The Circle Cast: The Lost Years of Morgan Le Fay

Trailer?

2011-12-25T23:56:00.001-05:00

My publisher wants to do a book trailer. 60-90 seconds. What should be in it? I have my own ideas, but what about yours?

Cleared my advance!

2011-12-08T16:56:00.002-05:00

Well, I seem to have cleared my advance on royalties! That's a nice feeling.

2011-11-30T15:36:00.000-05:00

Badges? We don't need no stinkin' ... oh. Er, thank you very much, actually.

Jury's Verdict

2011-11-25T17:27:00.002-05:00

The Quebec Writers Federation's jury for the Prize for Children's and Young Adult Literature had this to say about The Circle Cast:

A mature and surprising story that supposes the life of Morgan LeFay, the half-sister of King Arthur. Intense and evocative. This book has everything one wants in a novel from a deftly-organized plot, to varied characterization to crisp, rhythmic writing.

Nice!

Wow!

2011-11-17T12:22:00.000-05:00

I got this awesome giant thank-you card from Kirsten Munro's terrific English class at Victoria Park Collegiate Institute, which I visited a little while ago. They were great!

Alex on CBC Fresh Air

2011-10-30T10:17:00.003-04:00

I did an interview on CBC Radio's Fresh Air about my own explorations of witchcraft, and how that related to the book. Check it out.

Chapters

2011-10-22T16:39:00.002-04:00

Did a book signing at a Chapters in Toronto. I sold some books, but man, that is doing it the hard way. Some people are open to hearing about your book ("Hey, do you like magic?"), but others give you that look they reserve for beggars and other people they're afraid will talk to you. It is draining!

Victoria

2011-10-21T12:57:00.003-04:00

I spent an hour and change this morning at Victoria Park Collegiate Institute, teaching The Circle Cast, and King Arthur, and post-Roman Britain, and my theories of character and storytellinger, to a 9th Grade class of honors students. That was fun.

I hope I didn’t leave them completely bewildered. I’ve been thinking about this story for over a decade, and I think I sort of gave them a 5 gigabyte upload all at once! I should probably have stopped more often for questions.

It’s a pleasure talking to smart kids. They really got the book.

They asked to see the original cover. They actually liked it better. They liked seeing a sixteen-year-old girl on the cover. I love the raven cover, but maybe a striking, mysterious cover is better for an adult, literary book, while the original cover lets you know right away that it’s a story about a girl and old magic.

Tomorrow at 2 pm, I’m reading at the Chapters in Bayview Village in Toronto. If you’re in the neighborhood, I hope you’ll come!

Lacuna Interview

2011-10-18T19:12:00.003-04:00

Megan Arkenberg interviewed me in Lacuna: A Journal of Historical Fiction about some very interesting questions. I'll give you the questions here; you must go to the interview for the answers!

Q. While The Circle Cast stands out from many Arthurian retellings in its thoroughly historical Irish setting, it also reminded me of two of my favorite Arthurian novels: Bradley’s Mists of Avalon, with its focus on the women of Arthurian myth, and Douglas Clegg’s Mordred, Bastard Son, with its focus on the hero’s childhood far away from Arthur’s Britain. Do you read a lot of Arthurian retellings? Did any of them inspire aspects of The Circle Cast?

Q. The source documents for Arthurian legend say practically nothing about the early life of any character but Arthur. With such a wide blank canvas, how did you begin shaping Morgan’s life experiences for The Circle Cast? What inspired you to choose Ireland as the setting?

Q. How did you decide on the historical period (approx. 400 CE)? Did you do a lot of research before beginning the novel, or did you gather details as you wrote?

Q. Some of my favorite passages in The Circle Cast are the ones about Morgan’s magic and her deep connection with the land. How did you develop Morgan’s magic system?

Q. Conflict between Christianity and the ancient religions of Britain appears frequently in modern Arthurian retellings. The Circle Cast presents a broad picture of both beliefs, with both heroic and villainous characters belonging to each religion. Morgan herself seems to feel that both religions can be valid ways of life; it is the individual believer’s goals and values that make one path a better choice than another. Is this the message you see emerging in the scenes at the Christians’ village? What do you think about Arthurian legend’s relationship to the conflict between Christianity and paganism?

Q. Can you tell us a bit more about your current and upcoming projects? Can readers expect another novel about Morgan le Fay, or any other Arthurian characters?

There's also a lovely 5-star review of my book:

For fans of Arthurian reimaginings, The Circle Cast is a must read, and even readers who have been disappointed by vague historical settings and authors more interested in defending their characters than developing them will find this novel a welcome departure from the norm. The Circle Cast is a quick read, but one that will stay with you long after the closing image .

Gennifer Albin interview

2011-10-18T19:06:00.003-04:00

How did I forget to post this? Gennifer Albin kindly interviewed me on The Apocalypsies blog . I talk about my influences, and my biggest challenge writing the book ("The Sucky Point"), my journey to publication, and my advice to debut authors.

(She also liked the book!)

Class Visit

2011-10-16T21:16:00.003-04:00

I'm going to be talking to an English class Friday morning. What sort of pictures should I bring?

At Last It Can Be Blogged

2011-10-14T14:49:00.001-04:00

Bravo!FACT has posted YOU ARE SO UNDEAD on their site, so up it goes here. Enjoy! Best seen fullscreen, in 720p HD.

The Cunning of the Dove

2011-10-14T11:24:00.002-04:00

I'm not loving Alfred Duggan's The Cunning of the Dove. It's another one of these historical books where the main character is the least interesting of all the historical personages bouncing around. It's all about the grand sweep of events, seen through the eyes of the passive and uninvolved king's chamberlain. Even the saintly King doesn't seem like much of a hoot. Ah, well.

I really need a great new novel to read.

Quebec Writers' Federation Shortlists TCC

2011-10-07T10:18:00.002-04:00

I am proud to tell you that the Quebec Writer's Federation has shortlisted THE CIRCLE CAST for Best Children's and Young Adult Literature, along with my friend Alan Silberberg's MILO and Geneviève Côté's WITHOUT YOU.

2011-10-06T11:29:00.001-04:00

Fantasy Book Chart

2011-10-04T18:55:00.002-04:00

NPR crowdsourced people's 100 favorite SF&F books. SF Signal arranged them in a handy flowchart. Check it out.

The Secret Circle, and Constraining Magic

2011-10-02T17:04:00.003-04:00

We're enjoying THE SECRET CIRCLE on the CW. By episode 3, the characters and even the acting have got a bit more nuanced. We stuck with it because it gets magic mostly right: it's not waving around wands and shouting Latin, it's willpower and talent, and a coven has more power than a solo witch. It's not THE CRAFT, but it's warming up.

At the end of episode 2, the teen witches bind their circle, which in the show's mythology means that none of them can do any magic alone. It's a clever storytelling decision. In episode 2, one of the girls calls down elemental power. If you give any character too much power, it becomes hard to tell stories about her. What problem can she have that she can't magick her way out of?

That's why Superman is harder to make a nuanced story about than Batman. He's invulnerable, he can see through walls, he can destroy at a distance, and he can turn back time. Superman stories wind up being all about the villains and the obstacles. Either you need to afflict him with Kryptonite®, or put him up against an equally overpowered menace, or against an enemy he has a weakness to. Batman, thankfully, is only a man.

Magic has to have a cost, or a risk, in a story. I always liked how, in EXCALIBUR, magic exhausts Merlin. Elric's magic is powered by blood and souls. On SESAME STREET, Abby Cadabby's magic just never does what it's supposed to.

When you set out to tell a supernatural story, think long and hard about the rules by which you circumscribe your magic. They are the foundation on which you're building your tale.

Toronto Tour

2011-09-25T16:22:00.002-04:00

Looks like I'm going to be appearing at two bookstores, a library and a school in Toronto in late October. Should be a fun trip.

Chapters Bayview, October 22

2011-09-23T17:21:00.001-04:00

Looks like I'm going to be giving a reading of THE CIRCLE CAST at the Chapters Bayview Village, in Toronto (well, North York, really), on Saturday, October 22, at 2 pm. That should be fun! If you're in Toronto, come hear me read!

(I'm also screening my five minute teen vampire sex comedy, YOU ARE SO UNDEAD, at Toronto After Dark, that night at 9:30 pm!)

Teens Read Too...

2011-09-22T20:03:00.000-04:00

TeensReadToo says TCC is "a hidden treasure." Thanks!

2011-09-19T15:55:00.002-04:00

In The Guardian, YA authors report that their agents and/or publishers have asked them to straighten out their gay characters.

Two American authors have revealed that they were told by a literary agent to "straighten" a gay character in their post-apocalyptic young adult novel if they wished to be represented...

The demand follows the experience of author Jessica Verday, who pulled out of the young adult anthology Wicked Pretty Things in March after she was told by its editor that her story, "which features Wesley (a boy) and Cameron (a boy), who were both in love with each other, would have to be published as a male/female story because a male/male story would not be acceptable to the publishers".

Boo! Do not like. Especially speculative fiction books: do publishers seriously think that readers who can accept alternative history, alternative religion, and even different laws of physics, can't handle teh gay? C'mon.

The Last Kingdom

2011-09-15T09:22:00.005-04:00

I finished the LAST KINGDOM by Bernard Cornwell. I'm sort of two minds about it. It's a quick read. It catches the wild ride of one Northumbrian nobleman's son whose father is killed, and his lands taken, by the invading Danes. He's captured by a Danish nobleman and raised almost as a son, but destiny has other plans for him.

