After a Twitter exchange with Laurie Grassi, Books Editor of Chatelaine Magazine, it seemed time to confirm that the worldwide launch event for River of Stars will involve an onstage conversation with her and a reading (and signing) on April 4th, at 7 PM, at the splendid Toronto Reference Library. No charge, all welcome, though I will say (cautiously) that to be sure of good seats come early if you can.

Laurie and I had drinks together a few weeks back, meeting for the first time. We made each other laugh, confirmed a bunch of loved books in common (Bel Canto, yes!) and she was gracious about one or two of her favs I don’t love (may have been laying an ambush, of course). I’m looking forward to chatting with her on the 4th. I like conversations at events like this, livelier than just standing up front alone, and I enjoy having another mind, perspective, sense of humour to bounce off, and good questions make me think.

Of course if I start thinking on stage, who knows where we’ll end up.

I’ve had some memorable launches, could almost, with enough time and memories dredged up, do a chronicle of them. We used to use the library at Hart House on the University of Toronto campus, and I loved that room (anyone remember being there for a launch?). It had very personal associations for me, as I used to skip law school classes to read the New Yorker and Harpers in that library. The room was warm, had deep leather couches for some lucky attendees, others squeezed in on the floor close to me, for the last couple of events they left the doors open to let people in the hallway hear and even ran a sound system out there … and then Penguin and the university organizers ran afoul of fire regulations for numbers in the room and we had to move to the theatre space in Hart House, which I never liked as much.

Venue makes a huge difference, as any actor or singer will tell you. The intimacy of the Hart House library made me (and I suspect a lot of the audience) feel very differently than we did when shifting to the big theatre stage and raked seating. I like the Reference Library setting we’re using in April, we were there for Under Heaven three years ago. The atrium space can hold a large audience, but is very wide, so people aren’t pushed way, way back. Somehow that feels better.

I’ve read on tour in a pub, twice, in Ottawa, for Perfect Books. That was fun. A single malt at one’s elbow does nice things at an event, yes. And people are …well, sometimes slightly different at the signing stage, after a couple of Stellas or Cosmopolitans. I’ve also read in churches a few times. No, I didn’t tailor the subject matter to the location, but neither did I have a single malt.

Oh. Wait. I lied. A church in Calgary (I think) was where I read with a head cold I’d reported online, and a reader came up in line at the end, crouched by my signing table, took out a glass and showed me, discreetly, two scotches from which to choose. He then poured me a good, ‘curative’ shot. That is a reader.

I am attaching, for the pure nostalgia of it, a photo Martin Springett digitized, from the launch of The Darkest Road – in 1986! It shows Mike Hale, later a novelist, who was also a graphic designer and did the layout for the trilogy, Martin, who did the three covers, Sue Reynolds, also a novelist later, who did the map for Fionavar, a somewhat younger version of me, and John Rose, the founder/owner of Bakka Books in Toronto where we had the celebration. Yes, I smile looking at it. Yes, it makes me feel old. There’s a line I love in John Fowles’ Daniel Martin: “Ban the green from your life, and what are you left with?’

Mike Hale, Martin Springett, Sue Reynolds, GGK, John Rose – note original paintings!

As half-promised yesterday: HarperCollins in the UK have confirmed that their ARC is now final and can be shared. (It’ll be going out there soon, just as ARCs in Canada and the States are.)

A few notes before the unveiling below. ARCs there are closer in style to what I remember from the old days here, too, when they were still called galleys: a deliberately rougher, less finished look, meant to not be confused with anything like the real book to come. (Note the phrase on the back: “Introducing River of Stars“) They’ve gotten glossier in North America, but aren’t always so in the UK, and HarperCollins are in that  camp.

So this needs to be seen in that context. It is even possible that their finished book for July will have an entirely different look, but I am betting it won’t. I like this fine as a concept. I think it captures an elegant, more literary aspect of the novel and the time inspiring it – which is consistent with their change of imprints for River of Stars in the UK. I think that properly refined, polished, colours sorted, details added and typeface thought through, this will work very well, be quite beautiful. And I appreciate the thought and care going into this repositioning. (You can click it to see it larger.)

