Warp and Weft: The Brightweavings Newsletter

Have we got news for you!

To begin with, this newsletter is brought to you by BW loyalist and regular, Elizabeth 'Smartybelle' Swainston, as things have been a bit...busy...recently for the usual newsletter author.
-Deborah

It's been a particularly brightly woven couple of years for our BW webmistress. Jon Bailey had the extreme good fortune and intelligence to manage to convince Deborah to marry him in August 2007 - and they have just last month been blessed with even more good fortune: their son Adiel David Bailey made his debut on October tenth. Congratulations, Mum! (For the truly curious, check out the brags thread in the forums for a link to some photos).

So, be forewarned - being as there was a slight lacuna since our last newsletter (I think we can agree marriage and a new baby are fairly reasonable excuses) there's a lot to cover, and this isn't even all of it!

GGK News
***********

>Awards

YSABEL won the World Fantasy 'Best Novel' Award for 2008! For more details, see: http://www.locusmag.com/2008/News_Awards_WorldFantasyAward_Winners.html

YSABEL was also selected as a finalist for the 2008 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature (http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon39.html), for the Locus Award for Fantasy Novel (http://www.locusmag.com/2008/LocusAwardsFinalists.html) and for the White Pine Award in Canada, which is voted on by students in grades 10-12.

At the end of December 2007, YSABEL was named in the year's best books lists in the Globe and Mail, the National Post and Library Journal. YSABEL also featured in a variety of genre-based best-of-the-year lists.

>Audio rights sold

North American Audio rights to YSABEL have been sold to Penguin Audio, as were six of Kay's backlist titles: THE SUMMER TREE, THE WANDERING FIRE, THE DARKEST ROAD, THE LAST LIGHT OF THE SUN, TIGANA and A SONG FOR ARBONNE. (If you have the 'perfect' suggestion for voice talent, join in on the casting couch thread discussion: http://www.brightweavings.com/forums/messages/183/142989.html)

> New editions and translations

YSABEL is now out in paperback in Canada and the U.S. It is also out in French in Quebec from Alire. It has been bought (contracts signed) in Russia by Sekatchev and is already out in Poland (working very fast) from Mag. Mag have also now bought A SONG FOR ARBONNE which means GGK's complete works of fiction are available there now. Laguna in Serbia have purchased TIGANA, their 3rd title, after beginning with the Mosaic pair. A SONG FOR ARBONNE will be re-issued in the US by Roc with a new cover, in 2008. GGK's agents in the UK, Curtis Brown, are severing his backlist ties with Simon and Schuster which will mean a complex period for all titles, until the new house is sorted out.

For more details, visit the news page: http://www.brightweavings.com/news/index.htm

GGK Readings
****************

> Orlando

March 18-22: GGK will be one of the three Guests of Honor at the 30th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, held in Orlando from March 18-22, 2009. The website for this exceptional conference (and organization) is at http://www.iafa.org/ with details as to hotel, registration, etc. off the sidebar. There is also a call for papers (they solicit work on the guests of honor), with a proposal deadline of October 31st, 2008. The following is on the website: "We encourage work from institutionally-affiliated scholars, independent scholars, international scholars who work in languages other than English, graduate students, and undergraduate students."

What's New on Bright Weavings
*******************************

> GGK's words

For those who need something to tide them over until the next novel (on which GGK is currently working), there is an article on the site that GGK wrote originally for the Globe & Mail, printed there in May 2008:

"Sometimes evil comes hand in hand with virtue, animated by good intent. It is most worrisome then because we focus on the intentions, the valid cause, and miss the danger. Happens all the time. I heard a story recently and followed it up. Here's the essence..." To read the article, click through to http://www.brightweavings.com/ggkswords/justagame.htm

And for something a bit lighter, GGK gave the following pun-tastic speech as Toastmaster at the 2007 World Fantasy Convention in Saratoga Springs: http://www.brightweavings.com/ggkswords/wfc2007.htm

> Reviews

Not a small number of new reviews on site now, and for a range of works:

YSABEL, by Richard Marcus of Leap in the Dark, Collen Mondor of Bookslut, and Michelle West for F&SF (scroll down to find these three newest reviews) - http://www.brightweavings.com/reviews/revysabel.htm#ims

BEYOND THIS DARK HOUSE, by Richard Marcus for Leap in the Dark - http://www.brightweavings.com/reviews/revbeyonddarkhouse.htm#leap

SAILING TO SARANTIUM and LORD OF EMPERORS, by Victoria Hoyle (who is a co-contributor to Eve's Alexandria along with BW'er Nicola Clarke) - http://www.brightweavings.com/reviews/revsarantium.htm#vicky & http://www.brightweavings.com/reviews/revsarantium.htm#vicky2

> Art Gallery

Quite a few new covers for you to enjoy can be found in the Art Gallery section:

-Newest paperback U.S. edition of TIGANA: http://www.brightweavings.com/artgallery/americatigana.htm

-Third American edition of A SONG FOR ARBONNE http://www.brightweavings.com/artgallery/uspb3arb.htm

-German and Croatian editions of LAST LIGHT OF THE SUN http://www.brightweavings.com/artgallery/covlastlight.htm#germany

-French Canadian edition of YSABEL http://www.brightweavings.com/artgallery/covysabel.htm#alire

-Croatian edition of THE SUMMER TREE http://www.brightweavings.com/artgallery/covfionavar.htm#croatiasummer

