Nicola Griffith's Blog, page 98

San Francisco is cancelled

I won't be at Writers With Drinks after all. Like my mini-tour of the midwest, I've had to cancel.

For the first time in years I'm having an MS exacerbation. Why? No idea. It could be a recent swap in medication. It could be the relentless workload. It could be just that, well, I have MS and it tends to act in mysterious ways.

This has taken me off guard. (In fact I feel quite affronted by the timing, mutter mutter.) I'm no longer cancelling absolutely everything the way I was a couple of weeks ago--I did a local reading earlier in the week that went pretty well, and a video interview a couple of days ago--but it's clear that getting on a plane at the moment is a stupid idea.

So Kelley and I will not be travelling to San Francisco this year after all. For those whose plans I've messed with, I apologise.

Hild roundup #7

Three pieces of Hild news:The hardcover, which has been out four weeks and three days, has just gone into a third printingThe audiobook will go on sale on Wednesday, 17 December; it's available for pre-orderIf you don't subscribe to the New York Times Book Review you might want to buy the edition dated 12/15. Not a review but... Chortle.Meanwhile, here's the latest links roundup for Hild. It's not everything; I haven't included a zillion reviews from places like Goodreads and Amazon and smaller personal blogs because it's just too hard to keep track. But if you see something you think I might have missed, please let me know. Previous roundups available here.

REVIEWSThe Week
Novel of the week: Hild
"This 'fierce, brilliant, and accomplished book' brings to life a 7th-century England in which women worked in every corner of the economy."
(print only for now, but they liked it)

Fox HomeReading Wednesday - Hild by Nicola Griffith"Despite gruesome scenes of battle and torture this is a book that can be called lovely, because this is a book about seeing. We see a beautiful land that is still mostly natural. We see it through the eyes of Hild..."
Keep the Wisdom
Hild"I have spent the last four days in seventh century Britain so fully engrossed in its brutal and beautiful world that sitting down at my computer feels like I have come back to the future."

Literary Omnivore
Review: Hild
BookpageA Middle Ages Heroine Brought to Life, Lauren Bufferd
Sacramento News and Review
From Pagan to Saint, Kel Munger

MISCELLANEOUSThe Morning News put Hild on its Tournament of Books long list. Some great, great titles here.Largehearted Boy chooses Hild as one of his Best Novels of 2013Tor.com Reviewers' Choice puts Hild in the Best Books of 2013Parnassus Reads picks Hild as one of six 2013 Bookish Holiday GiftsThe Lambda Literary Foundation has chosen Hild for it's Online BookclubI wrote a wee thing for Slate's Outward blog on the Best Moments of Queer Culture 2013To go with my SPL reading on Tuesday, I wrote about my Nightstand Reads.And finally one dog, at least, likes Hild as much as cats seem to: Petunia will fight you for a book

Hild audiobook

From: Darlene 

I've been checking audible.com everyday for Hild. Any chance I'll ever find it there? If not, I've got my Kindle ready to roll! Your blog is really interesting,and I added some of your other books to my TBR pile. I'm ashamed to admit I've never heard of you until just recently. But I'm very glad that's been remedied! Thanks for your time.

The Hild audiobook is complete. It's narrated by Pearl Hewitt, a fellow Northerner (a Geordie rather than a Yorkshire lass--but, still, wow, how cool is that?) Sadly the original narrator, Anne Flosnik, had to withdraw from the project.

Pearl did a heroic job. This is a huge book, 23.5 hours of finished audio, and when Anne stepped down Pearl stepped into the breach with aplomb and, as one of my favourite fictional characters might say, took it on the volley.

It will be released 12/17 and is now available for pre-order:
Macmillan AudioAudibleAmazonAnd probably others which I'll add as they become available.

Hild dramatis personae

From: Rio 

For my 92-year old mother, who is well into Hild, which I’ve just finished and loved, could someone create a cast list or dramatis personae? She is flummoxed by all the names, so similar to one another, and the back material is too meager to support such an ample and abundant book. (I wrote all over the map, to amplify it.) I say, "Just read on, the context will make all clear," but she’s a bit discouraged. Yet reading is her life, and her father was from the area, so she wants so much to read it. And then I say, "It’s one of the rare books that actually surges in energy in the middle, and then keeps building. And how did the last chapter manage to be a surprise after all that?" Well done.

