You know sometimes when it gets close to your birthday and you start to get the feeling someone’s planning something for you? I felt like that last November. As my birthday approached, my wife seemed to be more and more on edge, checking with me every day to see if a particular parcel had arrived from America while she was out at work. It eventually did arrive – the day before my birthday – and was immediately snatched from my hands by one of my daughters.
I didn’t think a lot of it until the next day, when I received the most amazing birthday present I’ve ever been given.
I was presented with a book. Not just any book, you understand – this was a true one-off. Until now there was only one copy in existence, and for good reason. The book (with the snappy title The Many Moods of David Moody) contained more than twenty short stories about me on my birthday, written by various members of ‘Moody’s Survivors‘. Me going insane in space as a result of my love of Apple products (thanks to Joe McKinney), me inadvertently triggering the Day of the Triffids (courtesy of Paul Huggins), and several stories involving strippers, chocolate, 80’s pop music, rugby and Twilight – some including all of the above. Needless to say, you won’t be able to buy this book in the shops anytime soon!
The purpose of this long delayed post is two-fold. Firstly, and most importantly, it’s another very public thank you to everyone involved with the production of the book, in particular Shawn Riddle who coordinated the project and who managed to extract a huge amount of personal information (very easily, I might add) from my wife, Lisa. Secondly – and this is the reason for the delay – I wanted to let all the contributors know that copies of the book are finally on their way out to you. They were shipped from America, held up over Christmas, and held up again in customs, but they’re finally about to be posted out.
Thanks again to everyone involved: Shawn Riddle, Steven Caunt, Dave Lightfoot, Charlie Morgan, Rebecca Besser, Joe McKinney, Emma Bunn, Jeremy L Mahan, Timothy W Long, Chip Fehd, Suzanne Robb, Theresa Derwin, J Rodimus Fowler, Jami Sroka, Clare Allington, Paul S Huggins, David Naughton-Shires, Ryan J Fleming, Matt Nord, Rich Hawkins, Jimi Belshaw, Shaun T Page, Lyle Perez-Tinics, and Lisa and Becca Moody.
Best birthday present ever.