We also have three new pieces of reader art:

-Galadan, by Athena Leonti

- http://www.brightweavings.com/artgallery/athena.htm

-The Riselka, by none other than Deborah's sister, Naomi - http://www.brightweavings.com/artgallery/naomi.htm

-And last but by no means least, a representation of Crispin's end-of-book mosaic by BW denizen Melissa Houle - http://www.brightweavings.com/artgallery/melissa.htm

> Scholarship

It's been a highly productive couple of years for this section... We are delighted to have an honors dissertation to add to the scholarship section by none other than BW denizen Anya Kleander (no known relation to the Greens partisan). "Present Reality in Historical Fantasy" examines TIGANA, The LIONS OF AL-RASSAN and The SARANTINE MOSAIC. You can read it here: http://www.brightweavings.com/scholarship/presentreality.htm

For those of you fluent in French (or patient with Babelfish), we present two works to enjoy. One is an undergraduate paper written by Patricia Gagne during her time at the Université de Trois-Rivières in Quebec, entitled 'Comment naissant les héros?' ('How are heroes born?'): http://www.brightweavings.com/scholarship/heroesborn.htm. The other, by Pierre-Louis Malosse and entitled "Justinien Visité et Revisité", appeared in the French academic journal Anabases. It discusses Justinian and Theodora, and GGK's treatment of their 'alternates' of Valerius and Alixana in The Sarantine Mosaic: http://www.brightweavings.com/scholarship/justinien.htm. Once again, if anyone feels up to translating these for the site, do feel free to send it in to Deborah.

Another paper, on "Guy Gavriel Kay and the Psychology of History", written by Christopher Cobb and first appearing in the Summer 2005 edition of Foundation, can be read here: http://www.brightweavings.com/scholarship/psychologyhistory.htm

Dena Taylor has also written a very insightful scholarly review of SAILING TO SARANTIUM: http://www.brightweavings.com/scholarship/denasailing.htm

And finally, here is an undergraduate paper by Claire Fried Huffaker written for a course taken at the University of Calgary, entitled "Old Songs and Memories of Fathers Are Important: Music and Memory in Tigana": http://www.brightweavings.com/scholarship/musicmemorytigana.htm

> Music and Verse

Take a moment to enjoy a new instrumental piece of music by Bruno Basta, inspired by A SONG FOR ARBONNE: http://www.brightweavings.com/music/index.htm#bruno

We also have three new reader poems to enjoy. One on the beauties of Fionavar, sent in by Emma Melville, an ode by BW regular Simon Fraser, inspired by description of the song given by Ra-Tenniel, and a third by Krissy Hunter, inspired by A SONG FOR ARBONNE: http://www.brightweavings.com/music/index.htm#fionavar

> Interviews

Four new interviews with GGK up on the site now: http://www.brightweavings.com/ggkswords/interviews.htm#divining All were given during the YSABEL publicity tour, but cover much more than just that topic. You have your choice of medium as well - there is one print interview with Richard Marcus of Leap in the Dark, two audio interviews, with Christine Fischer Guy of Book Ninja Magazine and Rick Kleffel of The Agony Column, and one TV interview with superstar librarian Nancy Pearl of Seattle on Book Lust.

In the Forums
*****************

Things have been a bit quiet of late as we await the next novel, but there's always something of interest to be found in the community corner...

> More poetry competitions - Fibonacci, Grooks and Heroic Couplets: a Study in Antipodal Forms

October 2006, 2007 and this year as well saw the continuation of the often hilarious, always clever attempts to win accolades and a signed copy of a GGK novel via poetic feats of derring-do. In 2006, the third annual contest required both artistic AND mathematical 'skillz', since a Fibonacci poem's structure is determined by an additive formula - each successive line must contain the sum total of the syllables in the two previous lines. The next year the obscure poetic form of the Grook (or Gruk), a short aphoristic poem invented in Denmark, was the challenge for both entrants and our esteemed judge. Congratulations to the well deserving winners, Ilana, Ramblin' Guy, and Alec, and many thanks to Neil Randall for such whole-hearted engagement.

As for this year, the talented and perspicacious Professor (aka 'Maestro') Neil Randall graciously (rashly?) agreed once again to judge the entries which, at his suggestion, were in the form of heroic couplets.

If you'd like to still try your hand at them, and have a little fun, pop in here for the original threads - although it is too late to enter this year's official competition: http://www.brightweavings.com/forums/messages/175/142768.html http://www.brightweavings.com/forums/messages/2/142903.html http://www.brightweavings.com/forums/messages/2/143019.html?1224212351

>"Moral musings on post-mortem manuscripts"

One of the more lively (and at times impassioned) threads of late has been on a discussion Alec began on the topic of what, if any, moral consideration ought to be given to the idea or action of taking an author's notes, journals, drafts, etc and making them public after their death. Alec asked "where the line should be drawn between privacy concerns and the concerns and value of historical/literary study." Ilana broadened that topic by making note of the recent news of the uncovering of one of Van Gogh's earlier works under an existing painting as a parallel issue only in a different artistic medium. Privacy is a hot topic these days, and it has made for some fascinating discussions in not a few threads. If you'd like see some differing opinions eloquently expressed, or share some of your own, check it out here: http://www.brightweavings.com/forums/messages/2/142899.html

That's all for now, gentle (tired?) readers. Until next time...

Elizabeth (and Deborah)

************************************