I liked the book as historical fiction. I liked the sense of who the Saxon English were, and who the Danes were, and what they valued. The reign of King Alfred of Wessex is another hinge point of English history, like the Saxon invasions themselves. In Alfred's time, the Saxon English, mostly Christian, were nearly conquered by the invading pagan Danes.

But the main character, Uhtred, is a bit of an enigma. His actions are those of a passionate man, but he talks dispassionately about them as he recounts them -- an old man telling the story of a young man's choices. Uhtred is motivated by the desire to get back his father's castle, but it's not always the driving force in his life. Sometimes sex is. Sometimes friendship is. Does that make him well-rounded as a character, or vague?

Alfred is a well-drawn nemesis, wise, fanatically religious, Puritanical and sly. And many of the other characters are well-drawn too. But there's a hole in the book, I feel, where the main character should be.

Your mileage may vary. To be fair, this is a book I ripped through in a few days. But I'm not strongly motivated to read the next one. I sort of wanted it all to add up to more. The book is a rollercoaster. I wish it held together as a coherent story, you know, with a theme and all.

Staff Pick

2011-09-13T11:29:00.002-04:00

It was nice to see my book was a Staff Pick at the downtown Chapters in Toronto!

Kindle Kover

2011-09-07T12:04:00.002-04:00

Right now my Kindle shows a random assortment of images when it's off. There isn't an easy way to change them unless you want to upload hackage into the Kindle, which seems not worth the trouble unless you are a hardware hacker and simply can't resist.

You know what would be fun? If it showed the cover of whatever book I was reading last.

Historical Research

2011-09-05T10:27:00.003-04:00

I've been reading Charles Mann's new book 1493, the sequel, natch, to his awesome historical book 1491. 1491 was about evidence that the pre-Columbian Native American societies were far richer, more populated, and complex than we think of them -- that what is now the Amazon jungle was heavily cultivated by millions of Indians who were wiped out by disease before any but the very first white travelers saw them. 1493 is about the huge changes in the world after the New and Old Worlds became linked: how the tons of silver from the Potosi mine in Bolivia bankrupted the Qinq Dynasty in China, how the potato changed Europe, how corn allowed the Chinese to move into the hill country.

Until ships crossed the Atlantic, according to Mann, there was no malaria in the New World, and the most advanced cultures were all in the warm, wet parts of North and South America; after malaria, those cultures took a serious beating while the colder, dryer areas jumped ahead. Mann makes a convincing case that malaria was a chief factor in African slavery. Malaria was deadly to whites and Indians, but Africans were partly immune to malaria, from living with it for thousands of years. In the American north, poor whites from Europe could be counted on to do the dirty work, but in the American South, and in South America, they died in huge numbers, while African slaves tended to survive.

I love looking back at the past through the lens of a book. Often when we think about the past, it's hard to understand why people did the things they did. Kings make what seem to be idiotic decisions, entire cultures destroy their own lands... didn't they know better? But as you get to know the past better, it becomes clear how people always did what seemed to make sense at the time. There are always factors you don't know about.

I guess that's one of the things that drew me to telling Morgan's story. The canonical story makes her out to be an evil witch. But what's her side of the story? Why did she behave the way she did? What makes someone so vengeful that they're willing to pull down their whole world around their heads? What wrongs would have to have been done to a young woman to make her behave the way we're told she did. I hope I came up with interesting answers in the book.

Adult or YA

2011-09-01T20:16:00.002-04:00

I've had a bunch of nice reviews on YA blogs, as you can read further below. But the really glowing reviews have come from the straight press. I had that glowing review in the East Hampton Star, and in Historical Novels Review. I wonder if the book would do better as a straight novel, or just adult fantasy?

It's hard to say. My wife's book The Intrepid Art Collector got shelved under "collectibles" instead of under "art," although it had nothing for collectors, and was meant for art connoisseurs. I don't think that helped her book any.

Online it doesn't really matter because someone's going to search for "Morgan le Fay" or "King Arthur" or "Wicca" and maybe they'll find the book. But in bookstores, where something is shelved is hugely important. If you're looking for a fantasy book, you probably won't drift over to the YA shelves, although there's a lot of fantasy there. Likewise you wouldn't look under general novels, even though Doris Lessing has a few fantasy novels.

I'm a bit at my wit's end with the book. I can only track Amazon sales; bookstore sales won't come in until months from now. But it's not doing so well on Amazon, although it does have some Kindle sales. I'm frustrated because when people read the book, they like and often love the book. But how to get people to pick the book up?

Cynthia Leitich Smith

2011-09-01T20:14:00.001-04:00

Cynthia Leitich Smith was kind enough to interview me on her blog. Check it out.

Facebooking

2011-08-13T12:10:00.001-04:00

Incidentally, I've moved some of my shorter and more private thoughts to my facebook page for this book -- see right. Think of it as Twitter, without the RT's.

Mi Reading Room Es Su Reading Room

2011-08-10T00:47:00.003-04:00

Crystal of My Reading Room graciously gives TCC a 4.5 out of 5:

The Circle Cast was a fascinating look at what Morgan's life might have been like in the early years and I loved every minute of the book. Mr. Epstein's writing was great, he dove right into the mind of an adolescent girl in early Britain and brought out this marvelous story of her life as she traveled in a foreign country and navigated their customs as she fought for her life and plotted and schemed toward her own revenge and getting back to Britain.

Thanks, Crystal!

Meanwhile, on Patricia's Particularity, I talk about historical fiction and what you owe to history when you write it.

Free E-Books!

2011-08-07T15:18:00.002-04:00

You can find ebooks at your local library and download them, and you don't even have to go into the library!

Myths Are Stories That Stay True

2011-08-06T10:20:00.002-04:00

I've guest-posted at Mission to Read about What Mythology Means to Me. I'm talking about how human beings are hard-wired not just to learn language but to see the world through stories, and what that means about our myths. You might find it interesting.

Historical Novels Review Review

2011-08-05T15:48:00.003-04:00

The Circle Cast is an Editor's Choice at The Historical Novels Review!

Epstein skillfully blends the coming-of-age, the fairy, the revenge, and the legend. Through the poetry of Epstein's writing, I could feel the power of the old magic that Morgan eokes when she goes "between the worlds," and I could taste the salt sea air as she sails between her two lands... Fans of Arthurian legend will love this book, and so will everyone else. Great characters, great writing, great story.

Joseph Konrath on the Kindle

2011-08-05T10:04:00.003-04:00

I've been wondering about where to set my Kindle Pricing. Friend of My Other Blog Paul William Tenny wrote in with some spectacular intel:

I suggest reading a few of the posts by Joe Konrath that I've linked
below. He's written extensively on publishing on the Kindle, including a lot of analyses on price points. I believe, based on what he's said and done, that the answer to your question is that you're almost certainly leaving money on the table (or rather your publisher is if they set the price) by pricing the eBook way too high.

The sweet spot seems to be $2.99, the minimum price where the 70% royalty rate is available. Anything cheaper and the rate reverts to 35%. Much more expensive and you start losing out on impulse buyers. The only reason to go below $2.99 is to try to push your book up the rankings to increase exposure (which is a damn good reason). People like to go as low as they can when they do this, down to 99 cents (~34 cents royalty) and then once they stop rising, they go back to $2.99 to take advantage of the higher sales.

Some people bundle novels together to get up to $4.99, but I don't know how well that works. Others -- Barry Eisler -- are selling short stories for $2.99 and doing very well, but I wouldn't.

Both Eisler and Konrath, selling at $2.99, have basically given up on traditional publishing because if their digital only success. Eisler passed on a $500,000 offer from his publisher, St. Martins, because he believes he can make more setting his own prices on the Kindle (and getting that 70% royalty) than he can in print.

John August is doing well with short stories at 99 cents as well:

Amazing stuff.

Here are some links:

When Konrath was putting his out-of-print back list on the Kindle and just beginning his experiment with pricing and self publishing. His back list and some assorted odds and ends made him $1250 that month before the 70% royalty option was available (I think), changing prices, settling at $1.59 per book. To show how much things have changed in such a short time, he wrote then that agents and publishers are necessary. Today he only writes original novels for the Kindle.

Konrath talks about the price of "free". Notes that he put eight books on Amazon that were also available for free on his website, and they still sell well. A little bit more on price experiments, settling on $1.99 per book. The List was the #1 book in the police procedurals category, 14 spots better than one of his books out by his publisher at $3.96.

Breaking down sales numbers, more price testing. Started his best selling eBook, The List, at $1.49. Changed to $1.89 to see if sales would slow down. They actually went up. Talks about things that matter more than price, like quality writing, book cover, description, etc. Decides to release a Kindle exclusive at $2.99 to see how it does.He's always experimenting.

Makes a big pitch for why selling eBooks versions for cheap isn't
cheapening the book, just adjusting to the realities of cheaper
distribution to get closer to the true valuable price of a novel,
versus a physical product like a book.

Hitting Amazon for the faults of the Kindle (he doesn't own one yet) despite making $3,000 in June on it. That increase in sales is less about price than the beginning of the digital boom, at that point.

Hired someone to do a new cover for Disturb to replace the one he did himself, and saw a 25% uptick in sales. Hired the same guy to do new covers for all his books.

