ייק לאירבג יאגו רב גרג םע טא'צ

Didi: Moderator, haven't you moved to daylight savings time?
Greg Bear: The Shadow hears and knows all...
Moderator: hello mr. bear - i am the local moderator fr this chat
z: Heh... Sorry Mr. Bear.
Greg Bear: Hello!
Moderator: how are you today?
delete™: Hello Mr. Bear!
Private>delete™: how can we control whp and what Mr. Bear hears?
Greg Bear: Up and about. This is actually a pretty good time for a chat. At least I'm awake!
Moderator: there is need for a bit of formality... ahem, ahem! so here goes: welcome to fantasy con everyone
Private>delete™: as didi said, write in private mode to moderator
Greg Bear: I have on my tux now.
Moderator: we will be speaking with greg bear, who is the writer of many sci-fi books - abd unles i am very wrong, you even won more than several awards for some of them!
Greg Bear: More than my share, I'm sure.
Moderator: no need for modesty here...
Moderator: mr. bear, i am Itamar Parann, tonight's moderator for the Israeli sci-fi society
Greg Bear: Isaac Asimov willed me his modesty.
Moderator: asimove is a GREAT example of modesty, i am sure :-)
Greg Bear: Good evening, Itamar.
Private>Moderator: when he says that nature always provides challenges for mankind, does he mean that nature is the agent of the challenge, or that mankind will always find a challenge in nature?
Moderator: i think there is no need to refer to mr. bear in the third party...
Greg Bear: "Greg" will do fine.
Didi: I'm afraid we may not have as many people as hoped due to the last minute rescheduling of the chat. In fact, the launch of the Keter SF series, which is launced by Blood Music, is still in progress unless I'm mistaken.
Moderator: didi - you are wrong, the keter event is not yet on, and there are more than a few people here
Greg Bear: Good to hear that BLOOD MUSIC is launched in Israel.
Moderator: yes - we are rather excited about blood music. but tell m,e - before several of our audience asks about it, can i ask you a little about your early works?
Greg Bear: Sure!
Private>Moderator: Question from the crowd: Why would I want to read BLOOD MUSIC?
Moderator: great - am i right in beleiving that songs of earth and power (infiniti and serpent mage) was one of the first things you had published?
Greg Bear: THE INFINITY CONCERTO in an early draft was the first novel I wrote...
Greg Bear: But it was published after HEGIRA, PSYCHLONE, and BEYOND HEAVEN'S RIVER.
Moderator: the first. well i have asmall piece of history with me then... it was fantasy. what made you move to sci-fi?
Greg Bear: I've always enjoyed both fantasy and science fiction...
Greg Bear: But SF readers took to my style with more enthusiasm than fantasy readers...
Greg Bear: Some of whom thought "Infinity Concerto" read more like SF!
Greg Bear: Besides, SF readers tend to allow a writer more latitude than many fantasy readers. And I do enjoyu latitude!
Moderator: i see... in what way is fantasy limiting?
Greg Bear: The genre of fantasy is not limiting...
Greg Bear: But the current market demand is for Quest novels with a Tolkienesque flavor.
Greg Bear: I have nothing against Tolkien, but find my own tastes moving more...
Didi: I tend to disagree. That was the market demand ten years ago, but I don't think that's the case today.
Moderator: :-) i can well understand the desire to move away from all the Tolkien look-alikes
Greg Bear: toward William Hope Hodgson, George MacDonald, and Poul Anderson's THE BROKEN SWORD
Moderator: Broken Sword is great! a true Nordinc epic in ints flavor... and bloody as anything as well
Private>Moderator: would you call MacDonald a "non-Tolkeinist"?
Greg Bear: However, writers such as Tim Powers, Tad Williams, and many others have certainly kept the form alive!
Moderator: we have a question here - would you call MacDonald "non-tolkeinist"?
Greg Bear: (I'm also a big fan of Ray Bradbury, of course...)
Greg Bear: MacDonald was a surreal religionist...quite a combo!
Moderator: :-) surreal religionist ... i have to remember THAT one...
