Nicola Griffith's Blog, page 34

Spear tidbits and a map

Main image based on OS 1957 Physical image downloaded under CC-BY-NC-SA and heavily modified. Click through to a larger image.

Image description: Black and white map of early sixth-century Wales. Inset in the top right corner is an outline of Britain, with a section of south and west Wales boxed in black. The rest of the map is an expansion of that box, a relief map showing hills, valleys, and rivers. There are several places labelled, and each place is represented by a small black and white drawing: a cave, a horse, a bittern, a tree, a fortified gate. Two sets of dotted lines with arrows indicate travel routes.

I haven’t got around to making a key yet, but the black arrows represent Peretur’s solo journey near the beginning of her story, and the white arrows show her second, more harrowing race to save someone she loves. In terms of scale, the whole thing covers about a hundred miles of from east to west and sixty or so north to south. The cave is about 1,700′ above sea level in the Twyi forest.

The insets are a mix of original work and adaptations of things in the pubic domain—such as the cave, and this tree by Constable.

Cheerfully borrowed from Constable

The horse is one I drew for Menewood (the Hild sequel) for when and if I ever get around to doing a big beautiful high-res map with art. (I love doing maps; I’m doing lots and lots of them in a variety of styles. Closer to the time I’ll share a few, but most are very practical—they help me work out things like logistics, travel times, and battles—so there’s been no room for pretty bits.)

Bony but not really

Those of you who know anything about horses will probably see immediately that this is a mare—because Hild’s horse in the last half of Menewood is a dun mare.

In Spear, though, Peretur’s horse is a bony gelding—rescued from mistreatment—called, well, Bony. Under Peretur’s care, of course, he doesn’t stay bony, so I thought, Eh, why not? and made one drawing do for two horses. Those of you who do know something about horses, just pretend you don’t, and at some point a) I’ll remake the dun mare to look more like the mare I actually wrote about and b) do another horse that’s more like Bony. But don’t, y’know, hold your breath…

The bittern is also destined as a map icon for Menewood. In its current iteration it looks to be in a bit of an altered state—it’s the eyes, which I’ll fix at some point, maybe (but as there’s no rush, don’t hold your breath)—but I find I’m getting used to the staring. So we’ll see.

I see you

Drawing a representation of Caer Leon (now, oddly enough, called Caerleon) took some thought. The Romans built a legionary fortress there—one of only three in Britain—and called it Isca Augusta. It was an important place, home base for a couple of centuries—on and off—of Legio II Augusta (one of the four original conquering legions), and was rebuilt more than once. This means at some point or points it would have had masonry walls. However, nothing lasts forever, and by the time of Spear (let’s say around 530 CE) what remained of those walls (if anything) would be several centuries old. Brick crumbles, stone falls (and is stolen by enterprising folk to improve their own buildings) so by the time the sixth century rolls around, the walls would have been largely transformed. For the icon, then, I used a combination of a stone gatehouse—gatehouses often stand longer than anything else—with reinforced wooden gate and topped by a wooden palisade. I have no idea if it’s even remotely authentic for the time and place because that wasn’t important for the story so I chose not to spend time on a relatively obscure detail.

Similarly, the icon for Caer Gloiu is a cleaned up photo of a carving dug up from Roman-era Gloucester, and altered just a little to represent what people of Peretur’s time may have seen lying about in the rubble and/or still adorning a crumbling entryway or temple. I’m sorry to say I can’t remember what or who it’s supposed to portray, or even if they were a deity or a real person—and, again, I didn’t get too persnickety because, well, not important in the overall scheme of things. And there’s only so much research that makes sense in service of a story based on myth and legend.

Most of the research I used in Spear was encountered while researching Menewood—particularly linguistic and military theories. So despite it being a fantasy, there’s a fair amount of background historical accuracy. I’ll talk more about that another time. For now, enjoy the map!

Big, giant juicy interview!