HarperCollins UK ARC

This can’t last, and it would kill my image if it did, but I’m actually pretty upbeat today. Teasing in comments will be tolerated only marginally. Proceed with caution.

First of all, the earliest professional responses to River of Stars have been wonderful. There are some colleagues whose judgement I wait for, and those are starting to come in. It isn’t just enthusiasm or excitement a writer hopes for, it is – always – smart, insightful reading. People getting aspects of what one is after in a given book. Because I’m not prolific, each reappearance feels as if it weighs more, matters more, I guess. And if any author tells you they are used to the period of awaiting initial responses … well, raise an eyebrow or two on my behalf.

I had thought I might release the UK cover for the Advance ReadingCopy (their ARC) this afternoon but I want to wait a day or two to confirm they see this as final for the ARC. I am pretty sure it is, and I like it a lot. Very different approach, also very much an ARC – which is to say, not a finished look yet, more like ‘notes towards a final book’ – but it works for me. It could even change before it is final but this is a good look. I am aware this is teasing a bit. Will post soon.

Another half-tease … Penguin Canada are close to the formal announcement of the auction they do each book. They auction the first book off the press, certified as such, and signed by me to that effect. This will be the fourth time, as best I recall. The proceeds go to Indigo’s “Love of Reading” charity, and I am a true believer in the idea that literacy empowers people. This announcement should go out within a day or two. I’ll post it here, too.

I also just received by courier this afternoon the cover ‘flat’ for the book. The actual cover. This isn’t a tease -those who wanted to have seen the full cover in various places by now. But there is something special about the real thing for me, and there will be another kick when I get my author copies of the whole book in a week or two (unless they are, for those who remember the story I love to tell, copies of A History of World Whaling).

So, various reasons for a brief withdrawal from Chronic Curmudgeon Mode. Fear not, normal demeanour is likely to return shortly. (All I have to do is think about Curtis Granderson’s broken arm from yesterday…)

Yesterday, in a comment on the Coode St post here, a thoughtful reader commented:

I do miss the days when you would have a novel come out with much less build-up and hype, but the world has changed, hasn’t it? I’m trying to preserve what I can by keeping my knowledge of RIVER to this: “It’s a Kay novel influenced by historical China.”

And you know, in thinking about that, I’ve decided I’m not going to read any reviews at all. I know I’m going to read RIVER at some point. No reviewer’s opinion will change that. Avoiding the hype will be difficult, however…

I started typing a reply in the Comments, but I wonder how many people find these, and his note is worth a discussion.

Matthew, as I have said before, I have intense memories of days when the arrival of a new book by an author I liked was signalled by … the arrival of the book. I’d see it in the library or on the shelves of a bookstore. And the feeling I recall from such moments is intense. Once, with Dorothy Dunnett’s Ringed Castle, I grabbed it out of the ‘new arrivals’ shelf at the library with such ferocity, that people backed away from the crazy teen.

It is hard to imagine a book lover being that oblivious to a forthcoming book today, unless they work at it.

So you are right, the process for this, as for so much else, has changed enormously. For one thing, as I also mentioned earlier, advance orders are important for a book and publishers. They affect print runs, in-house enthusiasm (or the lack of it) and even the final marketing budget. Energy begets energy. A set of strong blog reviews can help create the existence of a major print review somewhere else if the publicists are on the ball.

There is also a vanishingly small window of opportunity for new books these days. Shelf space at a book chain, or highly viisble placement online, are granted – and taken away swiftly if a book isn’t moving. So they are expected to hit the ground running, so to speak.

This means that today the publishers need a book to arrive anticipated, not just build enthusiasm over time after it is released. (Obviously they want the second thing, too, but the first is the newly critical element.) In a sped-up culture, this, too, is now sped up.