Moderator: ok - lets start with a few questions about blood music, ok?
Greg Bear: OK
Private>Moderator: early q:why would one want to read BLOOD MUSIC?
Private>Moderator: another q: how does the novel differ from the short story?
**|z| has arrived**
Moderator: the first one is from a reader who wants to know why you expanded the short story into a full book? he really liked the original ending.
**|z| has left (quit)**
Greg Bear: Blame David Brin and John F. Carr. On a ride to a Nebula awards ceremony in Los Angeles...
Greg Bear: They convinced me the short story was not enough.
Moderator: not enough? how? what are the real differences (theme-wise) between the story and the book?
Greg Bear: The book simply takes the story two more steps. It shows the consequences of the change on a large scale...
Greg Bear: Converting the Earth into something new.
Private>Moderator: that means depth, not width in literature, right?
Private>Moderator: from the s.f-f chairperson: will there be a continuation to Blood Music?
Moderator: when you extended the time-line in the book to cover consequences, was it easy to relate to an already "finished" work? isn't it a bit hard to re-open such a thing?
Greg Bear: Not really--I just had to find a radical new idea, inside the original story's palette of ideas. Ideas are easy...
Private>Moderator: Is BLOOD MUSIC still relevant, some 15 years after first print?
Greg Bear: It's relating them to characters and their lives that's fun.
Private>Didi: is the system stuck?
Private>Didi: I don't think it is. Why?
Private>Didi: I got 2 lines that the Moderator did not
Private>Didi: Maybe the system at the con is stuck. They've had tech difficulties all day long.
Private>Didi: i know.this is joe
Moderator: test
Greg Bear: Still here.
Private>Didi: Oh. Well, it's not a server side difficulty. And we seem to be back online. I hope.
fantasy con2: we are encountering some technical problems.
fantasy con2: the moderator will be moving to this computer
**Moderator has left (quit)**
**Moderator has arrived**
fantasy con2: aha.. a new chair, a new life...
fantasy con2: greg, one potential reader here wants to knowwhat you would define as thebest reasonto read blood music?
Private>Moderator: if you have any more problems, we'll switch back
Greg Bear: Because it has a radical view of biology...
Didi: How about, cause it's damn good?
Greg Bear: That is coming into it's own just the last year or so... The notion of intelligent cells is quite prescient. Cells are much more adaptable and creative than we used to give them credit for! But other than that, it's quite a scary novel... and a precursor as well to the notion of nanotechnology.
fantasy con2: damngood is good enough for me...
fantasy con2: does a reader need extensive knowledge of science in order to understand what is going on in blood music?
Greg Bear: Just high school biology. The rest is easy to catch on to.
Greg Bear: Besides, we tend to limit the truth about biology to high school kids and older, anyway!
fantasy con2: ok... i will relate that to our "worried readers" here. tell us, how do you feel about having blood music as your first book in hebrew? what would be your choice?
**Moderator has left (quit)**
**fantasy con3 has arrived**
Greg Bear: It's a good choice. I'm off on a biological roll with DARWIN'S RADIO and VITALS (due out in English in February)...
Greg Bear: So BLOOD MUSIC is a great introduction to where my best selling books are now.
fantasy con2: do you see those two as natural extensions to blood music?
Greg Bear: They are more constrained, but yes, the biology is just as radical... and I think just as prescient. A lot of biologists read my novels for pleasure, as well as for ideas.
Greg Bear: That situation reminds me of astronauts and rocket scientists and physicists reading SF in the forties and fifties...
fantasy con2: did you ever conisder a sequal to blood music?
Greg Bear: And there has been a dearth of biology-based SF, which I and writers such as Joan Slonczewski hope to fill!
Greg Bear: No sequels to BLOOD MUSIC planned. Would be rather abstract!
fantasy con2: about rocket scientists and sf in the fifties - do you think we will experience a similar technological boom in the field of biology?
Greg Bear: Like asking Sir Arthur C. Clarke to do a sequel to CHILDHOOD'S END!