Jan through June 2009 sales numbers of his Kindle books with prices set and royalties dived by his print publisher. Prices range from $3.96 (550 sales/$341) to $7.59 (152/$341). Conclusion: "a $4 ebook sells 3 times as many copes as an $8 ebook." Compares that to his own Kindle sales with four books selling at $1.99, from 900 sales/$630 to 2619 sales/$1833. This is the big one where he calculates how much money he's losing by his publisher pricing his ebooks too high. Five books from his publisher netted $2008, four books self published at $1.99 netted him $6860. Figures that if he had the rights back to all his of his print publishing books with Hyperion, he'd be making over $20,000 per year off the Kindle alone, rather than $4800 Kindle+print he's making then.

On and on. By this post he's sold 276,112 ebooks total and at that point is selling 30,000+ per month. Made $68,000 in March of this year alone. Of course he's got like 40+ books on Kindle now, but still. Most of his books go for $2.99 and he'll regularly drop them to 99 cents for a month to give them a surge into the best seller lists.

In short: your Kindle book is priced way too high. If you can, get it down to $2.99 and see what happens. You should also contact Konrath and see who he uses to do his covers and try a new one.

Other suggestions that I'm ripping from Konrath: give out free copies of the book to as many people as possible and ask them to leave reviews on Amazon. The difference between a couple of reviews and 5-10 can be huge in giving readers buying confidence. And introduce your book to readers on the Kindle boards (http://www.kindleboards.com/). Lots of readers there looking for new books.

Ten That Got Away

2011-08-03T17:20:00.001-04:00

Roof Beam Reader quizzes me about my ten favorite creative projects that haven't happened...

Hopelessly Devoted

2011-08-03T10:01:00.002-04:00

Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile gives The Circle Cast "four keys to my heart":

"Other lovers of Arthurian lore will find as much to love here as I did. My one let down was that it was so short. I could have read about Morgan and her quest for many more pages, and done so happily. Gorgeous world building and rich attention to the lore that builds this character mixes together into a really amazing read. I'd say you should give it a shot!"

Ah, it was longer before my editor made me cut it down! In fact my publisher wanted it shorter, but I couldn't cut any more!

Teen Garage Sale

2011-08-02T13:14:00.001-04:00

As part of my ongoing blog tour, Diane of Books by Their Story asks me what I would sell at my "teen garage sale..."

Thanks, Diane!

Kindle Price

2011-07-30T18:18:00.003-04:00

Hmmmm... my Kindle price is $6.99, which is a big discount from the paperback. But would I sell more if it were $4.99? Would I sell five times more if it were $1.99? When there's no actual cost to put the book in someone's hands, you can really set the price anywhere you think demand will meet supply.

There's a lower limit where reducing the price doesn't really help, of course. If I'm interested enough to start reading a book, I'm probably not more likely to buy it for $.99 than I would be for $1.99, and I'm not really much less likely to but it at $4.99.

What's the price at which you would just jump in and press "buy" without really worrying about it?

On the other hand, the first chapter is free anyway. At the point where you've read the first chapter and you want to keep reading, at what price above which you start thinking hard about whether you need this book, and below which you go, what the hell, gimme the words?

Don Draper, Vampire

2011-07-30T11:00:00.002-04:00

NY Mag says Don Draper makes a better vampire than Edward Cullen or all those guys on TRUE BLOOD:

He is an engine of want, creating the illusion of fulfillment while sucking you dry. No is not in his vocabulary. Neither is yes — yes is implicit. He knows this, he is past needing to hear you say it. He knows the private and unmentionable place that cries "yes" when the bottom drops out of an amusement park ride and suddenly you are in free fall, and, like the ideal man, he is listening.

Fun stuff. I'm waiting to see how his marriage to Jessica Paré's character goes horribly, horribly wrong.

Playlist

2011-07-29T18:46:00.000-04:00

Jenny asked me for my TCC playlist...

Lost Words, Meet Lost Years

2011-07-29T18:39:00.002-04:00

The incredibly industrious and devoted Corrine of Lost for Words reviews TCC:

A thoroughly and imaginatively described world in which magic comes to life as it is channeled through Morgan, as she calls on her connection to the earth to help her in her time of need. History, and the early church history being spread across Ireland makes this a rich and informative read as well. We get to see a side of Morgan that isn't necessarily seen as she comes to terms with her identity and future. As an avid history fan, I absolutely loved this rendition of Morgan's lost years and am curious to see how Epstein would continue her story.

"Show Don't Tell"

2011-07-28T18:21:00.002-04:00

One of the nice things people say about THE CIRCLE CAST, when they say nice things, is they like Morgan. One of the things they criticize, when they criticize, is that I sometimes tell instead of showing.

It's funny, because I'm a professional screenwriter. Showing instead of telling is my default.

But I find it an odd criticism of a novel. One of the nice things about novels is that you can tell instead of showing. A movie can only give you what characters say and do, mostly in real time. You can't show, in a movie, how the besieging troops are getting restless, and sick, and hungry. You can only show four or five restless, sick troops complaining about being hungry, and eventually getting into a fight. More than four or five people on screen and all you have is a mob. Movies have to develop all sorts of odd cinematic techniques to show Spring turning into Summer turning into Fall.

So in THE CIRCLE CAST, I tried to do more than show a series of scenes. I tried to talk about some things that happen over stretches of time. I also dissect some moments in detail, to show everything that goes into them.

Maybe that is not done in YA novels, I don't know. It's a style. Some of the people who like the book very much like the descriptions -- the "telling" -- very much. But some of the people who don't love the book jump on the "show don't tell."

Well, if you are one of those people who felt the book has too much telling and not enough showing -- let me know, eh? And let me know an example of what's bugging you...!

CueCat

2011-07-27T08:47:00.004-04:00

I got my CueCat in the mail yesterday. It's a little barcode scanner in the shape of a cat, natch. (I guess to go with the mouse.) Run it along a barcode and it types the barcode into your computer. You can use it to scan your books into LibraryThing.

Why would you scan your books into LibraryThing? I guess so you can show your friends what books you have. Then you can see what books they have. And you can learn more about the authors. But most importantly, LibraryThing can find someone who has your taste in books, more or less, and then show you what books they have that you don't have. Chances are you'll find something good to read.

You can check out my books here. Not all of them, 'cause that would be a lot of scanning. And I keep donating them to the library when I'm done so they don't take over my house. But most of my favorite ones.

(I also have an author page there, with links. But I think the, uh, library thing is the most interesting part of the site.)

Please Judge My Book By its Cover

2011-07-26T15:48:00.003-04:00

Rie Conley at Mission to Read interviews me about my cover (which I love!). If you want to know how a book gets its cover -- or how this one did -- check it out.

Lost For Words; Well, Not Entirely

2011-07-25T15:48:00.002-04:00

There's a long interview at Lost For Words in which I talk about mythology, history, religion, the Dark Ages, and some of the most interesting holes in the Arthur legend.

Thanks for interviewing me, Corrine!

School Librarian

2011-07-23T20:39:00.003-04:00

There's a lovely review of TCC in School Librarian, alas about half of it behind a paywall:

A sophisticated, stylishly written novel ... In this haunting tale of fantasy there is also romance as Morgan falls in love with a young Irish chieftain and is then torn between her thirst for revenge and her desire for love and happiness.

This is a most impressive book.... The book's descriptive passages are a joy to read, often more akin to poetry than prose and teachers might well wish to focus on the writer's techniques from the title itself to the use of repetition and of the simple, very short, very effective sentences.

Thank you, Elizabeth Finlayson!

My Library

2011-07-23T10:25:00.002-04:00

Fragments of Life interviews me about my favorite books from 2011, and what I've been reading, and what's in my library.

Highly Recommended

2011-07-22T14:19:00.003-04:00

The Midwest Book Review sez:

The Sorceress Morgan Le Fay is often painted as a villain in Arthurian legend, but what painted her in this role? "The Circle Cast: The Lost Years of Morgan LeFay" follows the young woman after she swears vengeance on Uther Pendragon who killed her father. With vengeance in mind, she masters sorcery and makes her own way, only to have her plans for revenge derailed by what may be love. "The Circle Cast" is an excellent work of Arthurian fantasy, highly recommended.

Nice!

Roof Beam Reader

2011-07-21T15:17:00.002-04:00

Roof Beam Reader reviews TCC:

One of the most interesting aspects of the book is not just that it is about Morgan Le Fay, which is a fascinating subject; in fact, one of the most interesting elements was the conflict between the budding Christian culture and the well-established but threatened pagan religions. Added with the various nationalities – the British, the Irish, the Saxons, and (in some relative respect) the Romans- the book becomes a fascinating culture study. It also tackles aspects of family, revenge, and forgiveness. This is certainly an appealing and creative re-imagining of the young life of Morgana, and one can only hope that it will be the first book in a series that will expand further on her life and times. The book’s website also contains some great background and historical information on Morgan and this era, which is a great benefit to readers who have a deeper interest.

Thanks, Roof Beam Reader!

Ironclad

2011-07-21T09:08:00.004-04:00

Saw IRONCLAD last night at Fantasia. It's essentially a samurai movie, but set in England under the reign of King John. After signing Magna Carta, John treacherously hires Danish mercenaries to retake control of his kingdom and murder all the barons who forced him to sign it. A small group of knights seize Rochester Castle and must hold it against the Danish mercs and King John's siege weapons to give time for the French (!) to come to the rescue.

It's a very good, grade-A samurai movie. Lots of hack and slash. James Purefoy (ROME's Mark Antony) is the broody Knight Templar at the center of the story; he's terrific to watch. Kate Mara is the doe-eyed young wife of the castle's cowardly lord (Derek Jacobi) who falls in love with him. (Emma Watson better watch out. She's rocking the same basic look, but rocking it harder.) Paul Giamatti is in actor heaven playing the unbelievably cruel, smart, treacherous, arrogant king.