With publishers under pressure in so many ways it is understandable that they turn to social media and intense advance marketing to try to make books happen. It creates a lot of chatter and noise, but then on social media maybe that fits. I would feel worse than curmudgeonly if I refused to allow this, or declined to help out. Unless one self-publishes, bringing out a book is a partnership, a collaboration, and I do feel that – with limits that vary from person to person – an author ought to assist his or her publishers.

I’ll give one example. I have been worrying about overexposure in interviews right now. My various publicists tell me this is, well, silly. I have done, and am lined up to do, a great many conversations, either by email or in person, in the next two or three months. I am sure some readers will end up in eye-roll mode as they read or listen to me making the same joke or observation again. (See what I’m doing? I riffed on this two or three posts back here. You are seeing it again!)

But the publicists are adamant that only a small portion of people find an author’s interviews more than one or two times. That multiple venues are critical to reach and exposure. It is analogous to a politician making the same stump speech over and over, to different audiences. If CNN show the same clip every time, he or she will sound appallingly repetitious, but the people in the audience each night may well be hearing it for the first (and only) time.

As I type, I am thinking now about what happens here … if I do alerts on Twitter or Facebook or this journal of a new interview I am contributing to that repetition-factor, unless I have managed to say something quite new — and that turns almost entirely on being asked something new! I think alerts to reviews are different, by the way, by definition, each review is its own opinion, and they aren’t me.

On the other hand, and again my publishers have made this point, a Journal like this, or Twitter followers draw, by self-selection, people with at least some interest in tracking what is going on as a book comes out and responses to it emerge. It would feel kind of eccentric to not share information with people here. I am not averse to occasional eccentricities, as many will know by now, but I try not to be defined by them.

Bottom line, Matthew and I share a wistful nostalgia for days when none of this happened. But nostalgia has its own problems, and it is probably smartest to see this phenomenon – advance discussion of a book-to-come – as simply a part of the world we’ve given ourselves.

There are upsides. I got to make some wonderfully awful (what oxymoron?) puns on #BellLetsTalk day on Twitter.

I was expecting the first public responses to River of Stars to begin arriving at the end of this month or in early March. That is when Publisher’s Weekly and Library Journal and some early blogs weigh in, about a month before books are on sale. PW and LJ are both still very influential in shaping buying patterns for bookstores and libraries.

But yesterday I received an alert that Gary Wolfe and Jonathan Strahan of the Coode St Podcast had invited Cecelia Holland on air to discuss the book and they’d posted their podcast. They’d all received ARCs a little while back. Cecelia is a novelist I admired well before I ever wrote anything myself: read The Kings in Winter, Until the Sun Falls, Great Maria, and see. Gary might kill me for saying it, but he is an eminence gris of critical writing in speculative fiction, and Jonathan is the editor of numerous anthologies and the reviews editor for Locus Magazine. If I say I value their responses a lot, I am understating it. Thoughtful reading from people you respect is a writer’s eternal dream.

I’m extremely happy. A discussion like this is a reward, for any of us, and this is an awfully good way to start with a new novel. I should warn you that there is a mention of Isaac Asimov’s sex life at one point. It is actually relevant. Really.

There are slight spoilers, more by nuance than explicit giveaways. (Spoilers for River, not for Asimov.)

http://jonathanstrahan.podbean.com/2013/02/18/episode-135-cecelia-holland-on-river-of-stars/

And another nice thing, completely different. The winner of the signed ARC of River of Stars in the Grim Oak fundraiser had a good idea and checked in with Shawn Speakman who is behind all these donations and auctions. He suggested that since it was a ‘two horse race’ at the end, maybe the runner-up would be willing to pay her high bid, if I’d donate a second signed ARC. Of course I would, and splendidly she did. So two ARCs were on the way when Shawn heard from a third person saying he’d match the high bid if I was willing to send a third ARC out, signed (by both mapmaker Martin Springett, and myself).

Very happy to do so. Means over $1000 was raised for the auction and I’m really pleased. Shawn does good work in this, and Duane, the beneficiary this time around, is one of the good people. (Scroll down to see a longer post on all of this, from when it began.)