In December I sat down with Gareth Jelley for a podcast interview for Intermultiversal. We covered a lot of ground—Spear, writing, Hild, Menewood, why I love reading reviews, why Angela Carter’s metaphors don’t work for me, the Matter of Britain, research, creative process, life, the universe, and everything—but the podcast still only represents a fraction of the conversation.

So now here is the big—and by big I mean 10,000 words—written interview, which is based partially on the transcript of that podcast and partially on a written Q&A. The tone varies, obviously, from question to question, but the overall thrust of the conversation is consistent.

Enjoy!

An Interview with Nicola Griffith

Spear enamel pin giveaway!

The Spear preorder giveaway campaign has just launched, so if you have preordered the book—in any format or Hardcover only, but from any retailer—you can own one of these splendid enamel pins designed for Spear by Forensics and Flowers.

All you have to do is give your name and contact info and upload a copy of your preorder receipt to get this splendid pin sent to you directly in the mail.

And it is splendid (I talk more here about what makes it special). I’m not usually a pin person but I’ve been wearing this one on my jacket lapel (and have had many compliments).

You can preorder the book anywhere books are sold:

IndieBound | Amazon.com | Bookshop.org | Barnes & Noble | Apple | Amazon.co.uk

Or see this enormous list of independent booksellers in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland.

Then go get your pin!

Free 32-page sneak peek at Spear!

Image description: A book cover for ‘Spear by Nicola Griffith’. 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. In the top right corner a green sticker announcing ‘free extended preview’.

B&N Nook | Kindle | eBooks.com | Google Play

If you go to Amazon or B&N or Google Play or eBooks.com right now you can order a free, 32-page extended preview of Spear delivered to the device of your choice on February 8. I know I’m biased but I’m pretty sure if you read a long chunk of the book you’ll want the rest.

And did I mention it was free? Why are you still here?

Nook | Kindle | eBooks.com | Google Play

Coming Feb 8: Sneak peek at Spear!

This is only for the Kindle edition, but if you go to Amazon.com right now you can sign up to have an extended preview of Spear delivered to your Kindle/app on February 8. I know I’m biased but I’m pretty sure if you read a long chunk of the book you’ll want the rest…

25% off pre-order special for Spear!

Image description: A book, Spear by Nicola Griffith, standing against a white background. The background of the cover illustration is charcoal, shading to black at the bottom, with the author’s name at the top is 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 steam, and the steam forms 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. Blazoned across the front of everything a big notice saying “25% off pre-order offer!”

B&N.com are offering a special 25% pre-order discount for Spear, starting today and running through Friday. The promotion is valid across all formats (hardcover, audio, ebook). Just use the code PREORDER25 at checkout.

This is a pretty excellent deal!

You can of course pre-order the book through your favourite independent bookstore or Amazon or Apple or any other online platform—but right now they’re not offering a quarter off the price.

And if you’re not sure yet whether or not you want to buy the book, go read all about it on the Spear page.

Podcast interview all about Spear

In November I did a two-ply interview with Gareth Jelley for Intermultiversal. There’s a forty-eight minute podcast, in which we talk about Spear, rhythmic hypnogogic writing (“Give me an army of eight-year old girls, and I will take over the world…”), why I love reading my reviews—what I learn from them—Angela Carter, and many other things. That’s available to listen to right now:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/interview-with-60545521

It’s the first time I’ve talked about Spear live—and so I don’t have the sound-bites down yet. (Not even close!) Enjoy hearing me sort of stumped for a bit, talking first about the rhythm of the prose, then a corpus analysis of the reviews, then the magic, the atmosphere and, finally, the story—wrapping up the tales of Parsifal, Merlin-Nimuë, Arthur-Lancelot-Guinevere, and the Grail Quest, all in 45,000 words—and what a rush it was to write.

Coming soon will be the long, written version of the interview. And when I say long I mean about 5,000 words. A meaty and wide-ranging conversation with many Deep Thinks about the right metaphors to use for the writing process, how and why I use genre, and why and what I do and don’t like about various other Arthurian retellings.