Thank you. I'm delighted you like Hild well enough to write all over it! I'm sorry your mum's having a hard time with it, though. If I'd had an extra year I would have created all kinds of spiffing extras, including a Dramatis Personae that would have made readers swoon: organised by dynasty and/or geographic region, complete with witty asides and representations of the family crest, for example the Yffing boar.

Instead, here's a PDF of about 150 characters from Hild, in alphabetical order, with a brief note about who/where each belongs. Enjoy.

If any kind soul feels like a) filling in the gaps and b) making the whole thing pretty, here's an Excel spreadsheet of the Hild characters to play with... (ETA: I changed the settings so anyone can view and comment.)

Seattle Public Library: Tuesday, 12/10, 7 pm

If you're going to be in Seattle the night of Tuesday December 10, please join me for a fantabulous evening in the Microsoft Auditorium at the spectacular downtown central library. 
Here's a confession: I've never set foot in that building before. So come on down and make me feel welcome. In return I'll give you a rip-roaring evening of assassination, derring-do, and growing up, and I will answer just about any question you ask. (The Q and A is one of the things I like best; I get to tell outrageous stories. Some of them are even true...)
Also, I'll sign your book--which hopefully you will buy from the most amazing University Book Store, which will be sponsoring the event. 
You know you love Ubooks. You know you love SPL. And you know you love a great story. So come and hang out for an hour or two. And let me take you back fourteen hundred years to a child called Hild who is about to have her life changed--and in turn start changing others...

Hild Kindle version now only $6.49

In The best way to buy Hild I outlined all the various factors to take into account when buying a copy of Hild for yourself or as a present for someone else. I come down in favour of a hardcover from your local independent book shop.

But for those who are devoted to the Kindles and Kindle apps, and are looking for an inexpensive gift for the holidays, Amazon currently has Hild on sale for $6.49.

Why? I don't know. But I do get the same royalty as before so, hey, it doesn't seem worth fretting about. Think of this as a public service announcement: it's a great price; I doubt it will last beyond the weekend. (There again, it could stay at this price point forever. It's not up to me.)

Here are some juicy review quotes to whet your appetite:
"Steeping us in the taste of seventh-century England's mead, the weight and warmth of its gorgeously woven and embroidered fabrics, and the myriad sights, sounds and scents of long ago, Seattle writer Nicola Griffith has created a marvel and a joy." -- The Seattle Times
"Hild is a book as loving as it is fierce, brilliant and accomplished. To read it felt like a privilege and a gift." -- NPR Books

"The novel resonates to many of the same chords as Beowulf, the legends of King Arthur, Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones -- to the extent that Hild begins to feel like the classic on which those books are based." -- Neal Stephenson
"...passionate fiction: a novel of loneliness, fear, love, desire and joy in living, and surviving." -- Vulpes Libris

Hild roundup #6

As I'm sure most of you know I've had to cancel a bunch o' stuff in the Midwest this week. But I will be fit enough for the big Seattle Central Library bash on Tuesday 12/10 (7 pm--it's free!) so if you're in town I hope you'll join me. And right now things are looking good for Writers With Drinks in San Francisco on Saturday 12/14 (doors open at 7 pm--it's not free, though I'm assured no one would be turned away if they can't afford the sliding scale cover).

So while I recover, here are the latest snippets about Hild that I've rounded up for your delectation and delight. (Roundups #1-5 available here.)

