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Black Ships and Hand of IsisAcross a Wide Dark Ocean |
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| Jul. 10th, 2009 @ 02:27 pm Real People? | |||
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| A reader asks, "Do you ever use real people in your books, people you know rather than historical figures?" I suppose it's inevitable that sometimes things creep in, but I don't do so intentionally. When my sister read Black Ships she commented that Pythia, old Pythia who raised Gull, looked and sounded like my favorite teacher in high school right down to the red hair. I really had not realized that, that Gull's surrogate mother was so much like the teacher I credit with encouraging my writing. But of course my sister, who also knew her, recogized her immediately. I can only think that Janet Frederick Rhodes, big fan of historical novels that she was and history teacher, would be immensely pleased to show up as Pythia! Sadly, she passed away a few years ago, and I suppose this was my unintentional tribute. More often it's that people look like people I know but aren't them in any meaningful way. For example, I realized that in my next book, Stealing Fire, the little girl Chloe looks a lot like my own seven year old daughter. But Chloe is very much not my daughter in personality. Sometimes I do consciously think of someone while writing, with sometimes interesting results. For example, in one of my books that I wrote several years ago but haven't sold yet I could not help but think of the French Revolutionary figure Paul Barras as reminding me of John Edwards. This was before any scandal about Edwards broke, and I thought it was an unfair comparison, as Barras does not at all appear in a flattering light in my book. But then the scandal broke, and the comparison suddenly seemed apt after all! | |||
| Jun. 24th, 2009 @ 07:44 am Stealing Fire | |||
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| A reader asks, "What's your next book and when is it due out?" My next book is called Stealing Fire, and it's due out from Orbit next spring. It's about the death of Alexander the Great and the beginnings of Ptolemaic Egypt, as seen through the eyes of Gull/Charmian's incarnation in that time, a soldier named Lydias of Miletus. Alexander is dead in Babylon and his empire is crumbling. Can anything be saved? Or is this a descent into another dark age? Will Lydias and his friends (including that time's Cleopatra and Emrys) be able to preserve their world? Or will everything they have fought for be lost? When we get closer to the publication date I'll put up an excerpt. For now you can find the first chapter in the back of Hand of Isis! I can't wait to hear what you guys think! | |||
| Jun. 22nd, 2009 @ 07:57 am Casting Hand of Isis | |||
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| Several people have also asked if I mentally cast Hand of Isis as if it were a movie. Yes and no. I have very distinct pictures in my head of all the characters, and for some of them I can think of an ideal actor to play them, and for some not. My best Charmian would be Reese Witherspoon. The thing that reminds me particularly of Charmian about her is that she always seems so soft, but she's got the steel behind it in the performance. Which is of course one thing about Charmian -- she seems soft, and it's easy to underestimate her. She doesn't look like a Companion right off! She doesn't look like she'd be much to reckon with, just a pretty girl. My Emrys is Jack Davenport, and he's the one I supposed I imagined most strongly. Jack Davenport is very tall, and he has the lovely green eyes and the tight mouth. I can definitely see him as my Emrys. I don't have a perfect Dion. Any suggestions? My Marcus Agrippa is Sean Astin. He looks so much like the real Agrippa! A friend of mine was fortunate enough to see Patrick Stewart as Antony in Antony and Cleopatra, but to me Patrick Stewart is absolutely and completely Caesar! He's the only one I can imagine in the role. So what do you guys think? Any casting you'd like? | |||
| Jun. 9th, 2009 @ 07:40 am Imaginary Casting | |||
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| A couple of people have asked me how I'd cast Black Ships if it were a movie. That's not really how I think about things while I'm writing -- I know exactly what the characters look like, but they don't look like particular people I know or like particular actors. That said, I've been thinking about how I would cast it if I could, and if by some magic possibility I could get everyone the right ages at the same time! My Gull would probably be Olivia Hussey back in the day when she played Juliet in the Franco Zefferelli version of Romeo and Juliet in 1968. Gull is only seventeen when she begins her journey, and young Olivia Hussey manages to convey both innocence and strength, as well as having a certain otherworldly quality. My best Xandros might be Duncan Regehr, once again age regressed to the early 80s! It's not a great picture, but the best one I could find of him at that age, as most of them are from his later run as Zorro. Again, Xandros is very young, 21-23 during their journey. Oddly enough, Duncan Regehr and Olivia Hussey were once in the same movie, the dreadful Last Days of Pompeii, which I saw as a teen, screamed about the historicity loudly, and veged on the Temple of Isis. Neas is the hardest. I need some help with this one! I know exactly what he looks like, but I can't think who would play him. Do you guys have ideas, for Neas or anyone else? | |||
| May. 26th, 2009 @ 08:58 am New Cover! | |||
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Black Ships will be coming out in Mass Market paperback in December, and it will have a gorgeous new cover when it does. John Jude Palencar is doing new covers for Black Ships, Hand of Isis, and the new book, Stealing Fire! He's done covers for some of my favorite authors in the past, including Marion Zimmer Bradley, Jacqueline Carey and Octavia Butler, so it's a thrill to get a look at his concept of Gull! You can click on it to make it bigger. She looks exactly as I had imagined her, and this is such an elegant and beautiful cover! | |||
| Apr. 28th, 2009 @ 10:59 am Locus Awards! | |||
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| I am absolutely stunned to find out that Black Ships is a 2009 Locus Award nominee for Best First Novel! See? http://www.locusmag.com/News/2009/04/20 The winner will be announced in late June, so I have my fingers crossed! Go, little book! | |||
