Denis Mina

Steven's been hanging out with one of his heroes today. Denis Mina was in Orkney as part of Book Week Scotland to do a talk this evening about her graphic novel work. She arrived on an early flight from Shetland this morning and Stewart was supposed to be taking her out on a tour as part of her visit but was unwell so the task fell to Steven. He's a big fan of both Denis' novels and comic book work so was absolutely delighted.

In the evening Denis gave a fascinating insight to the world of writing for graphic novels. In particular she was discussing her work in the graphic adaptation of Stieg Larson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the process of a writer working with an artist, or in this case two artists, to produce a novel. It was very interesting to hear that she reckoned her graphic novel work and also adapting someone else's book into the format had made her hone her writers craft and was improving her other novels.

We had dragged our reluctant teenager along to the talk. He grumbled and groaned and wasn't quite sure why we were making him go along to a boring thing at the library (with no one else even vaguely near to his age) but he soon pricked up his ears as Denis talked of graphic novels he had read, artists he admires and the graphic novel section in the library being the place to find subversive underground and age inappropriate content... not to mention her giving him tips on really good comic shops to visit.

In the pic from the left are Allison Miller - local author and the library's reader in residence for the past year, Steven - my better half, library assistant and grinning Fan in this instance, and Denis Mina - great author, really interesting speaker and someone your teenage sons will thinks really cool.