Irish Blog Awards

Bookmark has made the longlist for the 2008 Irish Blog Awards in the Best Arts and Culture Blog category, yahoo! Winners will be announced March 1st. Here's where you go to see the long list: January 31st post in http://www.disillusionedlefty.blogspot.com/. But I am really cross with myself for not nominating Swedish Paddy (as I think of him) for the Best Personal Blog. He's at http://www.paddyk.wordpress.com/. He's a scream. A gas ticket. Gotta remember next year. Someone remind me if I don't.

Im Schatten Des Elfenmonds

The German edition of The Hunter's Moon arrived today. The title translates to 'In the Shadow of the Faerie Moon.' (Nice.) It's a handsome trade paperback, with the same metallic cover as the American edition. Das Buch ist schon. (There should be two tiny dots on that o.) I've already heard from German readers who are very happy with it and I'm sending it off to Finn's cousin Conor in Austria, whose first language is German. (Conor's Dad is Finn's Dad's brother, an Irishman, and his wife is Austrian.) Conor's a big Tolkien fan so I'll get a serious and hopefully good response! Fingers crossed das Buch will be a big seller in Germany, one of the largest book markets in the world. As a fellow writer and dear friend says, 'art for art's sake and money for godsake!'

Dharamsala Here I Come

When talking with the Rinpoche yesterday (see blog), I suddenly realised that I have to go to India with him next year - he goes every year, also to Mongolia - because a young Tibetan monk walked into my book a few weeks ago. Since this young monk was reared in Dharamsala, like so many who are exiled from Tibet due to the Chinese occupation of that country, I really need to see where and how he grew up. Rinpoche suggested I attend teachings by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, and of course that would be brilliant, too! And since I am going to India, I might as well travel south to visit my friends in Pondicherry and Auroville, Tamil Nadu. Oh, what an exciting thought! A new book is like a magic carpet. It takes you to exotic places within and without yourself.

More Moon Magic

I posted below about the synchronous relationship of Savina Yannatou's music with my new work-in-progress, People of the Great Journey. Because I loved 'With the Moon I'm Walking' (a traditional song from the Greek island of Kalymnos), I ordered the Terra Nostra album from my local music shop. Was surprised to discover that it is an album of folk songs from all over the world. So there I was listening to it and working on my book and I was struck by a song in English which sounded familiar. Well, the hair stood up on the back of my neck when I checked what it was: 'A Fairy's Love Song' from the Hebrides (yes, indeedy, the setting of my new book). I have it somewhere in Scots Gaelic, sung by Rúnrig, I think, my favourite Celtic folk-rock band hailing from the Western Isles and with a new lead singer from Cape Breton Island, Canada. You know, call me mad, but I do accept these little messages from the cosmos as signs that I am on the right path and doing the right thing. Here's a pic of Savina who is as beautiful as her voice. Don't know what that weird mask thing is.

Wolves

I love them. And I much prefer the Native American attitude towards them - "our brothers, like the dog" - as opposed to the European one so familiar in fairy tales, i.e. they are an evil enemy. It's interesting to see that modern urban fantasy continues this agricultural prejudice. Wolves are evil in the Chronicles of Narnia and more recently in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. (The daimons of the 'evil' Tartars guarding the Experimental Station are wolves.) Not in my books! The she-wolf is a guide and protector in The Light-Bearer's Daughter and another wolf plays a central role in The Book of Dreams. Oddly enough, my own last name means 'wolf' (not my pen-name) and I live on a street called 'Wolfe'. Coincidence? Hah!

Rabbie Burns Day

Hoot mun, it is. This is the day Scotland celebrates the birth of its national poet, Robert Burns. At parties held in his honour, they serve up haggis which Rabbie called 'Great Chieftain o' the puddin'-race.' It's a mash of sheep's heart, liver and lung mixed with toasted oatmeal, onions and seasonings all boiled up in a sheep's stomach. (Yum, says this vegetarian.) The haggis is piped into the room by a fully-kitted bagpiper and everyone cheers at the sight of it. My guess is, there's plenty of cheer drunk beforehand, bottles of good strong Scotch, before they tuck into the fare. And to finish off this post, a pic of a fine broth of a Scots lad on the battlefield of Culloden.

Green Earth and Golden Eagle

One of the great things about the Green Earth Book Award (along with them flying me over to Maryland for a book festival to receive my prize) is that I get to name an environmental agency who will also receive prize money. It wasn't hard to pick one. I've chosen The Golden Eagle Reintroduction Project which I list in the glossary of The Summer King. As mentioned in the book, the golden eagle was hunted to extinction in Ireland, and that extinction was still a fact when I wrote the first edition. You can imagine my delight at discovering, when writing the new and expanded version, that this was no longer true! Just like Mrs Sootie Woodhouse says in The Light-Bearer's Daughter: not all that is gone is gone forever. Do have a look at their site. There are gorgeous pictures of eagles and also red kites and other raptors. http://www.goldeneagle.ie/. Come to think of it, given that the eagle is such an important bird to Americans, it's fitting that American support goes to this project.