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.

Working at Last!

Have finally begun work on the last Chronicle, The Book of Dreams, after weeks of dithering, recovering from flu, and exploring my Buddhist leanings. The e-files are broken down into chapters, I've been reading and making notes, and now I am drawing up the big wall chart that shows me what is happening in each chapter. So there I am, working away on the chart, when in comes Hamish, a big fat wet cat who walks right across it and leaves muddy paw prints all over it. Appropriately enough, I guess, since he appears in Chapter 3 as the King of Cats. And I'm delighted it's raining. That's why Ireland has so many writers. What else is there to do when it's lashing outside?

Japanese Edition Ahoy!

Heard today that the Japanese edition of The Book of Dreams will be published in April of this year. Can't wait to see it! I understand it will be in two volumes. Kodansha do the most exquisite covers and there are always smaller illustrations at the beginning of the book such as this one at the front of The Summer King (Granuaile's galley). I'll post some of their other illustrations plus the maps of Ireland in Japanese. Honestly, I just adore foreign translations. They are so exciting.

The Summer King in Slovenian

Copies of the Slovenian edition of The Summer King arrived today. Findabhair took one look at Ian on the cover and said, "hello, hello." There is a nice pattern to the artwork of this Slovenian series. Each cover depicts attractive young people and a central image of a moon disc with the shadow of an animal figure featured in the tales, i.e. here you see Laheen, the great golden eagle. The Light-Bearer's Daughter cover (see below) shows the shadow of Dana's wolf guardian, while The Hunter's Moon cover (in the archives) presents the Faerie king on his horse. Nicely done.

Gaeilge Abú!

I have written in my personal blog about Mark Abley's Spoken Here, a book concerning endangered languages. Here I want to speak about its relevance to my own work. The use of the Irish language in The Chronicles of Faerie is no light matter. Yes, its chief role is literary. As the true language of Irish síscealta - fairy tales - it bows towards the Source, the creative Well of my ancestors, from which I draw my inspiration. Thematically, it implies esoteric and ancient knowledge; the power of arcane words which can 'spellbind.' It is also used to enhance the poetic and lyrical weave of the text. Like Tolkien's elvish languages, Irish is a silver thread that shimmers through the stories. But there is another reason why I use it. A political and racial one. As Abley clearly points out, our mother tongues will only survive when we go beyond cherishing them and insist on using them.