Kayak!

Welcome to the shadowy and not-so-shadowy space behind Sally's books. If you're not familiar with this blog, scroll down to see what it's all about.

Kayak! (Post 59)

Kayak! (1992) is one of the Bandinangi Books series. The main characters, Mark and Luke Winwood, are nine-year-old twins, friends of Jeremy (The Pest) Archer, co-narrator of One Weird Week (Post 56)  Luke and Mark take it in turns to tell their story, but it is not chapter about.

Kayak! had its beginning when I was kayaking down the river with my son. We were down between wooded hilly banks, and I said something about it being impossible to tell the decade (or even the century) from our surroundings. At that point, my son fished an old plastic bag up on his paddle and said, "Twentieth Century, Mum."

It struck me to wonder about how people in the future would view littering, and Kayak! is the story that resulted.

Mark and Luke are twins, but not especially alike, Mark being careless and confident and Luke more withdrawn. They get kayaks for their birthday. Mark calls his Red Devil, and he and Luke talk their big brother Ben into taking them and their kayaks up river where they are meant to join their uncle for a paddle back down to Bandinangi. Ben delivers them to their starting point, but their uncle has not yet arrived. Ben, late for work, leaves them for the supposed ten minutes. Mark starts playing with a plastic bag, blowing it up and then bombing it with stones. It eventually gets away from him. The uncle is still not there some time later. Mark decides to start down river anyway. Luke doesn't want to, and waits, but when Mark disappears around the bend of the river, he decided to follow. After all, Mum is meeting them down at the bridge.

When Luke paddles around the bend, Mark is out of sight. Luke paddles all the way to the bridge, expecting Mark to be there before him, but Mark is not there. Hours pass and a search begins. Hours stretch to weeks and still there's no sign of Mark or Red Devil. The family is devastated.

In the meantime, Mark finds himself in the future where he has been scooped, kayak and all, to face charges for littering. The indestructible plastic bag is produced as evidence.

Kayak! includes a society dressed in all-encompassing sheets, conversing in sign language to avoid noise pollution. Only two people, Prof Q and his daughter, Lulu Quest, speak normal Australian English, and Lulu befriends Mark and tries to help him.

Kayak! became a surprise hit with primary schools where teachers used it in units on conservation and environment. It's been out of print for a long time, but every now and then someone still contacts me trying to replace a battered classroom copy. The paperback turned out not to be as durable as Mark's plastic bag.

About the Blog

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. This preamble will be pasted to the top of each post, so feel free to skip it in future.

The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist.    

Hero

Welcome to the shadowy and not-so-shadowy space behind Sally's books. If you're not familiar with this blog, scroll down to see what it's all about.

Hero (Post 58)

Hero (1998) was a challenge to write. The brief, as well as I remember, nineteen years later, was deceptively simple; write a science fiction chapter book for newly independent readers. What could be difficult about that? 

The thing is, pure science fiction and fantasy are rare genres at this level. That's to do with the word count. A family story or an animal story or even a school story is much easier, because not everything has to be described and explained. Most six-and-seven-year-olds have experience of friendship, family, pets and school, and most understand setting such as city, country, town, beach and mountains or forest. If you mention these words they can call up visual images from experience. If you set a story in a time or place far in the past or future, or in another world, realm or reality, there are fewer terms of reference. 

For Hero, I wanted my main character to be a bonafide  adventure hero; someone who didn't depend on adults to sort things out. Therefore, I sent him fishing in the creek. Something stole his fishhooks, and then the metal eyelets on his shoes and then his lucky buckle. Out hero, not wanting to lose that lucky buckle, took to the creek to get it back and ended up on a purple planet where metal was rare. He is a hero, unravelling clues, observing, making a sacrifice for someone else... and then he comes home again, secure in the knowledge that what he did made a difference out there.

Hero is short, simple and fast-moving. I'm not a fisherman myself, but my son used to fish in the river and creek when he was a child, and I happened to know a bit about bees (a friend's father kept hives) and something about the behaviour of rivers.  

