Good things come in threes…
Third time’s a charm…
Trilogies…
To quote the song: ” The past, the present, the future… Three is the magic number!”
It’s Here!
Well this week I got my hands on book number 3, my third book in “The Adventures of Johnny Magory” series of children’s books and I’m brimming from
ear to ear with pride! (As you will see from the picture!)
I feel that this one has shown I’ve grown as an author (still feel weird calling myself that!) and here’s how. The first book came out and I didn’t know what or how to think, do, work, write, embrace it, nurture it… Generally didn’t know what I was at at all. It was so unbelievably successful in terms of feedback and children adoring Johnny ‘the’ Gory (as the small ones seem to call him) that I pushed onto number 2 quite naively.
Number 2 was ‘pushed’ a bit too much. I pushed my writing and rhyming and ‘pushed’ it through to print and ended up with little mistakes that nobody else would notice; but I do…
Side note: to all of you super people who have a first edition copy of ‘Johnny Magory & the Game of Rounders’, hang onto it… It’ll be worth millions in years to come!
I still am so proud of number 2 because I’ve yet to read a children’s book that name checks so much of the beautiful flora and fauna in the Irish bogs but I learned my lessons though and delivered number 3 ( I hope, if anybody notices any errors please do get in touch!).
This Book
This book (Johnny Magory and the Wild Water Race) is one I’m super close to. The character’s in it are all inspired from people and animals that I’ve known and loved throughout my life.
Take Johnny’s little sister Lily-May for instance. Lily is my Daddy’s mother and May is my Mammy’s mother. Two of the strongest and hardiest women I’ll probably ever know!
Paddy was my own Grandad who passed away at 90 years old. He worked on the canals for a long time and spent his retirement making the most wonderful flowerpots and garden ornaments from bits of wood that were destined for the fire.
‘Coolagh’ the barge is the name of the place where they are from.
Most of the animals that feature in the Johnny Magory books are actual animals from my life that have been wonderfully recreated by Kim Shaw my amazing illustrator. There’ll be more blogs on these guys shortly!
So I hope you all enjoy ‘Johnny Magory and the Wild Water Race’ as much as we do here in Ballynafagh. I’d love to hear your feedback on it.
EJ
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