A Dog's Nose

Writing is a strange and utterly unpredictable business. The things you write which you dearly hope may reach far corners and become special to others remain all but unread, and the pieces which you dashed off on the back of an old envelope and thought nothing about go far beyond your wildest dreams. It has proved rather like that with my newest book for children.

Many years ago I was living on the west coast of Norway. I read and spoke the language, and I worked in the local library, searching for something that might give me a good story. After long hours of hunting I found just one sentence in an old book. According to this particular legend, during the voyage of the Ark across the great seas, Noah's precious vessel had sprung a leak. And Noah, who had become good friends with the dog during the first two weeks of the voyage, used the dog's nose to plug the gap in the planks. And that is why ever since the dog has had a cold, wet nose. Just one sentence. But I knew that this was my story.

To begin with, I simply used it in primary schools to tell to children. I embellished it, of course, and after a time the rough edges were smoothed and it was ready to be written down. I then sent the story to unthinkable numbers of publishers and kept on believing the story was going to make it as a picture book for younger children. And always the publishers wrote back and said they had enjoyed it and been amused by it, but that it wasn't quite right for them....

But I didn't give up. I knew that story of Noah and the dog's nose had to find a place somewhere. And strangely enough, it was a Norwegian publisher that took the risk on it first. The illustrations were magnificent: the big pages held a dozen stories from that whole world of the Ark. The book went on to win that year's prize for picture books in Norway. And then the story was bought by a German publishing house, and by one in Italy, and in Spain, and so on.

Now, at the end of this year, Why Dogs have Wet Noses has appeared in 11 languages. The irony is that it was published most recently in English, by Enchanted Lion in New York. So that means it is available in the United Kingdom too, as well as in Russia, Japan and several other countries too.

It reminds me of what I was told by a famous American children's author many years ago, when I was determined to start writing. She said that her first book had been rejected 86 times. And the 87th publishing house said yes. If you truly believe in a piece of writing, you won't give up on it. Because there will be a home for it one day.