When it goes up on Intermultiversal.net I’ll link to it. Meanwhile, enjoy the audio.

Kitten Report #21: One year ends, another begins

It started snowing on Christmas night and the next day we woke up to this:

Boxing Day on the kitchen deck

It snowed on and off for a couple of days, by which point we had these hanging over every window and door:

Ice daggers

We didn’t mind, though, because indoors all was cosy and warm. And—because holidays, because Omicron—we were and are fully stocked with comestibles of every variety, including many bags of Charlie and George’s favourite cat treats.

Safe and warm

They didn’t mind being stuck inside. Too much. At first. After all, it was cold out there—and, besides, all the shrews, voles, moles and mice were scuttling about under the snow and inaccessible, and there weren’t many birds around to chase: the hummingbird feeder froze; when we thawed it out and put it back, it was promptly buried in more snow. So Charlie and George just hung out on our laps, or in front of the fire, or on the nice warm audio receiver—which meant I couldn’t watch anything with subtitles, but, hey, sacrifices must be made.

Meditating on warmth

Charlie, though, started to get restless. Eventually he went barrelling out into the snow (and I mean into: it was twice as deep as he is) and within five minutes had brought back a bush tit. Mindful of last year’s salmonellosis episode we took it away from him before he or George could eat it. (George, of course, had sensibly stayed indoors graciously accepting cat treats.) And then? Charlie zipped out and caught another. Rinse and repeat.

Meanwhile, George very pragmatically stole Charlie’s warm spot:

King of the warm spot

And when George spreads like that, there’s no room for Charlie. So Charlie was relegated to sitting mournfully on the windowsill in Kelley’s office watching the ice grow.

And they’re too slippery to even climb…

And, oh, did those ice daggers grow! Daggers, then swords, then javelins, then giant fucking harpoons. We had one set hanging near the front door that got to about 4′ long and as thick around as my thigh. A handy anti-dragon weapon, yes (and you never know when such things might come in handy), and lovely to look at, but increasingly dangerous. (I had visions of trying to explain to a grieving widow just how their loved one ended up looking like something from a Vlad the Impaler Illustrated Edition on our front lawn while trying to deliver a package.) So we knocked them all down. (By we I mean Kelley—because snow and wheelchairs? Not a good combination.) We also dug out the hummingbird feeder. Again. Hummingbirds are fighty little things; it’s unusual to see them sharing anything; but at one point there were three sitting around drinking together, pausing, drinking more, and looking for all the world like a group of friends in a pub. Sadly I was never quick enough to find my phone and get a picture.

The bar is open

George meanwhile was entertained by his favourite game, Chase the Treat, in which I line up cat treats on the kitchen table and/or the seat of my Rollator and flick them off in every direction so he has to leap and pounce. When he got bored, he resumed his acting lessons:

George imitates a Covid swoon

As I type this I hear dripping, and suspect the first day of 2022 will entail a return of the furry beasts to the Great Outdoors—and subsequent filth and mayhem and carnage as they track in slush and mud and blood. They will be very happy: a great start to the New Year.

For now they wish to leave you with their wisdom for the coming year—which just happens to be the title of their upcoming album.

I suspect they may be right.

And me? I don’t have much to add. I’ve been rewriting MENEWOOD (it’s going well) and will talk more about that in the coming weeks. We had a very quiet Christmas—but full of warmth and peace, good books, better wine, and excellent chocolate—and our New Year’s Eve will be our ritual caviar, Champagne, and long conversation about the year that’s past and the year to come.

Most of the time we talk about our goals for the coming year. But the last three or four years we’ve preferred to simply express gratitude and hope.

Last year on this blog I made two wishes—and both were partially granted (which, given recent events, feels like a huge win):

The vaccines do work, and pretty well, enough to keep most out of hospital, even with Omicron—but not nearly enough people have been vaccinated.Sadly, the Biden/Harris administration has not been able to find a way around partisan gridlock—at least with regard to social changes, though they have, as I guessed, managed at least a partial infrastructure bill.

