Nicola Griffith's Blog, page 32

Spear adjective competition: Clue #7

Here is Clue #7 in the One Adjective to Rule Them All competition. Words from a blurb by Hugo award-winning John Scalzi. The background illustration is taken from one of Spear‘s interior artworks by Rovina Cai—also a Hugo Award winner!

Image description: Square graphic in blue-grey showing a silhouette of a woman on a horse surrounded by wind or smoke. Centred in white text, “There is magic in Nicola Griffith’s words. Prepared to be enchanted.” And below that, in red-orange, “John Scalzi, author of The Kaiju Preservation Society.”

The competition is OPEN TO ANYONE IN THE WORLD, NO PURCHASE NECESSARY! The winner gets 3 prizes in one:

A signed, personalised first edition first printing of Spear A specially designed by Forensics & FlowersA digital download of the audiobook, narrated by moi

For the rules, and how to enter, see One Adjective to Rule Them All. Please note that I’ve amended the rules so you can enter once a day—refining your guesses as the clues mount up!

Comments on this post are off because the only guesses that count are those on the original blog post or emailed directly to me.

Listen to an excerpt from Spear

I just found that the publisher’s Spear page includes a link to a five-minute audio clip from near the beginning of the book. A frightened mother is telling stories of the Tuath Dé to a nameless child…

Spear adjective competition: Clue #6

Here is Clue #6 in the One Adjective to Rule Them All competition. Words from a blurb by Bruce Holsinger. The background illustration is taken from one of Spear‘s interior artworks by the talented Rovina Cai.

Image description: Square graphic in blue-grey showing in the upper left two women by a lake and, larger, in the lower right a menacing figure approaching with a spear. Centred in white text, “Just dazzling!” And below that, in red-orange, “Bruce Holsinger, author of The Gifted School”

The competition is OPEN TO ANYONE IN THE WORLD, NO PURCHASE NECESSARY! The winner gets 3 prizes in one:

A signed, personalised first edition first printing of SpearA luscious enamel pin specially designed by Forensics & FlowersA digital download of the audiobook, narrated by moi

For the rules and how to enter, see One Adjective to Rule Them All. Please note that I’ve amended the rules so you can enter once a day—refining your guesses as the clues mount up!

Comments on this post are off because the only guesses that count are those on the original blog post or emailed directly to me.

SPEAR IN ONE WEEK!!!

Spear will be out in exactly one week. (One! Week! 7! Days! Holy shit.) I’ve been making all sorts of things like Zoom backgrounds for the tour—mostly virtual, but some in-person (and I won’t get to use them because, well, most of the virtual stuff will be on Crowdcast)—and nifty quote graphics, etc. for the competition. Now I’m also furiously writing essays and doing interviews.

I also made two very short videos, a combination of one of Rovina Cai’s gorgeous black and white interior illustrations, which she turned into a colour GIF, and a snippet of added narration. (For the story of that narration, see the first of this two-part post on Speaking Spear.)

I posted the first last week. Here’s the second.

Video description: Looped GIF of a black and white illustration with an overlying colour wash of blue showing someone in a grave, eyes covered and knife laid on their breast. The knife blade is red. The grave is surrounded by whirling leaves and cut forget-me-nots. 

Narration: “They took turns digging. She had chosen a spot where the trees told her they had no thick roots, and the badgers knew to be rich with worms, and well-loosened. And her mother was a small woman. It did not take long. Peretur climbed into the grave, laid her hands on the dirt walls, the floor—Come. Eat, grow, let all lives be one—then looked up to Lance. “Pass the ferns.” When she was satisfied with the green carpet, she said, “Now give her to me.” She laid Elen on the ferns and covered her in fur, then laid Talorcan’s knife in its sheath on her breast. Next to that went the spray of climbing rose. “This should have been your cup. I’m sorry. But we must keep it safe.”

Meanwhile, don’t forget there’s still 6 days to pre-order the hardcover, submit your receipt, and receive one of the .

Image description: A grey jacket lapel with a round enamel pin in the shape of a red shield with raised rim and embossed rivets. On the shield are entwined forget-me-nots, with blue-and-yellow flowers and deep green leaves. Lying over all is a broad-bladed boar spear.

Spear adjective competition: Clue #5

Here is Clue #5 in the One Adjective to Rule Them All competition. Words from a blurb by Jo Walton. The background illustration is taken from one of Spear‘s interior artworks by the talented Rovina Cai.

