DruidsBook

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

Tomorrow is the Small Press and Magazine Fair at  the Edmonton Public Library downtown!   Look for me downstairs by the theatre! 

I glanced at my calendar and it’s less than a week until World Fantasy Convention and the DRUIDS big launch in California!  WOW!  I’m thrilled and can hardly wait !

I’m naturally shy.  Okay, I know that’s almost impossible for most of you who know me to believe, but I am.  I find it especially difficult to talk about my own accomplishments as if they were an everyday thing (even if some of them are like this morning — I accomplished making coffee!).

So now, in 8 days I will hopping on an airplane for San Jose California and the World Fantasy Convention to do just that–talk about my accomplishments. Then, I will be swimming upstream against my natural inclination to stay with people I know to meet new people and make new friends. I will be talking to people about the book.  Fortunately it’s every bit Josh’s book, too.  Our “baby”!  The darling looks like both of us!

I’m both thrilled and terrified!  My dreams of launching a novel at WFC are about to come true. Who could ask for anything cooler than that?  But like a roller coaster–there’s the long journey up… then the big zoom as you pick  up speed and whirl around corners and loop-de-loops and finish with hair all disheveled, eyes wide, laughing wildly, and not sure if you loved it or hated it! 

But oh… how quick to want to do it again!  The roller coaster of the book launch last weekend is done.  What a ride!  Now I look forward to the roller coaster of WFC and hope for another fantastic, awesome ride! 

See you there!  The launch is Friday 4-6 pm.  There will be chocolate!  

Which reminds me  — I promptly forgot to drink the coffee while it was still hot.

I attended “Unchained Doom,” an SCA event held near Cullman, Alabama, which — I thought during the drive over — was somewhere near the edge of the Earth. And that’s pretty extraordinary considering how very pleasant and relaxed the folk were who attended. Sadly, the weather gods frowned on the event and saw to it that rain and cold were the elemental order of the day.

I discovered that people have a hard time reading in the rain, especially if their teeth are chattering (a significant problem for those who read-d-d-d-d-d out-t-t-t-t loud-d-d-d-d).  It’s not surprising then that book sales were held to a minimum. Why buy if you can’t read? Similar fates fell to the other merchants, all of whom took it in stride, much like the combatants who, between shivers, were wailing away at each other with rattan swords. I can’t even imagine the bruising…. Ouch!

I remained with the non-combatants huddled near the bonfire. A camaraderie of the miserable? Actually, no. These folk are hardier than that, and most joked about the weather.  Only the merchants, myself included, groused about the limited turn-out. All in all, I was impressed by the local SCA, even if the bulk of them are rocket scientists or their associates.  Rocket scientists?  In Cullman, Alabama?  Check your maps. Cullman is but a wee bit south of Huntsville, home of the Redstone Arsenal — Rocketville, USA. “Wilt thou yield, or must I smote thee with a MIRV?”

Wow!  That’s about all I can say right now.  Getting to bed before I fall over is starting to be a high priority item!  The special cake is ordered–just wait until you see it.  Woo!   Almost all preps are done–a quick trip to Costco and then just getting everything in the car tomorrow–and then all we have to do on Sat is pick up the cakes.  This is certainly the biggest party I ever threw!  And even more to celebrate - the 2010 Alberta People’s Choice Book Award nomination! Only 20 books in Alberta make it this far!  Woot!  It really IS an honour to be nominated.

People have asked us which of our characters are “real”. While we do like to believe all our characters are real, the only ones who have dialog and who actually lived off the printed page are Quintus Sertorius, Perpenna Vento, and Spanus. Other Romans mentioned, such as Governor Fufidius, lived, but have no scenes, and we put no words in their mouths or public actions which Plutarch does not note. If Plutarch sketched their characters, we used his assessment in our development of them. Any other Roman is fictional.  All the Celtic and Iberian characters are entirely fictional.

Plutarch wrote this about Sertorius:

Quintus Sertorius belonged to a family of some prominence in Nussa, a city of the Sabines. Having lost his father, he was properly reared by a widowed mother, of whom he appears to have been excessively fond. His mother’s name, we are told, was Rhea. As a result of his training he was sufficiently versed in judicial procedure, and acquired some influence also at Rome from his eloquence, although a mere youth; but his brilliant successes in war turned his ambition in this direction.

To begin with, when the Cimbri and Teutones invaded Gaul, he served under Caepio, and after the Romans had been defeated and put to flight, though he had lost his horse and had been wounded in the body, he made his way across the Rhone, swimming, shield and breastplate and all, against a strongly adverse current; so sturdy was his body and so inured to hardships by training. In the next place, when the same enemies were coming up with many myriads of men and dreadful threats,6 so that for a Roman even to hold his post at such a time and obey his general was a great matter, while Marius was in command, Sertorius undertook to spy out the enemy. So, putting on a Celtic dress and acquiring the commonest expressions of that language for such conversation as might be necessary, he mingled with the Barbarians; and after seeing or hearing what was of importance, he came back to Marius. At the time, then, he received a prize for valour; and since, during the rest of the campaign, he performed many deeds which showed both judgement and daring, he was advanced by his general to positions of honour and trust. After the war with the Cimbri and Teutones, he was sent out as military tribune by Didius the praetor to Spain, and spent the winter in Castulo, a city of the Celtiberians.

 It’s here where our novel DRUIDS opens, and Rhonwen comes face to face with the man who changes her destiny.

I’ve changed a lot.  That axe is rarely used to make my point anymore!  Now I rely on calm, compassion, and sweetness to get it across.  Right?!  That smile from our earlier days is twice as wide now that the book–that we worked on for so long–is really out!  I am chuffed!