This year I’ll express two modest hopes for 2022:

That we all keep trying our best to be decent human beingsThat, beyond the increasing devastation of the ongoing climate catastrophe, the planet doesn’t hit us with too much horror: no asteroids, new plagues, alien invasions, or semiconductor-eating microbes—at least not before I can have a fabulous launch party for Spear, coming 19 April to a bookstore near you!

May we all find warmth, peace, and comfort ahead.

2021 Blog Stats

Image description: Map of the world showing density of visitors by country. The USA is coloured dark pink, the UK medium pink, and the rest of the world pale pink—with some countries (mainly in Africa) showing blank.

For the first time since 2018 the number of people who came to read something increased—by about 11% on last year. There again, I posted more often—though still not much, just 56 posts. (When I first used a blogging platform—as opposed to laboriously hand-coding everything in the Ask Nicola section of my first website, starting in 1995—I was posting daily, on average, and often more. But social media changed the landscape. So now I think four or five times a month works pretty well.)

The Top 10 countries from where my readers log on haven’t changed very much from last year, either, except that I swapped out Norway for Sweden:

USUKCanadaAustraliaGermanyIndiaFranceSwedenIrelandNetherlands

Most of the year’s top 15 new posts or pages were concerned with books, kitties, and Covid, with just a couple of more personal pieces:

SpearSpear Cover RevealFuck Off Into the Sun: I’m Done Being ExcludedMenewood ProgressHelena + Nicola = A Whole PsychopathOmicron—Some New DataA is For Abattoir: 5 words for 2021 So FarKitten Report #17: Songbird FeverCatching UpOmicron: Don’t PanicTwo Year Later and 17 Million DeadKitten Report #20: Not Dead YetI Haz A Ramp!When Accidents Become IconsNew Books To Look For

The top 15 overall were mostly perennial favourites, with just a couple of new ones sneaking into the list:

Men Are Afraid Women Will Laugh At ThemHuge News: Multiple Sclerosis Is a Metabolic DisorderSpearHildSpear Cover RevealFuck Off Into the Sun: I’m Done Being ExcludedA List of Bookshops in the UKBooks About Women Don’t Win Big Awards: Some DataMenewood!!Kitten Report #11: Seven Months Old TodaySo LuckyLame is So GayKitties!About the Real HildAmmonite

What lies ahead for this site in 2022? I don’t know. I’ve given up trying to guess. The only thing I know for sure is that this blog isn’t going anywhere. I like being able to say things too long for Twitter and not pretty enough for Instagram, and here’s the best place for it.

Slay Bells: Tooth & Claw Drop Surprise Holiday Album!

Tooth & Claw drop a holiday surprise for their fans

While in their Broadview studio working on Four Legs Are Better Than Two, the duo’s upcoming 2022 release, Charlie Bean (Tooth) and Gorgeous George (Claw) took the time to compile a selection of live and studio cuts. Slay Bells features fan favorites from chill groove “Wasted” (feat. Catnip) to iconic dance club mix “Hit It!” and emo classic “Luv My Bruv.”

“Just seemed like the right time, man, y’know?” said Claw. “Yeah, temp tired of killing it,” Tooth agreed. “Time to share the love!”

Over a pickup game of pawball, the brothers talked about some of the tracks. (What follows is lightly edited for clarity.)

First, tell your fans about that cover!

Charlie: Wow, well, yeah. We’re so tired of slick overproduction, y’know? So we thought it would be pretty cool to just use a phone app with stickers.George: Except I couldn’t stand it and had to add some T&C touches like the crashed sleigh. But then Charlie—Charlie: Ha ha! Yeah, I told him he had to make the dead reindeer look really, really fake to go with the whole handmade aesthetic, y’know?

So tell me about the music.