| Apr. 24th, 2009 @ 08:39 am Book Group Discussions? | |||
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| I have a question for you guys -- in both Black Ships and Hand of Isis we've had book group questions. I've never been in a book group myself, so I kind of flailed writing the questions. Has anybody here read Black Ships or Hand of Isis in a book group? Were the questions helpful? What did you actually talk about? What was interesting to discuss? I ask because it's time for me to write the questions for Stealing Fire, the next book, and it would be helpful to know what was useful. Thanks! | |||
| Apr. 11th, 2009 @ 11:02 am Charmian's Future? | |||
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| A reader asked me about the scene in Hand of Isis during the coronation at Abydos, when Charmian and Iras have accompanied Cleopatra into the Tomb of Osiris. There, Charmian has a vision that culminates with calling Caesar. The reader asked about the first part of that scene, and what it meant. ( Charmian's Future ) | |||
| Apr. 8th, 2009 @ 06:40 am A New Story With Dion | |||
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| Many people have asked me what happened to Dion after the end of Hand of Isis. I wrote this short story right after I finished writing the book because I needed to leave my head in a better place. So come see -- in which Dion runs into another Great Story! Warning: Spoilers for the end of Hand of Isis! ( Dion ex Machina ) | |||
| Apr. 2nd, 2009 @ 05:56 pm Let's Talk About Dion | |||
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| Several readers have told me that Dion was their surprise favorite in Hand of Isis -- that they had expected to like Charmian, but Dion stole the show for them. ( So Let's Chat About Dion ) | |||
| Mar. 30th, 2009 @ 07:06 am Online Interview | |||
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| Fantasyliterature.net did an interview with me about Hand of Isis, which you can see here: http://fantasyliterature.net/news/new-r | |||
| Mar. 28th, 2009 @ 02:49 pm Let's Talk About Iras | |||
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| Several readers have said that Iras was their favorite character in Hand of Isis, and asked me to expand a bit more on Iras and her role. I'd also love to hear what you guys think about her! ( Let's Talk About Iras ) | |||
| Mar. 27th, 2009 @ 09:15 pm Which Book? | |||
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| A reader asks, "You said in an interview that Black Ships was actually your fourth book. How many books have you written, and what are they?" Black Ships was my first book published, but the fourth one written. I've started a bunch of others, but I'm only counting the finished ones here. ( Lots of Fun Books! ) | |||
| Mar. 25th, 2009 @ 04:22 pm Charmian's Playlist | |||
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| A couple of people have commented on my answer in the supplemental material to Hand of Isis, where I said I had a playlist for Charmian, and wondered what else was on it besides the two songs I mentioned. I do have a playlist for every book, which I tend to play over and over in the writing process. It really helps, and it definitely reflects the "feel" of the book. ( Charmian's Playlist ) | |||
| Mar. 20th, 2009 @ 10:31 am Hand of Isis in Australia | |||
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| I'm super happy to announce that Hand of Isis will be coming out in an Australian edition from Orbit Australia in May, 2009! Woot! | |||
| Mar. 18th, 2009 @ 08:59 am Emrys and Dion -- To the Victor | |||
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| The second half of yesterday's post, about Emrys and Dion many, many years later. In which Victory meets him again, and we get a glimpse of Sigismund and Charmian as well! ( To the Victor -- Paris, 1810 ) I'd love to hear what you guys think! | |||
| Mar. 17th, 2009 @ 09:09 am Emrys and Dion -- Way On Down the Line | |||
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| This is for fried_flamingo, who finished Hand of Isis and wants more of Emrys and Dion! This is part one of a two part short story I wrote when I was working on Hand of Isis about Emrys and Dion many, many years after Hand of Isis, when they encounter one another again in a very different age. No spoilers for Hand of Isis. ( Small Victories, in the summer of 1800 ) I'd love to hear what you guys think! I'll post the second part tomorrow. | |||
| Mar. 16th, 2009 @ 11:23 am Happy Review! | |||
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| Another lovely review for Hand of Isis, here: http://www.fantasyliterature.net/graham | |||
| Mar. 15th, 2009 @ 11:57 am The Ides of March | |||
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| It's the Ides of March -- commemorate it by buying Hand of Isis! :) Seriously, though -- this morning I rewatched on YouTube one of the older versions of Caesar's eulogy -- young Marlon Brando as Marcus Antonius giving Shakespeare's immortal funeral oration. Several readers have asked me, "How do you go about writing characters who are so iconic, so well known, without the ghosts of all past portrayals of Caesar being there for comparison?" The answer is that they are there. One of the differences between writing Hand of Isis and Black Ships is that we are much more familiar with Cleopatra, Julius Caesar and Marcus Antonius than with any of the characters in the Aeneid. So the challenge becomes how to do something fresh and different with them while staying true to what we know about them from historical sources. One thing I did was to put them in different situations, to choose to show different scenes than the iconic ones. Rather than the expected scene between Cleopatra and Julius Caesar in Alexandria, with her delivered to him in a rug, I gave the screen time to this one instead. This was the first scene written in Hand of Isis, back in 2005, and it's one of my favorite Caesar bits. In which Cleopatra sends Charmian to talk to Caesar in Alexandria while they are his prisoners, hoping that Charmian will find an opening they can use. ( Charmian and Caesar ) | |||
| Mar. 10th, 2009 @ 10:27 am Charmian's Main Course | |||
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| For the main course of Charmian's meal I selected Chicken with Alexandrian Sauce. Apicus tells us that this sauce comes from Egypt, where it is served with poultry and fish. Admittedly, I thought it sounded a little unusual. Raisins and fish sauce are not a combination I usually consider! However, it turned out to be really, really good. ( The Meat Course ) | |||
