I apologize for the maudlin post but Dust has been out for ten years now. I launched the book on September 21st, 2001 in Saskatoon’s Western Development Museum: 1910 Boomtown. It was the first time I’d launched in such a big and perfectly-themed venue (I wish I could find the pics but they are in storage somewhere). Here’s a pic of the museum interior.
I honestly had no idea how successful the book would become and am still surprised by its reception. It went on to win several awards including:
*The 2001 Governor General’s Award for Children’s Literature
*The 2001 Saskatchewan Book Award for Children’s Literature
*The 2002 Mr. Christie’s Book Award (this came with $ and cookies. Mmm)
*Nominated for a 2004 Edgar Award.
Here I am with Adrienne Clarkson, once the Governor General of Canada. She’s presenting me with a leather-bound copy of DUST.
There are a few things you may not know about the novel. Here’s the first draft of the Canadian cover:
The American version is about 5 pages longer. Because it came out in 2003 I was able to have one more crack at the book and I fine tuned it a bit more and added a few smaller scenes, including one at the end that helped explain the townspeople’s reaction to their “forgetfulness” about their children disappearing. It’s a particularly poignant scene.
There have now been 13 movie companies that have shown interest in the rights, including 4 major Hollywood studios. So far no one has come up with the money to make the movie (or pay off my mortgage).
Work on a graphic novel was started with Christopher Steininger but, as of yet, it has not been picked up by a publisher.
The book continues to be popular in Canada and I’ve received hundreds of emails and letters about it. It eventually went out of print in the U.S. and was never sold to any other countries.
With the advent of ebooks I was able to re-release the book in the US as an ebook (and in the U.K., too).
So it is good to have the book come back to life. It was briefly the #12 bestselling horror novel on Amazon U.S. and the #2 bestselling horror novel on Amazon UK. If only it would stay in those positions I could finance my own movie! : ) It has been rather fun for me to see the book gain a new readership.
So there you have it. A decade of Dust. Happy birthday! Here’s to another ten years….
Arthur Slade 