Image description: Square graphic in blue-grey showing a background image of someone in 6th-century armour, sitting on a stone blowing on a dandelion puffball. The seeds rise like smoke, hiding their face. Centred in white text, “Breathtaking. Nicola Griffith knows what she’s doing.” And below that, in red-orange, “Jo Walton, author of Or What You Will”

The competition is OPEN TO ANYONE IN THE WORLD, NO PURCHASE NECESSARY! The winner gets 3 prizes in one:

A signed, personalised first edition first printing of SpearA luscious enamel pin specially designed by Forensics & FlowersA digital download of the audiobook, narrated by moi

Here’s what that lovely pin looks like, modelled by me on the lapel of my old but favourite jacket.

Pin design by Forensics and Flowers.

Image description: A grey suit jacket showing on the hand-stitched lapel a round enamel pin in the shape of a shield blazoned wiht fo rget-me-nots and overlaid by a spear. The pin is mostly red, with blue and green for the flowers.

For the rules and how to enter, see One Adjective to Rule Them All. Please note that I’ve amended the rules so you can enter once a day—refining your guesses as the clues mount up!

Comments on this post are off because the only guesses that count are those on the original blog post or emailed directly to me.

Spear adjective competition: Clue #4

Here is Clue #4 in the One Adjective to Rule Them All competition. Words from a blurb by writer Malka Older. The background illustration is taken from one of Spear‘s interior artworks by the talented Rovina Cai.

Image description: Square graphic in blue-grey showing a background image of someone in a grave, eyes covered and knife laid on their breast. The grave is surrounded by whirling leaves and cut forget-me-nots. Centred in white text, “Mesmerizing, epic, and immersive.” And below that, in red-orange, “Malka Older”

The competition is OPEN TO ANYONE IN THE WORLD, NO PURCHASE NECESSARY! The winner gets 3 prizes in one:

A signed, personalised first edition first printing of SpearA luscious enamel pin specially designed by Forensics & FlowersA digital download of the audiobook, narrated by moi

For the rules and how to enter, see One Adjective to Rule Them All. Please note that I’ve amended the rules so you can enter once a day—refining your guesses as the clues mount up!

Comments on this post are off because the only guesses that count are those on the original blog post or emailed directly to me.

Spear adjective competition: Clue #3

Thursday I started a competition OPEN TO ANYONE IN THE WORLD AND NO PURCHASE NECESSARY! The winner gets 3 prizes in one:

A signed, personalised first edition first printing of SpearA luscious enamel pin specially designed by Forensics & FlowersA digital download of the audiobook, narrated by moi

So basically this, plus the audiobook:

Image description: Two photos of the novel, ‘Spear by Nicola Griffith.’ On the left, the closed book showing the magnificent cover. The background is charcoal, shading to black at the bottom, with the author’s name at the top in orange-red and the title, at the bottom, and ‘from the author Hild’ in white. The main image is of a great hanging bowl of black iron with inlaid figures and great bronze escutcheons for the hanging hooks. It is wreathed about by smoke and flame and fumes, and the fumes form images: in white, woods with a woman and a stone and a sword; about the trees, shading to orange, is an figure with a spear on a horse; a fort gate and box palisade, and over all, flying up in the smoke towards the author’s name, two birds. Just below the author’s name is a quote from Maria Dahvana Headley, “Spectacular…I’ve been waiting years for this book to exist.” On top of the book is a round enamel pin in the shape of a red shield with raised rim and embossed rivets. On the shield are entwined forget-me-nots, with blue-and-yellow flowers and deep green leaves. Lying over all is a broad-bladed boar spear. On the right, the book is open to the title page, showing the lovely textured paper—again, topped by the enamel pin.

Read the first post, One adjective to rule them all, for how to enter. Please leave a comment on that post, not this, so I can keep track. To facilitate that, I’m turning off comments here.

Here’s today’s clue, taken from Nerdist’s April Is Here To Shower You With Good Books

Image description: square graphic in grey-blue showing silhouette of a woman on a horse surrounded by wind or smoke. Printed in white, “A magical fantasy, Spear feels both entirely familiar and vibrantly new” and below, in orange-red, “Rosie Knight, Nerdist.”

Spear adjective competition: Clue #2

Yesterday I started a competition OPEN TO ANYONE IN THE WORLD AND NO PURCHASE NECESSARY! The winner gets 3 prizes in one:

A signed, personalised first edition first printing of SpearA luscious enamel pin specially designed by Forensics & FlowersA digital download of the audiobook, narrated by moi

So basically this, plus the audiobook:

Image description: Two photos of the novel, ‘Spear by Nicola Griffith.’ On the left, the closed book showing the magnificent cover. The background is charcoal, shading to black at the bottom, with the author’s name at the top in orange-red and the title, at the bottom, and ‘from the author Hild’ in white. The main image is of a great hanging bowl of black iron with inlaid figures and great bronze escutcheons for the hanging hooks. It is wreathed about by smoke and flame and fumes, and the fumes form images: in white, woods with a woman and a stone and a sword; about the trees, shading to orange, is an figure with a spear on a horse; a fort gate and box palisade, and over all, flying up in the smoke towards the author’s name, two birds. Just below the author’s name is a quote from Maria Dahvana Headley, “Spectacular…I’ve been waiting years for this book to exist.” On top of the book is a round enamel pin in the shape of a red shield with raised rim and embossed rivets. On the shield are entwined forget-me-nots, with blue-and-yellow flowers and deep green leaves. Lying over all is a broad-bladed boar spear. On the right, the book is open to the title page, showing the lovely textured paper—again, topped by the enamel pin.