Private>fantasy con3: the earth ends in blood music
Didi: And Sir Clarke already wrote sequels to books that required no sequel...
Greg Bear: I hope biology will boom in SF. SF readers are actually rather conservative...
z: [Or to 2001, hehe]
fantasy con2:
Greg Bear: They prefer physics and space to bacteria and genomes, for some reason.
fantasy con2: do you think that reticense about biology in sci-fi has somethingto do with moralistic or religious tendencies?
Greg Bear: But biology is definitely the most important science of this century. It will even shape how we get into space.
Greg Bear: SF fans in the United States tend to be not so much religious in their conservatism, as squeamish about their mortality, their cellular nature.
Greg Bear: This is true of western intellectuals in general...
**Aya has arrived**
Greg Bear: Who prefer to believe in the primacy of the conscious mind.
Greg Bear: Hello, Aya.
Aya: Hi, It took some time to find the chat
fantasy con2: you mean that visions of biological change - even controled and desirable ones - are seen with distaste?
Private>z: I believe it was Purnell who said something like "when I was young, I didn't believe we'd get to the moon, when we got there, I didn't believe that in 30 years no one will leave on it".
Private>z: Live.
Private>z: Does he think we'll put off biological research like we did with space travels?
Greg Bear: Definitely. The most popular SF does not touch on biological transformation too strongly. People remain recognizably people! But in my books, all bets are off.
fantasy con2: z asks if you think that biological experimentation will sufferthe same stunting as space research.
fantasy con3: Dr. Elana Gomel: Western intellectuals do feel squeamish about their bodies. israelis are different. We live with daily presence of death in our lives.
Greg Bear: Space research is not stunted, as such, it's just drawing back before the big leap. Take a look at my article BIOSPACE 21 on my website, gregbear.com
Greg Bear: Indeed, constant reminders of mortality do keep us more firmly grounded.
Greg Bear: I don't think Jews have ever felt safe and secure.
fantasy con2: but people die everywhere, and at all times. why would that not have the effect of encouraging biological research and experimentation?
Greg Bear: It makes for a powerful motivation to transform the world...
Greg Bear: Which is what SF is all about.
Greg Bear: Biological research is not being underfunded, by any means. We're just trying to find the direction we wish to go in.
fantasy con2: and what are the possible directions that you see ahead?
Greg Bear: Complete control of our biological destiny, basically, from birth to beyond death. It's a mighty tall menu to choose from!
Greg Bear: Some of the speculations in books like EON and QUEEN OF ANGELS are well on their way to becoming fact.
fantasy con2: if you were to hazard a guess about the first significant change - what would it be?
Greg Bear: Biological immortality. Slowing or stopping the aging process.
**Poweredic has arrived**
Greg Bear: Hello, Poweredic.
Poweredic: hey
fantasy con2: wow! a tall order indeed. i have a friend (my military reserve commander) who works on the problem of "dwarvism" in people. he believes that the question of aging will be hard to deal with.
fantasy con2: his reasons are that the human body is built to self-destruct over time.
fantasy con2: what would be required to overcome that?
Greg Bear: Aging is definitely hard wired in us. But we're learning the basics even now...
Greg Bear: Cellular aging and cell suicide being key areas of research.
fantasy con2: but you would need som much more than just preventionof aging - you would need to replace brain cells. won't that completley change a person over time?
Greg Bear: I try to tackle some of the ethical and historical problems of biological immortality in VITALS, with a sidetrip into Stalinism and World War 2. The economic and social problems of stopping aging are immense.
Greg Bear: Immortality is indeed the equivalent of becoming many different people in a more or less continuous body...
Greg Bear: Which shows how naive we are when it comes to understanding our basic natures!
**GGK has arrived**
Greg Bear: Hello, GGK.
fantasy con2: mr. bear - it was great having you here, but our time with you issaddly at an end... i do w\hope we can talk again....
GGK: Hello Greg!
