Warp and Weft: The Brightweavings Newsletter
March 2012
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Perhaps the very best reason for a Bright Weavings newsletter is to share information about GGK’s next novel! We have a lot more to tell you than that, but it is certainly a very good starting place…
GGK News
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>GGK’s next novel
Guy Gavriel Kay’s new novel is once more inspired by Chinese history, this time during the Song Dynasty, almost four centuries after the story told in his bestselling Under Heaven. The dazzling elements of the Song – cultural brilliance, vicious political rivalries, warfare against nomadic peoples, court mandarins versus the military – are rich ground for Kay’s unique blending of fantasy and themes of history. Vivid among a large cast, a young man with a dream of regaining the empire’s lost ‘rivers and mountains’ and a brilliant woman trying to shape a space for herself outside the ‘inner quarters’, where women are expected to live out their lives, confront the challenges and dangers of a world in turmoil. The Song Dynasty’s legacy is prominent in the way Westerners imagine Chinese history to this day and Kay weaves a story that captivates on both an epic scale and within the intimate lives of his characters.
GGK announces: “We’ve agreed to terms with Roc in New York, my current publisher, on the sale of the in-progress novel to them. (It has already been sold to Viking in Canada.) All going well, it will be out next year, details and dates to be released later.”
>GGK reading and signing
GGK will be attending Toronto’s Ad Astra Convention on Saturday April 14th. He’ll be reading from Under Heaven and chatting with readers at noon, and signing in the group author event at 1 PM. Otherwise, odds are good he’ll be in the bar. Ad Astra details are here: http://www.ad-astra.org/
>GGK AMA on Reddit
GGK joined the Reddit community in February for a real-time AMA session (Ask Me Anything). You can read the Q&A here:http://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/pgf2s/hello_im_the_author_guy_gavriel_kay_ama/
>GGK writes Afterword
The new Signet Classics reprinting of the great 12th century French epic The Song of Roland has been released and includes an afterword by GGK: http://t.co/iU5vE7Zn. Here are a few excerpts, including the first line – “There’s a lot of fainting in The Song of Roland. And the men who faint, (it is always men) are the heroes of a poem about war.” … “…we can use epics like The Song of Roland as windows into history… toward an understanding of the world, then and now.”
>Translations and Foreign Editions
Fanucci Editore in Italy have announced that their edition of Under Heaven (under the title La Rinascita di Shen Tai … The Rebirth of Shen Tai) will appear on March 29th. They’ve made use of the original (much-loved) green horse cover.
An offer has also been accepted for Under Heaven from Spain. Details as to release date will be posted when they emerge.
In addition, a renewed license for Portugal (and Brazil) has just been granted for Tigana. Lions is also currently with the same publisher, Saida de Emergencia.
GGK has signed the contract for a renewed license for Fionavar in Poland, with Zysk i Ska Publishers.
A new edition of The Lions of Al-Rassan is now out in the UK, from Voyager. The new cover can be seen here: http://harpervoyagerbooks.com/2012/03/06/the-lions-of-al-rassan-cover-reveal/
>Audio editions
GGK has agreed to terms with Audible for audio editions worldwide of The Lions of Al-Rassan and The Sarantine Mosaic.
>GGK guest post
GGK has written a guest blog-post in support of STELLAA, an organization working to address poverty in sub-Saharan Africa – “…literacy, books, access to information have always – for me – seemed to be tools that can help change lives.” http://stellaa.org/blog/author-guest-posts/delivering-the-tools-to-drive-change-by-author-guy-gavriel-kay/
>It runs in the family
GGK’s film student son has posted an experimental, impressionistic film made during a trip to China. It is called Under Heaven (!) and is bookended by GGK reading from the novel in Shanghai. The film also showcases music made by and with artist/musician Martin Springett. You can view it at http://vimeo.com/38892586
>Fionavar released in new formats
HarperCollins Canada will be launching a new format for Fionavar this spring. In addition to the ongoing omnibus edition, they’ll be reissuing the trilogy as three separate books again, using the painting by Janny Wurts and Don Maitz that is the cover of the American edition from Roc. The full painting can be seen as a work in progress, here:http://www.paravia.com/Janny_Don/website/Artwork/WIP/WorkInProgress.html and the original press release is here: http://www.brightweavings.com/artgallery/pr_wurtsmaitz.htm>
New on Brightweavings
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>New Cover Art in the Gallery
Three additional pieces of cover art to enjoy have been added to the Lions of Al-Rassan section: http://www.brightweavings.com/artgallery/covalrassan.htm
>GGK recommends
A few new suggestions have been added to our forum thread to which GGK periodically relays titles and authors he suggests are worth a look: http://www.brightweavings.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=1246
>Readers recommend… GGK Casting Couch
During GGK’s “Ask Me Anything” session at Reddit, he challenged readers to suggest who they would cast in a movie version of one of his novels. If you have some favorite ideas of your own of which modern-day actors have what it takes to portray one of the characters from the novels, come share your ideas on the Brightweavings forums (you never know who might be reading!):http://www.brightweavings.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=4687>
>GGK on cover art
GGK shared his thoughts on the beautiful Estonian edition of Tigana – http://www.brightweavings.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1214&p=43027#p43027
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That’s all the latest, and we’ll be sure to keep you in the loop when more is announced on the new novel and any other big news. ‘Til then you can keep up to date at Bright Weavingshttp://www.brightweavings.com/index.htm or on Twitter and Facebook.
~Elizabeth
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Deborah Meghnagi
Site Owner
Bright Weavings: The Worlds of Guy Gavriel Kayz
http://www.brightweavings.com/index.htm