It's Here!

My advance copy of the Abrams edition of The Light-Bearer's Daughter arrived today and omigod, it is only gorgeous! All goldy and shimmery. I couldn't have imagined a book more beautiful than the first two and yet here it is. It is due out in American bookstores as of May 1. Readers in other countries can order it online from amazon.com. (Sorry, but still no sign of my Canadian publishers bringing out the new versions.) At 348 pages, it is almost three times the size of the original. This is the most thorough re-write of all the books and I am very pleased with it. Excerpts will be published in the May online edition of the prestigious Journal of Mythic Arts, www.endicott-studio.com. They are doing a Spring Special on Young Adult literature. Will keep you posted about that.

The Summer King (Trailer, Fan Made)

Look at this! A fellow blogger found it on YouTube. (Thanks, Salerio!) I think it's fabulous. You know, I don't mean to crow, but I've always noticed that my readers tend to be particularly creative and brilliant.

Good News, Bad News

Well, the good news is that my American publishers, Abrams NY, have decided to publish The Book of Dreams as a big Fall book in September 2008, so there is no rush on the revisions. In fact, the manuscript doesn't have to be in till September of this year. Given that the book is over 500 pages, this is brilliant. The bad news, of course, is that I am majorly dossing (Hiberno-English for procrastinating) at an even worse rate than usual. Still, I am reading a chapter a day and making notes and Finn is reading it too, being my first editor. Yes, I pay her. A tenner plus taxi service. Now, must go read Chapter 22.

Spadina Bus

Here it is, back again. Lost it when trying to fix a problem for Firefox users. Aside from it being a hoot, this video reflects what I am working on right now. Toronto - and Spadina Avenue itself - both feature in the last Chronicle of Faerie.

Writer on the Web

Canadian author Richard Scrimger has finally got his act together and put up a website. Of course it's a hoot, like himself. Have a look at www.scrimger.ca. And, yes, I clicked on the "Nothing" bar first. Bet you do too.

Lá Phádraig Punk

Here's the song that Gwen and the leprechaun are listening to on the Triumph Herald radio in The Hunter's Moon. Yep, it's The Rocky Road to Dublin by the Dropkick Murphys. Hup ye boyos!

Drat!

Lost a month's work by being a scatterbrain. I've been making notes in an old edition of The Book of Dreams as part of my revisions. Yesterday I took the book into Dublin with me (to work on the DART) and left it on a bench in St Stephen's Green. Ach, it was a sunny day, the flowers were blooming, the ducks gliding over the pond, and Finn and I were chatting away about the future. I must've put the book down and forgot to pick it up again. By the time I realised that I had lost it, the park was locked up for the night. Sigh. Back to the beginning. Meanwhile, for those of you who have read the old version, have a look at this website: www.deezart.blogspot.com. Dana's daft aunties, Deirdre and Yvonne, are based on two of my artist sisters. Here you'll see that Dee is alive and well and making art indeed.

Japanese Artwork

I promised to post more of the exquisite artwork found in my Japanese editions. Here is a dotey depiction of a boggle in the mountain grasses (from The Light-Bearer's Daughter). If you want to see the gorgeous full-colour covers, click on my website above and then on Bibliography, scrolling down to Japan. This artist has achieved a wonderful blending of traditional Japanese artistic features with classical English illustrative techniques, producing an overall enchanting effect! It's obvious that he or she actually read the books which does not always happen, usually because of time constraints. I'm going to contact Kodansha to ask for the artist's name so I can post it here.

Tibet in Dundalk

Attended a reading by my friend, Siofra O'Donovan, at Hughes & Hughes bookstore in Dundalk on Saturday. I've blogged her wonderful book, Pema and the Yak, about her travels amongst the Tibetan exile community in northern India. (See archives May 2006). Here's a pic of her painting the cover of her book in a Tibetan monastery in Dharamsala. Members of the Irish Tibetan community (there are 17 thus far) attended the reading and we had lunch together, momos with chili sauce - yum! They spoke personally, as does Siofra in her book, of the suffering of the Tibetan people and the devastating destruction of their land, culture, and religion by the Chinese conquest. The powerful nations of the world do not act against the brutal Chinese dictatorship in Tibet because they do business with the Chinese government. And, of course, Tibet has no oil.