I really enjoyed it. If you like samurai movies, you will too.

(I reviewed TROLL HUNTER on my screenwriting blog.)

This or That

2011-07-20T21:02:00.002-04:00

My Reading Room has me answering This or That today...

The Wicker Tree

2011-07-20T10:10:00.000-04:00

I saw THE WICKER TREE at the Montreal Fantasia Festival last night. I was disappointed.

/* SPOILERS */

Years ago, I saw THE WICKER MAN (1973). It's a cult classic because it does a very clever thing: it makes you root against the hero. A police detective goes to Summer Isle to investigate a missing girl. What he finds there upsets his priggish Anglican prudery. Summerisle seems to be a place of loose morals. Couples rut in the bushes. Everyone drinks and sings. No one goes to church. It's as if hippies ran the town like one big summer camp.

What Summerisle is, of course, is pagan. And as the cop runs around interfering and meddling, Summerisle is working its way towards one of the great pagan holidays. The cop realizes too late that the locals are into human sacrifice, and he's it. But by the time he's in the giant wicker man and they're lighting up the torches, we pretty much hate him, and love the locals.

It's one of the peculiarities of the big and small screens that we can love murderers if they are adorable enough, and dislike professional heroes if they are annoying enough.

(Your mileage may vary. Lisa was horrified by the ending. Either way the movie works.)

Along comes THE WICKER TREE, 38 years later. This one, director Robin Hardy also wrote. (Anthony Schaffer wrote the original.) Unfortunately, while it's beautifully directed, structurally it's a mess. Some directors should not write.

Essentially, it's a reworking of the same idea. But this time, instead of an obnoxious police detective, the protagonists are two American evangelicals from Texas, a pixiesh Christian Country Music singer with the voice of an angel, and her cowboy boyfriend. They are out of their depth from the moment they come to Scotland to proselytize. But even when confronted with out-of-the-broom-closet pagans, they roll with the punches. She agrees to be the May Queen, even though she's been told May Day is a pagan holiday. He agrees to be the "Laddie."

In other words, they're likable and fairly non-judgmental, for all their loudly, repeatedly professed love for Jesus. So the villagers and their bald-shaven goatee'd landowner wind up having to be cartoonishly evil.

Ah, damn. I'll have to look elsewhere for my pagan kicks.

Into the Past

2011-07-19T17:16:00.001-04:00

The Fiction Enthusiast asked me what books I would recommend to 5 year old me, 11 year old me, 16 year old me, and 20 year old me. What do you think of my answers?

Blog Tour - Tweets

2011-07-18T21:02:00.001-04:00

As part of my blog tour, Anime Girl interviews me. The catch -- I have to answer in tweets. Check it out.

No Kindle in Canada

2011-07-14T12:09:00.003-04:00

Strangely, there is no Kindle Store on Amazon.ca. So if you want to buy The Circle Cast on Kindle from Canada, you have to go to Amazon.com. (See link at right.)

Three Days to Never

2011-06-30T17:23:00.003-04:00

In the past few days (and especially since my computer died), I've been reading Tim Powers books. I really enjoy his mix of history and fantasy. The historical bits give a sense that he's done a tremendous amount of research into the times he's writing about, whether it's 1529 (THE DRAWING OF THE DARK) or 1987 (THREE DAYS TO NEVER). The fantasy bits feel right, too. Of course getting the history right helps the fantasy too. As he says in an interview in the Guardian:

One advantage of rooting his stories in the real is, he hopes, that readers will be more likely to suspend their disbelief. "It gives a lot of real-world lumber to support my crazy supernatural business. I'm always very aware of the risk that a reader will blink and say wait a minute this is all made up crap, isn't it?" he says. "But if I talk about carriages and shoe buckles and George III and commerce between London and Amsterdam, the reader will be a little more tilted towards thinking this is happening in the real world. If I wrote about the magical kingdom of Ding Dong and the lost prince and the dark lord, I would have ceded a whole lot of territory as far as plausibility goes. There is a speed bump to credulity, when you ask readers to take seriously things like ghosts and vampires, and I want to make it as low as possible. I want to be able to have them go over it without any kind of jolt."

Where he lost me on both books was the endings. Some novelists have a talent for weaving multiple threads that all come together at the finale. Not so much Tim Powers, not in these two books. The characters and the worlds are well wrought, and Powers' powers of invention is strong. But the endings fizzled a bit.

(I'll try not to spoil anything, and I won't tell you whether Harry Potter finally gets to hook up with someone, but if you're thinking of reading these very fine books in the next few months, go ahead and read them first.)

THE DRAWING OF THE DARK gives an occult reason for the 1529 assault on Vienna by the Turks. Vienna must hold out until October 31, or the West will fall to the East! Yet, for some reason, the finale occurs about two weeks earlier. It's sort of Plotting 101 that if you "set a clock" on the action, the finale should reach its climax just as the clock is about to strike. That's the moment everything should come together.

In THREE DAYS TO NEVER, two spy groups are trying to get their hands on a Device, while a father with a Past and a daughter with an Ability are caught in the middle. As you might expect from the title, the Device has apocalyptic powers. But you only find that out in the last five pages of the book, and then it isn't so much explained as nodded at. You don't know what the Big Bad was or what it would have done; and you don't know what the heroes did to stop it. C'mon. If the jeopardy is going to be The End of the World, then we should know that by midway through, don't you think? And at least one of the heroes ought to know it by what screenwriters would call the beginning of Act Three.

Damn it, where are his editors? Because surely he is not so famous a fantasy author that he no longer has to listen to his editors?

Now I'm not saying these are bad books or that I didn't enjoy reading them. I'm just a little disappointed in the endings. After all the world-building and mythology-construction that Powers is so good at, I hope for a better finale.

THE ANUBIS GATES didn't have this problem. DECLARE definitely didn't have this problem. I think I need to go read some more Tim Powers.

Lonesome?

2011-06-27T11:06:00.003-04:00

My friend Michael Zaidan posted this great John Steinbeck quote on Facebook:

“We are lonesome animals. We spend all our life trying to be less lonesome. One of our ancient methods is to tell a story begging the listener to say -- and to feel -- ''Yes, that's the way it is, or at least that's the way I feel it. You're not as alone as you thought.''

I once asked my friend Shoshana Marchand why we write. She said, "because you can't possibly make love to everybody."

I'm not sure which I like better.

East Hampton Star

2011-06-25T16:20:00.003-04:00

Sasha Watson, writing in the East Hampton Star, just gave TCC a spectacular review:

Mr. Epstein’s originality is in how deeply he goes into Morgan’s mind and how vividly he renders her voice...

... Mr. Epstein writes deftly and movingly of the young girl and her perspective on her parents and the events that will change the direction of her life. ...

Mr. Epstein’s tale ... provides a canny view of the lore as a whole, and in elegant and poetic writing he makes the thoroughly researched settings as real as can be. As with all the best adapters of myth, he makes Morgan’s story relevant to our times as well, skillfully joining contemporary language to the ancient settings and tales...

The magic is another innovation of Mr. Epstein’s. He has undertaken not only a rigorous research of ancient Celtic paganism, but he has also, with great success, crafted the magic out of contemporary Wiccan practices ...

This blend of the ancient and the modern works seamlessly, all of it linked by the deep connection we feel to Morgan, who, bridging the pagan and the Christian worlds, ultimately falls on the side of the old, choosing the vengeance and honor upheld by her father over forgiveness. Whether or not we can entirely agree with Morgan’s choices, Mr. Epstein makes sure that we sympathize with and understand them. And it is this addition to the lore, the creation of a conflicted and determined young woman in the space that was left by Morgan and the “lost years” between her departure from England and her furious return, that Mr. Epstein offers.

Those with a longstanding love of Arthuriana are sure to take pleasure in this new vision of Morgan, and those who are new to it will no doubt be drawn into the pleasures of this multivoiced literature after reading “The Circle Cast.”

Wow. Thanks, Sasha Watson!

Overlooking the Hudson

2011-06-24T20:00:00.001-04:00

We're on vacation. Right now I'm in my parents' apartment overlooking the Hudson River. New Jersey is still shrouded in fog. I'm looking through the books I read this year for part of my upcoming blog tour. I'm struck how many times I read books by authors I love that were disappointing. I couldn't get through ANATHEM by Neal Stephenson, whose Cryptonomicon is one of my favorite books ever. Neil Gaiman's GRAVEYARD BOOK was fine, but I wouldn't rave about it, as I would rave about his SANDMAN graphic novels, or AMERICAN GODS, or NEVERWHERE. (Though I never get tired of reading BLUEBERRY GIRL to Jesse.) Charles Stross's FAMILY TRADE didn't even feel like the same author as ACCELERANDO or THE JENNIFER MORGUE.

Meanwhile, I'm on a Tim Powers rampage. I found LAST CALL hard to get through, but I loved ON STRANGER TIDES and I loved rereading THE ANUBIS GATES. I've got THE DRAWING OF THE DARK cued up. It's his Arthurian book. I'm psyched.

Power Bio

2011-06-15T13:39:00.003-04:00

I thought Tim Powers' biography on IMDB was pretty funny. I wonder who wrote it?

The greatest fantasy writer of his generation, Powers has lived in southern California since 1959. ... Powers, who takes more time and care writing novels than his fans would like, went on to sell "The Drawing of the Dark" (1979, a supernatural fantasy about King Arthur and beer-drinking) ... A very accessible writer, he has often taught the Clarion Science Fiction Writers' Workshop at Michigan State University and the Writers of the Future Workshop, and chats regularly with his fans on the Tim Powers discussion list on yahoogroups.

