Bryn’s Comments (group member since Feb 16, 2012)

Bryn’s comments from the Q&A with A.J. Campbell group.

A.j. wrote: ""Forging the Blade" is in the proofing stage. I don't like the writing in this as well as the DDB. Just not as good, but I think the story carries OK."

I know how you feel. My Two's about to come out and I am aware that One is better-written (because, in effect, I wrote One after Two). Unless - let's hope - we're both wrong, because they tell us writers can be dodgy judges of their own. Not that I believe them.

From what I've seen of FtB, I wouldn't have said this. I'd have said... it's more of a straight novel and I'd think of a wider audience for it. (As you know, DDB remains closest to my heart). I thought the writing less eccentric, to be frank with you - for better or for worse. Was that deliberate?

AJ, I'm listening to Don Quichotte. There are few people I am soppier about than Don Quixote and this seems a true incarnation. Oh and great voice.

Ah, opera.
I've made forays into the 'old, live' recordings and wow. Give me Hans Hotter as Wotan... Martha Modl does me for Kundry... Wolfgang Windgassen (wot a name) is my Siegfried and on the whole my Parsifal. I have Furtwanglers - the Kirsten Flagstad Isolde, and his Rome 1953 Ring; a Knappertsbusch Parsifal and his Bayreuth 1956 Ring. I'm fond of Krauss, have a George London Amfortas by him, and his '53 Ring is one of my dearest. It seemed to happen in the fifties.

I have dozens of Handel operas; but Monteverdi's three - Poppea, Orfeo and Ulisse - knock me out.

Not into Verdi either though the Norma setting is worth an exception.

I've just ordered the Massenet. For a start I'll grab any Don Quixote opera (I also collect King Arthur operas, alas too few).

Have a thing for the Russians, Russian music. Prince Igor has khans and steppe dances, who can ask for more? I play them on wet days when I need a very invigorating dance in the privacy of my home.

I was at my paid employment yesterday when chatting, and had to shut up. I'm found there three days a week (can you live in the heart of Sydney on a three-day wage, near the bottom of wages since my only skill is to write novels? Once I dreamt they'd pay me to write novels...)

Oh, if you don't mind me telling you too much about myself: it's genuinely hard, I have come to conclude, for a partner to put up with a writer. There's the financials - I've suggested how dodgy mine are, I wouldn't keep my end up. And there's the habits. I know for a fact I'm unlivable-with, while I'm engaged in this huge work. I'm too engaged to pay attention to a partner. And that, I'll confess to you, here in this public forum, is pretty much why I don't have one: I know for certain I'll be single until I finish the book. What happens then I can't predict.

I have this envy when I see dedications that say 'to my wife, who listened to the latest chapter every evening over dinner for five years'. Right. I haven't found a husband-figure who's game for that. (I'm sorry for the wives, even while I envy).

But onto other subjects. I've discovered standing up too, and have a new desk set-up. On my feet my energy keeps up, but can easily flag if I sit down. I've written a hell of a lot of my novel out on walks (and have a sack of the paper squares I wrote on - far too sentimental to throw them away).

'From China to Britain': I'm keen. I'm easily won, but people must be intrigued by a subtitle like that - a subject like that.

You're an OPERA BUFF? Tell me what the Don Quixote one is. I'm a mad fan of Parsifal, Tristan and the Ring: I have seven versions of the Ring. Other than him, I'm into baroque opera. Mostly because I hate the stupid plots and lacy singing later on; early opera is big on plots from the old stories I'm into - Orlando, Tamerlane - great plots. I have a Don Quijote by Halffter, very modern, but I like that too.

Prester John lost us the Apocrypha of Thomas? I understand. - You know, I'm fond of the Prester, and he reminds me of a sad old king of mine, about as ineffectual and well-intentioned as yours, whom Marco Polo takes to be the historical Prester John. Hmm... makes a sort of instinctive sense that the Prester turns out to be a bumbler. Well, he never arrived...

Not far-fetched except for the atomic-solar part, I grok that.

I haven't read sf since I was a kid either (by kid I mean twenty or twenties, ahem) but great imaginative background, I feel, to have behind you. So your historical interest cut-off is 700AD? I understand that; me, I was a medievalist first, and mine must be... I guess I have to go up the demise of Jacobean drama. Gee that's pretty late.

I have never traveled other than in my head. Poor, for one thing, since I'd rather read and write than make a living.

A.J., I think you better kick off with the 'telling us about yourself' bit. I'd like to hear a few tales out of you. And I knew the author was Uther-identified; you can always tell.

Have you traveled in the footsteps of Herodotus?

While I'm here, I got the paper copy of The Demon's Door Bolt. It's a dear book to me, and shall be.

I dig the epigraphs at the start: The Legend, The Scripture and onto The Tale. They're gorgeous and I read them several times over. Now, I have these whopping big volumes of The Old Testament Pseudoepigrapha, where your Thomas doesn't seem to be. Maybe he's in the New Testament Pseudo-whatsits: I haven't got a clue. You can tell me that one for a start.

Additonal: uh uh, I've found more science fiction on the steppe - a Khazakstan writer, Chingiz Aitmatov. Haven't read him yet but must; what beats science fiction on the steppe? Yes, I used to be a sci fi freak.