve, or exceed, daily targets. Such stores cannot "pull" famous authors, so they will be left out of pocket while impotent to improve their ratings. Rather than this blanket ban, maybe Head Office should have allowed expert local event organisers discretion to permit good sellers but omit ones who are too aggressive or incompetent.

It seems Waterstones' local author/store autonomy drive of last summer has backfired. With the sudden increase in PoD leading to many indifferent and badly designed books, the pressure on stores to permit signings may have resulted in wasted days or complaints. Now the pendulum has swung wildly in the opposite direction. effectively banning all non-crowd-pulling authors, except on a book launch. One can only hope that reason eventually puts a dampener on this lurching from one extreme to the other to one allowing rational choice based on commercial viability to permeate the rank and file bookstores while permitting new authors the chance to prove their viability, as I once did in Guildford, selling more books in my first signing than most authors invited to the concurrent Guildford Book Festival that year.

I hope that the intention is simply to remove the "presumption of a right to hold signings" regardless of the merits of the book or competency of the author. But as it stands, very few shops are going to tie up a member of staff as warden to authors even where they can drum up enough support to gather a queue - and how much extra work is that for a store, prior to any event, let alone having a bookseller hand-sell on the author's behalf?

Having turned over 8,500 Curd the Lion at £15 and 3,000 Flight of Birds at £10 in toto, mostly through signings where staff order the stock (that is, where they don't insist the author brings it with him/her) and then provide a table, I have put something approaching £150,000 through Waterstones tills in this way. I have, it now transpires, foolishly based my business model around the bricks-and-mortar chain as opposed to ebooks because of my love for the printed quality of my illustrated book and its unsuitability as an ebook, for I am about to be rewarded for all the hard work I have put in by a dismissal of service without accounting the small contribution I have personally made to their own continued viability.

Last year, out of area, I toured Southern England, selling over 1,100 books from Exeter to Ipswich over five weeks. In the lead-up to Christmas, I sold 806 (at £15 and £10). Not inconsiderable for an author unknown to every customer on introduction. This edict presages an end to that era in Waterstones of the "discovery" of a new author that so many of my own clients have told me they found enchanting as I talked them into my nonsense adventures with my storyboards.

Is it not sad that, at the same time as James Daunt is very laudably promoting across the chain a beautiful book by an unknown author, (Chingiz Aïtmatov's Jamilia), this draconian edict effectively bans all authors of possible merit but unknown to the chain's customers from the opportunity to gently build a following while seemingly welcoming any celebrity, regardless of merit, who can amass a crowd.

Mark this day with a black stone, as Charles Dodgson would say.

In an era when rank commercialism herds those curators of quality - the major publishers - into frantically rushing out clones of the latest "hot product" to placate their shareholders where the bidding frenzy failed to secure them that new market-leading "product", is it not largely left to the small publishers of old-fashioned integrity to support writers of potential merit through their formative years before success sees them snatched away? How many will be able to continue to do so now, knowing their protégés will get only one shot at bricks-and-mortar success in the biggest chain in Britain unless they can secure an outstanding review in the disappearing book pages of the national newspapers to endear them to that older generation of book buyers who still read newspapers?

Authors will surely be compelled to engage in the frantic banter of self-promotion via online social media to grow their readerships, which itself drives online sales through Amazon, which itself diminishes the need to pop down to the old store to make serendipitous discovery or meet and chat to a real live author (and for many such an intimate exchange with any author carries a certain magic).

No, the future for the customer is endlessly to queue for a cursory glance and a quick squiggle with their idol.

If I had not received this generous support from Waterstones and other bricks-and-mortar bookstores, along with that from Lovereading4kids website, my book would never have reached the eyes of educationalists such as Margaret Mallett who, in her award-winning guide for teachers and student-teachers, Choosing and Using Fiction and Non-Fiction 3-11 (David Fulton), gave Curd the Lion a half-page box, saying: "It's not surprising this book has been compared with Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear: riddles and word play, mysteries and surprises are wonderfully interwoven. The play on names is superb." She prefaced the chapter by saying that "in a necessarily selective account, I have been concerned to pick out some of the best writers and most memorable titles which have survived over the years and which I think are likely to continue to be read." And I would never have discovered, as I did last week, touring Waterstones in Somerset, that Curd the Lion is shortly to be the subject of a lecture by a professor at Bath Spa University. Surely such incremental discovery and recognition of the virtue in a work - in this case in academic circles - must be some proof of the value of permitting unknown authors a platform?

Of course my first acknowledgement came from the most amazing source, John Gray, to whom I am hugely indebted, who gave me permission to use his comment in whatever way might help sell my book: "Gilliland's mix of upside-down logic and serious whimsy is nonsense of the highest calibre. The best thing to have happened to children's literature since Alice went through the looking-glass. I was particularly taken by the Labyrinth chapter. The whole seemed to me delightful - in the magical tradition of George Macdonald, but with an extra dimension of nonsense and wit of its own."

Alan Gilliland is an artist, draughtsman and author by trade. He did not go to art college, preferring devious paths to the realization of his creative ambitions via film-making, architecture, photo-journalism, newspaper cartooning and news information graphics – with 18 years and 19 awards as graphics editor of the Daily Telegraph – before finally arriving at the decision to write and illustrate fictions less ordinary than his own life. His former boss, Sir Max Hastings said of him: "… an exceptionally gifted artist and illustrator… I can endorse as simply ‘the best'."

A time for melancholy?

2012-07-05T01:43:00.003-07:00

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This day I started, bright and cheery,
Yet all at once began to query
Why? For what should I be cheery?
I sought and sought, till eyes were bleary
And of this trial began to weary,
Till sudden dawned a light so eerie:
Like this rhyme’s end, aren’t most lives dreary?

A Black Stone day, then, despite the sudden sunshine. Returning to yesterday’s theme, a visual homage in my book, Curd the Lion, at the end of the tale...

Old Corbie, the Great Raven, becomes a Phoenix, reflecting...

Edmund Dulac’s lovely watercolours from The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, which in turn lead to...

Caspar David Friedrich’s The Wanderer above the Mists, reminding me of his...

Two Men looking at the Moon, that is somehow reminiscent of...

my own photograph, The Wanderer, taken at the enchanted Chanctonbury Ring on the South Downs in Sussex.
If you want to see more of my landscape photos, click this link:
https://picasaweb.google.com/116922605845018607478/AREAWILDNATUREPICTURES#slideshow/5740083912536983906

(I have a first edition copy of the beautiful Dulac book, with the original exhibition poster still inserted.)