A shorter post, more a heads-up. First interview in the run-up to River of Stars is now online. There will be a number of others as we turn towards spring. I actually worry about overexposure, and the publicists laugh indulgently at me.

Their key point is that most people do not see more than one or two of these, if any of them at all. The core number who track me here, or on Twitter, or on the Bright Weavings Facebook page or main site will get alerts to most of them and you are the group who will be in a position to grin and note when I have given the same answer four times (and pity me for fielding the same question over and again). Odds are good you’ll also catch me in contradictions. Or even using the word ‘tangible’.

But the underlying assumption of all PR and marketing in the book world (and not only there) is that you need many channels for information to get out and find people, which means a fair bit of overlap will happen, or be seen by those who do keep track.

You’ll see. I have been making my ‘frustrated hockey player’ joke for years and years, and will likely make it a few times more this year. May shift to baseball. Watch for it.

Here’s the first interview:

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2013/02/interview-guy-gavriel-kay-author-of-river-of-stars/

Told you. Both hockey and baseball.

I did a photo shoot yesterday afternoon and the photographer bravely worked with what she had … namely me. We shall see. But I was beginning to worry about a ‘truth in advertising’ factor, as the official photo (which will still be on the book jackets) is a few years back now. We will be sent a digital contact sheet from which to pick a few. I canvass very carefully selected family, friends, and colleagues for opinions. Hysterical laughter is discouraged.

The fundraising auction of a signed early ARC of River of Stars ends tomorrow, by the way.

http://grimoakpress.com/auctions-2/signed-arc-river-of-stars-by-guy-gavriel-kay/

A shorter post, more a heads-up. First interview in the run-up to River of Stars is now online. There will be a number of others as we turn towards spring. I actually worry about overexposure, and the publicists laugh indulgently at me.

Their key point is that most people do not see more than one or two of these, if any of them at all. The core number who track me here, or on Twitter, or on the Bright Weavings Facebook page or main site will get alerts to most of them and you are the group who will be in a position to grin and note when I have given the same answer four times (and pity me for fielding the same question over and again). Odds are good you’ll also catch me in contradictions. Or even using the word ‘tangible’.

But the underlying assumption of all PR and marketing in the book world (and not only there) is that you need many channels for information to get out and find people, which means a fair bit of overlap will happen, or be seen by those who do keep track.

You’ll see. I have been making my ‘frustrated hockey player’ joke for years and years, and will likely make it a few times more this year. May shift to baseball. Watch for it.

Here’s the first interview:

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2013/02/interview-guy-gavriel-kay-author-of-river-of-stars/

Told you. Both hockey and baseball.

I did a photo shoot yesterday afternoon and the photographer bravely worked with what she had … namely me. We shall see. But I was beginning to worry about a ‘truth in advertising’ factor, as the official photo (which will still be on the book jackets) is a few years back now. We will be sent a digital contact sheet from which to pick a few. I canvass very carefully selected family, friends, and colleagues for opinions. Hysterical laughter is discouraged.

The fundraising auction of a signed early ARC of River of Stars ends tomorrow, by the way.

http://grimoakpress.com/auctions-2/signed-arc-river-of-stars-by-guy-gavriel-kay/

Nice, when someone else does a Journal entry I can post! To clarify: July is hardcover release in UK, with a cover being designed now, but the e-books will be available there on April 2nd, as in US and Canada.

New literary epic River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay

12 February 2013:

Emma Coode, Deputy Publishing Director of HarperCollins, has acquired UK & Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) in the historical literary epic River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay from Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown Ltd.

Having successfully published Guy Gavriel Kay’s last eleven novels under the HarperVoyager imprint, Coode has made a decision to bring his latest novel River of Stars to market under the HarperFiction list, to demonstrate Kay’s crossover and literary appeal.

Emma Coode said: “Guy has surpassed himself with his latest novel, which seamlessly combines beautiful prose, impeccable historical research and captivating adventure. Publishing Guy on the HarperFiction list, alongside literary historical fiction authors like Tracy Chevalier, places him in esteemed company and feels both natural and exciting.”