Greg Bear: Thanks! IT's been great fun. Hope BLOOD MUSIC has a terrific launch! And that the rest of the con goes very well for all.
fantasy con2: mr. bear - say hello to guy gabriel kay....
fantasy con2: and goodbye for now
fantasy con3: Mr. Bear, thank you for the chat!
Greg Bear: So that's GGK~! Hello again, and bye to all~! (Have fun, GGK... It's a good group.)
fantasy con2: We're pleased to welcome fantasy writer Guy Gavriel Kay, author of Fionavar Tapestry and many other fine books, and also the co-editor of the Silmarillion.
GGK: All, be indulgent ... the lag here is terrible, even with a cable connection!
fantasy con2: Sure! It must be morning where you are...
GGK: I'm delighted to (almost) be with you!
fantasy con2: Here in Israel, people are mostly familiar with your Fionavar books, which have been translated into Hebrew.
GGK: I know that. That's another kind of lag! ...
GGK: It often happens that readers are interested in a book...
GGK: ...that an author did 15-20 years ago!
**Greg Bear has left (timed out)**
fantasy con2: So, for the sake of those readers, can you please tell us a bit about how you started to write
GGK: I wrote my 1st novel, never published, on the island of Crete...
GGK: ... after finishing my law degree. I had promised myself...
GGK: ... at least an attempt to write a book before starting law...
Private>Aya: Any why did he choose to write about the Celtic Mythology
GGK: ... that book was never accepted but received such generous responses...
Private>Aya: As base to his characters
GGK: ... that I was encouraged enough to begin The Summer Tree in 1981 ...
GGK: ... and that was bought after 7 chapters ... so I went back to Crete to finish it!
**Amit has arrived**
GGK: No puns allowed about Crete, Creation or cretins!
fantasy con2: In Summer Tree, there are indeed some characters who are studying law..is there an autobiographic element to the Fionavar books?
GGK: Well, I never did cross from this world to another, or meet a lios alfar!
GGK: The initial scenes are set in Toronto, but there's nothing especially...
fantasy con2: I wonder, if you think that being a Jew had influenced your writing?
Didi: You mentioned writing in Crete. You've also written in Italy and France. How important do you find your location while writing to your work?
GGK: Two questions!
GGK: Any writer incorporates so many elements of his or her identity ...
GGK: ...(including being a him or a her!) ... in their work. I have no doubt that...
GGK: ...being Jewish factors into my work, but I'm resistant to defining any artist in terms of one single aspect of their nature. ..
GGK: ...I have the same worry about being defined as a 'Canadian author'.
GGK: In terms of location, Didi, I have often found it VERY useful to be...
GGK: ...in the sort of setting I'm trying to evoke. I wrote most of TIGANA in...
GGK: ...Tuscany, and the Renaissance ambience is what I wanted. Same for ARBONNE and Provence.
fantasy con2: And how do you pick settings for your books?
fantasy con2: Is it just the places or a particular historical setting?
GGK: There's no 'formula' for picking a setting. At the end of each book...
GGK: ...I haven't a CLUE what the next one will be!
GGK: I do a lot of reading, casting a wide net, and so far something strong has emerged each time.
fantasy con2: How did you get the idea of writing fantasy based on historical events?
GGK: I think I tend to start with a place and time, and from that emerge with theme, characters, plot.
fantasy con3: do you know |in what historical era will be your nex book\
GGK: The shift towards history was gradual and not planned in any overall way...
GGK: ...as much as anything it simply grew out of my fascination with the past...
GGK: ...and the impact it so often has on the present. In Israel, I suspect that isn't something...
GGK: ...I need to explain!
fantasy con2: About the *time* question, I gather you are especially attached to Middle Ages-Renaissance.
Didi: Indeed. We can't get away from our past even if we try...
GGK: Well, that spans 500 years!
GGK: But I'd say I'm drawn to European history, yes ...
GGK: ...the Sarantine Mosaic is partly about the east-west tensions in Late Antiquity...
GGK: ...Rome and Constantinople.
GGK: Lions of Al-Rassan is inspired by Arabs-Christians-Jews in the Iberian peninsula. What was been called a Golden Age.
