World Book Day
It’s my blog so I’m allowed to brag. For those who know me, you’ll appreciate that I have a bizarre double life. I run ‘The Art of Being Brilliant’ courses by day and masquerade as a children’s author at night. ‘Spy Dog’ has sold almost a million copies worldwide and, I’m delighted to say, has been chosen to be the featured book for this year’s ‘World Book Day’. Pretty cool stuff, at least it is from where I’m sitting. So I’ve written a brand new title called ‘Spy Dog’s Got Talent’, that has a decent shot at being number 1 in the book charts in March.
As my mates pointed out in the pub the other night. ‘It’s alright for you Copey. No wonder you’re happy! You’ve got the easiest job in the world.’ I think I must have looked rather quizzical so they clarified. ‘You know, writing books.’
I can only imagine that they think the books kind of write themselves, while I sit there effortlessly? Maybe they think I go for long country walks, searching for inspiration. Or that I lie on a chaise long, sipping cocktails while I dictate my stories to some lackey who does all the graft? Maybe they’ve forgotten that I have a day job as well?
And my perplexity was deepened when I met a delegate on a course the other week. He was singularly unimpressed by my books. ‘Children’s books eh,’ he snorted, turning over a ‘Spy Dog’ and huffing at the blurb on the back. ‘James Bond in canine form I see. Hardly original,’ he said, raising an eyebrow in disgust.
I nodded. Could be that he’s right. Secret agent mutt undercover as a family pet. I suppose it is an obvious idea?
‘I nearly wrote a book once,’ he added. ‘But mine was going to be a proper adult novel. You know,’ he said, looking me in the eye, ‘a Dan Brown thing. A best seller.’
‘Excellent,’ I beamed. ‘But you said ‘nearly’? What happened to it?’
‘Couldn’t think of an idea,’ he said. I looked for a glimmer of humour in his eye. There was nothing. Deadpan. He meant it. He was going to write a best seller and all he was short of was an idea, some motivation, a chunk of time, a shed load of effort, some perseverance, a dollop of luck and a modicum of inspiration. He’d missed out the most important bit. He’d forgot to start!
It’s a bit like some people’s take on life. Please don’t get the age of 100 and say, ‘I was going to have a great life but never really got around to it.’ Stop talking about life folks. And start living it!
Andy Cope
Many thanks to Andy for this great post taken from his Brilliant Blog - 'If Carlsberg could write blogs...' Enjoy!
We've got more for you from Andy to come - Yey!
The illustrations are by James de la Rue for 'Spy Pups - Danger Island'