Guy Gavriel Kay said: “I am very happy to be working again with the HarperCollins team, and honoured by the degree of enthusiasm they are showing for River of Stars, and the imagination and energy being applied to help it find new readers in the UK.”

In his previous critically acclaimed novel Under Heaven, Guy Gavriel Kay told a vivid and powerful story inspired by China’s Tang Dynasty. Now, the international bestselling and multiple award-winning author returns with an absorbing tale inspired by the glittering, decadent Song Dynasty four hundred years later. Themes of culture and power, the burden of history, women’s roles in a narrowing world, and love in many forms guide and inform a beautifully crafted novel that moves from the grandest scale to deeply-moving human intimacy.

River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay will be published in hardback on 18^th July 2013

 About the author: Guy Gavriel Kay is the internationally bestselling author of twelve novels. In the 1970s he was retained by the Estate of J.R.R. Tolkien to assist in the editorial construction of Tolkien’s posthumously published The Silmarillion. He has been awarded the International Goliardos Prize for his work in the literature of the fantastic, is a two-time winner of the Aurora Award, and won the World Fantasy Award for Ysabel in 2008. His works have been translated into more than twenty-five languages.

Issued by:

Ann Bissell HarperFiction Publicity.

T: 020 8307 4319 E: ann.bissell@harpercollins.co.uk

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…

Actually, the threatened winter storm started mildly (especially for those of us from the prairies where real winter lives), and held off until today. (It is snowing, but not at all bad as I type.) Nonetheless, the Royal York Hotel was booked up, as prudent partygoers chose to take a room and stay downtown rather than risking a tricky late night drive home.

The BLB is one of the great formal events of the year in Toronto, held in support of the Toronto Public Library system, which is, in fact, the busiest in the world. Tables are seriously expensive in a good cause, bought by corporations, banks, brokerages, businesses of one kind or another, with single seats going to … well, to book lovers who want to see authors in tuxedos and evening gowns. Here, just for the record, is one (1) ‘official photo’ proving that some of us can manage the dishevelled thing, even in a tux. My current theory is that dudes who consistently keep both tuxedo shirt wings under the bow tie are cheating with tape or velcro. Just sayin’…

There is a silent auction and cocktail reception beforehand, which is where you may actually get a chance to see people. The ballroom itself is huge, dark, and you are (mostly) at your tables, though people do wander in search of friends, or authors to talk to. Two of the sleek Penguin marketing mavens chased me down at mine, for example, to grin and repeat how obviously right they’d been to harass me into Twitter. Proof: the very first words of one of my table companions were, ‘I see you managed to get the bow tie on!’ (I had been joke-tweeting in the afternoon about my expected four hour wrestling bout with it.)

My table was an outright win (though I have to say I have always enjoyed the people I’ve been with at these). I sat with execs from the construction company and the architectural firm that built the magnificent Toronto Reference Library where, by coincidence (or not?) we are launching River of Stars in April. I talked about how splendid the central Atrium is for such events, the architect just grinned. I told a funny story ( well, I think it is funny!) from the Calgary Authors’ Festival. One senior executive told a story about being in L.A. and their very young waitress in a restaurant, learning she was from Canada, asked him where to see the Northern Lights. He tried to make clear how big this country is, but finally said she should go to Winnipeg in February and might have a shot (in fact, she really needed to go much farther north for best chance). He did add, ‘It is cold. It is really, really cold.’ And she said, ‘I get it. Like, an extra sweater?’ After, one of his table-companions in L.A. turned to him and said, ‘You realize, you have just sent that young woman to her death?’