**architect has arrived**
fantasy con3: this is something which is a part of jewish history
GGK: Aha! We NEED an architect here!
fantasy con2: I would like to ask a question about religions... In Summer Tree, there is strong base of neo-pagan American religions - such as Wicca (the Goddess/God etc), maybe Norse religion (Mornir) and Shamanism.
GGK: Spain, or Al-Andalus, is indeed a major part of Jewish history.
fantasy con3: and also in tigan
fantasy con3: the wuestion of personal identity and the national identity
fantasy con3: is a question the jews have asked themselves for generations
fantasy con3: it is something from our own history
GGK: Waiting for last part of the Q!
GGK: May be my lag issues!
fantasy con3: that was the last part
fantasy con2: Yes, in the next two books, there is a turn towards Medieval Arthirian romance, and the neo-pagan element is kind of weakened...
fantasy con3: i've wanted to know if you see the dealing with this question something that have been influences by being a jew
GGK: No I meant the Q on religion
fantasy con2: it is interesting especially in the light of one of the characters being a Jew...
fantasy con2: and participating in a pagan ritual (as a sacrifice)
fantasy con2: it was especially surprising for me in the light of his father being a religious Jew
GGK: Interesting question...
fantasy con2: this may be the hardest thing for Kevin's father, that his son dies as a part of pagan ritual
GGK: First, a word like 'pagan' is ... a loaded word in the context of Fionavar ...
GGK: ... the 'real' existence' of the pantheon of gods is explicit there. It IS a fantasy.
fantasy con2: of course, there is a big problem with definition of pagan
fantasy con2: in real life as well
GGK: Secondly, there's even another layer to the Kevin laine plot thread in that...
GGK: ... his personal dynamic is father-based, in a very close relationship and his sacrifice...
GGK: ...is that of Attis/Osiris/Tammuz, to the mother goddess. That was deliberate.
fantasy con3: hi, mr. kay. this is tzur. love your work.
GGK: I enjoy layering up mythic complexity and nuance in that way, and ...
fantasy con2: that doesn't change the fact that you portray Kevin's father as religious and that doesn't matter whether the panteon exist
GGK: ...mingling that with I suppose one might say a 'modern' psychological sensibility.
fantasy con2: for his father, that doesn't matter
fantasy con2: I know, the problem is that, for religious Jews, there is no compromise in religion.
GGK: fc2 ... not sure what the point becomes. ... Oh. Therefore his father...
GGK: ...if he knew his son had REALLY ended a mythic fimbulwinter (the Norse term) would ...
GGK: ...disapprove?
fantasy con2: He would... hmmm... that would definitely hurt him the most
GGK: How would a catholic father of jennifer feel knowing his daughter was going to ...
GGK: ...a 'pagan' afterlife with two men?
fantasy con2: I am not catholic, cannot know! :)
GGK: Past a certain point these questions can't be answered in the context of what was...
GGK: ...meant as an exploration of various myth patterns.
Private>Didi: can we lighten up on the cross examination of the kevin's dad issue? He answered the jewish influence Q already. PLEASE move ON.
Private>GGK: GGK, I am asking a private question beca
fantasy con2: Ok, here's the question from the crowd-
fantasy con2: do you intend to write a sequel to Tigana?
fantasy con2: The book is somehow left open ended
Didi: NOOO!
fantasy con3: yes!!!!!
GGK: No sequel to TIGANA! One reviewer in UK said the ending 'is so perfect' they'd shoot me if I wrote a sequel!
GGK: I take these things seriously!
fantasy con3: but the end was somehow left oper
GGK: Um, more accurately, I'd just say the ending's 'openness' is completely deliberate and not a signpost to a sequel.
fantasy con3: open
Private>architect: a gorgeously ambiguous ending!! there should be more, in literature (and especially in fantasy)
fantasy con2: It seems that you always try to stay away from happy ends...
fantasy con2: Didn't you ever want to write a book with a happy end?
GGK: I try to stay away from simplistic endings. Not 'happy' endings. I think...
