Blinky Bill and the Battle of Greenpatch

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

Blinky Bill and the Battle of Greenpatch  (Post 106)

Blinky Bill and the Battle of Greenpatch (??), is one of the books I was commissioned to do after writing a novelisation for the Blinky Bill film. I wrote quite a lot of stories for this market, and most of them were effectively story forms of television scripts. To make life interesting, some of the scripts were based on storylines I'd written initially. This particular book is one of a handful that were different in that they were written as original books. They are based on characters initially invented by Dorothy Wall, but more directly on the characters as licenced by the creators of the Blinky Bill film. I know I wrote over twenty-five books for this market, but am unsure of exactly how many as I don't think I have copies of all of them.

Writing about characters that I didn't create myself has always been difficult for me. Using a fairy tale (say) as the basis or theme for a novel is a different matter. As with the Olympic Mascot books (including Post 44 Syd Goes to Platypus Rock) I found it odd to use characters which had to act and speak in a particular way... especially as these characters are nothing like those I create myself. That said, I enjoyed writing Blinky Bill and the Battle of Greenpatch and the others in that batch because I had a lot of latitude with the plot and theme. I think the one I had the most fun with was Blinky Bill on Stage... but that one is a matter for a separate post.

About the Blog 

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (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. If you enjoyed a post, or want to ask about any of my books or my manuscript assessment service, post a comment and I'll get back to you.