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Thanks, Addy. And that's more books to add to an already impossibly long list! My favourite is still the last line in 'Little Boy Lost' by Marghanita Laski, but I can't say it here as it would give the story away. It has me blubbing every time. I even stole the name of that character for one of my own stories as an homage to the book but it didn't get picked up. (Still might

This post began with a conversation between Addy and me about a moment in Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce that takes you emotionally by surprise. Addy said, I can do a post on that! And she did - in the most inclusive way! Thanks, Addy! Notes from the Slushpile really feels like a lovely community with this post! Such a blubworthy list!<br /><br />... er but what happened to Millions?

Re Grandfather&#39;s Bench - was this the grandfather married to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkBnHri8oHE" rel="nofollow">fighter pilot gran</a>?

Aw - thanks, Clare. I will have to read it!

I&#39;ve lost Millions! I love Millions! Shame but now an excuse for a future blog for all those lost words.

Ha! No! This grandfather was more Private Peaceful!

Made me cry - a lot. <br />I can&#39;t read The Selfish Giant (Oscar Wilde) or the moment in The Children of Green Knowe ( L.M.Boston) where Tolly &amp; his great grandmother hear &#39;Lully lullay&#39; on Christmas Eve &quot; and four hundred years ago, a baby went to sleep.&quot;<br />Thanks hive mind.

Oh, that&#39;s lovely, I&#39;d forgotten Green KNowe - there is soooooo much beautiful writing.

Ridiculous to blub just at these tiny fragments, isn&#39;t it? But lovely too. Beautiful selection, Addy. I just finished A MONSTER CALLS and was beside myself with grief and wonder. &quot;I don&#39;t want you to go.&quot; *lays head on table and sobs self stupid*

Oh I KNOW!

I&#39;ve cried more at that book than any other!

I have two book moments. The first has taken a bit of finding, it&#39;s Mrs Weasley. She&#39;s trying to get rid of a boggart from a wardrobe but it keeps turning into her dead children - &#39;I see them d-d-dead all the time!&#39; Mrs Weasley moaned into his shoulder. &#39;All the time! I d-d-dream about it.&#39; It was a great way to show the seriousness of the fight against evil has real

Don&#39;t Let Go by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross always gets me! I have to steel myself to read it out loud.

Thanks, Addy. And Debi Gliori&#39;s &#39;No Matter What&#39; -the UK English non-board book edition. Interesting what Jane said about the US market being happier to have something tear-jerking. &#39;No Matter What&#39; in the States has a massively toned down ending to remove all reference to death. If you know the book (in the English version), you&#39;ll know how crazy that is. The final couple

Something Else by Kathryn Cave and Chris Ridell always kills me with the line, &#39;You&#39;re not like us. You&#39;re something else&#39;. And ditto the line from Dogger. I can almost burst into tears even thinking about Dogger!!! I also love, love, love the line from Tiger Who Came to tea about being in the cafe with all the lights outside..<br />*lies in corner and sobs for rest of day*

Ah, yes! Thanks, Charlotte!

That&#39;s lovely, Clare. Sooo happy Debi&#39;s going to be at Winchester!

That scene in Tiger says so simply and unsentimentally what it&#39;s like to be a child. I also like another book by Kathryn Cave and Nick Maland called, &#39;Friends&#39;. I love this, &quot;when you are lost, in the wood, in the wood, I will find you.&quot; Bravery and friendship in a lyrical line - love it.<br />Now, cheer up, Caroline!

What a lovely post Abby. Wonderful to read about such moving stories, and what they mean to people. Also great to find out about books that I&#39;ve not heard of. I can feel a trip to my local book shop coming on.

I interviewed a bunch of kids about their favourite books and it was interesting that when they started reminiscing about the picture books that they loved when they were barely out of babyhood, they got quite emotional (watch the film <a href="http://www.candygourlay.com/2012/07/we-read-my-diy-documentary-of-what.html" rel="nofollow">here</a>). <br /><br />I so agree with you about Oscar Wilde -

thanks, Sally! Hope you enjoy a good weep!

I love your &#39;We Read&#39; video - such an important film to see, I think. I&#39;d forgotten The Happy Prince and THAT line. Waaaah indeed.

I can&#39;t possibly read this! I&#39;m crying too much! Could someone pass me a tissue?

I meant to say &#39;ALL of the work&#39;

you&#39;ll set everyone off, Jackie!

One line that has always stuck in my mind is from Not Now Bernard - But I&#39;m a monster, said the monster. It may not tug on the heart strings as much as some others but I can still remember the first time I read it - I felt his confusion!

Lovely post. I loved The Maggie B by Irene Haas as a child which is a surreal story about a girl bringing up her little brother on a boat all on her own. Even as a child, I felt there was a sadness to this story although it was a &#39;wish-come-true&#39; and when Margaret sings her brother to sleep, I always feel a little teary.