Hero (which shares an illustrator with the picture book I'm Big Enough (Post 43) is out of print, but second hand copies turn up on eBay.

About the Blog

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. This preamble will be pasted to the top of each post, so feel free to skip it in future.

The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 

Will Alexander Nod?

Will Alexander Nod? (Post 57) Welcome to the shadowy and not-so-shadowy space behind Sally's books. If you're not familiar with this blog, scroll down to see what it's all about.

Will Alexander Nod? (2003) is, like Show Us! (Post 52) an embellished story that sounds like a tall tale... but isn't. Athina has been reluctantly co-opted into her aunt's stage show Zeus Nods, playing the role of Hebe, cup-bearer to the gods. She is not pleased to be paired on stage with Alexander Kirk-Papadopoulus or, as Athina calls him, Adelaide Greek Boy, in the role of Ganymede. During the run of rehearsals, fittings and general waiting about, Alexander puts himself out to entertain Athina with tales of his family; especially his parents' long-delayed wedding. Each day he tells her of an increasingly unbelievable reason for the wedding's delay or cancellation. Athina is unwillingly fascinated, waiting for Alexander to "nod", or make a mistake and contradict his own stories. In the end, it dawns on her that Nick the director and Jenny the choreographer actually are the parents in question, and as the stage show wraps the wedding finally goes ahead.

Alexander's tales include Greek and Scottish wedding traditions, which I had to research, the affair of the oscar (a fish) which I already knew about because my son's flatmate had one.and something about pet rats, which again I knew about because my daughter used to have some.  The stage show, being about the Greek gods, was easy to dream up, because Greek and Roman mythology has been a hobby of mine since childhood. In my teens and early twenties I also served as a member of the chorus in various musicals and music halls, so I knew quite a bit about staging musical plays. I don;t know Adelaide very well, but I've been there a few times, and could wing it for a bonsai novel at this length and level.

As with all this series of books I had a wonderful time with this story. It is written under the pseudonym Theo Georgiou, which is something of an in-joke as the name 'Theo" means "gift" and "Georgiou" is a form of "George". The name translates to "Gift of George"... which just suggests (correctly) that I'm the daughter of my father.

If you want to read Will Alexander Nods you may be able to buy it HERE

About the Blog

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. This preamble will be pasted to the top of each post, so feel free to skip it in future.

The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. This preamble will be pasted to the top of each post, so feel free to skip it in future.

The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 

One Weird Week

Welcome to the shadowy and not-so-shadowy space behind Sally's books. If you're not familiar with this blog, scroll down to see what it's all about.

One Weird Week (Post 56) 

One Weird Week (1993) is one of the Bandinangi Books series, following Three Missing Days aka Ex-Spelled, which was Post 13. Five Easy Lessons (Post 48) and Three Loony Months. 

When I first wrote this story, it was called The Hauntograph and was about Jeremy Archer, brother of Justin from Five Easy Lessons. I quite enjoy writing stories from a different point of view, so I thought it would be interesting to see what Jeremy, whom Justin calls "the Pest", was like from his own perspective. The story really began when I was doing school talks in the early 1990s. I very much enjoy doing school talks and workshops, but I did have a problem with autograph hunters. I don't mind signing my books for children, teachers or parents, and I will happily write in autograph books, though I always warn people my handwriting is poor and I can't draw, but what often happens is one child brings a book to be signed and before you know it just about every child in the class appears armed with torn off pages, scraps of paper and blunt pencils. One day, in mild exasperation, I asked the profferer of a particularly tiny scrap of paper what s/he was planning to do with the autograph. The child unblinkingly assured me s/he would stick it in an autograph book immediately after school. 'You'd better,' I responded, 'or I may haunt you.' 