I've just started ON STRANGER TIDES, which is apparently the basis for the new PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN movie, though I doubt the two have much to do with each other except for a fascination with Voodoo.

In a less fantastical vein, I just finished EMPIRE OF THE SUMMER MOON, a beautiful history of the rise and fall of the Comanche nation. For some generations they were the most powerful of the horse tribes in the southern Great Plains, and actually rolled back the frontier for a while, until they succumbed to six-shooters and buffalo hunters. The book feels fair: both the settlers and the Comanches have their moments of glory and brutality. It's always hard to read about how the Native Americans got crushed, but the Comanches gave as good as they got for a fair long while.

Old English Rose

2011-06-12T16:04:00.003-04:00

Very thoughtful review by Old English Rose:

Morgan, or Anna as she begins the story, is a surprisingly complex character who develops convincingly throughout the course of the novel. She starts out curious, questioning and vulnerable but quickly acquires a steely resolve and an adult mindset as she is forced to mature by her circumstances. She’s so controlled and self-sufficient for much of the book that I don’t find her a particularly sympathetic character, but she’s still really interesting and a great strong female protagonist for a young adult story. I thought it was particularly poignant and a clever touch that what she works towards in Ireland, unification under one High King, is exactly what Arthur later works towards in Britain.

She objects to my putting pelicans in the Irish sea. She's probably right about that. I was trying to show the Irish Sea before it was fished out, and I'm pretty confident there were flocks of sea birds out there in 500 AD. But they were probably not pelicans, which tend to keep to the Mediterranean in Europe.

However, I did not put Morgan's three-toed horse in recklessly. Caesar had a three-toed horse, according to Suetonius, and Alexander's horse Bucephalos was supposedly three-toed. Snakes are sometimes born with atavistic hind limbs, and sperm whales rarely (1 in 5000) with hip bones. The genome has the information, but other genes suppress its expression. Presumably horses have the genes for three toes, but also genes that suppress the expression of any but the middle toe.

Here's a good article on polydactyly in horses. And here's a Scientific American article from 1892.

Circle Cast Blog Tour

2011-06-03T21:28:00.002-04:00

If you're looking for the details of The Circle Cast's Blog Tour, check out the Teen Book Scene Tour Details!

Cry, It's the Onion

2011-06-01T11:07:00.002-04:00

From the Onion:

Shortly before her reading Tuesday at local bookstore Word Mentality, author Francine Massey told reporters that she does her absolute best for everyone who comes out to see her, whether it's just three people or a much larger crowd of nine people. Massey says a small group of two or three deserves as good a reading as a buzzing crowd of nine.

Massey, on hand to promote her novel A Lighthouse Keeper, said that with publishing houses slashing their marketing budgets, it often falls to writers themselves to make the most of every reading opportunity, from cozy gatherings of just a few fans at smaller booksellers to major events at chain stores that can draw upwards of 10 people.

"I have to remember that even if just one person shows up, he deserves the same passion and enthusiasm I would give to a big group of seven people or eight people," said Massey, watching as a bookstore employee began setting up rows of folding chairs. "You just have to remind yourself that you're not going to be able to pack the room with half a dozen fans every time."

Ouch.

Jules Jones review

2011-05-29T13:04:00.002-04:00

Jules Jones has some nice things to say about THE CIRCLE CAST:

Once I got into the rhythm of the writing I was hooked. Epstein has taken the historical period of 500AD as the basis for his story, a time when the Roman legions had long withdrawn from Britain but many of the British still thought of themselves as Roman. He's drawn on Irish mythology and blended it with modern Wiccan practice to create a believably consistent picture of magic, in a time when both Druid priests and Christian missionaries can draw on the power of the earth, and a young exile can learn to use it to protect herself and the people she loves. The result is a solid addition to the Arthurian legend, covering an area not much touched on, and giving a plausible reason for the adult Morgan le Fay to be who she is. Here she is a strong and sympathetic character, and it's only too easy to understand why she makes the choices she does.

The book's been written in such a way that it can be enjoyed both as a free-standing novel suitable for someone not familiar with any of the mythology and literature that has accreted around Arthur, and as a fascinating new contribution to that ongoing literary conversation. An excellent YA fantasy novel that should appeal to adults as well.

Schwag

2011-05-19T09:02:00.003-04:00

You can now buy Circle Cast schwag in the US and in Canada.

Facebook

2011-05-19T08:41:00.007-04:00

I understand there is this thing called Facebook? And books have their own pages on it?

Anyway, there is now a Circle Cast Facebook page. I hope you like it.

A. F. Stewart Reviews TCC

2011-05-16T14:31:00.003-04:00

Fantasy Writer A. F. Stewart (Chronicles of the Undead) had some nice things to say about The Circle Cast:

... an excellent addition to the genre of Arthurian folklore and legend. The author crafts worlds past with a deft hand, easily pulling a reader into the story...

The author has a nice take on the magical aspects of the story, weaving a mysterious aspect in to the narrative by his effective use of Celtic religion and myth.

The writer also does an exceptional job at creating the main character, making her a full person with fears, doubts and weakness...

Being a devotee of the Arthurian legends, I’ve read many books on the subject, both fiction and non-fiction, and this delightfully enchanting novel is a welcome complement to the mythology.

A Wrinkle Needing Ironing

2011-05-13T14:18:00.004-04:00

At the used bookstore, I picked up Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time, which I remember liking as a kid, and the nice old lady there said, "When you read it as an adult, it's so much better."

Mmmmm, well, no, that was not my experience.

The main character, Meg, is a good YA heroine. She gets picked on for being smart. She acts out. She's impatient. I can dig it. I spent most of junior high not living up to my potential.

But she never gets to do anything with that personality. In fact, she barely gets to do anything at all. The real hero is her telepathic savant five year old brother, Charles Wallace, and possibly a guy from her school, Calvin, who she essentially bumps into. Charles Wallace has been in touch with three supernatural entities, who know where her missing father is.

And when the entities whisk Charles Wallace off, she's along for the ride. I don't think she makes a single decision other than "hold on!" until 80% through the story, when she decides to risk her life to save her kid brother.

Which, granted, is pretty important. But pretty late, too. You couldn't write a YA novel like that these days. Your publisher would say, "But your heroine is passive!"

I guess there weren't a lot of kickass young female heroines in 1962. The book won the Newbery Award and a slew of others.

I'd like to say, "And yet it has something." But it disappointed me. It has a typical 1962-ish equation of evil with conformity. (After I grew up, I discovered that the 1960's lied to us about conformity. It's sort of important.) It has a Big Bad that amounts to a Big Black Cloud.

I sort of felt that it was the kind of science fantasy that someone writes when they don't actually like speculative fiction. I'm told Madeleine L'Engle's favorite book is Anna Karenina. Beware of speculative fiction authors whose favorite books aren't spec fiction. Personally, much as I enjoyed War and Peace, my favorite books -- the ones I would most like to read again for the first time, if I could, and the ones I reread when I can -- are all spec fiction, by Neil Gaiman and Neal Stephenson.

What books have you read that didn't hold up?

Game of Thrones

2011-04-30T09:01:00.005-04:00

I know that Game of Thrones is a big deal to a lot of people. And I have to admit that I only read the free Kindle sample, and watched the first two episodes of the miniseries (which seemed to follow the sample fairly faithfully). After all, there are people who've read all of the GoT books ten times.

But I'm not falling in love with it. Is it because everyone is so sad, and mean? Is it because I feel betrayed that after a promising start with "the white walkers," magic doesn't show up again, and therefore it's just sort of vaguely medieval without being historical? Is it because there is a great deal of talking and little action, and the talking isn't exceptionally clever or interesting? Is it because Sean Bean walks around with a single, pained expression on his face -- more or less the pained expression that young Emilia Clarke has?

Oh, well, I suppose I'll keep watching for a bit.

UPDATE: Just couldn't get through episode 3.

TCC Makes the British Fantasy Awards Long List

2011-04-18T08:02:00.001-04:00

The Circle Cast is on the British Fantasy Awards Long List, so if you are a British Fantasy member, please vote for it!

Historical Novel Review Review

2011-04-17T11:38:00.000-04:00

Laurie Rezanoff of Historical Novel Review just posted this lovely review of TCC:

I thoroughly enjoyed Alex Epstein's look into her life, in Ireland and how that exile helped her to become the driven and powerful woman she was later known to be...

Alex has captured the raw energy of the land, the people of that time in history, and the mythical person who we know as Morgan Le Fay. Her encounters with power-hungry figures influenced her decisions and ensured her survival to become the Sorceress of legend. Her thirst for revenge against the man who killed her father and changed her life forever was never quenched, yet it certainly was later transferred onto Arthur.

Book Trailer

2011-04-17T09:45:00.002-04:00

My publisher would like to shoot a book trailer for The Circle Cast. I'm jazzed about it; his director has shot some stylish short films.

What are your favorite book trailers? If you've read my book, what scenes stand out for you?

OneBookShy reviews

2011-04-12T19:26:00.001-04:00

OneBookShy says TCC is: "a fascinating tale ... a great addition to the many King Arthur stories, although he doesn't play a part in this early story until the end. I definitely recommend it to those who enjoy a good adventure story as well as new takes on old legends."