Read yesterday’s post, One adjective to rule them all, for how to enter. Please leave a comment on that post, not this, so I can keep track. To facilitate that, I’m turning off comments.

Here’s today’s clue, taken from Buzzfeed’s All The Best Books Releasing in April:

Image description: square graphic in grey-blue showing faint ink outlines of two women by a lake and a menacing figure with a spear approaching along a distant path. Printed in white, “In this beautiful queer Arthurian retelling…every sentence sings” and in orange-red “Margaret Kingsbury, Buzzfeed.”

Competition: One adjective to rule them all…

Background

Quite a while before Hild was published I started to notice the astounding number of comparisons to other writers I was getting in blurbs, reviews, and critical discussions. This was not usual for me or my work, so I started keeping track. I totted up the totals, wrote a post, and set up a competition for readers.

Now, just eleven days before Spear hits the shelves, I’m seeing a slightly different trend: use of the same adjectives over and over.1 So for my own amusement I started keeping a spreadsheet of adjectives in trade reviews, blurbs from other writers, and booksellers. (I’m not including reader reviews on platforms like Goodreads—and, after publication, Amazon—because that would get overwhelming pretty fast.) Also, I amalgamated a few things—such as ‘new classic/should be part of the canon’ and ‘spellbinding/enchanting/sorcerous’ and ‘mesmerising/hypnotic’—which all mean the same thing (and in fact reviewers often use a mix of these words in a single review). And I left out a few things that are used in almost every mention, words and phrases that are variations on themes like Queer retelling, or Too short/wanted more, or Genderbent, or Old-bones-new-story/Makes-it-her-own, and so on.

From that spreadsheet I’ve extracted a list of words that are used 4 times or more:

AmazingBeautifulBreathtakingBrilliantCanon/ClassicCompellingDazzlingDelightfulEpicFlowing/fFluidFreshGenderqueerGorgeousInclusiveLyrical/PoeticMagicalMesmerising/HypnoticNew OriginalRichSpectacularSpellbinding/EnchantingStunningVividWonderful

Note, this list is alphabetical, not in order of frequency: that’s your job!

CompetitionThe Rules

Guess the adjective used most frequently to describe Spear and then guess how many times it’s been used. The finalists will be chosen from those who guess the right word and the winner will be whoever gets closest to the noted frequency on my list. Just in case we have some eagle-eyed geniuses out there, the tie-breaker will be how many of the other Top 5 most-used adjectives you can guess. To enter, drop a comment here on the blog or, if you’re shy, email me directly using the contact form. ANY COMMENTS YOU MAKE ON ANOTHER PLATFORM—TWITTER, FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM—WILL NOT COUNT AS AN ENTRY. Mainly because it’s just too hard to keep track. I’ll be dropping at least one clue a day here—but perhaps also on Instagram or Twitter—and of course there is the constantly-updated list of reviews on the Spear page. But it’s highly curated; I’m not including every review, and in fact only the tiniest snippets of the ones I do include

The Deadline

10 days after Spear is published, so 29 April. I’ll be updating my spreadsheet until then—so who knows what word might swoop in from left field and take the top spot. Not me! But maybe you do…

The Prize

Actually not one, not two, but three (3) prizes!

A signed and personalised hardcover of Spear (one of my own Author Copies, so you’ll know it’s a first edition, first printing)A delicious, specially-designed enamel pinAnd the digital audiobook, narrated by me

There might be other things I can come up, but that’s it for now.

First clue:

Image description: Square graphic of a dark blue-tinted background showing the outline of a bubbling, steaming Celtic hanging bowl overlaid by, in white, “Humane, intelligent and deeply beautiful.” and below that, in red/orange, “Alix Harrow, author of A Spindle Splintered.”

This I have seen before, with the Aud novels, where almost every newspaper review (back in the day when many newspapers still ran book reviews) characterised the books, the prose, or Aud herself as both ‘brutal’ and ‘beautiful.’ I don’t think the books are brutal at all; I think critics were just fascinated by the juxtaposition of Aud’s raw joy in her physical body, her use of violence as just one tool in her set, and the occasional lyricism of the prose. (‘Lyrical’ was another word used often.)

SPEAR is an Indie Next pick

Some pretty cool books on this list. I am pleased!