tall story by candy gourlay

Last week I threw propriety to the wind and begged a Random House publicist named Corinne to get me a copy of Candy Gourlay‘s as-yet unpublished novel, Tall Story. Candy is such a funny, witty, up-for-anything friend that I suspected the book was going to be good, but I was thrilled to find out it was MORE than good, I was absolutely riveted from the second I sat down with it. And read it. And read it again. And then read it a third time. So here’s my little bit of fan art.

You can read more about it over on Candy’s website, and also find lots of great tips about writing and the world of publishing on her blog, Notes from the Slushpile.

The one I’m holding isn’t the real cover, the painted one’s how it’s going to look, at least in Britain.

I love the dynamics of having someone very, very tall in the story. I once went to Hawaii with a group of 20 Taiwanese architects and their families, and being the only non-Taiwanese person and six feet tall, I can tell you, I felt like a giant. At a recent book launch I went to, there was this other woman there named Hayley Campbell, who also has a good view of the top of people’s heads, and we totally eyed each other up from across the room, then had a chat and compared notes on being tall, as you do. We both feel a mixture of solidarity and a bit of competitiveness, when we suddenly find ourselves standing up much straighter next to each other. But our tallness is nothing compared to this Filipino kid in Candy’s book. You totally have to read it when it comes out in here in June. It doesn’t come out until next year in the States, but if you’re clever, you’ll order it from here online and get to make your way through all those funny British spellings. (You can pre-order it here.)

Oh, and one other thing, our DFC team photo got into The Bookseller, whee! (Original Mezolith party blog post here.)