&quot;Her Mother&#39;s Face&quot; by Roddy Doyle and illustrated by Freya Blackwood. It&#39;s just so beautiful to look at, and I love how the girl struggles to remember what her mother looks like. As she grows up she sees her mother&#39;s face reflected in her own. I was very teary just thinking about my grandparents and trying to remember the sound of my grandpa&#39;s voice. He didn&#39;t talk

I know what you mean although I felt so very sad reading this out loud. Kept wondering if I did that ignoring thing too much. Children just enjoyed it for what it was.

Thanks, Amelia. I don&#39;t know that story but will look it out.

Meant to say, have you read &#39;Bye, Bye Baby?&#39; by the Ahlbergs?

Ah, that&#39;s so sad! And clever with the ending. I love the way pci books can be appreciated at different stages of life.

I love this SO much! I will now go and look for a small child to whack my old manuscripts! Brilliant.

Oh my gosh! Just brilliant! LOL

Oh I love the pinata idea!

I&#39;m currently attempting to dig myself out of my manuscript burrow before someone mistakes it for a pinata. Thanks Sally, very funny post.

Sounds like a good plan, Maureen! Watch out for any golf club-wielding children...

I&#39;m currently attempting to dig myself out of my manuscript burrow before someone mistakes it for a pinata. Thanks Sally, very funny post.

This is a very timely post, as I&#39;m currently cleaning out the study - which very much resembles a manuscript-burrow - to &#39;make room to work&#39;. Procrastination has nothing to do with it. <br /><br />p.s. we have had many a back garden bonfire lit up by cheerfully burning MS&#39;s. It isn&#39;t very green but does keep you warm on an autumn night

It&#39;s not the children wielding golf club to watch out for, it the matches...<br /><br />...Good luck tunnelling!

Hi Teri, I think I need to follow you example, my study its chaos, usually I can ignore, amazing levels of mess but my brain can’t focus so i think I should try clearing it. But I’ll start with the study. Then it&#39;ll be time for a tea break right?

LOL!! Such brilliant ways to recycle one&#39;s ms!! Waste not want not! Wonderful!! Take care<br />x

Brilliant post, Sally. For some strange reason I find myself playing in the digital darkroom. I&#39;m trying to create &quot;works of art&quot; from bits of photographed MSS...

Sounds great,do share them! I&#39;m not that clever on the PC it&#39;s all glue and scissors here!

Absolutely hilarious! Thank you for making me laugh this morning.

Very clever! I love recycling and this is a great example. Usually all my old invalid manuscripts go in a tray for the kids to draw on, but I think it is time to get a little more creative, thanks for sharing. :-)

That is avery stylishly wrapped pressie, Sally<br /><br />Now you&#39;re on Notes from the Slushpile, you&#39;re surely destined for great things! <br />x

Ramona, That&#39;s what I used to do with mine, let the kids have them for drawing. This has stopped now that they can read!

Thanks Jan! Very happy with my wrapping skills am I!

Love it!! Am now going to search out my old manuscripts so I can try some of your suggestions

What fun this is! We all know the lure of procrastinating - great that you can make us laugh about it.

This is sooo funny. For some more light relief here is a funny about procrastination<br />http://caroleschatter.blogspot.co.nz/2012/02/cartoon_23.html

Ha ha - love this post. Very very funny, and useful too.

I love this post! Thanks for writing it Sally - it did really make me wonder how on earth you do it! Amazing.

This is just so inspiring. Thanks for guesting on our blog, Sally, hand-rearer of parrots. Your story is going to move many writers.

Fantastic post, honest and funny. Thanks!

Well done, Sally. You can do. Jean Fullerton, who writes East End sagas, is also dyslexic and has so far had 3 books published. So it can be done.

Julie, thanks for the encouragement. I&#39;ve always been told not to write, so it’s great to see that other dyslexic writers have actually made it!

I&#39;m impressed you managed to find something positive to say in what sounds a really daunting situation. We shall all be giving an extra big cheer when you get published.

Sally! I was laughing my head off in a few places -especially the spell-checkers decision to quit on you. lol! <br /><br />What a great post -and an inspiring one at that. You have a brilliant voice and no doubt, that will shine through in all your projects.<br /><br />I totally know where you are coming from as I have semi-dyslexic/language issues when writing (especially when my mind reads

Have you tried Texthelp? http://www.texthelp.com/<br />My son, who is in the bottom 1% of the population for spelling, used to use voice recognition software, but now prefers this. It can deal with homophones. I doubt if it could solve the brother/brothel problem though!

Hi Janet, <br />I haven’t tried texthelp, but I’ll have a look at it. I did like your son try voice recognition software, about 12years ago I tried ‘Dragon Speak’, but I couldn’t get it to understand my accent (I roll my r’s), so unfortunately for me, I couldn’t train my dragon!