OTTAWA. Well it might be a dreary, wet and cold day outside but inside I am feeling pretty bright. My new novel, Bug, has been delivered to the distributor's warehouse (Fitzhenry Whiteside, Markham, Ontario) and the first orders from libraries and bookstores are being filled this week.I will admit that the book is a bit late -- after all it was originally planned as a sequel to my first juvenile novel, Frogger, which was published in 2000. Frogger did really well, sold about 20,000 copies in the first couple of years and was nominated for a Silver Birch Award by the Ontario Library Association. Unfortunately about the time I was wrapping up the first clean draft of Bug, our distributor (General Publishing, Toronto) went bankrupt. Not only did they owe Pokeweed Press (the publisher of my books) a ton of money but the receivers wanted thousands of dollars to release all my other books from the warehouse.
It was a nightmare for both illustrator John Bianchi and me -- largely because John and I own Pokeweed Press. We spent the next couple of years paying off the printing bills for all of our 2000 and 2001 books. And to tell you the truth, we weren't sure we wanted to publish any new books again. I certainly wasn't feeling in a very humorous mood.
But, if we just skip ahead a few years and forget those nasty days, you will be ready to join me in celebrating the launch of Bug. My mother always said, "Better late than never."
For those who don't know this series (The Adventures of Bug & Frogger), Bug is a 12 year old girl who lives with her crazy father, Walter Hapensak. He is one of those business guys who is always dreaming up weird money-making schemes and this book deals with his weirdest one yet. He spends all their savings on an old wrecked dumptruck and then uses it to haul away 1,000 brand new running shoes from a factory that was going to send them to the dump. The reason? They are all leftover shoes that don't match. One thousand unmatched running shoes!!!!
But Walter figures that he and Bug can find a way to sell them to people who want expensive shoes at a really low price. He and Bug abandon their city apartment and head to the little village of Tichburgh to make their fortune -- one $5 shoe at a time.
Bug, of course, hates the idea. Finds it embarassing and is appalled when Walter likes Tichburgh so much that he decides they will live there. Bug is a city girl and life in tiny Tichburgh does not interest her.
While readers don't have to be familiar with Frogger to enjoy Bug, the two novels do share many of the same characters -- and, of course, the same village setting. Rather than a sequel, Bug is a "companion" story to Frogger. Both stories occur over the same weekend and their plots intertwine from time to time -- even though the first book is about Frogger's babysitting adventures (and trip to the fair) while the second is about Bug's arrival in the village.
During my visits to schools across the country, kids usually ask me where my ideas come from. Well, the unmatched-running-shoe idea was inspired by a neighbour of mine from years ago who really did sell a few loads of factory discarded running shoes. None of them matched but he just dumped them into the middle of a parking lot in XXXXXXXX (town name withheld to protect the guilty) and really did sell them. They went like hotcakes. He did it quite a few years in a row and used the money to put his two kids through college. I haven't seen him in years so I don't know if he still does it.
Well, time for me to get back to work on my next project. I have to start contacting schools in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario to arange my school visit schedule for the new school year. (Drop me a line if you want me to visit your school.)
Cheers
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