Saturday 18 March 2017

What a Day!

Welcome to Sally's book-a-day-for-2017 blog. If unfamiliar with the blog, scroll down.

What a Day! (Post 77)

What a Day! came out in 1987, as an early example of dog-narrated humour. Mr D, the dog who tells his story, is not pleased when the Mean Monstrosity, a battle-scarred ginger cat, wishes him a nice morning. He then has a close encounter with the equally battle-scarred Walking Dogfight.
From this point he knows it is not going to be a nice morning at all. Things get rapidly worse for Mr D, especially when his child owners drag him out from his hiding place under a bush and bath him. They then proceed to dress him up and carry  him off to the pet parade.

Mr D is mortified. What if the Mean Monstrosity and the Walking Dogfight see him dressed up in streamers? As it turns out, he has little to fear, for who should he see at the parade but his two enemies who have also been coerced into clothing. The Mean Monstrosity, indeed, is done up as a baby in a pram.

"Hi, Kitsyboy..." Mr D's greeting turns the tables and all is well. Until the next time.

I remember writing this book because I enjoyed the scenario. Most kids have at some time tried to dress up a pet. I thought it would be fun to look at it from the pet's point of view. I remember also I had to change the cat's name from my original one (it was considered un-PC) and also that although the Walking Dogfight is described in the text as a bull terrier, the illustration shows a bulldog. Oddly, I don't think anyone else ever noted that detail. At least, no one ever mentioned it to me.

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





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