Hello All,

Well, it's been almost two months since you heard from me. Strangely, it seems that when I had a full-time job I managed to write a newsletter pretty much on time at the end of each month, whereas now that I'm gainfully unemployed, I'm slacking. I sent the December newsletter a good few days into January, and now you get the February newsletter - on time, but including updates from January as well, since I didn't get round to sending one at the end of Jan. Tsk, tsk. I'm going to continue my gallivanting, as well, so future newsletters might be tardy as well. I'm back to the UK at the end of March, and am then going to be visiting Canada and The States before I get back home, via the UK once more. Maybe by the time I've finished all that travelling, I'll be ready to start looking for a job. But now, enough of my waffling, and on to the matters at hand...

GGK News
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> Publications
EOS, GGK's U.S. publishers, have just ordered a reprint of The Lions of Al-Rassan. This is the 10th run for the book there. And over in Europe, both Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors have reached the bestseller list in Croatia.

> On signing books: a message from GGK
"Over the past few years, a great many readers have asked me to autograph and personalize copies of my books: for themselves, or often for friends or spouses, as gifts. I always try to accomodate these requests, but it gets complex with cross-border shipments and I'm afraid it can also become a nuisance for my literary agency, which has been good enough to serve as a mail drop for these packages going back and forth. Over the holiday break I did some thinking about this, and had a coffee with the manager of Book City on Danforth Avenue, here in Toronto, one of my favourite bookstores. They've agreed to something I hope will please the Brightweavings denizens, and simplify a process for all of us. I'm very grateful to the Book City people for helping craft at least a partial solution to a situation where it was becoming difficult to accede to a great many requests." -- GGK

So, what was the partial solution crafted? Well, as of now, anyone wishing to purchase a signed copy of one of the in-print Canadian editions can call Book City at +1 416.469.9997 and give them either a VISA or Mastercard number to pay for the book and shipping costs to wherever you are. (They'll tell you the costs.) The staff at the store will hold the book for GGK to sign and personalize (be sure to spell the name carefully for them!) and then ship it to you. There are limitations to this, obviously. Those of you wanting existing copies signed will have to try to catch up with GGK at a conference or reading somewhere - I'll usually post when and where he's doing public appearances in the readings and screenings section of the website. The other limitation is - to repeat - that this applies to the in-print Canadian editions. These are the trade paperbacks of all the books up to the Mosaic. The Sarantium books are both mass market paperbacks now (same cover design as the hardbacks), and apparently will be for another 6-12 months, when they'll be redone in trade paper, to match up with the Canadian editions for the other historical fantasies. The designs for all these editions can be found on Brightweavings, in the art gallery.

What's New on Bright Weavings
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> Sarantine Covers

Two new covers for Lord of Emperors have arrived to grace the site in the past month. The ever-talented Igor Kordey has created another attractive cover for the Croatian edition, and Mark Stephenson has crafted a spectacular cover for the Spanish edition. To see them both, and a comment from GGK on the Spanish cover, visit the site and scroll down to the bottom of this page:

http://www.brightweavings.com/artgallery/covsarantium.htm

> Byzantine Sports
A new link on the site for those who want to increase their knowledge of the Byzantine Sports that inspired Scortius and his chariot-racing. Did you know that there really were Green and Blue factions in Byzantium?

http://www.brightweavings.com/links/index.htm#sports

> Voyageur Interview
We have a new interview on the site, conducted at the World Fantasy Con in Montreal, in November 2001, for Voyageur magazine. Topics covered include how to achieve texture and realism of place in novels, the use of archetypes and mythic structure and plot in the construction of GGK's novels, and whether GGK's views of the importance of privacy in society have changed in light of recent world events. Read it here:

http://www.brightweavings.com/ggkswords/voyageur.htm

Tidbits
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An interesting article in the New York Times on the web about Ravenna, the real equivalent of GGK's Varena in The Sarantine Mosaic. Worth reading... http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/03/magazine/magazinespecial/03RAVE.html.

In the Forums
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As usual, there's been lots happening in the forums over the last couple of months. First off, I accomplished a reorganization, so when you go and visit you should find it clearer to use, and it'll be more obvious where to find things. There are sub-topics for each of the books (series' combined in single sub-topics), a cross-book discussion for when topics that occur in all 8 books are being discussed, and a few others, like miscellaneous , etc. And whether or not that acted as a spur to activity, there has been plenty of it. Indeed, when I searched new messages for the last 60 days, I found that 75 threads had been active in that time! So in among all those, I had to pick just a few to highlight here. Well, GGK has answered a few more questions in his thread (http://www.brightweavings.com/scgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?5/118), and there's been plenty more activity in the 'Bit O' Fun' thread (http://www.brightweavings.com/scgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?2/161), where you have to leave your own new question whenever you post to answer someone else's, and as for whether or not Alessan was justified in binding Erlein.. well let's just say that when we get to that chapter in our forthcoming Tigana group read we might be able to just refer back to that thread (http://www.brightweavings.com/scgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?178/202) because the episode was so thoroughly taken apart and discussed. But if I were to select just a couple to tempt you, I think we'll go for these....

