By the big land

Every night there were spoons, a fiddle, a snare drum, guitars, everyone piled and sprawled and feeling fat and thrilled and rich, looking at each other bleary-eyed and spinning, all of us teetering on the edge of sickness. Keep going.

Events, The Dread CrewKate Inglis11 December 2013

Labradorian

I come home to here via planes that took off from Robson Street, the Distillery District, the Outer Banks. Now, Makkovik. Flight is still a miracle. That this house feels like it's got a wagging tail when I walk through the door is another.

Events, The Dread CrewKate Inglis13 November 2013

49th Shelf

“There came a point when the book became itself, and the people in it became real to me. I didn't know if it would end up getting published, but I felt like I owed the characters a chance to exist properly either way by finishing it. Otherwise, they just stagger off like untethered spirits…”

The Dread Crew, Media and PressKate Inglis2 February 2012

End and beginning

For the next month or longer, I'm banned. No edits, no additions, no tweaks. The story is in my editor's hands and from there, we'll figure out what to do with this heavyweight, set a deadline, and look forward to line editing and production.

Flight of the Griffons, The Dread Crew, WritingKate Inglis30 January 2012

"A hoot of a book..."

Some books are written to be read aloud and The Dread Crew definitely fits. A rollicking, rowdy hoot of a book ... there are identifiable characters for both boys and girls, and humor akin to Roald Dahl at his most satirically anti-establishment.

Reviews, The Dread CrewKate Inglis11 January 2011

Faith in scrawl

I went to tear out a sheet for a grocery list and found the birth of a Dread Crew scene, written while curled up on the high side of a starboard tack because for a while, I had to write everywhere. So I did. In waiting rooms, on long drives, on the boat.

Writing, The Dread CrewKate Inglis1 December 2010

Atlantic Author Day

The next book turns its attention to Missy, you might already know. She travels the world and meets new and strange pirate crews, and becomes a spy herself, and encounters a mystery -- in that order. We'll still have Dreads, and Eric and Joe feature too.

Events, Flight of the Griffons, The Dread CrewKate Inglis25 June 2010

Pirates in Scotland

"The Dread Crew is a children's book, but like all the best children's books, that means that adults can ostensibly buy it for someone else and read it themselves on the sly. The book as a whole was.. I find it hard to pinpoint the correct word. 'Entrancing' is closest.”

Reviews, The Dread CrewKate Inglis24 January 2010

Not just for kids

“When The Dread Crew came in the mail, Dustan snatched it up before I could. I know it will rock my world because here's Dustan's review: ‘Ok. I have this idea. We are going to do this... this Scavenger Hunt for our kids, it will be a story, except it will be REAL…’”

Reviews, The Dread CrewKate Inglis12 January 2010

World travellers

Cast them as far as I could. Had no idea one of them would end up in Tasmania, but it did, didn't it? And Queens, New York. And London and Wisconsin and Paris and Palo Alto and on from there. Be good, words. Earn that hard-won Canadian pulp.

The Dread CrewKate Inglis29 November 2009

It's here

It’s not just an ISBN number anymore. It’s real, and the spine makes that lovely cracking sound when you break it open, and it smells delicious, like fresh ink. The Dread Crew: Pirates of the Backwoods is in stores and in my hands. Isn’t that something.

The Dread CrewKate Inglis2 November 2009

A second: letter from a pirate

“Do you think pirates get a bad press? Have you ever made someone walk the plank? Do you like Gretchen? Do you know the rhyme Solomon Grundy? Do your maggots have names? How do you pickle a herring? If you are such a good strategist, do you play chess?”

The Dread CrewKate Inglis21 September 2009

A first: letter from a pirate

“What is it like to be a pirate? I have so many questions to ask you about being a pirate. What is your favourite hobby? Do you go to school ever? Do you have children? Are you guys crazy? How is your life being a pirate? There is a bunch more but that is too much to write, so see you later. Please email me back.”

The Dread CrewKate Inglis7 September 2009

The Dread Crew

The Dread Crew: Pirates of the Backwoods is my book and the amazing bike-riding Sydney is polishing the final chapter illustrations right now and then one more proof and then it hits the presses and it'll be shipping in mid-October and here's the cover and check out the maggots wriggling in Vince's beard.

The Dread CrewKate Inglis20 July 2009

One-step novel

If I had sat at the kitchen table on a Tuesday and said Hey, I Could Write a Book, You Know, A Novel, and Hey, Maybe I Could Get It Into, You Know, Stores and Stuff, and By The Way, Does Anyone Know How To Write A Novel? —I wouldn’t have even attempted.

The Dread CrewKate Inglis16 February 2009

The muse

I have help. He is the soundtrack of the chase, the madness. Characters jostle and taunt. They stink. I push up my sleeves and yell back and they break it up, do as I say. A ghost in their world, I’ve got street cred. I come bearing the Man in Black.

The Dread Crew, WritingKate Inglis8 December 2008

On the hunt

As we walked along the trail through meadows and tunnels with poplar canopies and over bridges and slippery roots it occurred to me where I might be. This is the old man’s land, where it all happens...

The Dread Crew, WritingKate Inglis1 September 2008

The next gestation

I don’t even know how to say this, in case the publisher falls down a well and emerges with amnesia—but I'm told it’s going to happen, although it’s not what you might think. It’s an adventure novel for kids, and in about 18 months, it will be born.

The Dread Crew, WritingKate Inglis4 July 2008