No, not an actual marriage… But it’s the first thing to make me so excited (if you discount the release of Artemis Fowl book 6 last month… and perhaps not surprisingly, this is related).
Here’s the press release on Eoin Colfer’s site: And Another Thing: Full Press Release
And here’s a summary for those who can’t be bothered to read it:
The widow of Douglas Adams, Jane Belson, has chosen Eoin Colfer to write book 6 of the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy Trilogy… It will be called “And Another Thing”, and will be out in Penguin Hardback next October (2009).
I saw that yesterday and stared at the screen in wonder for several minutes.
My reason is this: Douglas Adams and Eoin Colfer are two authors who have changed the way I think about writing and about storytelling – both have surfaced in my consciousness when I was looking for something to keep going for, and have sustained their appeal for me ever since (which believe me, is unusual). They both also inspired me to write – in different ways.
I was lent a copy of the first Artemis Fowl book in April 2002 by someone who recommended it as something good to get through the gap between Harry Potter books. I devoured it in less than a day, and since then, I’ve read that book probably hundreds of times and have far and away preferred Artemis to Harry.
It was as visual a piece of writing as I’ve ever come across, if that makes sense. I wasn’t surprised to hear talk of a Hollywood film soon afterwards. But its exciting – writing that makes your heart beat faster, your nerves jangle and every sense in your body tingle is a rare and treasured thing. And he managed it with the first book in the series.
My theory is that most series of novels take a couple to hit a peak – it happened with Harry Potter, in my opinion (Book 3: The Prisoner of Azkaban is the best, I think). Saying that, its disproved countless times…
I then bought a copy of a different Eoin Colfer book – The Wish List – thinking I could read it during a week away at Spring Harvest. I read the whole thing on the journey up to Skegness – finishing with about an hour to spare.
When I think about it, it’s the spirit of the writing that attracts me – the style, certainly of Artemis Fowl – follows on almost fittingly on a line that includes Robert Louis Stevenson, Jules Verne and John Buchan, with a twist of HG Wells. His writing – even for small children – is engaging, vivid, exciting, and laugh-out-loud-funny when it wants to be. All things I aspire to achieving one day.
One of my favourite things about Eoin is his enthusiasm. He recently wrote an introduction to a new Penguin Classics edition of “Treasure Island”, extolling the virtues of the book for good reason… and he also embraces his audience – going on national tours to connect with people, encourage kids to read and make people enjoy stories – not to promote his books… And his enthusiasm for Hitchhiker’s is infectious – here’s the piece on his website about the new project…
Eoin Colfer on Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
If you haven’t read an Artemis Fowl, go and do that. Beg, borrow, steal, murder, whatever. You have to read the original book at least.
Hitchhiker’s Guide was a discovery I consciously made myself. I heard a couple of people at school talking about it, and soon after I got my first job, I went hunting for the cassettes of the original radio series. I wore those out in a matter of months. It took a while to read the books – mainly because I assumed that Adams would have produced a pretty standard novelisation (like happened with Doctor Who books – although they’re still marvellous). But I was proved delightfully wrong. Having then read Neil Gaiman’s biography of Douglas, I realised that he was so full of ideas, so creative in his thinking, that he never quite got the same result twice. I know that he suffered from crippling writer’s block, which depressed him – and he was famously not a prolific writer – often having to be forced to sit down and write.
The influence these two have had on my reading tastes and my desire to write is sizeable, but I’m not going to get all gushy – for people to spout forth about the brilliance and the influence of Douglas Adams is more cliché than a Westlife video and the best thing I can say about Eoin Colfer is what I’ve already said… Plus, I don’t want to look like a fan now, do I…?
Despite not wanting to be gushy, the combination of Eoin’s writing and Douglas’ creations makes me want to squeal with joy. So naturally, I’m already panicking that its going to be a huge let-down… Oh to be able to ignore paranoia.
Here’s the press release on Eoin Colfer’s site: And Another Thing: Full Press Release
And here’s a summary for those who can’t be bothered to read it:
The widow of Douglas Adams, Jane Belson, has chosen Eoin Colfer to write book 6 of the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy Trilogy… It will be called “And Another Thing”, and will be out in Penguin Hardback next October (2009).
I saw that yesterday and stared at the screen in wonder for several minutes.
My reason is this: Douglas Adams and Eoin Colfer are two authors who have changed the way I think about writing and about storytelling – both have surfaced in my consciousness when I was looking for something to keep going for, and have sustained their appeal for me ever since (which believe me, is unusual). They both also inspired me to write – in different ways.
I was lent a copy of the first Artemis Fowl book in April 2002 by someone who recommended it as something good to get through the gap between Harry Potter books. I devoured it in less than a day, and since then, I’ve read that book probably hundreds of times and have far and away preferred Artemis to Harry.
It was as visual a piece of writing as I’ve ever come across, if that makes sense. I wasn’t surprised to hear talk of a Hollywood film soon afterwards. But its exciting – writing that makes your heart beat faster, your nerves jangle and every sense in your body tingle is a rare and treasured thing. And he managed it with the first book in the series.
My theory is that most series of novels take a couple to hit a peak – it happened with Harry Potter, in my opinion (Book 3: The Prisoner of Azkaban is the best, I think). Saying that, its disproved countless times…
I then bought a copy of a different Eoin Colfer book – The Wish List – thinking I could read it during a week away at Spring Harvest. I read the whole thing on the journey up to Skegness – finishing with about an hour to spare.
When I think about it, it’s the spirit of the writing that attracts me – the style, certainly of Artemis Fowl – follows on almost fittingly on a line that includes Robert Louis Stevenson, Jules Verne and John Buchan, with a twist of HG Wells. His writing – even for small children – is engaging, vivid, exciting, and laugh-out-loud-funny when it wants to be. All things I aspire to achieving one day.
One of my favourite things about Eoin is his enthusiasm. He recently wrote an introduction to a new Penguin Classics edition of “Treasure Island”, extolling the virtues of the book for good reason… and he also embraces his audience – going on national tours to connect with people, encourage kids to read and make people enjoy stories – not to promote his books… And his enthusiasm for Hitchhiker’s is infectious – here’s the piece on his website about the new project…
Eoin Colfer on Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
If you haven’t read an Artemis Fowl, go and do that. Beg, borrow, steal, murder, whatever. You have to read the original book at least.
Hitchhiker’s Guide was a discovery I consciously made myself. I heard a couple of people at school talking about it, and soon after I got my first job, I went hunting for the cassettes of the original radio series. I wore those out in a matter of months. It took a while to read the books – mainly because I assumed that Adams would have produced a pretty standard novelisation (like happened with Doctor Who books – although they’re still marvellous). But I was proved delightfully wrong. Having then read Neil Gaiman’s biography of Douglas, I realised that he was so full of ideas, so creative in his thinking, that he never quite got the same result twice. I know that he suffered from crippling writer’s block, which depressed him – and he was famously not a prolific writer – often having to be forced to sit down and write.
The influence these two have had on my reading tastes and my desire to write is sizeable, but I’m not going to get all gushy – for people to spout forth about the brilliance and the influence of Douglas Adams is more cliché than a Westlife video and the best thing I can say about Eoin Colfer is what I’ve already said… Plus, I don’t want to look like a fan now, do I…?
Despite not wanting to be gushy, the combination of Eoin’s writing and Douglas’ creations makes me want to squeal with joy. So naturally, I’m already panicking that its going to be a huge let-down… Oh to be able to ignore paranoia.
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