REVIEWSThe Inferior 4
Dispatches from the Seventh Century, by Lisa Goldstein"The other thing that makes Hild a terrific read is the prose, which is gorgeous. I could quote parts of this book all day: "Long-legged birds speared shellfish, and women with sacks collected coal and driftwood, dodging the surf that ran up over the sand like the froth in a milkmaid's pail. The sky showed as blue as twice-dyed linen. The sea was restless, glinting like napped flint." Look at the alliteration: "Long-legged"; "collected coal"; "surf" and "sand" and "sky." Look at the near-rhymes: "ran" and "sand"; "twice-dyed"; "glinting" and "flint." Look at the startling similes: "as blue as twice-dyed linen"; "glinting like napped flint." It's as close as you can get to poetry in prose."
Radish ReviewsHistorical Fiction and Nicola Griffith's Hild, by Natalie Luhrs"Hild is, without a doubt, one of the best books I’ve read this year. [...] Hild is about an extraordinary, singular woman. It’s about the women in her life and the constraints they lived under and how they were still able to influence the path of history. They did it subtly, through weaving patterns and taking calculated risks instead of with swords and open violence, but they did it nonetheless. / This is an amazing book. Read it."
Locus MagazineHild review by Cecelia Holland"Time after time, a sentence brings you there – "slack tide, when the muscular surge of the water stops, is just gone, like a dying man’s breath." "The rain was coming down like rods of glass from an iron lid of a sky." [...] As an evocation of the Dark Ages it’s a beautiful read, reminding me often of Dorothy Dunnett’s King Hereafter and Sigrid Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter."(No link because it's only in the print edition (Dec 2013) but it's well worth seeking out for Holland's interesting approach to the ease/difficulty approach of 16th vs. 7th centuries in fiction.) 
The lost EntwifeBook Review: Hild by Lydia"Hild takes on history with imagination, a deft writing style, and some of the most complex, gorgeous storytelling ability I have ever read. […] So, first of all, let me talk about Griffith’s writing. It’s masterful and beautiful and all those adjectives that people use to try to describe a brilliant writing style. But, more than anything, what struck me was how knowledgeable it was. I really don’t want to just gush over this book more. Suffice it to say that any serious historical fiction fan, or really, anyone who has had a passing interest in the Dark Ages, should check Hild out."
Books By the Willow TreeHild by Nicola Griffith, Marie G Johansen"I don't know where to start. I read a lot, generally at least two books a week. I love large, thick books that can take awhile to read. When I love a book, the longer it lasts the better it is! I read with enjoyment. I don't spend my reading time with anything that I don't enjoy, which is why I seldom give books less than 3 stars here or on any other site on which I post my reviews. Actually, most of my reviews are 4-5 stars. This one should have at last 7 stars by that reckoning. Some books, very few actually, are finished but stay with me, like the after taste of a particularly fine something .. wine, chocolate, a favorite dessert or meal. This book is staying with me, and I am wishing that the sequel was already available so that I could continue to savor the reading. [...] Ms. Griffith is a master at prose. This book, in places, reads more like poetry, each word so finely tuned that they sing like a finely tuned violin or as the voices in a perfectly pitched acapella."
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue SeaNicola Griffith Hild, Liz Bourke"It is an astonishing book. And one filled with beauty and power. Griffith’s prose is spare, but her eye for line and rhythm, the perfect turn of a phrase, is hard to match. The world she depicts feels real, textured, nuanced: full of patterns, complicated relationships, violence, love, need. Hild herself is a fantastic character, and Griffith explores the loneliness to which her pattern-seeing, bright, sharp mind and adamantine will subjects her with grace, and power, and elegant brutality." 

MISCELLANEOUSOn NPR I talk about Patrick O'Brian: A sceptic is swept away by bromance-at-sea…Hild hits the PNW Indie Bestseller List at #7......while at Seattle Mystery Books it's #1And, according to the Australian Star Observer, It's one of downunder's Top 5 Lesbian BooksThe Slate Book Review has chosen something from Hild as one of their 21 Best Lines of 2013And, finally, cats worldwide continue to enjoy the Hild experience. This time it's Colleen Lindsay's beastie.

Madison and Chicago cancelled

I am very sorry to say I've had to cancel my trip to the midwest. Kelley and I won't be reading at Room of One's Own on Tuesday. I won't be at Women and Children First on Wednesday. And if you're a student at the University of Indiana, I won't be talking to you in Gary on Thursday.

My apologies for the late notice. More news when I have it.

Hild roundup #5

A few things today in time for Thanksgiving. And, oh, am I thankful! So far, Hild publication has been a dream. There's some good stuff and some, well, a bit head-scratching. As you can see, there are more comparisons to add to our wee competition but I'll do that later. I'll also be collecting all the roundups in one uber-review later. Meanwhile, here are roundups #1, #2, #3, and #4. Enjoy. And have a marvellous Thanksgivvukah.
REVIEWSChicago TribuneReview: Hild by Nicola Griffith, Michael Robbins"Leaving aside my suspicion that neither of those novels contains Griffith's luminous prose, and the fact that neither is set in the early middle ages, I must note that Hild has much less in common with Booker bait like Wolf Hall than with T. H. White's The Once and Future King and George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones. / This is a good thing if, like me, you found Wolf Hall a tedious, overwritten mess, or if, like me, you downed the Game of Thrones novels like a — oh, like a flagon of mead or whatever. Critics do love a nice medieval trope."
Neon Tommy
Hild, Jennifer Kuan
"Hild is fresh, rich and engrossing. The fusion of notes of fantasy with history weaves a captivating tale of who Hild might have been, and Griffith's Hild is an enchanting one."

