Hello All,

Well I'm a tad late with your March issue of Warp & Weft because I'm jetsetting again. Am currently visiting with family in the UK, and will be off to Toronto and New York in a few days for a long awaited holiday*. So my apologies for the tardiness on this newsletter, and an apology in advance for the fact that I doubt you'll be getting an April newsletter at all. A mini-hiatus, to be resumed I hope, by the end of May. Meanwhile, on to the more interesting news...

*For the understandably confused among you, this newsletter did not make it into your email boxes. I'm having problems with my distributions lists on this laptop, and short of sending individual emails to over 800 people, I had to admit defeat after 4 hours of tinkering. I put this newsletter into html to go on the site whilst I sat in Chicago airport, awaiting transfer to Toronto, and am now updating it before finally sending it live while in Toronto. This does unfortunately mean there might be no newsletters until June.

GGK News
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> Publications
A Song for Arbonne is being launched in Croatia the week of the 16th of April. GGK will be doing a media and speaking tour in Croatia that week, to assist Algoritam in the launch. Arbonne is the last of his books to be published in that country. The two volumes of The Sarantine Mosaic appeared last autumn, and were national bestsellers there. He'll be speaking in Zagreb on April 16th, then in Split (the site of Diocletian's Palace!) and at the national librarians' conference in Novi Vinodolski, and then will be signing books back in Zagreb on the 20th. So if there are any Croatians reading this, you might want to pop along to one of those events.

What's New on Bright Weavings
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> Arbonne Cover

The Croatian publishers certainly put care into their presentation of GGK's books - their regular GGK artist, Igor Kordey, has produced another beautiful piece of work to grace the cover of their edition of Arbonne. This is reminiscent of the John Howe cover, with the Arch of the Ancients by Lake Dierne being shown as backdrop to the scene that opens the book...

http://www.brightweavings.com/artgallery/covarbonne.htm#croatia

> 'Silvenes'
A new area opened up on the site to complement our reader art and music - reader poetry (which has joined the music section, now titled 'Music & Verse.' William Bazzell has contributed an accomplished poem titled 'Silvenes' which is inspired, as will be clear, by The Lions of Al-Rassan and the beautiful cities that existed for a time, before their destruction in the fall of the khalifate. Well worth a read...

http://www.brightweavings.com/music/bazzell.htm

> Lisen
A new image for the site sent in by a reader - Annah Hutchings has given us her conception of Lisen of the Wood, together with an explanation of why she chose Lisen to portray, and the methods she used...

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

Tidbits
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Just to make a few of you the teensiest bit jealous... GGK was in London the weekend of the 13th/14th April, on his way to Croatia, which gave some of us the opportunity to meet up. Darren Nash, Earthlight's Marketing Man Extraordinaire arranged a bit of a shindig for GGK, in a pub in Covent Garden on Saturday night, to which the likes of Robert Holdstock popped along, together with various other publishing luminaries, and a few names that might be recognisable to those of you that frequent the forums, including Daisyjane, Bridget, Nic Clarke and myself. We even managed to get Martin Springett to show up, since he was also in the UK! Much fun was had by all - I won't mention who drunk whom under the table but the names Darren and Nic do come in there somewhere... and speaking of denizens meeting up, now that I'm in Toronto, I must add that last night (24 April) I met up once again with Mr Kay, together with various Torontonians, including GGK's editor, the ubiquitous Mr Springett, and our own Audrey and Miriam from the forums. Again, much fun was had by all. Those who were participants at either event are of course welcome to relate (some of) their adventures on the forums. And speaking of the forums...

In the Forums
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> Why do you read Fantasy?
Sounds like an essay title from a good school, doesn't it? Well, it is. In the fine tradition of coming to these forums for help with your homework, a 9th grader doing a project on The Lions of Al-Rassan asked the question. And got a few interesting answers. Why do you read fantasy? This is what some denizens had to say:

Firrineach:
"I think fantasy, more than many genres or mediums, lends itself to moral issues. Moral dilemmas and issues which are faced everyday in normal life, and which many people may not even notice or care to discuss, can be explored in fantasy."

