Babel Clash
Chris

We interrupt your regulary scheduled posting…

by Chris on Jun.28, 2010, under Guy Gavriel Kay

…to bring you another post by our esteemed guest author, Guy Gavriel Kay.  As you all know, he’s been talking with us this week while on a trip to China where, unfortunately, it appears Babel Clash is incompatible with the local internet.  To make sure we don’t miss out on any part of the conversation, I’m putting up his latest missive in an effort to work around some of the issues:

Last night in China, we leave at 6 pm tomorrow and arrive at 6 pm back home.  Time travel, nothing like it.  Was handed a paper at breakfast (before coffee even) in the hotel, and started leafing through it, and saw my own photo.  Needed the coffee, pronto.  Actually, a nice piece in the China Daily, which is the largest English-language paper.  The photo made me look awfully cerebral.  Photo shoots for a paper or magazine are even more random than a long interview (in terms of what will emerge).  The photographer may take as many as a hundred shots, and the photo editor makes the call, usually.   So unless you say no to the suggestion that you pose hanging by your knees from the monkey bars in the playground across the street, that may be the one.  In this case it is a perfectly good picture (according to spouse and friends already), but I’ve had surprises…

Comments earlier.  Yes, to mojitos, absolutely, though the bartender needs to know his or her trade.  And I also like negronis, though I’m a campari person to start with, so I would like those.  Sidecars are a late night treat.

Where to start with Kay.  I always ask what books the person inquiring likes and what periods of history interest them.  If, for example, this is a high fantasy reader, Fionavar may work well for them.  If they don’t normally read fantasy it is less likely to do so.  With the historical fantasies, I do the period focus, seems to me readers might find their way in most readiuly with a book that is evoking a time and place they already find engaging.  Ysabel is the book for people going to Provence, but that’s easy (although on reflection, they might also like Arbonne, so it isn’t quite that easy).  I certainly can’t name a personal favorite.  And that’s can’t, not won’t.

Next post from back in North America.

Related posts:

  • The China tour ended with visits on the last day to the Lama Temple (Buddhist) and the nearby Confucian Temple in Beijing. Last photo was of the statue of Confucius: I’d try not to be that clichéd in a book, but it was a good last shot (photo of...
  • It is nice when life sets up your blog themes. I’m starting my sojourn here at Babel Clash by posting from Shanghai, where I’ve been for the past week doing a variety of book-related activities, and some tourism. For the next week I’ll be logging in from Beijing, then...
  • Aloha - both hello and goodbye
    Unfortunately, it’s that time again.  Time for us to say goodbye to our current guest, Guy Gavriel Kay.  I especially want to say thank you for posting while on tour in China.  I found the look into the world of Chinese publishing, interviews and scholary study to be particularly illuminating. ...
  • So, jet lag isn’t readily conducive to lucid blog posts. Am I the first to notice this? Still in post-China mode, emailing contacts back there with follow-ups. I wrapped up the Bright Weavings tour journal yesterday … I had said that China would end the touring and thus the...

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