It was just a throw-away remark, but the idea took root in my brain (if not in the child's) and the word hauntograph popped into my mind. What, I wondered, would happen if a child really was haunted by an autograph? Therefore, I inflicted a relief teacher named Mrs Heironymous on Jeremy Archer's Grade Four class, and had her introduce her brother, Inigo Heironymous, as the visiting author. Jeremy asked for an autograph, promised glibly to stick it in his book when he got home, neglected to do so and duly ended up haunted be the autograph. It popped up in his alphabet soup and soap on a rope, among other places.

My editor liked the story but thought it too short, so I added another related plot strand, in which Justin's Grade 7 class was joined by a strange girl named Serendipity Creed, who gave Justin something that might or might not be a wishing ring. While her brothers were dodging about trying to avoid the effects of these peculiar items Rachel Archer was increasingly sure something was going on...

Altogether, it was one weird week, and the extra plot line satisfied the editor. What with the old theatre, a torn poster, a cross country run, pen top fangs, a camel costume and a witch stencil, I had a lovely time writing this one.  The camel costume garnered a late-night telephone call from the cover artist who rang me to enquire about what the wearer would have on his feet. The day after that an editor rang me up to see if this matter had been settled and to explain the call should have been made before eleven at night. I never quite got to the bottom of that, but who cares? One Weird Week is out of print, but second hand copies still pop up.  Incidentally, Serendipity Creed, creepy Uncle Inigo Heironymous and his sister Imelda are at least partially explained in the spin-off story called Serendipity.  

About the Blog

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. This preamble will be pasted to the top of each post, so feel free to skip it in future.

The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 

Thursday, 23 February 2017

The Portal

Welcome to the shadowy and not-so-shadowy space behind Sally's books. If you're not familiar with this blog, scroll down to see what it's all about.

The Portal (Post 55) 

The Portal (2006) is a novella from my alter ego, Lark Westerly whose Fairy on the Christmas Tree (Post 35), Dangerous Lovers: Roses and Thorns (Post 45) and Windsinger (Post 10) have already been let out of the closet on this blog. As with those three, The Portal is unsuitable for younger readers, which is one good reason for Lark's existence. 

Like Fairy on the Christmas Tree, The Portal is a romantic comedy, although the genre is time travel. This story is part of a set, written by several different authors covering the 7 deadly sins and virtues. The virtue I chose to write about was diligence, which accounts for that word on the cover.

The heroine, Jilly, has diligence as a figurative middle name. She is immensely organised and capable and she just can't stand to see other people making a hash of their lives because they lack her attention to detail. When she discovers her absent boyfriend has inherited an old house but has done nothing with it, she goes off to indulge her passion for renovation.

Enter the portal. The diligent Jilly is soon having a most interesting time with three men, all without being in the least unfaithful to her boyfriend. By the time the story ends, Jilly has solved a minor mystery and found the perfect babysitter for her baby. Only a woman as diligent as Jilly could manage that.

The Portal wasn't the first time-travel story I, or my alter egos, had perpetrated, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. It was a lot of fun to write. If you are over eighteen, broadminded, and enjoy a bit of timey-wimey fun, you can pick up The Portal via this link.

About the Blog

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. This preamble will be pasted to the top of each post, so feel free to skip it in future.

The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 

The Snow Cave

Welcome to the shadowy and not-so-shadowy space behind Sally's books. If you're not familiar with this blog, scroll down to see what it's all about.

The Snow Cave (Post 54) 

The Snow Cave (2003) is a bonsai novel, like Selka (Post 14); that is, a novel for confident readers which is much shorter than most. There was a wonderful period in the 1990s and early 2000s when there was a market for these books. They were part of the educational system, but they were every bit as imaginative and original as trade books. They weren't made to focus on a specific curriculum topic; they were made to encourage a love of reading.

The Snow Cave had its beginnings when my daughter and I went to Cradle Mountain and went for a walk in the snow. Neither of us had much experience with snow beyond a few flakes that melt when they hit the ground, so we were intrigued. A lot of the trees had heavy shawls of snow and some of the lower boughs drooped almost to the ground, making caves. We speculated that these would be a good place to hide.