Forever Young Adult reviews TCC

2011-04-07T08:41:00.006-04:00

Forever Young Adult is a really awesomely witty and fun blog (see her posts on YA Book Covers and YA Deal Breakers), so I was thrilled to read her review of THE CIRCLE CAST. There isn't a single quote that catches the magic of her image-packed style, but:

Morgan le Fay, King Arthur’s half sister, is exiled when her mother sleeps with Uter Pendragon and Uter kills Morgan’s father, Gorlois. If her exile is mentioned at all, it’s usually that she’s sent to a convent, or as Marion Zimmer Bradley would have you believe she hones her craft on the lost isle of Avalon, but sa-noooooooooze. Epstein has a way more awesome version of Morgan’s lost years — she heads off to Ireland where she goes from being a guest of a kinswoman to a slave to a totally badass warrior queen and sorceress, all bent on hellfire vengeance against Uter.

She totally gets what I was going for:

This is one of my favorite writing styles — concise. Clean. Evocative. Decidedly not poetic or flowery. Epstein also tackles the druidism and magic and religion head on without getting all woo-woo about it. In the same way great myths work, his matter-of-fact tone makes the early Christians and the power-hungry druids and Morgan’s exploration of the elemental forces of the natural world makes the book ring true, rather than seem like it comes out of The Girl’s Tarot and Spirit Guide to the Wonderful World of Like, Magicks and Wicca and Stuff.

And this:

I have learned a big part of Arthurian legend is how the High King brought Christianity to Britain, and Morgan the sorceress represents the old ways of nature gods and goddesses, blah blah blah. Epstein could have easily lampooned the early Christians, but he chooses instead to give them the power of their faith, even if Morgan rejects the reality of their one god. It’s a fine line to walk, and the respect the book gives to both Christianity and Wicca (for lack of a better word) saves it from hokes-ville and makes it pretty cool.

Oh, just read the review for the Goddess' sake.

The Anubis Gates

2011-04-03T14:26:00.003-04:00

I really enjoyed Tim Powers' DECLARE so much I went to library to grab a couple more. LAST CALL and THE ANUBIS GATES looked good.

I was a few pages into THE ANUBIS GATES when I realized I had read it a few years ago.

But it was so good, I read it again. Just finished. Yep, just as good as I remember.

I am beginning to get a handle on Tim Powers, I think. I have a feeling he does an awful lot of historical research, and then works his stories around the historical facts of the time. In DECLARE, he created a story that would wrap around the facts known about the famous traitor spy Kim Philby, yet leave room for the existence of djinns.

The Anubis Gates is a fantasy story about a scholar who gets sucked into a plot to restore the Egyptian gods, set in 1983, 1802 and 1685. It's got the massacre of the Mamelukes, and the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion, and Coleridge giving lectures on Milton, and the St. Giles rookery.

I don't start with historical research, myself. I started THE CIRCLE CAST with the traditional, medieval King Arthur. My first wife did her Ph. D. dissertation on the Morrígan, so I learned a lot about Cúchulainn and the Tuatha Dé Danaan. I ran across a book by Geoffrey Ashe that made a convincing case for the historical King Arthur living in 500 AD or so. I wound up doing a lot of research, but the research came later.

I sort of wonder if Tim Powers reads up on interesting times and places to write about, and then comes up with a novel plot that will allow him to justify the research.

Anyway, it's on to LAST CALL now. So far it's only about Las Vegas in 1948, but I'm sure that will change.

Write Hope

2011-03-29T13:36:00.002-04:00

As part of the Write Hope project, I'm auctioning off a signed copy of THE CIRCLE CAST. If you want to help Japan relief, and get my book, please bid on it!

A couple of LibraryThing reviews

2011-03-25T15:47:00.004-04:00

~~Two~~ Three nice reviews from LibraryThing:

"A spellbinding tale of the formative years of Morgan le Fay... beautifully written." - LizLupton

"tightly-plotted page-turner" - Panopticon2

"This was a superb read! Being a huge fan of the Arthurian myths, its always a treat when someone decides to write on a forgotten corner of that story. Morgan's back-story is treated quite well, with excellent depth and understanding. There are many underlying currents within the story as well, especially that of the push/pull start of Christianity within the wilds of Ireland. I would highly recommend this book to anyone that enjoys the Arthurian myths!" -- TommyElf

"A woman. Not a witch. Not a fairy. This story is about a woman, in a very harsh and unforgiving man's world. I liked it. I loved it and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes a little fantasy, even if you know nothing about Arthur and his Round Table. Actually I would recommend it to anyone who was looking for a good read! It's truly a keeper!" -- Crystal Waldrum

Another Spring, Another Schmooze

2011-03-18T15:53:00.002-04:00

If you're in Montreal on the 4th, swing on by Réservoir for another Soirée Schmooze; we'll be upstairs.

Morgan le Fay, Arthur's lover and nemesis

2011-03-11T12:27:00.003-05:00

You know, I don't think I've really gone into detail about my interpretation of the story of King Arthur, Morgan le Fay, Lancelot and Guinevere. It's a little involved, so bear with me.

I've always thought there were some missing pieces to the King Arthur story.

Let's start with Arthur's kids. He doesn't have any. Not legitimate ones, at least. Guinevere never gives him any kids.

Now, I have lots of friends who don't have kids. But they also don't have kingdoms. In medieval times, for a king not to have an heir was terrifying. It was practically a guarantee of civil war. Uther Pendragon, for example, had no heir -- because Merlin takes Arthur away. After Uther dies, Britain collapses into anarchy.

And think what Henry VIII was willing to do in order to get a male heir. A devout Catholic (he earned his title Defender of the Faith) who loved his queen, he nonetheless divorced her and made England Protestant, all so he could marry Anne Boleyn, in the hopes of getting a son. You know the rest of the story: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.

And yet Britain's legendary king has no legitimate heir by Guinevere and nobody says anything about it. Nobody urges Arthur to divorce her. No mention of prayers for the Queen to bear a son. They search for the Holy Grail for its own sake, not in the hopes that the Queen's barrenness will be lifted and the kingdom blessed with an heir.

Why?

The best reason I can think of, is that everyone is terribly embarrassed about it. I think they don't mention it because they know exactly why the king doesn't have an heir, and to talk about it would be to humiliate the King.

I think the King is either not sleeping with Guinevere, or he can't consummate their marriage.

And yet he clearly adores her. So what's up?

The way it makes sense to me, Arthur can't do it with Guinevere because he does not love her as a woman. He loves her as an ideal. She is his Queen, but she is not truly his wife. He adores her, the way millions of Catholics adore the Virgin Mary.

And that is why her affair with Lancelot goes on so long. Arthur has to know she's got the hots for Lance. And it's got to be obvious to everyone that Lance has the hots for her. But he can't blame them. After all, he's not being a proper husband to his wife.

That's why it's not till after years of what had to be an open secret that Gawain and his buddies nab Lancelot in flagrante delicto and the King is forced to deal with it.

So who does Arthur have the hots for?

Well, who does he actually have a child by? Morgan le Fay. She bears him a son, Mordred.

Now we get into the time in which Arthur lived. According to Geoffrey Ashe's DISCOVER OF KING ARTHUR and other books, the historical Arthur would have flourished around 500 AD. (That's why my novel is set then.) Britain is still Celtic, with a thin overlay of Roman civilization. Britain is partly Christian, but even Rome has only been officially Christian since 313 AD, so it's likely that many, many families still worship the old Celtic religion, and even more families worship Christ and the Celtic gods, just to be safe. (If you consider that there are still a few Zoroastrians in Persia, 1400 years after the Muslim conquest... old gods die hard.)

The people around Arthur would have had two ways of looking at him having a romance with his half-sister.

The Christians would have been appalled. Arthur is not only an adulterer, he's an incestuous adulterer? The thought is too hideous. They would have considered Mordred the bastard progeny of incest. No wonder they couldn't consider him an heir.

However, the followers of Lugos and Bellona Morigenos (known in Ireland as the Morrígan) would have not seen the problem. Marriages between brother and sister weren't unheard of, especially among the ruling class. (If you think that's odd, consider the Egyptian pharoahs, who almost always married their sister. Cleopatra married her brother before she married Caesar.)

The Celts also weren't quite so formal about marriage. If you were living with a woman, she was your woman.

So to the Celts, Mordred was the obvious heir to the throne. And thank Lugos there finally was one!

And Mordred would have felt entirely righteous when he came to court and demanded to be treated like the King's son that he was, and the heir that he ought to be. And Morgan le Fay would have felt entirely within her rights to support her son's demands.

Another King than Arthur would have simply ditched Guinevere as a barren failure and welcomed Mordred.

But Arthur is an idealist. And a purist. He has a vision of Camelot as a place of laws and honor and modesty and dignity and all those other good Christian ideals. He looks at the pagan Celtic world and sees bloody vendettas enshrined as glorious epic legend. He can see that Britain needs a single god in order to survive the barbarian Saxon onslaught.

And so he rejects Morgan, and Mordred. And calamity ensues.

From Morgan's side, the story is equally fraught. She loves Arthur as a lover, and as a brother. (I suspect she falls in love with him before she knows he's her brother. But once you've fallen in love, it's hard to put it away.) But she hates him as the offspring of her mother's rape and her father's murder. And she hates him as the man who denies their son his birthright. Which explains why she is both the woman who destroys him at the battle of Camlann, and one of the three Queens who comes to take him, mortally wounded, to Avalon, to be healed.

(Perhaps if he is the King Who Sleeps, she sleeps by his side?)

