The Rain in Spain...
Just a quick check-in. Just got back from the Celsius 232 Festival of Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror in Aviles, Spain - a WONDERFUL festival, and unlike any other convention I've been to. It's not in a hotel, but bookshop kiosks are scattered all through the 17th-century Old Town. This was the hotel they put me up in - a 17th-century nobleman's palace (that served REALLY fine breakfasts!) (The other picture is of me in front of an old fountain).
Soft gray weather. One day it did drizzle. Two days there was a religious festival - the Virgin of Carmen, who guards all vehicles, fishing-boats in this case - with parades of drummers and a life-size Madonna carried through the streets. In the evening everyone in town walks their dogs.
The final notes from my editor on 'Death in the Palace' are due in a week, and I will post at greater length then. (I am also having the house re-piped, so there are plumbers in and out and for a week there was a back-hoe in my front yard). But, it's a wonderful con, I had an amazing time - the big-name guest there was Brandon Sanderson, but there were a host of others: Kim Newman, Jay Kristoff, Lisa Tuttle... A well-organized, truly international con.
More later. I took the manuscript with me but spent an AWFUL lot of time sitting in cafes talking to friends until one in the morning, so it was probably better that I didn't try to do any serious writing.
Happy Birthday!
ReplyDeleteHi Barbara! I hope you are doing well.
ReplyDeleteI apologize if this is not the proper way to contact you. The only other way I could find was Facebook, which I do not have and doubt I wouldn't just end up in your spam messages on a freshly made account.
As you can see, my father was a really big fan of your books, The Windose Chronicles.
It has always bothered me that I have been unsure how to properly pronounce "Antreges", and I was hoping you could clear that up for me. I'm pretty sure Antryg is just "An-Trig", but please correct me if I am wrong.
I could give you my personal email if you would find that a better way to converse.
Also, being the bad son I am, I have only just now started reading the Windose Chronicles (I'm 26...). I'm about a little over 1/3 of the way through the book. I really like it so far! I'm a programmer myself (video games), and its really interesting to see how things were back in the 80s.
I think the books could be a really good movie series or even a game. Is that something you ever looked into?
I'll leave it there for now, but I have a lot of other questions for you. Also, I tried to contact you when I was younger, but I was a silly kid and never checked for a reply. I tried to find it recently but failed. I've got email notifications on this time!
Thank you for your time, and again I am sorry if this is not the place for this kind of message. - Antryg
Antryg, yes, this is the way to contact me. (I tend to be reclusive due to some bad experiences years ago). I feel rather embarrassed that you got stuck with a name that probably got you teased in Middle School - though of course I'm flattered your dad thought enough of my work to name you after one of my characters. (How many women out there had to cope with being named Daenerys?). The proper pronunciation of Antreges is with a soft "g" - An-TREE-gess.
DeleteI agree with you that the universe of Ferryth would make a fascinating game world - or a good movie series - but I've never been approached for either one. The works of mine that I HAVE been approached about (very few) have usually gotten tied up in the whole Hollywood hunt for backing, so nothing has come of them yet.
When I write the short stories about the further adventures of Antryg and Joanna - I have half a dozen of them, available through Amazon and Draft-to-Digital at $5 a pop - it makes me smile when I have to do historical research to make sure I have things right about the '80s: what songs were current, what kind of clothes were cool, what TV shows were on then, how far had the Internet progressed from the '80s network of bulletin-boards? Sometimes I do feel like a time-traveler.
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DeleteI recently realized (was forced to realize!) that the grownups around me felt that World War II had just happened when I was born in 1954. I thought it was ancient history. And now the same thing has happened with 9/11—yesterday to me, ancient history to the young people. We are all time-travelers, unfortunately just at low speed and in the one direction.
Delete—In case you enjoy the adulation of fans, all your writing is of course wonderful. :) —
I actually can't recall ever being teased for my name. I have developed a pet peeve for repeating my name though, as it seems nobody's brain allows them to hear it correctly the first time. I've been called "Andrew" more times than I can count, and have had to fight back against people wanting to call me "Ant".
DeleteI really appreciate the assistance on the pronunciation. "An-Tre-Gess" with a hard "G" had always been my best guess, but it turns out an old ex was closer than anyone I had heard with one of her silly nicknames "An-Twee-gess" haha. It will take some getting used to, but I'm just happy being able to confidently tell people the correct pronunciation now.
I imagine that research is a lot easier than what you had to do for the original trilogy, given the current state of the internet and your own personal experiences in the time. Even though I'm only just about to start chapter 8 of The Silent Tower, I've really enjoyed your descriptions of the medieval-esque era (though given the current direction of the story, I'm not sure how much more of that I'll be getting... No spoilers tho haha).
My favorite character (other than Antryg because I'm obviously biased) is probably Salteris, though I've been having a lot of trouble not visualizing him as the late Christopher Lee's portrayal of Saruman.
Speaking of Antryg, what is the origin of the name?
Is it just a shortened version of Antreges, or did it come first?
My theory is the former and that it came from one of Antreges' many anagrams [Estrange, Sergeant, Reagents], "Estrange" being the most likely.
Actually, I simply invented the name "Antryg", and came up with the longer version later when I needed a "real" name (like my friend Ed's "real name" being Everett). It wasn't an anagram of anything.
DeleteOf course Silent Tower was written many years before Sir Christopher went on-camera as Saruman, but it's an image that fits well. And actually, as you'll see, the world of Ferryth is closer to the mid-eighteenth century than what we think of as the "Middle Ages" - the cities are dealing with the early phases of the Industrial Revolution (hence the ban on magic).