The Snow Cave is about two children running and hiding for their lives. Someone is after them, and they go to ground in a snow cave where they try to comfort one another. Right at the end of the story they hear an unearthly voice calling... so out they get because it's Mum and she wants to know where they are.

Unfortunately, The Snow Cave doesn't seem to have been widely distributed, but the odd copy might pop up in bundles or second-hand sites. It also seems to be available HERE.

About the Blog

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. This preamble will be pasted to the top of each post, so feel free to skip it in future.

The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 

Down River

Welcome to the shadowy and not-so-shadowy space behind Sally's books. If you're not familiar with this blog, scroll down to see what it's all about.

Down River (Post 53) 

Down River (1980) was my fourth published book, following Her Kingdom for a Pony (Post 2), The Day the Cows Slept in and The Room Upstairs. I was invited to write this, via a letter which apparently travelled via Tanzania, was dropped on a road at some point, and run over, and then ended up in my PO box. I know, I know. You couldn't make that up. Anyway, I got the letter, which came from an editor who had read and enjoyed my first book. I should point out that during the 1970s, Australian publishers were expanding their lines, which was why this editor was trawling for authors. I submitted a storyline, wrote the book and some months later Down River was published. 

As with many of my early books, it was vaguely based on fact. Three girls go camping on a river bank. They are Amber and Kerry Dale, who live on the property through which the river flows, and Rosemary Candy, who is Kerry's pen friend. Kerry's dog, Dogg, joins the party and provides the drama when he jumps out of the boat and is swept downstream.

My sister and I and our friends used to spend a lot of time rowing down (and up) our local river, and one day one of our dogs did indeed jump out of the boat and have to be rescued. The fictional version is much more dramatic though. Rosemary, the visitor, has many of the interests I had as a child (that's her on the cover reading a book). 

This is the first book of six in which Amber, Kerry and/or Rosemary appear. Although Kerry is the main character of Down River, Amber is the main character of three others, including  Another Good Friend (Post 16). She also appears in All the Sea Between, The Suitcase, Winter Spring Garden and, under another name, in Peri. I always enjoyed writing about Amber, who was rather beautiful and dramatic with red hair, and who, being multi-talented, had a pretty high opinion of herself and didn't suffer fools lightly. Her sister Kerry was dark and stolid, which provided Amber with a foil and a contrast. Occasionally, I toy with bringing Amber out of mothballs for another story, but then, I have so many characters in my head the new ones tend to take precedence. Then I think, more soberly, about how old she'd be. She was twelve or thirteen in Down River 1980, and fifteen in the books of the early 1990s, so her timeline is a bit odd. She'd be somewhere in her forties by now, I think, and probably still over-achieving and bouncing about in the spotlight. Maybe I might write a short story about her, if I ever get time.

Just for fun, here she is in three other
appearances, drawn by three different illustrators!
 

About the Blog

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. This preamble will be pasted to the top of each post, so feel free to skip it in future.

The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 

Show Us!

Welcome to the shadowy and not-so-shadowy space behind Sally's books. If you're not familiar with this blog, scroll down to see what it's all about.

Show Us! (Post 52)

Show Us! (1987) started out as a story about a girl who had a horse called Helicopper. Or did she? I really don't remember how that idea came up, but I suspect it was from something one of my children said. In any case, I changed the horse to a pig. Again, I don't remember why!
Anna Louise, the self-possessed heroine, tells her friends at school that she has a pig at home. They don't believe her. Each day, she adds another detail to the story of her wonderful pig. It's very old, it belonged to her granny, she washes it in the tub, it needs a lot of money, and it's an unlikely colour. Whenever Anna Louise adds a new detail, her friends question her and ask her to, "Show us!" She always has an excuse.

Eventually the children get so persistent with their challenge (having asked various mentors whether pigs really are like that) that Anna Louise arranges for them to come to her house in the week end. There she shows them the famous pig and lo! Every single thing she said was true. She simply never told them it was a china money pig.