GGK: ...that if you pitch a book on an 'epic' scale with much at stake...
GGK: ...it trivializes the story (and diminishes the reader) to offer an 'easy' soft ending.
GGK: There are costs and consequences, even to victories.
**Didi has left (timed out)**
fantasy con2: You involve a lot of political questions in your books. Why do these issues fascinate you?
**Didi has arrived**
GGK: I think I have a drive for layers and complexity in books - as a reader, too! ...
GGK: ...political issues (including sexual politics!) are a part of that.
GGK: Didi, if you are going in and out, bring me a single malt scotch next time?
fantasy con3: but it is unusual subject in fantasy books
GGK: I assume cybermalts are OK on Pesach!
Private>GGK: GGK, I wanted to ask you in private because I do not think it will interest most of the people here... about Mornir's name, you are of course aware of the mythological context in which this name
Private>GGK: appears. why did you choose it?
GGK: As for 'unusual subject' I treuly don't see myself as constrained by or guided by genre patterns...
Didi: Sure. The next windows freeze means yet another single malt.
fantasy con3: actually we have a bottle or two in here
GGK: ...I think it is artistically bad for any artist to overfocus on what is 'usual' in a given field...
GGK: ...I write the books I'd like to read if someone else wrote them!
GGK: Sorry for typos, btw, I'm trying to go fast for you!
Private>architect: what about your use of "secondary" characters as observers and commentators of history-in-the making?
fantasy con3: is there any actual political events that interest you to write about them?
Didi: What do you mean by 'actual'? Current?
fantasy con3: current
GGK: Tigana was much influenced by the fall of the Berlin Wall...
GGK: ... the history of Soviet (and Chinese) obliteration of history, the rewriting of it...
GGK: ... impacted a great deal on the theme of that story. The way in which...
GGK: ...something can be 'unmade' led me to use magic as a metaphor for...
GGK: ...that whole motif.
fantasy con2: A question from the crowd: How did you become the co-editor of Silmarillion?
GGK: It links up for me, mythically, with the power of names in mythology.
GGK: I knew CJR Tolkien through his wife's family in Canada. When JRRT died, he knew he had a massive...
GGK: ...task ahead in editing, and preferred a young 'student' type associate to another...
GGK: ...fully fledged academic.
fantasy con2: This is interesting that a law student would be chosen and not, say, a philology student
GGK: I entered law after returning. I was studying English and Philosophy at the time.
GGK: Let me pick up on an aspect of an earlier question...
GGK: ...about history and religion.
fantasy con2: :)
GGK: One of the great strengths of fantasy, for me, is how it can detach a reader...
Private>Didi: When the chat is over, can you send me a transcript? I lost the part before my freeze.
GGK: ...from prejudice and assumptions, because the story is NOT about the...
GGK: 'real' cultures and faiths, only inspired by their interplay. At the same time...
GGK: ...fantasy can tap into the atavistic 'around the fire' element of myth and fairy tale...
fantasy con2: but in Song for Arbonne, I felt that you are trying to give an answer to the question...
GGK: ...the way in which we are ALL the 'youngest son of the woodcutter' or the 'daughter of a fishman' in a folk tale. It gives us distance AND immediacy.
fantasy con2: "what would happen if Aquitagne would survive as a state
Didi: You recently gave a speech about privacy which also relates to your reason for writing history as fantasy. Could you elaborate about that
Didi: ?
GGK: FC@, first, then Didi's.
GGK: Arbonne wasn't so much an 'answer' to anything as a fugue (if you will) on...
**Seeker has arrived**
GGK: ...what we might imagine could have been different if aspects of Provencal culture had endured. It reverses, essentially, the result of the Albigensian Crusade.
GGK: Didi, the privacy speech (which is on brightweavings.com, Deborah Meghnagi's wonderful website)...
GGK: ...has to do with some ethical issues I see in current trends towards using real lives in fiction...
GGK: ...the authors feeling a sense of entitlement to do whatever we like with real people's real existence.
GGK: I find fantasy an honest and liberating antidote to that ...
