Horizon Blue
Or Good in a Lost Book Many years ago, when I was in high school, and still had ambitions about becoming an illustrator, I mail-ordered a book called Visual Illusions. Naturally, I was hoping to find some age-old arcana of the trade that would come in handy, but it...
Out & About in Middle-Earth
OUT & ABOUT IN MIDDLE-EARTH Or Any Excuse is a Good Excuse This year is homeboy year - I’m writing this because I know my agent, bless her, reads my newsletters just in case there are signs of undue dilettantism and unreasonable sloth - as I have a good deal of...
Not As Dumb As I Look
Or The Dangers of Talking Too Much A few months ago, a friend asked if he could come by with a friend of his whose son needed a little advice about his art education. Normally, I don’t accept visits and meetings of any kind, but of course make exceptions for friends...
Lost & Found
Or All About Lost Worlds (and How They Get That Way) I’ve always loved history. Naturally, I suffered through history in high school, like most kids. Actually, we didn’t even really have “history” class, which was deemed too stuffed-shirt and not “progressive” enough...
There and Back Again (Again)
It’s not as if life actually leads me in circles. (I prefer to think of them as ellipses.) I’m afraid my newsletters have also hit their astronomical apogee (the point farthest from the inspiration around which they orbit) and have devolved into the common or garden...
Lord of the Castle
Or Every Screen Has a Silver Lining I’ve always wanted to be king of a castle. Admittedly, it’s not a popular category in the “Help Wanted” section, and such opportunities are limited. So, when Cerigo Films came with the idea of a short documentary on Leo Schnug and...
Blades it is
Or Pencils and Other Pointy Things… RECLAIMING THE BLADE While it’s clear that swords are nasty sharp pointy things designed exclusively for poking holes in people when it’s not lopping bits off them, they are nonetheless an intergral part of our cultural heritage. I...
Best Wishes for 2007
Any milestone is worth taking these days, even the ones we all ineluctably see pass by at the year’s end and beginning. May 2007 be kind to us all. THREE AND COUNTING… Next year promises to be an especially busy one. I am putting the finishing touches on a new book,...
Song-Fields and Summer-Lands
Or of Light Sabers and Lutes I can’t sing. Or rather, I can, but birds drop out of the sky and trees lose their leaves in dismay. (I do sing, loudly and tunelessly, in the car, but the mechanic says it’s bad for the spark plugs.) Music is beyond my grasp. While my...
Strasbourg
DEC. 16, 2006 I’ll be signing books (and whatever is thrust under my nose) in Strasbourg from 14h30 to 16h30 this Saturday the 16th, at a new bookshop called KAO BANG, dedicated exclusively to fantasy, 34 rue du Jeu des Enfants, 67000 Strasbourg. (That’s in the...
Roots
Or the Hydroponics of Belonging When people ask me if I miss Canada, I reply “Not at all, it’s a great place to be from.” “The key word is from.” I often add helpfully, just in case they did not get my drift. Speaking of drift, I remain a willing exile from my home...
A Short Pilgrimage
To a Land of Sloping Shale, Dark Woods and Extendable Steeds I love driving north through Champagne. The vinyards peter out, replaced by wide rolling fields and finally steeper slopes and forest fill the horizon. The Ardennes*. There are too many trucks and tractors...