Show Us! is a bit of fun, a tall tale that turns out to be literally true. Anna Louise is a past mistress at the art of creative truth-telling, managing to mislead a whole class while never saying anything untrue. 

Apart from the story, which I enjoyed creating, there are three interesting points. 

1. This book was released to both the trade and education market. 
2. The first publisher I sent it to rejected it with the comment that it wouldn't be possible to illustrate without revealing the twist. (The publisher that did take it had no problem, electing to use thought-clouds to show what the class was visualising.)
3.  The book was dated even before it hit the shops becoming possibly the last children's book in Australia to feature a picture of a two dollar note.

Show Us is, like quite a few of my older books (goodness! It's 30 years old!) kicking on in the eBay and abebooks market. There are no copies available at the time of writing, but if you want one check eBay often.

About the Blog

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. This preamble will be pasted to the top of each post, so feel free to skip it in future.

The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 

Nanda the Naughty Gnome

Welcome to the shadowy and not-so-shadowy space behind Sally's books. If you're not familiar with this blog, scroll down to see what it's all about.

Nanda the Naughty Gnome (Post 51)

Nanda the Naughty Gnome (2009) is the third book in the Little Horrors series, following 2008's Flax, the Feral Fairy Post 6 and Mal, the Mischievous Mermaid, Post 42, Gnomes are probably not quite as well-known as fairies and mermaids, but they're not obscure. Flax, the feral fairy, was dismayed to find herself in a pink-dominated Academy of Sweetness run by Miss Kisses...until she found her natural place at the Hags' Abademy of Badness. Mal the mischievous mermaid crashed a talent quest and accidentally caused a tsunami. Both had a strong image of the way they wanted to be; Flax with her rat-heeled boots and Mal with her vision of herself as a star. Nanda Gemdibbler, the gnome, has an equally strong image of herself. She is a bit of a misfit among the dour gnomes, being taller and having curly hair and bigger wings. Unlike Flax, she is convinced she is really a good fairy and will never be happy until she can attend Miss Kisses' Academy. She sets out to do good deeds such as house-sitting for a fairy and befriending a human, but does her penchant for pink make her good?

With Nanda, I was having fun with role reversal, and, more seriously, with the desire to fit in and the desire to be the self one perceives one can be. The mantra "you can be and do anything you want" seems a horribly dangerous one to me, and one that sets up far too many people for disappointment and discontent. Nanda's activities in befriending Eva Believa, a self-perceived neglected child do bring a positive result however, even if it isn't what Nanda was hoping for. On her adventures, Nanda is accompanied by one of the critter-fae, just like Flax and Mal. In Nanda's case it is the fox-fae, who is every bit as grouchy and self-serving as the dog-fae and the gull-fae, but who still contrives to have a soft spot for Nanda.

For some reason, I visualised Nanda as being ever-so-slightly Dutch-looking in her costume. For the second (and last) time, I actually dressed up as one of my--or rather, Tiff's- characters, to give the illustrator a starting point. You can see one of the reference photos here... and underneath it, the illustrator's response.

Nanda the Naughty Gnome is available here and at other places about the net.

About the Blog

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. This preamble will be pasted to the top of each post, so feel free to skip it in future.

The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist.

Amy Amaryllis

Welcome to the shadowy and not-so-shadowy space behind Sally's books. If you're not familiar with this blog, scroll down to see what it's all about.