Jaquandor:
"I suppose I could come up with a fairly cogent defense of fantasy as an area of literary inquiry and creation, and use that as an answer to why I read it; but the simple answer -- and more to the heart of it, I think -- is that I like magic, and I like swords, and I like court politics, and I like lands that never were, and I like heroes who are really good and villains who are really awful, and I like horrible creatures, and I like stories based on myth. I like tales where wizards show up on some homebody's doorstep and take that person on an adventure that will shake the entire world (The Hobbit, LOTR). I like stories where a fantasy realm's greatest poet can also be a lethal assassin and warrior (Lions of Al-Rassan). I like stories where the Wars of the Roses are expanded across an entire world (A Song of Ice and Fire). I like stories where magical beings live in the dark corner of a "normal" city (anything by Charles de Lint). I like stories where lepers rise to heroism in a mythical realm (the Thomas Covenant Chronicles). And I love classic stories of true love and high adventure (The Princess Bride). "

Olivier:
"As time went by, I realized that my love of magic was not the main reason: I read fantasy because I believe it's the only (literary) place where Beauty can be fully unleashed. I have nothing against regular fiction, but the laws of the world (physical or social) are such that they sometimes restrain Beauty from exploding as it should constantly be doing. Fantasy can do away with such restraints (at least some of them)."

Jim Collins:
"I read fantasy and science fiction because I love good writing and there are some very good writers working in those fields. I also read an occasional mystery and lots of "mainstream" fiction. I like variety."

If you want to say why you read fantasy, or read some more thoughts, click through to the forum:

http://www.brightweavings.com/scgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?2/233

> Facial Hair
Adele chose this slightly different topic to delurk with on the forums. We're glad she did though, as it prompted some interesting speculations, and a word or two from the writer himself:

Adele:
"That is to say, the many charming, polished, smooth-tongued men in GGK's books seem to be light-haired and clean-shaven. Men more uncomfortable with their social situation or more rough around the edges (I'm especially thinking of Blaise and Aileron, here) or simply less verbally flashy tend have darker hair and posess more facial hair."

Elizabeth:
"Crispin's is changed for him. Does that count? Symbolically, it does coincide with the beginning of great change in his life. And it was, before, a symbol of his foreign-ness, his "outsider" personae in Sarantium where all are beardless. Historically, beards have often been associated with wisdom. The Bearded Sage on the Mountain Top. The Taciturn "Mystery-man". Stereotypes we are all familiar with."

GGK:
"This was one of those threads I enjoyed skimming because it made me stop to think about the whole interplay in writing between the intuitive and the conscious. Miriam's said some perceptive things (with the exception of that weak chin line - I have pre-beard photos to disprove it!). Historical context tends to guide me to a large degree, and it allowed a plot motif/scene in the Mosaic when Crispin's shaved. Shaving in earlier periods was often an act (or a cultural favouring) that assumed or implied time, leisure, tools, good barbers ... civilization, in fact. In mythic terms (Fionavar) it links to the 'wild man' idea, which is an extension of the same thing. Aileron in hiding, outside the walls and norms. Hair (for men and women) has had shifting meanings and implications all through history, just as - say - wilderness has. (The wild as refuge from state control in Robin Hood, OR as lair of life-threatening dangers, animal and human ... this is in Simon Schama's wonderful LANDSCAPE and MEMORY and I used it in the Mosaic, too.)... "

To read the rest of GGK's post (how's that for a lure?), and what exactly it was that Miriam said that was perceptive, go to the thread:

http://www.brightweavings.com/scgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?183/235

> 411 on GGK

A particularly insistent poster decided they didn't know enough about GGK from what is present in the biography on the site. Weyburn decided to help her out with a sharp, incisive, witty, and totally untrue biography...

Guy Gavriel Kay: A Biography
(subtitled: Perhaps Not A True Biography But A Biography Nonetheless)

Born in a modest fishing village on the shores of Lake Okanagan, British Columbia in 1857, Guy Gavriel Kay began life inspecting fishing nets for holes and giving lectures to an especially large apple tree that grew within earshot of his bedroom window.