Three Guys One Book
Hild by Nicola Griffith, Judy Krueger
"I have spent the last four days in seventh century Britain so fully engrossed in its brutal and beautiful world that sitting down at my computer feels like I have come back to the future. [...] Her writing is poetic and tuneful, like lyrics to a song."An Anthology of Clouds
Hild, by Nicola Griffith, Valerie Stivers
"A more perfect cup of witchery does not exist, for those of us who like historical romance but also have literary standards. […] The book is a spectacular accomplishment, and is totally immersive in the details of pre-modern life. Hild’s triumphs as a seer in a hostile king’s court are constructed so smoothly from fear, cunning and circumstance, that they’re as believable to us as they are to her. Griffith also finds convincing ways for Hild to partake in the culture of swords and war, while still being circumscribed as a woman would have been. The rise of the Christian church and driving out of the old gods (Woden!) is as frightening as it’s meant to be. And the character’s sexual awakening [...] a gift, coming from a writer with Griffith’s skill... An amazing book."

Crazy for BooksReview: Hild, by Jennifer"Novelist Nicola Griffith is the latest to publish a book based on the life of a medieval character. In the recent past several writers including Sigrid Undset, Mary Renault and more recently Hilary Mantel have written books on the life of heroes and heroines of the Middle Age. Mantel even won two Booker prizes for her historic novels."
INTERVIEWSThe Nervous Breakdown
Nicola Griffith: the Self-Interview
Q: If I tried to ask Hild questions, what would happen?
A: Depends on her age. At three she’d study you silently, with great interest, but she wouldn’t see you as a real person. At eight she’d give you a fathomless look that would make you uneasy. At fourteen her eyes would be absolutely impenetrable, but by now you’d be beyond uneasy, because you’d know she was quicker on her feet than you, and more powerful. At sixteen, you’d be fascinated, but frightened: at this point she has a reputation for the uncanny, for killing people or having sex with them, and no way of predicting which. And as she’s the niece of the most powerful king in Britain, it would not pay to even try to mess with her. Towering mind, a will of adamant, and a mother who is beautiful, subtle, and ruthless. You’d have to be very, very nice to her and very, very careful.
Q: Ah. I’ll ask you things instead, then.
A: Sounds like a plan.

Windy City Times
Nicola Griffith on Hild, a novel with a bisexual protagonist by Samantha Caiola
Q: What you want people to come away with when they close the back cover of the book? What do you want them to keep with them?
A: Everything. I want this book to feel like their own memory. I want them to shut the book and think 'yes, that's how it was, in that time with those people'. Almost like it really happened, like a news report. I want it to be fiction in such an immersive way, that Hild's experience is their experience, her joys are their joys. Her lessons are their lessons. … It's like Google Glass—an overlay on their world and an internal change. I want them to see the world differently.
MISCELLANEOUSThe Christian Century recommends five fiction titles, including Hild and James McBride's NBA-winning The Good Lord Bird. 

And finally, for your delectation and delight, a selection of reader photos, the first from Wendy in Colorado, who enjoys Hild on the first snowy day of the year with a chocolate porter called Shake. The others are via Twitter, and should be self-explanatory.

Hild comps competition

Well, the world went mad last week but I think I've kept up with most reviews. If you have compared Hild in a review to any writer you don't see listed below, please drop a comment with link.

So, back to our wee competition. In addition to the previously listed Hilary Mantel, Sigrid Undset, T.H. White, George R.R. Martin, Ellis Peters, Rosemary Sutcliff, J.R.R. Tolkien, whoever wrote Beowulf, the person to whom we attribute the Arthur legends, Seamus Heaney, and Marion Zimmer Bradley, we can now add: Roger Deakin, Robert Macfarlane, Rudyard Kipling, Frank Herbert, Ursula K. Le Guin, Alison Weir, and Umberto Eco.

That makes the count, by number and gender (male pseudonyms count as men, female as women):

18 total: 2 undeclared, 6 women, 10 men

That is, unless we also count Marguerite Yourcenar, Mary Renault, Robert Graves, Gore Vidal, and Kim Stanley Robinson who have all been mentioned but I'm not entirely sure count as direct comparisons. If they are then the count is:

23 total: 2 undeclared, 8 women, 13 men

I'll decide before I close the count at Thanksgiving and award the signed book to the winner then. I imagine I'll continue to keep count, though, just for my own amusement.