George: Well, first we have a cut from the Zoned Out tour. We chose “Wasted,” because it represents—Charlie: Because Catnip was so cool that day in the studio, really mellowed us out when we were torqued about that fucking—George: We weren’t going to talk about that.Charlie: Right, right. Anyhow, we just love Catnip, man, just love Catnip. If anyone out there listening has to chance to work with Catnip in the studio, just do it.

“Love is the Drug” is from the Zoned Out tour, too, yes?

Charlie: Yeah, but I’ll let George take this one.George: This one’s from the heart. I follow the teachings of Zen Master Mouse Lover, and his reading of my aura showed I had a deep-seated need to really, I mean really, truly communicate with my listeners. So what better—Charlie: Yeah, he just likes that gooshy emo stuff. Next question.

Charlie, some might say “Hold My Paw and Never Let Go” is pretty emo.

Charlie: Ha ha! No. Not even close. It’s about holding the prey tight then ripping its guts out with your back claws.George: That’s not what you said when you first brought me the lyrics, tears dripping off your whiskers.Charlie: You take that back!

Hey, hey. Hey now, no need to fluff up. I think we can both agree that “Southpaw!” is anything but emo!

Charlie: When you’re right, you’re right.George: We’d been experimenting with blending martial arts and philosophical styles. We’re both pretty comfortable with that blend of Zoomies and parkour that’s a full-body stimulant, but I was curious about the discipline of the Queensbury Rules which—Charlie: Ha ha. Except you’re always calling it Queensberry, until I said, nope, it’s bury, as in bury your opponent.

And of course “Hit It!” Is T&C’s club classic.

George: It is.Charlie: Love that track.

I think we can talk about the next two together. “Your Heart Is a Muscle…” and “I Feel Your Pain…”

George: They’re both from our very first album. They’re kind of mirror images of the same sentiment. Feeling comes from the heart. And while it’s good to acknowledge the good feelings it’s also important to—Charlie: The heart just fucking tastes good, especially when it’s beating frantically with fear when you rip—

Some of our listeners might be a bit young for the hardcore stuff. Let’s stay focused on the sounds, okay? George, do you want to tell us about “Touching Tails, Unmeeting Wishes”?

George: This is one is close to my heart.Charlie: Your tasty, beating—George: —because, well, you know Charlie and I are close. Close as brothers can be. We went through the same hard times, the same joys, have fought some of the same fights, but still, we see the world differently. We want different things from it.Charlie: Whatever.

Charlie, tell us about “If Only”

Charlie: George was sad. He’d lost his pawball under the couch.George: It brought up all kinds of losses for me, and questions about the nature of our choices.

“If Only” has a particular sonic pendulum swing, a slicing rhythm I’ve been catching more and more in your newer work. I hear that in “Nature Boyz,” too.

George: Whatever our differences, my brother and I are, at heart, creatures of the body, especially the body in nature. I love the sound of the trees. If you listen, it has this rocking, melodic rhythm—Charlie: But then the shrieking squirrels really piss me off because they frighten the birds away. So those slicing inputs are the squirrels, and what I’d do to them if— Yeah, yeah. Young listeners. Okay. Nature’s nice. Trees are nice. Birds are very very nice.

The album ends with two contemplative tracks which seems fitting for the end of this year.

George: First there’s “A Moment For RBG,” a tribute to a woman who, though she might only have two legs, I regard as an honorary feline. She’s a role model for me.Charlie: Bet those lace collars would have made awesome climbing scaffolds.George: And of course “Luv My Bruv” is the song of my heart. I love my little brother. I love you Charlie and I’ll always look out for you.Charlie: And when your brain weighs you down, I’ll carry you. Luv you bruv.

Thanks to Tooth & Claw for taking time from their busy schedule. When Four Legs Are Better Than One drops in spring, they’ll be touring cat rescue centres in a city near you. Stay tuned! Meanwhile, here’s a sneak peek at the new album cover.