The entertainment, as always at BLB featured ‘get everyones’ attention’ soundtracks and some seriously hard bodies of both sexes on stage (modelling agencies volunteer their people). But for River, as I mentioned here last week (scroll!) we were treated a performance by the genuinely extraordinary Liu Fang, one of the very greatest pipa artists in the world. (The pipa is often described as the Chinese lute.) She’d helped me with research for Under Heaven, we’ve kept in touch, and she agreed to come into town to participate in the fund raising and celebrate River of Stars. She brought class and grace and exceptinal talent to a version of ‘The Ambush’ which is probably the most celebrated and one of the most challenging pieces in the classical repertoire. Her husband, Risheng took a few photos (he took the one of me above, too). Here is the last image on the big screens of the very short video Penguin ran before the performance (full video is being shot this month):

And here are shots he took of Fang performing:

And this shows one of the screens and some of the crowd:

Here are Risheng and Fang, after her performance

I am so genuinely pleased that they came in to share in this. Video of her was shot, and with luck we’ll get the footage to edit into something that can be shared.

It was, as it always is, a good night, underpinned by an awareness that it is for a really good cause. It also felt, and this I hadn’t expected, as if this was the coming out party for River of Stars. Seeing it on the screen, listening to Fang perform… Plus being interviewed about an upcoming book while wearing a tuxedo is not normal. I could consider asking the marketing team if we want to make me in formal wear a ‘signature’ idea for the upcoming media gigs and readings and … no, scratch that thought.

I think it was 1986 that I met Duane Wilkins. If so, I was touring for The Darkest Road, but it might have been earlier, for The Wandering Fire. A long way back, in either case. I was in Vancouver, signing for Jill Sanagan and Walter Sinclair of White Dwarf Books.

After I read, and after the signing lineup had dwindled away, Jill introduced me to a tall ( a really tall, an absurdly tall) bookseller who, she said, had driven the 3-4 hours up from Seattle to get copies of my books personalized for his customers and have stock signed for his store. His store was the enormous University of Washington bookstore, and Duane was already emerging as one of the most genre-savvy booksellers in America.

He was really tall (I may have mentioned that) and he spoke incredibly softly, and he was a gentleman geek from toe to crown. He knew my books – he knew everyone’s books – and he had a lot of copies for me to sign. (Remember, this is right at the outset of my career.)

He came back north every time I was in Vancouver on tour, waited patiently till all attendees at a reading had their books signed, and then came forward with his boxes.

Eventually my tours started to lead me to Seattle (and will again this year, we just confirmed that). I signed for Duane at his own store, had dinners or coffees with him. He helped me buy a Waterman signing pen once, when I’d lost mine somewhere on the road. Always a gentleman, never started speaking louder, never got any shorter that I could tell. Became, through the years, one of the best-known bookselling figures in science fiction and fantasy.

I learned, very recently, from Shawn Speakman, an author who also runs ‘The Signed Page’ (a clever way to get books personalized for yourself from any author touring to Seattle), that Duane has just had some serious health issues and was in hospital for an intense stay. He’s recovering, he seems to be fine, but in the predictable American way (not going to get too political here) his insurance did not cover all the urgently required hospital fees and treatment. He went into debt because he got sick.

Shawn, who has dealt with even more acute health concerns, and was assisted by the always-generous sf/fantasy community, has started a pay-it-forward website at his Grim Oak Press site, whereby established authors will make special copies of books, ARCs, maps etc available for auction to raise money for members of the community who have endured financial reversals because of medical crises.

Duane Wilkins is the first beneficiary. I have offered a signed and personalized ARC of River of Stars, to be shipped to the auction winner immediately (in other words well ahead of publication date). If the winner also wants the signature of Martin Springett, the artist/musician who did the map for the book, Martin has graciously agreed to sign as well.

The auction begins today, and runs till next Friday, the 15th. My hope is that people find this ARC enough of a collectible (or are keen to get it early) to bid it up to a level where we help make a dent in the medical bills for a genuinely good person and a figure of longstanding importance in the genre. Here’s the site:

http://grimoakpress.com/auctions-2/signed-arc-river-of-stars-by-guy-gavriel-kay/

and you can click on ‘Auctions’ at the top, or this link

http://grimoakpress.com/auctions-2/

 to know more about the whole story.