Hello all,

Well, the regulars will notice that it's been two months since I sent out a newsletter, instead of the usual one month. As well as the horrific events of September 11, I was more than usually preoccupied with family occasions last month - a visit to the UK included sadly, the death of a grandparent, but also the birth of a niece - and back here in Israel came the birth of a nephew within the same 24 hours. So apologies for a missed month! Regarding the September 11th atrocity, well, I don't think I'm any more equipped than any one of us to talk about that, other than to extend my sincere sympathy and condolences if anyone reading this lost a friend or a loved one. What I would like to do is share with you an email I received on September 17th, at my brightweavings email address:

"I lost a number of friends last Tuesday and over the course of the week, shared conversations with many New Yorkers, some of whom were strangers. Everyone has a story. And all of them are absolutely horrific. On Thursday night, some friends hubbed a couple teleconferencing units together and we gathered together by telephone across 6 countries. But no one seemed to know how to start. Suddenly I remembered the ceremony of the Paraiko in the Fionavar Tapestry. I asked everyone to offer the names of those who were missing into the group and we prayed together for them. Then we offered names of those we know who are suffering in New York and we prayed for them. Then we offered our stories and we prayed together for the city and the world. We could not, by our nature, purify as the Paraiko did, but we gleaned so much strength and such a feeling of togetherness and peace that we repeated it again on Friday night. Everyone said that offering the names gave the "ceremony" such a feeling of reverence. I could not have accepted them for purification but we offered our sorrow to the group and accepted all these things together. And on Friday, very beautifully, almost everyone on the line offered the hijackers into the circle. It was one of the most humbling experiences in my life - to be present for the kind of healing the group was attempting. All of us felt very distinctly something move through us that was not of the group but with the group. When asked where my idea came from, I told them of the book and the creatures in it who performed the ritual. No one seemed to find that trivial. Instead, many said, "If only we could be as they were, we could have sent purifying energy toward this event." It was unbelievable."

C.S.Lewis talks about how scenes and characters from books people love provide them with "a sort of iconography by which they interpret or sum up their own experience." This has certainly been my experience with GGK's books, and it is clear that that is the case for many more people, including the person who sent me the above email. I was very grateful to receive it, and hope that you are as moved by it as I am. When ideas expressed in fiction can be used to find comfort from such horrific acts in the 'real world' as the events of September 11th, it reaffirms for me just how powerful and important good literature can be. My prayer for us all in the coming months and years is that the reaching for peace and forgiveness apparent in the efforts to emulate the Paraiko prevail over the hate embodied in the events of September 11th.

And now on to the usual updates....

GGK News
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> Famous in Greece
GGK's Greek publishers are collaborating with the biggest bookstore chain in Athens, Eleftheroudakis, to put on a Kay week between November 17th and 25th - ideally placed for Christmas shopping. The main event, which will be promoted in newspapers and book magazines, will be held in their five-floor main store, with a dedicated window, posters and pamphlets.

> Famous everywhere?
The word is spreading. A positive plethora of new editions, new contracts and new markets for GGK's books this month. Croatia is publishing both books of The Sarantine Mosaic over the next two months, and a Finnish edition of The Summer Tree has been published, using the Wurts/Maitz cover and translated by Leena Peltonen (who has written an essay on GGK -in Finnish- that I link to from the Scholarship section of the site). Plus lots of contracts signed for future releases, with Taiwan (Hengsing) and Korea (Golden Bough) for Tigana, Brazil (Livros de Brasil) for Fionavar, and Bulgaria (Bard Press) for The Lions of Al-Rassan. Paperback contracts have also been agreed on with Meulenhoff in Holland for Tigana and A Song for Arbonne.

> Definitely famous in Toronto...
Another date to add to the possible sighting of GGK calendar... he is going to be the Writer Guest of Honour at the Ad Astra Convention in Toronto in 2002. Ad Astra is the Science Fiction and Fantasy Literary Society of Toronto, and it's yearly convention is being held next year on February 8th - 10th. Artist Guest of Honour, for those interested, is Alan Lee, who is a very well known Tolkien artist, and if I'm not mistaken has been working as a consultant on the forthcoming Lord of the Rings movies.

What's New on Bright Weavings
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A very creative month for Bright Weavings readers this month, with both a new piece of artwork and a new piece of music submitted to the site. Not to forget of course, the professional endeavours that grace the covers of GGK's books - we have one of those too...

> Sailing to Croatia

The new Croatian edition of Sailing to Sarantium has a beautiful cover which was painted by Igor Kordey, who also painted the Croatian covers for Lions and Tigana. Igor loves the books, and does them justice, although I think to really see the beauty of his picture, literally sailing to Sarantium, you must click on the book cover to see a copy of the original painting which shows all the details of the full-wrap. Next month we'll have his painting of Lord of Emperors, which I expect to be every bit as magnificent:

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

> Alex's Tigana
Alex Hancock is an amateur guitar-player and musician (amateur? he sounded pretty good to me...) who has composed an instrumental piece inspired by Tigana. We are lucky to have an MP3 of it on the site. Alex writes: "I have read Tigana several times, the first when I was just 16. I read it at our summer house on the beach in Spain and can remember forsaking the beautiful sands, laying on the bed and drinking in what would become my favourite book. The song as a whole was not written for a certain part of the book but more as a direct expression of the experience imparted by it. The writing began shortly after I read the prologue again, which reawakened the memory of the story..." For more, and of course for the music itself, click through:

http://www.brightweavings.com/music/inspired.htm#alex

> Peter's Sarantium
Peter Bloch-Hansen has been woodcarving for 25 years. And he's been reading GGK's books ever since they were first published. Recently, he combined those two loves in a Sarantium collage carving. He says: "When the first Sarantine book came along, I went to a reading by Guy Kay at Hart House, at U of T, and knew I had to read it; paid for a hardcover on the spot. Looking for fresh subjects to carve, I got the idea of doing the "collage" piece -- the emperor on his throne pondering weighty matters while Shirin danced ecstatically before him, and so on, all under the vast dome of the Sanctuary. I tried to set up a composition that suggested the interconnectedness of the various characters in something like the way the book intertwines their stories." To see a picture of the carving, click here:

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

Tidbits
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Those of you who like the Wurts/Maitz covers for the new American trade editions of The Fionavar Tapestry might be interested to know that a new screensaver of Wurts/Maitz artwork includes the painting that those covers are based on. The screensaver is available to buy from Second Nature Software for $10.99. The company contributes 100% of all profits after taxes to The Nature Conservancy. Not a bad cause to donate to and get a good screensaver...

In the Forums
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I would just like to say that the reason I point you all to the new material on a particular thread is purely on account of its merit. Nothing at all to do with the fact that Thunderchild begged, cajoled and pleaded with me to make it the starring feature of this newsletter. Forgive me, for I know not what I do...

> Books I hope GGK does not write
This thread moved on from books we hope GGK doesn't write, to books we hope GGK's characters don't write (eg. Bungee Jumping 101 by Kevin Laine). Then it digressed on to a very level-headed, objective and entirely uncritical view of certain other authors of fantasy. Honest it did. Then it continued its meander down detour avenue into a delightful little stream of thoughts attributed to Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind upon reading GGK:

"Ice is for Endings huh? Sounds like Wizards Rule #23 to me."
"One friggin book again. How can you fit a story into one friggin book?"
"Threw a shield!! How can you throw a shield??? That's not a sword form! How can you throw a shield???"
"Whhoooaaa, hold on a minute. People that can be both good and bad; Are we sure he's writing fantasy?."
"Eight books and not one single prophecy; forked or otherwise. Doesn't sound much like fantasy to me."
"Okay, we've got a start and we've got an end. Let's just see if there's any clues on how to get from one to the other....quickly."
"You know flesh out those sword scenes, talk a little more about the lios singing and I could have made that trilogy into a good 8 or 9 books."
"She's got all this hair and he cuts it off. What kind of storytelling is that?? She could have just put it in a braid!"
"Guys that understand girls and girls that understand guys? Surely noone would buy that concept?"
"One dark god and no chicks that serve him. I'm gonna need to look up the 'rules of fantasy writing 101' to see if that's allowed."

I'll stop there and recommend you just go back and read the entire thread. It really is rather funny. And yes, it was Thunderchild who happened to eavesdrop on Messieurs Goodkind and Jordan as they pondered the Kay technique. Just wait till you read about what Broken Wing heard when she eavesdropped on Monsieur Eddings (names have been changed to protect the guilty)...

http://www.brightweavings.com/scgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?2/65

> Historical Accuracy in Fiction
After nearly a year's hiatus, this thread had a resurgence when Elizabeth aka Smartybelle posed a question about portrayal of the religious (of any group) in fiction:

"In my experience (stressing the "my" bit), most authors seem to portray the followers of any given organized religion (whether real or invented or alluded to) as intolerant, prideful, domineering, hypocritical, prejudiced, or some other negative adjective. Most are "antagonists". Any protagonists who espouse a particular religion usually are not very devout, and that seems to be portrayed only as a good thing. Usually religious characters I've encountered in my readings seem to be "over-zealous" to say the least. And if they come back to center, it's usually to renounce their religion. I'm a little disappointed by this seeming prejudice. Maybe that's too strong a word, but I just haven't come across any sympathetic people of faith - I mean who really live it the way it (whatever it may be) is supposed to be."

Of course Elizabeth did go on to point out some instances where GGK has multi-dimensional, sympathetic religious characters in his stories. And the conversation continued from there.....

http://www.brightweavings.com/scgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?2/28

> Reading the Tapestry
No, I'm not talking about the group read of Fionavar (which seems to have stumbled into silence recently. We have hopes of doing CPR, but only if the patient truly wants to be resuscitated). I'm talking about Broken Wing's first time read of Fionavar, after having read all of GGK's other books. She's doing a Francois Vincent, lucky for us, and recording her thoughts and feelings on the site throughout her first read. It's always interesting reading someone's thoughts on a book chapter by chapter, as they read it, particularly if it's a book you know well, and Broken Wing's analysis is no exception, being articulate, thoughtful and perceptive....

http://www.brightweavings.com/scgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?3/119

And here I lay down my weary.. fingers. Hope you've enjoyed this month's offerings, and I expect by next month I'll have some original poetry by GGK to share with you, along with possibly some new artwork by Martin Springett, and a few other interesting tidbits. And don't forget that next weekend is the WFA, where Lord of Emperors is on the ballot for best fantasy novel of 2000! Wish I was there...

Until next time,

Deborah