Okay, a caveat. I'm describing the legend as it is in my head. It has coalesced there out of historical research, and movies, and modern novels of King Arthur like The Once and Future King. There isn't an Official King Arthur Legend™. It's a coherent version of the story. But of course Marion Zimmer Bradley is entitled to her, very different, version.

The closest "original" canonical version is Malory's Morte d'Arthur. Of course that makes Arthur into a medieval Christian king, because Malory is writing in the Middle Ages about king from legendary times. In Malory, if I remember correctly, Arthur has three half-sisters. Morgause is the one who has the bastard by Arthur. Morgan le Fay is the sorceress. But I think we can all agree that one sister makes for a better story, can't we?

Interview and Book Giveaway on YA Fresh

2011-03-11T10:48:00.003-05:00

Today, I'm interviewed on YA Fresh. I talk about the mystery at the heart of the King Arthur legend, my writing routine, my first sale and other fun stuff. And I'm giving away a signed copy of the book. Check it out!

Denise Jaden Interview

2011-03-09T18:36:00.003-05:00

Denise Jaden, author of the highly acclaimed YA novel LOSING FAITH and the forthcoming APPETITE FOR BEAUTY, interviewed me on her blog! She asks me about my characters, my day job (which is screenwriting), my path to publication, my number one bit of writing advice, and what I wrote when I was a teen. Check it out!

Epub, Kindle, AZW, MOBI, iPad

2011-03-07T10:58:00.006-05:00

Okay, I have made an Epub version of THE CIRCLE CAST, suitable for iPads. And a MOBI version, suitable for Kindles.

That took some doing. Calibre, the very fine free software that converts your document into an Epub, translates your input into XHTML. So the easiest way to control the formatting of your ebook is to turn your document into HTML, fuss with the HTML, and then convert from HTML into the ebook of your choice.

So I recoded the RTF document I got from the graphic designer into HTML using Word, cleaned up Word's horribly messy HTML, and then massage the HTML using TextWrangler.

I'd really like to figure out how to get the original fonts to appear. The book's beautiful title treatment is CCNearMythFables font, not a font most people will have on their computer. (I had to pay $50 for it.) Can Epub embed a font? Some say yes, Virginia, there is a way that you can embed a font into something called an LRF file, using the CSS @font-face element. But I don't know how to do that.

I also don't know how to center something vertically on a page, e.g. the dedication? And it may not actually be possible. The MOBI and EPUB formats don't include everything you can do in Word or PDF. Word and PDF are meant to format for a specific size document. EPUB and MOBI are meant to be "reflowable" for different sized tablets and readers.

But I've got an Epub. It is professional-looking and readable on my iPhone. And I've got a MOBI, that looks nice on my antique Kindle.

Is this is the wave of the future? We'll see. There were a couple of reviewers who wanted a digital review copy. It would be great if you could get your ARCs out digitally -- hella cheaper and faster. More often I see reviewers specifically saying, No, please, no digital review copies. So into the mail it goes.

I suspect the formats will get more robust and the software will get cleverer. For now, it's a cranky bit of work.

Theoretically I ought to be able to sell the Kindle edition, or actually my publisher ought to be able, if he sets up an Amazon Kindle publisher account. (That, at least, is trivial to do.) I think the MOBI I made looks legitimate, but I'm not 100% sure I've done all the formatting I'm capable of. So I'm holding back. Darn fonts.

How to Kindle a Book

2011-03-03T14:47:00.004-05:00

I was looking around Amazon for free content for my Kindle, and ran across an e-Book that neatly answered a nagging question I had: how do you turn a book into a Kindle eBook?

Conveniently, Amazon will send you a free copy of their book Publish on Amazon Kindle with Kindle Direct Publishing, provided of course that you have a Kindle to send it to.

It turns out pretty much all you need is an HTML file of your book, and about fifteen minute. The KDP software turns an HTML file into a Kindle book for you. (If you have a Microsoft Word doc, then you can have MS Word turn it into HTML.)

Interestingly, both the iPad and Kindle conversion software dislike PDFs. I tried to turn a PDF of The Circle Cast into an iBook using a powerful free program called Calibre. Calibre messed up my table of contents and chapter headings pretty badly. Now I'm trying to get a Word doc to work from. PDF is a format made to specify exactly how the book will appear on your chosen size of page. iBooks and eBooks are meant to appear readably on a variety of different sized screens. Hence Amazon's decision to base KDP on HTML, which is also meant to scale well on different screens.

Ironically, it will be a bit harder for me to get a Kindle edition out because I have to coordinate with my publisher. The downside of having conventional publishers is that they are, well, conventional. Henry Holt is still promising to Kindle-fy my two screenwriting books, Crafty Screenwriting and Crafty TV Writing. Tradewind hopes to bring someone in to Kindle-fy The Circle Cast. But I can't just, y'know, go and do it.

Once you have a properly formatted eBook for Kindle, as far as I can tell from the book, it is ridiculously easy to set up an account to sell it.

Of course you'll still have trouble marketing it. Most of the book review blogs and, I imagine, almost all traditional reviewers, refuse to look at self-published or Print on Demand books. There is a strong presumption of suckitude if you haven't been able to find a legit publisher.

But if you have a document that a limited number of people will desperately want to read, Kindle (or iBooks) is a great, practically free way to get the information out there.

Now where's my iPad 2?

Morgan le Fay, Wicca, and the Morrígan

2011-02-27T13:51:00.007-05:00

What was Morgan le Fay's religion? Whom did she worship, and how?

I think it's fairly safe to say she was not a Christian. "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" says Exodus, and a badass witch with a direct channel to the old powers of the Earth is exactly what the Israelite elders were worried about.

But Christianity wasn't universal in Britain in her time. As far as I could tell from my research, Arthur flourished around 500AD. That's the date Geoffrey Ashe identifies a British war leader named Riothamus whose exploits match those of the legendary Arthur (and Riothamus just means "High King"). It's also around the date that South Cadbury Castle, a hillfort thought to be Camelot, was refortified in the Roman style.

Until 400 AD, Britain was part of the Roman Empire; culturally, it still was in 500 AD. But the Empire itself had only been officially Christian since 313 AD. Until then, Christianity was illegal and secret, one of the few religions the Romans didn't tolerate. The Roman Army was full of Mithra worshippers. Most people worshipped their old tribal gods, though various Eastern religions swept through the West from time to time.

Morgan probably worshipped the old Celtic religion.

We don't know a whole lot about the old Celtic religion. The Celts didn't write anything down until they were conquered by the Romans. The Romans did, but they liked to equate other people's gods with their gods, so when they talked about Lugos, for example, they'd say he was the Celtic Apollo and tend to sweep the differences under the mat.

It's not always easy to tell when the Romans are writing propaganda. For example, Caesar says the Celts liked to put their captured enemies in giant wicker men and burn them. He wasn't a scholar writing for history, though. He was a politician who'd just slaughtered large numbers of Celts.

But we do know the Celts were headhunters. (Did you know that?) We have shrines with alcoves to put heads in. Multiple sources, including the old Irish legends, suggest that the Celts liked to cut off the heads of their enemies in battle and tie them, by their hair, to their chariots. The Irish would then keep their enemies' heads around to show to guests.

Angel Gulermovich, in her Ph. D. thesis, War Goddess: The Morrígan and her Germano-Celtic counterparts, makes a pretty convincing case that the Celts had a warrior cult something like the Vikings did. The men hoped to die in battle. If they were valiant, the war goddess would take the form of crows and eat their bodies, taking them to the afterlife. (She's what you call a "psychopomp," meaning she can take you to your final destination.) She was often called "Badb," which just means "Crow."

(If you read old accounts of battles, you often hear about the crows gathering in huge numbers in the trees before the battle. Somehow, they knew they'd be feasting. Crows are smart.)

In Britain, the Morrígan would have been known by her British name, Morigenos, by the common people, and by the name of the Roman goddess of war, Bellona, by the educated people who spoke Latin.

Of course Bellona Morigenos wasn't the only important Celtic god or Goddess. Lugos (British) or Lugh (Irish) had lots of cities named after him, including the city the Romans called Lugodunum, which we call London, and the city of Lyons, France. Lugos was a god of light; that's why the Romans conflated him with their sun god, Apollo. The Irish had a god known as the Dagda, which just means "the good God."

The Morrígan loved the legendary Irish warrior Cú Chulainn. Rejected, she causes his death, and then appears to him at his death, I imagine to take him to the Irish Valhalla. It's not hard to imagine that Morgan had an affinity for the war goddess. Later in her legend, she causes Arthur's death, but then appears to take him to island of Avalon to live forever as the King Who Sleeps.

(Incidentally, their names have nothing to do with each other. Morgan means "sea-born." Morrígan means "queen of shadows"; her name could also be spelled Mórrígan, which means "Great Queen." Since the Irish didn't actually write down their accents back then, we don't know.

But there's religion and there's spellcasting. If Morgan prayed, she might have prayed to the Great Queen of Shadows, whether she knew her as Bellona Morigenos, the Morrígan, or her many other names, which meant Crow, Terror and Panic.

But a witch would have needed to do more than ask nicely. She would have had to channel the power herself.

There's no archeology of what happens during a spell. All we have to go on is contemporary spellcasting, which is, to say the least, underpowered compared to what Morgan had. For that we have to turn to contemporary witchcraft, known as Wicca.

When a modern witch casts a spell, she (or he) generally casts a circle. It's intended to focus the powers she raises. Then she calls on the powers of earth, air, fire and water. There doesn't have to be a visible circle; the chalk and the knife and the candles are there to help the witch focus. She invokes these powers into her circle and into herself.

