Rainy Day Songs - Boots Of Spanish Leather

Music has played a huge part in the lives of us both and every once in a while, we want to share a song or video that's shaped us, inspired us, or just made us giggle stupidly. I grew up listening to my mom's old 45s and singing along with the Muppets and Lindsay's dad has owned a fiercely independent record store for almost 40 years. We have a very eclectic taste in music - folk, rock, Irish, pop, quirky, sad... pretty much anything that isn't just screaming over drums.

This Rainy Day Song is Boots Of Spanish Leather.

Originally written and performed by the incomparable Bob Dylan, the version that's really caught my fancy lately is by The Airborne Toxic Event and can be found on the album "The Songs Of Bob Dylan, which is a four disc compilation of Dylan covers for a charity. I've always liked the song, but never really listened to the lyrics. (My wife will tell you - I listen to the song and can get emotional about it but when I sing along, the words are always all wrong.)

It's a beautiful song about love and how it falls apart of time and distance and sounds like an old sea shanty. I'd never heard of The Airborne Toxic Event, but I love this version... I'll have to seek out more. There's also a nice cover by the Irish Band Dervish that really has the sea shanty feel, but the ATE version is clearer and easier to hear the beauty of Dylan's lyrics. Enjoy!

Who are the Rainy Day Writers?

In short, we are a couple of married writers who enjoy creating children's books.  This is actually something of a new development in our lives.  If you had suggested to the two of us just five years ago that we would become children's book writers we wouldn't have believed it.  The process was a somewhat slow and subtle surprise for both of us.

For one thing, five years ago, Kris wasn't trying to be a writer.  He is an amazing artist, if a wife can brag her husband up a bit.  However his writing was limited to a few short stories.  I don't know that he ever imagined writing a full series of books.  His main interests were in crime novels, scifi, horror and fantasy.  I had figured that if he ever did get around to writing a novel it would be something for adults.  It was quite a shock to me when Kris found his inspiration to write and his first completed novel was about a young boy sleuthing around the woods and beaches of Washington.

While I've always wanted to be a professional writer, I had assumed that what I enjoyed creating was too dark to be children's books.  I thought that "See Spot Run" and "Babysitters Club" books were what they meant by children's books.  I'll admit that I was a bit too narrow-minded to realize the depth that some of the genre's books achieve and what the readers would allow.  I had thought that the idea of a series of dark children's books was something of an oxymoron.  Now I am excited to dive in and perhaps push the envelope.

Each of us has very different styles of children's writing and different interests in what children's stories we like to read.  Hopefully all of this will mesh well and become an interesting adventure for the writers and the readers!

The two of us are excited to invite you to our new blog, Rainy Day Writers, which will chronicle our writing adventures in the exciting would of children's novels.  Wish us luck and please come back soon to learn more about our novels and our thoughts on writing and reading children's books.