I’m Going To AMERICA…..

Still can’t believe it but I’m going to America in March. I’m off to visit publishers and agents and libraries and I’m taking my newest character with me….her name is D’lila Wichita Brigitta LaRue and she’s just about the best travelling companion you could have. She’s pretty good at  GETTING THINGS DONE…sometimes not exactly as they ought to be. I’ve managed to draw her as well and she’s looking pretty delicious. I’ve drawn her helping her Nanny to update her fashion look…you’ll love it.

Christmas and the lovely holidays are over. I guess they finished for me last week when D’lila took hold and I spent days madly rewriting her and then trying to capture the way she is (in my mind) in illustration. Of course, one thing led to another and I’ve finished with a ton of artworks – and, the way it goes, most of them will never be used. They’re the pebbles along the way – the ones you walk over to get to the end of the road.

I’ve also been busy doing the stuff that isn’t so exciting for writers – its working out the ‘business’ of writing. Doing all the letters to introduce yourself to people (like the people I’ll be meeting in … oh, its so exiting…and I’ll say it again….AMERICA), and then working out which workshops I’ll be taking and how I can add exciting bits here and there. The other business of writing is collecting all the bits and pieces (I think they might be called ‘morgue’ files) that I’ve stacked around the place. These are pictures, or notes, or cut-outs from papers and magazines and photocopies of books and articles that I can use in any of the books that I’m planning. So, at the minute, eventhough I’m working hardest with D’lila there is also Lilly Popple (who has a different look and a lot of different stories), Oliver Briskett (and he needs reference material about guide dogs… more about that next paragraph), and songs – hey, now I’m writing songs and I’m loving it. ‘Lilly Popple’ has her own song and I’m working on getting one together for D’lila.

So…Oliver Briskett. I took myself off the a Guide Dog day where I learned all about how puppies are chosen and trained to become Guide dogs. I met one of the dogs who is just about to leave his trainer. He’d been with her for eleven months and was going onto his next stage of training. His trainer was very sad to be letting him go on but she reminds herself that this puppy isn’t her dog at all – and she’s had a job to do that is almost over. Still made her very sad, though. Wow, I was so impressed with her and all the others in that team. The thing that is most important that we can all do to help with the training is to remember that the dogs need all the concentration they have to learn how to be the best they can be when they’re in a harness. That’s when you see them out and about with a yellow vest that says Guide Dog – so, if you see one and want to pat it – and I always do – remember not to. Just put her hands behind you back, send it a thought message about how brilliantly its doing – BUT DON’T PAT IT. Its very hard for the trainers to have to stop to remind you (and about the forty thousand others) who want to stop to say hello the their dog-in-training. It’s hard, I know, not to want to slobber all over it and give it a big kiss on its shiny head but….you know it….DON’T. And, if you want to share it at Newstime at school, please do. Of course the other thing you can do is have a bit of a money raiser to help train a dog….

Now, I’m off to walk my own dogs along the beach. Boy, they could use a bit of training let me tell you. They lead me wherever they want to go and I’m pretty sure that there’s something not quite right about that. Sometimes I finish up in places I don’t want to be.

I’m going to add a photo (if I can remember how to do it) of me in a snake moment. I’m doing this because it makes me look a bit Crocodile Dundee-ish for my American trip. I hope, hope, hope you’re all impressed…

Till next month when I’ll be rounding up my warm clothes ready to go to the other side of the planet,

Love Nette H.