CHRONICLES archives the successive newsletters.
Or a Certain Conflation of Sound and Vision The other day I was busily painting away, with my iPod plugged into my ears, when I realized that something was wrong. Or rather, that something was not right. Or, more precisely, missing. I suddenly put my finger on it -...
Or an Oriental Tale of Mélusina When I opened the curtains of the 25th-story hotel room in Hangzhou in the early morning and looked out, I really did wonder where I was. It’s not that the trip had been a long one, but tacking a three-hour flight at the end of a most...
Or A Walk Along a Wall When I was a kid, I remember being told (and of course believing, since adults repeated it with great conviction) that the Great Wall of China was the only man-made structure that could be seen from space. Now, I was going to see it from rather...
Followed by A Day Out in Beijing When I finally made my way out Exit B at the Beijing Airport, I was hoping there would be somebody with my name on a sign. There is always something about getting on a plane to head off somewhere that fills me with a mix of mounting...
Or Why Art is the Key to the Survival of Humankind Every now and then, I have the honour (and the pleasure, as it offers me a fortnight’s reprieve) to have a guest writer for the space of a newsletter. Amanda Hemingway is a fantasy writer who is also known as Jan...
Or A Few Existential Thoughts On Creatures That Don’t Exist (and Something About Vampires Too) Last October, I was asked if I would write a foreword for a book on… dragons. Having just had Forging Dragons publish at about the same time, they were still very fresh in...
BOOK SIGNING: SATURDAY MAY 16, 2009 I’ll be signing books at the Weta Cave in Miramar, Wellington, on May 16th, from 1 to 3 p.m. (Because I am a little lazy, I’ve just copied the text off the Weta site rather than write something of my own.) John Howe book signing at...
Or About Dreams, Chasing of. Back in the 70’s, I had a paperback book called “Into the Aether”, by Richard Lupoff. The full title was actually “Into the Aether: Being the Adventures of Professor Thintwhistle and his Incredible Aether Flyer on the Moon”. Richard A....
Or A Most Unusual Odyssey “A picture is worth a thousand words”. Where does that saying come from anyway? Not from Confucius, but more likely from a clever American copywriter from the early 1900’s. The earliest available candidate is from the text of an instructional...
Or Briefly Stepping Through the Door to Silence The steps of most pilgrims are directed to holy places - physical journey coupled with metaphysical journey - or to places linked in some way to family - following old routes and digging up old roots. Our steps tend to...
Or Fantasy, Reality, and the Places They Choose to Meet You wouldn’t likely recognize the name Laurie Battle, but you’d be familiar with her work. Laurie has managed Tolkien Enterprises through thick and thin, storm and fair weather, for the last three decades, and...
Or a Tale of Two Towers: Art and Archetypes in Middle-Earth Tolkien’s Middle-Earth is conspicuous in that it contains no places of worship. Few fantasy authors resist the urge to have temples and gods (usually malevolent ones with slimy and unappetizing minions,...