Sir John A. MacDonald, passing through the town to drum up rural support for a new nation, Canada, found a written speech on "government's role in democracies of large geography" being presented to him by an eager 9 year old. Composed in the ancient language of Aramaic and written on clay tablets, the soon-to-be Prime Minister of Canada hired the Guy Kay on the spot as campaign advisor at the princely wage of 1 shilling a month.

Using his political clout to railroad the national railroad through Parliament, he and his close political ally, Abner Doubleday, built approximately 700 kilometers of track themselves before being advised that no trains would ever travel to the magnetic North Pole.

After being ousted from politics for his continual refusal to wear a hat outdoors, a brash, young Guy Kay began to settle in the town he would always call home, Toronto...

There's more. Lots more. To read on (taking care to hold your sides), click through here:

http://www.brightweavings.com/scgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?2/236

> Group Read of Tigana
The group read is well on its way, the engine spluttering a little perhaps, but the passengers enjoying the somewhat leisurely ride (ok, my brain's gone dead. Is that the right spelling of leisurely?). Interesting discussions around the idea of Tiganese pride came first, and then some fascinating conversations arose around the first Dianora section, with many different opinions and insights into her situation and character:

Jennifer:
"As for Dianora... IMO her's is the most tragic of the different tales in Tigana. I haven't caught up with the reading yet (please forgive me) but I have always viewed her as an integral part of Alessan's liberation movement. I see Brandin's love of her as the thing that makes him human and thus vulnerable in the end. Without her perspective, Brandin is like Rakoth, purely evil and without dimension. But, Dianora humanizes him and carries some of Alessan's grief so he doesn't have the burden of it all. "Dianora used to go to that same upstairs window at the front of the house when they left by way of the square, as if by watching whatever happened, sharing it, she could somehow spread the pain among three, not two, and so ease it for them." To me this epitomizes Dianora's role, with Alessan and Brandin. "

Firrineach:
"I know that to an extent she's responsible for her own situation, but nobody's perfect, and it's because she's made her own trap that I do feel so sorry for her. I can't imagine how much trouble she must have finding meaning in her life. Though I've said in the past that I wished it could and think it could've ended otherwise for her, I at least understand her choices at the end of the book. I think she's in one of those situations where it's easy to say how you'd act (or at least want to act), but isn't the sort of thing where one can really predict your own behaviour."

Francois Vincent:
"This is clearly one of the instances where Mr. Kay decided to explore how the oppression of Tigana affected sexual and emotional relationships. Dianora (and Baerd) are tormented by this new world. It's as though the whole world has reached into their torso and twisted their heart 90 degrees. This extreme disorientation and alienation provokes unnatural and unhealthy reactions in both of them which continues after they go their seperate ways. Dianora finds her own way to cope and that's by focusing her life to be blade in Brandin's flesh but winds up ensnared by a relatively healthy relationship. Her tragedy is that this healing component can never come into contact with her inner torture. Thus, instead of a confrontation between the two halves of her being, she chooses one over the other and buries the discarded option, circumventing the need for resolution. I really think that her decision at the end comes from her inabillity to deal with the whole situation."

Daisyjane:
"But her choice was really very little different from Catriana's except she was working alone. What i mean is that Catriana joins "the resistance" if you like but her role is nonetheless comparable to Dianora's in that they are both forced to use their beauty/femininity whatever. Dianora obviously in the saishan but Catriana throughout the book, from the beginning with her attempt to prevent Devin hearing the plotting, through the luring of Eirlein and then to her actions in Senzio. They are using what they have,to do what they have to do. But of course Dianora's choice and solo mission makes her vulnerable to the one man - and the one man who is so wrong but also so right. So in a way although her story is tragic it is also beautiful."

http://www.brightweavings.com/scgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?178/178

Ok, I'm going to stop there, because otherwise this newsletter will continue ad infinitum, and I'll get a rash of emails asking to unsubscribe. There are many more interesting points that were made, and will continue to be made as the group read continues. So get to the forums, and start posting. And de-lurk if you're a lurker! Adele did it, and had such an interesting idea that she got input from GGK himself on her question within a couple of days. See what you can come up with...

Like I said, probably no newsletter for another couple of months, as I go travelling again.

Till then,

Deborah