DruidsBook

Woo-Hoo!  We have the best news ever!  DRUIDS has made the final ballot for the Prix-Aurora Award in the Best Novel (in English) category.  We are thrilled and so grateful to everyone who took the time to nominate.  Check out www.prix-aurora.ca for more details. 

And I’m so pleased to say that the other four novels are all written by friends of ours, so it’s a total win-win situation, no matter what!  The other nominees are WAKE by Robert J Sawyer, THE AMULET OF AMON-RA by Leslie Carmichael, STEEL WHISPERS by Hayden Trenholm, and TERRA INSEGURA by Edward Willett.  What a collection of fine writings!

Barb delivered the manuscript for Captives, book two in the Druids series, to our publisher in mid-December. Now, three weeks later, he’s asking for our input on a cover!

We’re totally stoked, as you can imagine. Many readers have asked us when they’d be able to read the next installment, and we didn’t have anything to say except that we hoped to have one out *soon.*

So, while “soon” might not be coming as quickly as we’d hoped, we can’t promise anything — yet! We’re fortunate to be working with Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publisihing. The good folk there produce consistently excellent books, including ours!

So, please stay tuned. As soon as we know a little more, we’ll post it.

Oh, and feel free to make suggestions about what or who you’d like to see on the cover. Most of the crew from Druids will be returning, plus a few new players.

Just thought you’d like to see what Mount Eban could look like 2000 years after Mallec and his people.  The forest is gone, but the stones remain.  Now all we need to do is find the secret entrance to the Cavern of the Ancients. 

Once covered with forests, the rich expanse of Armorica is now peppered with farms.  I can almost see Mallec sitting atop the highest rock and looking to the horizon, perhaps even glimpsing the blue glitter of the sea.  Perhaps somewhere below lie the remains of a druid enclave.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roc’h_Trevezel

It’s all SO exciting!

December 1, 2009, 5:00 pm – 7:30 pm.  Stony Plain Public Library (4613 52 Ave.,  Stony Plain) Buy a Signed Book for Some for Christmas!  Twenty Alberta authors, illustrators, and storytellers will be selling and signing books.

December 9, 2009 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm  Strathcona County Library, in the Sherwood Park Mall, 300, 2020 Sherwood Drive in Sherwood Park.  The entrance is located on the east side of the mall! I’ll be talking about “How We Did It” : a collaboration over 4 books, 10 years, and 3000 km!

December 12, 2009 12:00 – 4:00 pm Coles Books at Londonderry Mall (main floor 148A) .  I’ll be book-signing all afternoon, so drop by for a chat! 

December 17, 2009 7 pm – 9:00 pm in Calgary at the Indigo Books at CrossIron Mills, 261055 Crossiron Blvd.  I’ll be there signing with other authors which will be a lot of fun!  Come by and say hello!  And just so you know, this is the brand new location north of the International Airport.  Access from the north: Hwy 566 turnoff (east) and then south on Barlow Trail NE (I hope).  From the south, pretty much the same thing, except I think you can keep going north on Barlow Trail NE and get there!  It’s in the mall on the east side of Hwy 2.

No, it wasn’t the Swine flu, but on the airplane from Edmonton to San Jose, I caught a cough.  A mighty cough as any of you who went to World Fantasy Convention may recall!  Today, exactly one month later, the cough is finally gone–last night’s coughless sleep was awesome!  THAT leads to the important stuff!

Scenes are being written for book 2.  Relax.. don’t panic!  Book 2- CAPTIVES- is done, although we decided in doing a final edit pass we needed a couple of bridge scenes to make it smoother.  One’s written and the other in my head..awaiting the early evening when my brain best churns the stuff out! Then Josh will do his magic and we’ll have something we both love.  Of course, we will pass it back and forth a few times, just to be on the safe side! 

Stay tuned for news of where I’m going to be over the next couple of weeks!

In the process of writing and researching Druids, it became quickly obvious that most of what we know today about the Celts, and druids in particular, was written by people who didn’t like them.  Julius Caesar, for instance, was not a huge fan of the Celts.  In the sequel to Druids we suggest what might have set Caesar on an eventual course of conquest over the Gauls.  It’s a logical, albeit entirely fictional rationale for Caesar’s quest to eradicate druids.  In reality, he needed a reason to stay out of Rome so he wouldn’t be arrested and charged with crimes against the state.  The Celts were handy.  Largely disorganized and often nomadic, they were a fairly easy target.