From there she channels the energies into the working she hopes to do. Witchcraft is about changing reality.

Most of the witches I know are trying to change their own reality. You don't have to believe their spells change the rules of the universe. It's enough if they change themselves. If a love spell makes a witch more confident, it may lead to more love.

Morgan would have had far greater power, power to rupture time or open the gates to other places across the Veil between Seen and Unseen. The book is an attempt to imagine how that would have felt to her. It's not a question of having a wand and saying the right words. It's a question of becoming a gateway for immense, primal powers; and having the discipline to control those powers and shut the gateway afterwards.

Morgan would have had two religions, I guess. She would have had a goddess she worshipped. I like to think that was the Morrígan. And then she would have been in touch directly with the powers. They have no names.

Interview about The Circle Cast

2011-02-22T15:31:00.001-05:00

And here's a brief interview with me about The Circle Cast...

Excerpt

2011-02-19T16:15:00.002-05:00

You can now read the Prologue and the first two chapters of the book as a PDF or on the website.

Thoughtful

2011-02-12T12:27:00.002-05:00

Things I Think About has a lovely review of THE CIRCLE CAST:

It takes a very special book to make me think, "gosh, I really like fantasy novels", but The Circle Cast did it. A well-thought backstory to the life of Arthurian sorceress Morgan le Fay, the novel also provides a fascinating look at medieval Britain and Ireland. It explores the common lives of these two very different cultures in a manner I haven't read before; the characters are real, as is their struggle with day-to-day life and the changing world around them. As protagonist, Morgan le Fay is a cunning, sassy adolescent and subsequently a wise and powerful woman.

How Not To Do a YA Cover

2011-02-12T09:39:00.004-05:00

Sarah at For Every Young Adult has a pretty awesome and snarky post on the ways YA covers suck and how they don't have to. With embarrassing examples of actually published YA novel covers that should be put out of their emo pseudo-Twilight angsty misery.

Launch Party

2011-02-12T09:31:00.004-05:00

If you're in Montreal this evening, swing by my launch party for THE CIRCLE CAST and drink with us.

It's at Réservoir, 9 Duluth East, 7 to 9.

See you there!

But it Won't Make You Sleepy

2011-02-11T14:54:00.003-05:00

"Epstein's writing is hypnotic." -- From Inderjit Deogun's review of The Circle Cast in CM Magazine.

(CM Magazine is the Canada Review of Materials, published by the Manitoba Library Association.)

LibraryThing

2011-02-07T20:48:00.002-05:00

Looks like we're pretty popular on LibraryThing:

TheCircleCast.com

2011-02-07T20:39:00.002-05:00

I've put my electronic press kit up as a website. TheCircleCast.com is now live. Tell me what you think!

E-Readers

2011-02-05T10:11:00.003-05:00

A New York Times article headline says teenagers are turning to e-readers in massive numbers:

Another theory suggested that the members of the younger set who were first encouraged to read by the immensely popular Harry Potter books tended to prefer hardcover over any other edition, snapping up the books on the day of their release. And anecdotal evidence hinted that younger readers preferred print so that they could exchange books with their friends.

That scene may be slowly replaced by tweens and teenagers clustered in groups and reading their Nooks or Kindles together, wirelessly downloading new titles with the push of a button, studiously comparing the battery life of the devices and accessorizing them with Jonathan Adler and Kate Spade covers in hot pink, tangerine and lime green.

Actually, the article itself says something more like "a lot of kids are buying a lot of ebooks."

Are e-books better? I like that I can download a book and have it immediately. I like that I can get classic books free. But it hasn't really changed my reading habits yet, partly because the library of available ebooks is so much smaller than the library of books. (And I would like my Kindle more if I could read it in the dark. )

How about you? Do you have an ebook? Has it changed your reading life?

Walk Like An Egyptian

2011-02-01T13:54:00.000-05:00

Ebook?

2011-01-29T09:42:00.001-05:00

My publisher, Tradewind, tells me that an ebook is in the works. They've never done ebooks before, but obviously this is the year for ebooks, so they're planning to bring someone on.

In the meantime, it's treeware from Amazon!

Kindle

2011-01-27T10:01:00.004-05:00

I have wound up with a Kindle. Hunter got one for Christmas from his grandparents, I guess on the theory that maybe he would read books if they were on a screen. But he isn't really a book person. So now I have a Kindle.

As a guy whose family of four has five laptops (one for everybody, and a Macbook Air for travel), the Kindle already seems backwards as a device. No color? Tiny screen? It's easier to read a book on than my iPhone; but my heart yearns for an iPad. On an iPad, I could see two pages at once.

But it is a handy little fellow. I like that I can get something on it immediately. I will likely take it on trips.

What bugs me most is the pricing. Most of the time i buy used books, I get them for seven or eight bucks after shipping. A Kindle book costs ten bucks or more. And there's no real reason for that. Most of the cost of a book is making the book and then distributing the book. A Kindle costs essentially nothing to make and distribute. Amazon is making tons of profit on Kindle books.

It's been the same as the pricing on music. Why does an album cost almost as much on iTunes as on CD?

I guess I feel about the Kindle that this is the 1.0 of something whose 5.0 will be pretty good.

What I'd really love is to figure out how to distribute my review copies by Kindle, to reviewers who have one. Anyone know how I can do that?

Amazon's Got It

2011-01-24T14:41:00.001-05:00

I see that you can also order THE CIRCLE CAST from Amazon.com now. Thank you, UK bookstores!

Anne Michaud Interviews Me

2011-01-24T09:40:00.004-05:00

Anne Michaud interviewed me for the Young Adult Fantasy Guide about THE CIRCLE CAST and why I've always been drawn to the King Arthur story.

It's always seemed to me that there was a secret story behind the King Arthur legend — the canonical legend as we think of it now. I always thought it was interesting that King Arthur never had any children, but no one ever says anything about that. After all, the main job of a queen is to provide an heir. Guinevere never does provide an heir, with disastrous consequences. But no one ever complains about it. Why?
Well, maybe they know Arthur's not sleeping with her. And so to say anything about it would be to embarrass the King, and everyone loves him so they don't say a peep.
Why won't Arthur sleep with Guinevere? ...

Check the rest of it out here.

Charles Stross's The Merchant Princes

2011-01-05T10:10:00.000-05:00

I read the first book in Charles Stross's MERCHANT PRINCES saga, THE FAMILY TRADE. It's about an ordinary gal who works in a hi-tech magazine until -- surprise -- her mum's family medallion whisks her away to another universe, where she is the heir to a vast fortune. Catch: it's a medieval society, and her fortune is made on the backs of the peasants. Oh, and heroin smuggling between the universes.

I'm a big fan of Chuck Stross's science fiction -- SINGULARITY SKY, ACCELERANDO. But this one left me cold. Why?

For one thing, the conceit is heavily purloined from Narnia: the hero is a boring person here, but a crucial person Over (or Under) There. Neil

Gaiman found a way to take the curse off it in NEVERWHERE: his restless, mundane hero makes the mistake of helping a runaway girl from Under There, and soon starts to become a nonentity Over Here. Stross goes another way: his heroine simply makes a series of logical decisions that she is in more danger Over Here and therefore ought to scamper Over There. You hardly want to be transported to a land of magic and wonder because it is the most sensible thing to do.

I wonder if the problem is the great yawning divide between SF and F. Star Wars is Fantasy; the Force is magic. Star Trek is Science Fiction: the science is balderdash but it is still science. When Star Wars tried to explain Annakin Skywalker's talent for the Force -- he had a high midichlorian count? -- it felt like a betrayal of the genre. Stross has created a fantasy premise - magic locket transports those of the Blood -- but then approaches the story rationally, like an SF author. What sort of things would you do if you could walk between the worlds? Open a courier service, natch. You can Fedex things in this world that would take a long tme to travel in that world. You can smuggle huge quantities of drugs, slowly but surely, across the Other World.

Who cares?

This, I think, was my big problem. I felt there was no real emotional issue. Nothing that could only be solved by the heart; nothing without whose solving the heart would remain forever restless.

Dorothy wants to get home.

THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE was about kids who were unimportant in this world feeling terribly important in this world. (Oh, and it's an allegory for the last days of Jesus Christ. Sorry.)

I did not know what the main character wanted. Or rather, she wanted too many sensible things. She wants safety. She wants a guy. She wants to liberate the peasants.

Yes, yes, I know.

Give me a heroine who wants one thing. One Big Irrational Thing. Juliet wants Romeo more than life itself. Medea wants revenge. Elizabeth Bennet wants to keep her Pride. (I think. Or is it her Prejudice? I can't remember.)

Guess what Morgan wants?

Anne Michaud gives TCC "Four Druids"

2011-01-04T19:14:00.003-05:00

Anne Michaud posted a very cool review of THE CIRCLE CAST on the YA FANTASY GUIDE. Pull quote:

It's tough to see such a young Morgan going through this ordeal, but she becomes a warrior, a magician, making every Girl Power adept proud, one of our own. By the end of the book, Morgan's story is relatable - I know, even without any bathrooms or perfume – and we care for her, we understand the hard choices she makes, she feels like a friend. Epstein makes her come alive on the page, and with some great poetic prose, at times. One can hope for a sequel…

I give this book 4 Druids, kudos to the writer for turning such a distant story into a great read.

W00t!

Ready to Order

2010-12-23T21:55:00.003-05:00

You can now order THE CIRCLE CAST from Amazon.ca....