GGK: ...it is right up front in saying, 'these people, even these countries are NOT identical with the actual ones.'
GGK: That frees me to imagine, speculate, be inspired by certain themes and people ...
GGK: ...without feeling I'm exploiting their lives. For example, I have NO idea...
GGK: ...what the 'real' relationship between El Cid, in Spain, and his wife was. And I know...
GGK: ...how VERY powerful an icon he is for the Spanish. It seemed more respectful and also...
GGK: ...liberating to be upfront about the fact that my character in LIONS is ...
GGK: ...inspirued by El Cid but NOT a 'version' of him.
Didi: And yet, you've cited Graves as a major influence. He did take large liberties with real people's histories.
fantasy con2: and mythologies as well!
GGK: Graves is an influence in his opening up of some mythic lines of enquiry...
GGK: ...p[rincipally in his wild-but-fascinating Mother Goddess writing. I am less...
GGK: ...influenced by his own historical fiction.
fantasy con2: it is very loosely based on historical fact
GGK: My maind ebts to graves (and Campbell) are for the ways in which, when I was young, they sent me ...
fantasy con2: and yet, White Goddess is not presented as fiction
GGK: ...to the same sources they worked with! (And James Frazer's Golden Bough is in that category, too.)
**Aya has left (timed out)**
fantasy con2: this goes back to the question I have asked about Fionavar, about Wiccan element-
fantasy con2: this is based directly on Graves and the Wiccan mythology...
GGK: I'm not sure what you are seeing as 'Wiccan' as such ... I know very little about modern Wicca.
fantasy con2: Dana as mother Goddess. Mother Goddess symbolised by the moon.
fantasy con2: After all, we know very little about actual Dana/Danu
fantasy con2: The Celtic goddess and the Indic one
fantasy con2: But there's quite a lot on the subject, written by Graves
fantasy con2: In the later books, you go directly to historical sources for inspiration.
fantasy con2: I wonder if you are planning to write something in the genre of "high fantasy" again?
GGK: FC2, I truly don't know what will come next, let alone down the road! I certainly don't rule out anything!
Private>Seeker: Q: The amount of "Magic" in your works seems to be lessenning as you go along - Will we be seeing more or less of the "Magical" element in you're comming books?
fantasy con3: d you think that you will ever try writing in another genre?
GGK: Same answer FC3!
GGK: I may do an epic haiku one day!
fantasy con2: Question from Seeker:The amount of "Magic" in your works seems to be lessenning as you go along - Will we be seeing more or less of the "Magical" element in you're comming books?
fantasy con3: this is short!!!! too short
GGK: Well, there was a decline of the supernatural element, until the two sarantium books ...
GGK: ... my most recent pair. Essentially I see magic as a 'tool' of a writer. If the material...
GGK: ...suggests or is enhanced by it, it can and should be used. If otherwise, then not. For LIONS...
GGK: ...the story would (to my mind) have been hurt by too much of the supernatural...
GGK: ...and so I played it down. For the Sarantium books, the mystical aura of Byzantium...
GGK: ...felt perfect for making use of those overtones.
GGK: Yes, we are coming up to the hour aren't we?
fantasy con2: Yes, the time is almost over...
GGK: Anyone have a last question to hurl?
**Duke Galorin has arrived**
Didi: We could go longer, if you're willing to stay and chat.
GGK: I do want to thank Opus, and Didi, and all the convention coordinators for the invitation to join you ...
Private>Duke Galorin: duke ask a question quickly
GGK: ...maybe one of these years we'll do it in 'reality' with java applets to contend with!
Didi: I certainly hope so.
fantasy con2: ok, but meanwhile we'd like to thank you for the wonderful chat
fantasy con2: and for being with us today
fantasy con2: and happy Passover to all
GGK: Happy Passover to all of you, and thanks again.
fantasy con3: and as always jews say in passover "next year in jerusalem"
GGK: Good bye, and enjoy the rest of the convention.
Private>Didi: do remember my transcript.
**GGK has left (quit)**

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