Riverside in Italy at last!

And a Great Oak Table in Devon (with the inevitable footnotes).

Here I am in Paris, where we’ve been since the beginning of October. Back in the apartment we stayed in in 2019 & 2023. It’s beginning to feel like home. And tomorrow morning, we’re taking a short trip to Italy.

Delia mends the tear in my black jacket pocket while the city looks on. October 23, 2024

We haven’t been home in NYC since August 7, when we left for the World SF Convention in Glasgow. We had a great time there, which I have failed to report on, and really should. From Glasgow we retired to a sheep farm on the Scottish borders, and took long walks, and slept a lot. We moved west to a luxurious old cowshed near Carlisle, hoping for some quality tourism, but Delia discovered she had Covid, so we were pretty quiet, and stayed on a few extra days before making our way down to Devon, where we’ve been going for years to stay in a little village inhabited by Terri Windling, Alan Lee, Wendy & Brian Froud and other friends. To our delight, our favorite old cottage was available again - although we discovered that our knees weren’t as good at the steep stairs as they once were! Never mind. Our across-the-street, Hey can you lend me a Spaghetti Pot? neighbor is Elizabeth-Jane Baldry, and we were fortunate enough to be in Pigwiggen Wood the day she filmed her plans for the Great Oak Table.

Elizabeth-Jane on the Great Oak table addressing her guests. Visiting writer Liz Williams looks on, amused

Now, Grace Nuth has done a gorgeous writeup of her experiences in Pigwiggen. Artist Kathleen Jennings recently delivered her usual fascinating walk through her process, telling us how she designed the art piece for the project.

Hand-cut silhouette art by Kathleen Jennings, commissioned by E-J for the Great Oak Table, and available to Supporters as an A5 art print (unframed)

But what you really want is E-J’s fundraising page¹ - I mean, for one thing, I’m in the initial video! Speaking! Alan Lee gets his own video, because he’s designing the throne. Go on. You’ll see.²

Over the water

Leaving Devon, we took the ferry from Southampton across the channel to the French port of Caen,³ and went to Arromanches to stay with our friend Anne for a week, writing & walking & eating & just staring out the window.

(We’re in France, now, OK? I know it’s going a little fast)

Spent a few days with old friends Hervé and Claudine Glot⁴ in Brittany, then met up with Matt Amendt⁵ for a magical writing retreat week at a friend’s old family house in the Loire.

Matt at work. Each of us had their own special place in the big house where we settled to write, and this was his.

From there, we went to Bourges for some quick sightseeing before fetching up in the Auvergne (a region I’d never been to and it is very cool) for a small Festival of Literature of the Fantastic called Les Aventuriales, where I had the honor of being a guest. After which we took the train to Paris to settle for a bit, and quite a relief that was, too!

OK, now we’re up to October 1. In Paris.

And here we are in the City of Light, at the top of a hill on the old Pilgrims’ Road, right off Rue St Jacques. A short walk to the Pantheon, and the Luxembourg Gardens, with a very nice view of Val de Grace hospital dome. We’ve been in one place for 4 whole weeks, and will be staying until November 18th.

But we’re taking a little trip in the morning to Italy, which is about as long a flight as New York to Pittsburgh.

Delia & I have been invited to the celebrated Lucca Comics and Games [and SFF in general, clearly] Festival. Because all three Swordspoint/Riverside novels have been translated into Italian, and published in an omnibus called Riverside:

This is the cover. The interior has woodcuts by Kathleen Jennings, which I’ll show you later!

So tomorrow morning we are flying to Pisa, whence we’ll be driven to the Italian walled town of Lucca, where we will be speaking & signing books for a couple of days, thanks to our publisher, Mondadori.

The schedule for Thursday, October 31st. On Friday, we’re signing at the Mondadori table again from 2 - 3:00 p.m.

Well.

So here I am in Paris, and I realize that it was almost exactly a year ago that here I was in Paris, sitting at the same desk in the same room, trying to figure out what I was going to write for the Introduction to the Italian edition.⁶

Which reminded me that I was planning to post it here for you to read.

Which reminded me that I wanted to talk about how, in the end, I found a way to write it that was different from my usual way, and what it means to me to be a Guest in Europe. It begins:

INTRODUCTION

To the ITALIAN EDITION of

RIVERSIDE NOVELS 2/24

When you write fantasy, you create a world out of nothing.

But is it nothing, really?

Of course not. It is a world made up of every part of you: every book you’ve ever read, every street you’ve ever walked, every song you’ve ever sung, every friend you’ve ever had. . . . Deeper still, your world is made of what you truly honor, what you truly love, what you truly fear.

Do not discount fear.

Which in turn reminds me that I have not actually finished packing, and indeed have spent more time on this than I’d already intended doing this instead of the other - so will you forgive me if I stop right here, and print the rest in my next letter, along with my thoughts about it?

I have to go to Lucca in the morning.

And that’s a good place to stop.

Your pal,

Ellen

P.S. Yes, like everyone else I am jumping out of my skin over the election. But that’s not what you’re looking for right now, is it?

We’ll be on a train back to Paris on November 5th - but since we’re 6 hours ahead of you, we probably won’t have any serious news until 5:00 a.m. the next day, or even later. I am seriously considering trying to gather all my American friends here on the 6th for mutual support, whatever happens. I have some champagne left over from my birthday party. I hope we’ll be using it to celebrate, not to drown our sorrows or calm our nerves.
Anyway, if you want to see my endless posts about the election, as well as some pretty Paris pictures, follow me over on Facebook; nearly all my posts are public.

Meanwhile, take good care of yourself. We need you.

1. Here I confess that Delia & I put in for our very own tree in the wood. We’ve been going there practically since the beginning, and it feels just right to continue being part of it.

2. The Fundraiser runs until 3rd November, if you want to be a part of it.

3. Yes, all right, the port city is actually Ouistreham, which turns into Caen a bit more inland. But it’s even harder to pronounce than Caen, and a lot less memorable.

4. Claudine wrote the Introduction to the original French edition of my Thomas the Rhymer (Thomas le Rimeur). It was love at first sight when we finally met - Terri and Delia were there, they’ll tell you - and then Claudine took us to the Arthurian Center in the Forest of Broceliande, which she co-founded and you should go because magical things happen there.

5. Matthew Amendt created the role of Kit Marlowe in Liz Duffy Adams’ red hot Elizabethan fantasy Born With Teeth. We have now seen Matt perform it in 3 different cities, and I’d travel to 3 more for the chance to see him and Dylan (as Will Shakespeare) square off for 90 glorious minutes.

6. The Italian edition was published in February 2024.