NIGHT FLIGHT TO CHINA
Followed by A Day Out in Beijing
When I finally made my way out Exit B at the Beijing Airport, I was hoping there would be somebody with my name on a sign.
Read the whole entry - Posted on Jun 30, 09 | 9:00 pm | Chronicles
OF HUMAN BONDING
Or Why Art is the Key to the Survival of Humankind
Every now and then, I have the honour (and the pleasure, as it offers me a fortnight's reprieve) to have a guest writer for the space of a newsletter.
Amanda Hemingway is a fantasy writer who is also known as Jan Siegel, and a few other names besides.
In her own words:
"Looking for more information on fantasy novelist Jan Siegel? Want to know the low-down on the comic mind behind the novels of Jemma Harvey? Or whether or not Amanda Hemingway is any relation to Ernest? You've come to the right place, because these are all pen names of Amanda Hemingway (except Ernest). Amanda lives in a county town near the south coast of England, eats, sleeps, rides horses and writes novels."
I discovered Amanda's work a decade or so ago. Alan Lee had done the cover artwork for first of a trilogy called "Prospero's Children" while he was living in New Zealand - working evenings and weekends, and when Tome II came along the following year, he didn't feel he could manage it. So, the commissioning editor at HarperCollins called me up and asked if I could work in Alan's inimitable style. It was the first time I'd been asked to do a fake Alan Lee, so of course I promptly turned it down. The editor came back, and I turned it down again (but a little less promptly this time). I accepted on the third try, and am very glad I did.
The borders and frames Alan did remain the same. (They took me ages to figure out and reproduce, since they had been tinkered about with to make them fit the spine width.) Armed with a layout from the editor, I filled in the blank bits, trying my best to do, if not a fake Lee, at least something in the same spirit.
My only regret: standing in front of the "Alan Lee Originals" drawer in HarperCollins' London offices and upon being asked if I'd like to borrow Alan's original for reference, I foolishly replying (stupid me!!!) "No, a colour photocopy would do just fine." What WAS I thinking? it could be on my wall now...
Amanda has a new book coming out soon, so is immersed in rewrites, corrections and proofing, but somehow found the time and kindly dashed off a text. (In her own words: "Any excuse to pontificate.")
Read the whole entry - Posted on Jun 15, 09 | 9:00 pm | Chronicles
JUST WHAT IS IT ABOUT DRAGONS?
Or A Few Existential Thoughts On Creatures That Don't Exist (and Something About Vampires Too)
Last October, I was asked if I would write a foreword for a book on... dragons. Having just had Forging Dragons publish at about the same time, they were still very fresh in my mind. Small world. Full of dragons.
JUST WHAT IS IT ABOUT DRAGONS?
They seem to be everywhere, their ubiquity matched only by their variety. No other creature speads such colossal wings or drags its scaly belly across the mythical lands of so many cultures over the aeons. They span the spectrum from devilry to divinity, from blackest evil to boundless good. They come in all configurations, they speak, or they make our minds reel with the power of their thoughts, they squat athwart hoards of treasure untold. They are story. They are dragons.
But just what is it about dragons ?
Read the whole entry - Posted on May 30, 09 | 9:00 pm | Chronicles
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