Hello all,

Maybe it’s time I stopped making claims that this is a monthly newsletter and admit that it’s become more of a bi-annual or tri-annual event. Time flies when you’re busy, you know how it is…but as always when so much time has lapsed, I have a bumper edition of the newsletter for you, with lots of very exciting information. We’re in the final stretch now up to the publication of the new novel, and I’m sure you all want to know about it, so I’ll cut straight to the chase and focus on that first…

The Last Light of the Sun
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This probably isn’t news for most of you, or any of you, if you’ve actually visited the site within the last few months. But at Torcon last September, GGK revealed the source of inspiration for the new novel (along with his first public reading from it). He called the forthcoming work his 'Northern novel' and it is his 'take' in his usual manner on the Vikings, Anglo-Saxons and Welsh, loosely in and around the time of Alfred the Great. The official publication dates for The Last Light of the Sun are as follows: March 1, Canada, March 2, USA, April 4, UK – but this week your intrepid webmistress learned that Penguin Canada reports copies are now in the warehouse and will begin shipping across the country on Friday. Sightings can be expected in bookstores by next weekend - Valentine's Day. American timing from ROC ought to be quite close to this, with the UK following about a month behind.

The official launch of the book will be on March 17, at the Harbourfront Centre of Toronto, as part of their Reading Series, at 7:30 pm. GGK will read from the book, and then be interviewed on stage by Mark Askwith, of the SPACE channel. There will also be a Canadian tour (March 1-12), although I don’t yet have the schedule for that. It’ll be posted on the readings page as soon as I know the details.

You can read the blurb from the cover on the new page on the book on the site: http://www.brightweavings.com/books/lastlight.htm - and you can also order the book from that page, via Amazon Canada, USA or UK. If you click through from that page I’ll get a little commission, so that would of course be appreciated. On the other hand, if you want to get yourself a signed copy, you can call Toronto’s Book City on 1.416.469.9997, give them your credit card details and who you want the book signed for, and you’ll get a personalized copy, as GGK goes in and signs books there every few weeks.

So what else can I tell you about the new book? Well, you can see the covers on the website (and they are gorgeous!) The UK is using the same cover as Canada, so you’ve only got two options at the moment, so click through to http://www.brightweavings.com/artgallery/covlastlight.htm to view them.

The February 9 issue of Publishers' Weekly, the most important trade magazine in the book industry, has a starred review of The Last Light of the Sun. Starred reviews are rare, influential, highly coveted. Copyright law prevents a full reprinting here but extracts are allowed, so (no spoilers): "Wonderfully imaginative historical fantasy ... the pieces come together to weave a dazzling tapestry. Solid research, filtered through vibrant prose, serves to convey a sense of how people really lived and died ..."

Oh, and one last bit of information about the book. I’ve read it. What can I say? It deserves that star…

Since we seem to be dividing according to book in this newsletter, rather than the more traditional news/what’s new on the site, I’ll continue in that vein…

The Fionavar Tapestry
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We had some major news from Canada about Fionavar some months back. HarperCollins Canada announced a 'Republishing' (not just the usual reprinting) of The Fionavar Tapestry. The Tapestry has always been in print, in various editions, but this winter has seen a marketing campaign built around new trade paperback editions of all three books, with new covers using icons from Martin Springett's original art on a weaving background derived from a painting by Andy Patton. You can see the cover images up now in the art gallery at http://www.brightweavings.com/artgallery/covfionavar.htm#reissue. The books will have a Foreword jointly written by Janeen Webb of Australia and Dena Bain Taylor of Canada (who are both part of the academic panel here at BW) and there will also be an Afterword by GGK. Publication date is this month, and in fact, they’re now available from Amazon Canada. This is a purely Canadian edition, so books are available through amazon, or by telephoning Book City for signed copies. Again, I’ll get a little commission if you order them through me, so I’ll give you the links right here and now:

The Summer Tree: http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0006393195/brightweaving-20
The Wandering Fire: http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0006393209/brightweaving-20
The Darkest Road: http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0006393217/brightweaving-20

What else do we have new on the site relating to Fionavar? Well, we have a new review from Matthew Winslow of The Green Man Review. You can read that here: http://www.brightweavings.com/reviews/revfionavar.htm#gmr. We also have another new cover – this one for a new omnibus edition of the Tapestry to appear in Russia, and you can see that here: http://www.brightweavings.com/artgallery/covfionavar.htm#russomni

Finally, we have a great new Fionavar addition for the 'Funstuff' section of the site. Sara Strand, aka Silvestris, has created a beautiful version of the tarot deck using characters and situations from Fionavar. She explains the traditional symbolism behind each card, and why she chose the representative from Fionavar for that particular card. Interesting ideas, and beautiful cards, and you can see them here: http://www.brightweavings.com/funstuff/tarot.htm

Other New Stuff
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Well there are a few more odds and ends new on the site, so I’ll list them together here. We have another Russian cover – this one for their edition of The Lions of Al Rassan, which you can see here: http://www.brightweavings.com/artgallery/covalrassan.htm#newuk

- Two new reviews of Beyond this Dark House on the site, one from Cheryl Morgan’s ezine, Emerald City, and one from our very own forum denizen Jenny Bookwyrme for Rambles.Net. You can read them both here: http://www.brightweavings.com/reviews/revbeyonddarkhouse.htm

And that’s pretty much it for GGK and BW news. If any of you are still curious as to what we got up to at Torcon, when various forums denizens met up with GGK, there are details in the forums - reports, photos and limericks penned by the men himself about, ahem, us. You can find all that in this thread on the forum: http://www.brightweavings.com/scgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?2/142060.

Finally, in GGK sightings, although I don’t have details yet for the Canadian tour for the new book, I can tell you that GGK has accepted an invitation to be a Guest at the first Mythic Journeys Conference in Atlanta. This is an ambitious gathering of novelists, poets, artists, musicians, and academics sponsored in part by the Joseph Campbell Foundation. Details are here: http://www.mythicjourneys.org.

Not only that, but he’ll also be appearing as Guest of Honour at the Israeli yearly SF convention, Icon ’04, that will take place at the beginning of October. Finally I’m getting him to my neck o’ the woods…

I hope you all forgive me for the rather lengthy absence of this newsletter. With a new novel out in a matter of weeks, I expect there will be another one rather sooner next time.

Happy Reading!
Till next time,
Deborah