> Oh Say, What is Love?
Yes, that's a line from the Kindath lullaby that Jehane teaches Ammar and Rodrigo, the one they are both thinking of as they fight at sunset. And Elizabeth used it to open up a discussion on the possibilities and definitions of love, as seen throughout all of GGK's books, including discussion on the possibility and practicality of polygamy, and whether unrequited love can be seen as love at all, or just infatuation. Some highlights:

Francois Vincent:
"In the case of Rodrigo and Jehane, we have created in our mind their love but the actual unfolding of it would be catastrophic to ALL involved (Ammar, Miranda first and foremost). It is the fact that it is not played out that makes it heartbreaking because we want to believe in its beauty but are unwilling to see the horror of its reality."

Davka:
"True enough, in our culture jealousy and possessiveness are seriously inhibiting factors that act against multiple loves, however it could be argued that the degree of jealousy we experience is a product of rather than the reason for the pre-eminence of monogamy in our culture. It is possible that the reason we feel jealous when someone we love loves another is that we fear being replaced by the rival. This is natural in a culture where we insist that you can only love one, but in a society where multiple loves is the norm we might feel less insecure, as a partner’s love for another would hold less risk of our own abandonment."

Thunderchild:
"But if I were to answer the direct question as to what is love - then I would say it's depth. Perhaps Ammar said it best when Jehane asked him how he knew it was her."

Bridget:
"I think there's a difference between love and relationships. A lot of what's been said, and fidelity, jealousy, polygamy and so on, are questions about how love is expressed and how it grows and changes. Love comes first, relationships come second and shape that love. Jehane can love two people, but she can only choose one love that will change and deepen over time. Guinevere's tragedy is that she has a love for Arthur that has been shaped by their life together and because of that her love for Lancelot never really has a chance. Their love seems to me to be a question of what might have been rather than what is...Thought: if we say that a true love is one which is fulfilled and deepened by a loving relationship then in a way we're saying that Urte didn't really love Aelis. And I'm not sure I'd be happy with that."

There's plenty more on the subject, and if you want to contribute, feel free to visit and leave your opinions:

http://www.brightweavings.com/scgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?183/190

> Water and Wine in Al-Rassan

Simony reactivated an older thread about the ending of The Lions of Al-Rassan and what the three glasses of wine left in the garden by Ammar, Alvar and Jehane symbolised, by focussing in on the different ways water and wine are viewed in the cultures of Al-Rassan. I think it is worth repeating her post in full here, for people to reflect on and react to:

I think that it's important to contrast water and wine here: they are contrasted throughout the book, the conflicting beauty of luxury and asceticism. There is a sort of glory to the asceticism of the Majriti, of life stripped down to its bare essentials. Mystics have always understood this, be they Sufi or Cisterian. This same sort of asceticism is mirrored in warrior cultures: Rodrigo talks about the joy of fighting, the clarity that comes when there is no room for luxury, only life and death. However, there is joy in culture and luxury as well--there is real, meaningful beauty in poetry, in art, in striving to build something that brings pleasure, not just sustenance. Unfortunately, these two types of beauty seem to be mutually exclusive--one can not appreciate the ascetic and the luxurious in the same life, or at least not make the switch more than once or twice: to see life stripped bare of all but essentials requires that you really strip everything away, you can't just retreat to a cell and fast two days a week. Likewise, luxury, art, require dedication and time. Anyway, I think that throughout Lions, water is the thing valued by the ascetic, while the Luxurious theme seeks wine. You cannot have a culture that values both: anyone with enough water to make wine does not know the desert. The ascetic wins in Lions: however, by leaving the wine by the water at the close of Lions the three figures light a candle in the dark, so to speak, and afirm that even if luxury has been defeated, it is still valued somewhere, by some people--there are still poets and doctors and thinkers and drinkers.

If you have anything to contribute, or want to read on to a discussion of what Ammar did with his life between the battle at sunset and the epilogue, many years later, then click through to the thread at:

http://www.brightweavings.com/scgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?180/66

And that's just about it from me for now. The group read of Tigana is due to start probably around the end of this week, and I do invite you all to participate - we'll have a timetable up saying when we're reading and discussing what, we'll be taking our time, going almost chapter by chapter as there's just so much there to take in. I'll attempt to send out another email to the list just to announce the group read, but the details should be up on the site forums (in the Tigana subsection) in the next couple of days in any case.

Next month we should be getting some new reader contributions... some art, some poetry, and who knows what else?

Till then,

Deborah