The propaganda machines were cranked up (Caesar’s own aggrandizing commentary still serves as an “instructional” document); the legions were dispatched, and the Gauls were crushed, tribe by tribe.  Along the way, the druids were demonized.  That’s hardly surprising given their role in holding Celtic culture together.  Wipe out the educated class of any society and it will collapse.

I recently watched a History Channel production about druids.  They reported that new evidence had been uncovered suggesting that the ancient Celts practiced cannibalism, and they had one site in Wales and a handful of bones to back up the claim.  As I recall, Pliny is also cited as an expert on the topic.  Wow.  If the tribulations of the pioneering Donner party were treated the same way, would that make me a cannibal?  I’m American, after all, and so was the Donner party.  No, I wasn’t trapped and starving in a mountain pass like they were, but we share a heritage.

The Celts had some beliefs we would find uber strange today.  Barb and I tried to put some of that strangeness in perspective in our books.  Only you can determine if we succeeded.  And please, feel free to let us know!  I can only imagine how strange the Celts would think we are.

I’ve been to several World Fantasy Cons, but I can honestly say, this one was by far: the best, the most fun, and the most rewarding.  San Jose is a beautiful city, and the venue was spectacular.  The Fairmont Hotel with its classical motif was the perfect setting for the launch of a Roman-era historical fantasy.  Okay, I admit, a Celtic hill fort setting might have been a wee bit more comfortable for Rhonwen and Mallec.  But, since Barb and I were there LIVE, and Rhonwen and Mallec attended two-dimensionally, our feelings had to take precedence.

I did my first public reading and chose a short, humorous scene in which Rhonwen and Baia are eating dinner when a Roman arrives and summons them to work for the Roman governor, Fufidious.  Barb did a great job on her reading — the dramatic confrontation between Rhonwen’s brother Telo, their mother, Baia, and an Iberian warrior drunk on wine and thirsting for Roman blood.  The room was absolutely packed, and our audience was attentive and very kind, ignoring ringing phones, clinking wine glasses, and the communal munching of chocolate.

What a complete gas!  I look forward to launching as many new books as we can!

We’re off tomorrow to the World Fantasy Convention!  That is going to be so exciting. 

Wednesday night from 6:00 to 8:30 pm we will be at Borderlands Bookstore in San Francisco–866 Valencia St.  A visit will reward you with autograph opportunities with many of the authors who will be at WFC, including us!  We are very excited. 

Then Friday night is our official world launch at Books, Bytes and Chocolate Delights, Hades Publications’ Multi-Author Book Launch, 4:00-6:00 pm at the World Fantasy Convention hotel in San Jose. 

We’ll be in the Dealer’s Room often with Hades Publications, so stop by for a chat.  Listen to us demonstrate how neither of us has an accent!  See you there!

We are so honoured and thrilled to be on the long list for this wonderful award.  Check it out at http://www.albertareaderschoice.ca/longlist.cfm

With the Georgia launch of Druids only two days away, I came to the shocking realization that I hadn’t sent a news release to the Marietta Daily Journal, our local newspaper.  Considering how little time remained before the event, the situation cried out for something extreme.  Yes, I E-mailed a press release that morning, but the situation demanded something even more extreme:  an intervention!

Fortified with a double mocha latte and a new shoulder pelt, I donned my druid apparel, grabbed my trusty druid staff, and drove to the newspaper office.

Kim Isaza accepts review copy of Druids.

Naturally, I arrived at the busiest time of the day.  Fortunately, the Managing Editor, Kim Isaza, took pity on me — as she likely would anyone who arrived, sans appointment, dressed like a 1st century BC priest — and graciously accepted a review copy of the book, an invitation to the Launch, and a hard copy of the press release.  What a gal!

Can you tell I’m psyched for the launch? <grin>

Thank goodness Annie had a camera available to capture the antics of the runaway druid of Marietta, GA.

Druid Josh outside the Marietta Daily Journal