9 Comments
User's avatar
Colleen Paeff's avatar

I love your description of Milkwood, Sophie, and her ability to conjure rainbows. Highly accurate!

Expand full comment
Nidhi Chanani's avatar

I like the first horse AND it's peanut gallery. I like them both... but the first one - reminds me of the things you write about - how this artist life is a struggle and we need to overcome the negative voices and revel in the not knowing for awhile.

Expand full comment
Stephanie Damplo Luke's avatar

F***k the haters! And, every horse made with heart is a Good Horse. <3

Expand full comment
Dashka Slater's avatar

I want to get that as a tattoo!

Expand full comment
Rebecca M Dudley's avatar

So great Dashka. I love this, and I love your drawing! <3

Expand full comment
Elayne Crain's avatar

Dashka, ohmygoodness, I feel this post SO MUCH. Especially this line: "It's like being asked to try your hand at making an illuminated letter on the pages of the Book of Kells." EXACTLY! I made my horse from a paper Target bag (because I forgot to pack socks and only realized it on my way there). It was terrifying--and I leaned into humor as my usual crutch. LOL! You may have had the curse of seeing it: the horse's mouth opens, and it's basically just a joke about not looking a gift horse in the mouth and how creatives are rebels. Honestly, I was just glad to be on the other side of it. 😂

Also, this is very random, but I just finished taking your minicourse on POV through Storyteller Academy, and it was so good! I thought it would mainly be review (because even though I have no basis for being so, sometimes I'm a smug bastard, and even though I knew you were amazing, I also thought, oh, I think about POV most of the time--which, WRONG, apparently). 😂 It brought some stuff to the surface for me--one much-much-revised but still lacking SOMETHING story has been giving me fits, and now I finally see that it probably needs to be first-person (or in the case of this story, first-bird)! All because of this course. (Plus, other great things to ponder!)

Thank you for all you share/do in kidlit and beyond!

Expand full comment
Dashka Slater's avatar

Oh, I'm so glad the course was helpful! I'm eager to see your first bird book! And I'm glad you can relate to the challenge of THE BOOK. I thought your horse was perfect and funny btw. It's funny that we both went to horse puns. Goofballs!

Expand full comment
Elayne Crain's avatar

Goofballs unite! :)

There is something about the line-level mini-surprise (but also inevitability) of a good punny joke that just makes my brain sparkle in the same way a good coincidence does (and there's that quote about coincidences, too, that they are just basically spiritual puns). Not sure I'm explaining myself well because I'm not sure exactly what I'm saying, but reading your post, feeling deja-vu, felt a bit like a spiritual pun? I was like, "HA! I GET THAT." Have a great weekend!

Expand full comment
Jason June's avatar

“Is it about horses or ducks? I mean, pick one.” really made me quack, er, laugh

Expand full comment