Amy Amaryllis (Post 50)

Amy Amaryllis  (1992) is the first book in a loose series of four. It all began when I was ten or eleven years old. My mother's cousin was clever at buying birthday gifts. One year, she gave me an S-seal (which I still have, and which pops up in another book) and a pack of sealing wax. I still remember the interesting scent of that wax; not quite candle wax, but pleasant. Another year she gave our family a box crammed with upmarket samples of marzipan fruit (which I'd never seen before), nuts and little bottles and pots of things. The gift that kicked off this book was a handsome green-covered album with parchment-coloured pages. The edges of the pages were gilt, as you see in some bibles and prayer books. The book was about the size of the large photo albums we used to have, but they were blank. It was a truly magnificent book, and one of the nicest gifts I'd ever had. She knew I enjoyed writing and drawing (remember the sealing wax and seal?) so this was a gift along the same lines. There was just one problem and it was one she couldn't have foreseen. I still loved writing and drawing (and I do to this day) but I'd reached an age at which I recognised, with considerable disappointment, that I was supremely untalented in drawing. I was good at stories, but my handwriting was so bad I'd taught myself to type so I could write stories that had a sporting chance of being read.

I loved that book, but I knew anything I wrote or drew in it wouldn't do it justice. I could have typed stories and stuck them in, but that would have hidden the tinted and textured pages. So... I kept the book on my shelf as I kept other lovely things. Many years later I gave it to my daughter.

Although I couldn't bring myself to use the book as it was intended to be used, I did in fact use it. I gave it to the co-protagonist of Amy Amaryllis.

Amy Day is a typical kid of her times. She loves swimming, she has problems with the school bullies, her big brother Craig is stirring up a bit of trouble at home, but on the whole, she's okay. For her birthday, she has a Walkman and a splendid green book. Amy sometimes hankers for a bit of elegance in her life, so she uses her green birthday book to write a story about a girl who both is and isn't her. Her name is Amaryllis Loveday, and she lives in the land of Ankoor, in a place of castles, cliffs, guilds and carriages. Amaryllis has a brother named Crag, and parents who are similarly glorified versions of Amy's mum and dad.

Meanwhile, in the land of Ankoor, Amaryllis Loveday is tired of being cossetted, and confined. Her brother wants to be a bard, but all she's allowed to do is stand for fittings, draw and write. One day, she begins writing a fanciful tale of a girl with a free and fortunate life. For this girl, she chooses a simplified version of her own name; Amy Day.

Amy and Amaryllis effectively create one another, and soon find themselves living in one another's bodies, in one another's lives. Amaryllis faces down the bullies that bothered Amy, but she nearly drowns when Craig, Amy's brother, pushes her into the water. Her body knows how to swim, since it is Amy's, but Amaryllis's mind has no concept of doing so. Craig understands there's something odd going on, and reluctantly comes to believe the girl who looks like his sister is telling the truth when she says she is someone else. 

Living in Amaryllis's world, Amy is kidnapped and marooned on a rocky prison. It never occurs to the kidnapper that a nobly born girl could swim. Amy escapes, but since she's living in Amaryllis's body she has the opposite problem to her double. She knows how to swim, but this body is not accustomed to it.

Everything gets sorted out eventually as, assisted by their doubles' brothers, the girls work out how to get back into their own lives.

The story was one of the longest I'd written up to that point, and my editor asked me to add a lot more drama while not adding any more length. It was difficult, but I did manage. It was possibly the first book I'd written that completely pleased me and it remains one of my favourites. I am also fond of the cover, although the physical cover of the book is paler in colour than the proof I was shown during the process. If you look at the back-to-back girls you'll see (a) that they are not traditionally pretty, and (b) that they are identical in feature. I think this is the cover that gave me a persistent liking for cover-characters who look like real people.

There is one more odd thing. To me, this is a pure fantasy. Amy and Amaryllis do not live in the same world. During the editing process, someone referred to the book as time-travel. I pointed out it wasn't. It was reality-travel. Someone else also called it time-travel, so I set to work in the final revision to prove it wasn't. Instead of horses, I gave the people of Amaryllis's world riding and draught animals called reinbeast. They looked a little like llamas, but came in different colours, such as blue and gold. The reinbeast, I reckoned, were the proof of the pudding. This is not a time-travel story.

Amy Amaryllis is out of print, but copies do turn up on eBay and abebooks, and I think it is still in some libraries.

About the Blog

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. This preamble will be pasted to the top of each post, so feel free to skip it in future.

The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist.