Isn’t it beautiful?, lll
I don’t know what your computer screens will do to it, but the original photo is entirely legible. And any of you who were at Wiscon the year I was GoH will recognise the first page of what I read at the bookshop on the opening night.
(Bee!)
comments
Please join the discussion at Robin McKinley's Web Forum.
Please join the discussion at Robin McKinley's Web Forum.
Oh, I think all of it is beautiful! What a great cover, and the art inside…
But are you telling me that you hadn’t seen this before? That they didn’t run it by you? Because that just seems wrong. I know beginning writers don’t get input, but you–this surprises me.
My husband’s best book (so far) has the worst cover in the world. It looks like a child did it, only worse. Children’s art is interesting. But it’s a bad graphic of a man standing with his hands in his pockets, from behind. And the man is looking out a window, with his back to you. My F said his only comfort was that it looked as though he was peeing on someone from a great height…
Wonderful, wonderful book. (Chalice.) And may I just say that it sucks that I have to wait to read it. Dang it.
Oh dear–yes, I had seen it. But I’d mostly seen it in bits, or in mock ups, or in corrections, or something. This is the first time I’ve seen it all TOGETHER. Proof pages don’t generally have the design elements in yet, and they’re often tweaking up till the last minute. The reason you can see all six legs on the bees is because I asked for the third pair to be made VISIBLE from under the wings . . .
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Ack ack, it breaks in the middle of a sentence. *was reading*
Man, Robin, that’s gorgeous. All of it. Many praises to the design people, the artists. Confetti to them! And chocolate to the writer for a book I can’t wait to read!
Yaay! Thank you! :)
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OH! I clicked on the photo and it got big enough for me to read it! D’oh!
September September September.
Yay, it’s really real (and readable, in the larger photo)!
It is legible! It’s lovely. *wails* I want more!
Oh good. :)
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No Robin, I will not be tempted. Isn’t it enough you have us salivating for this book for the last six months AT LEAST, you want us to read the first page and then hang around for at least another month and a half (more if I know delivery dates to Greece – And believe me I do). NO I refuse to. GO AWAY. It’s beautiful, I want it, they’ve done a marvellous job and you are just tantalising, siren-like and misery causing. I want it now. Not then. If I bribe you with silver copies of Minoan bee jewellery, can I read the entire first chapter? (see picture at http://www.solarnet.org/Travel/art/Minoan.htm) See, you lower my standards of behaviour. No fair.
You can’t bribe me . . . because the link won’t work. :)
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I wish the link did work for you – the bee pin is really cool!
I can’t wait for the book – you’re a terrible tease. I took a book making class in college (art degree, previous life) so I really appreciate books as a total package: visually, how the cover and pages feel, of course the content, and how it all works together conceptually. When the design team gets it right all the way through, even in the tiniest details, it means they read it and loved it. (Lucky design team…)
It works off your blog for me…
Let me see whether I can see it anywhere else.
http://www.greekjewelryshop.com/catalog/item/5595447/5494835.htm
or
http://www.allaboutgemstones.com/jewelry_history_ancient_greek.html
or
http://cgi.ebay.com/Ancient-Greek-Minoan-(Malia)-Bees-pendant.-925-silver._W0QQitemZ350081590802QQcmdZViewItem?IMSfp=TL0807221475r5178
(Not to endorse any of the sites, but just so you can see it: it is entirely appropriate for a bee-all author and – because I can’t resist a bad pun, it is bee-youtiful).
Oh, ow, WANT! WANT! WANT! –What was it you wanted to bribe me about? :)
Well the initial bribe was offered for a first chapter read. But as I will be on Crete and the prices quoted on the websites are ludicrous for silver, I would be happy to get you one with nothing expected but a good read when I get it. I’ll let you know if I find a good one (copies range from great to horrid and you can find it in silver or gold – but gold is seriously expensive). You have my e-mail from the sign-in, you can e-mail me a post office box and I will send it to you when I am in England in a couple of weeks.
Good lord, are you serious? If you find a good one–I’ll PAY for it, for pity’s sake. But I’d be grateful if someone both on the spot and knowing what she’s doing did the choosing.
I’ll look around the jewellery shops when I’m there – a horrible hardship – and let you know.
Oh my! I remember drooling over that piece when I was younger. Are there really copies for sale?
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You are being a big tease by just showing us one page:) I know that this blog is intended to keep your fans up to date and to tease us about what you are going to publish. It is working, I want Chalice now. This seems to be one of those books where every element comes together beautifully. I hope that it becomes a best seller for you. With so many rabid fans awaiting the release of Chalice perhaps you could set up an auction on this site for an advance copy. The proceeds from the sale could be used for the Robin riding fund, or the Robin music fund, or attic floor fund, or …………(I think everyone has the idea).
Eagerly awaiting the UPS truck in September with my copy.
Or the hellhound fence fund. :)
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Is the page we are seeing the first page of the book or the start of a chapter deeper in the book?
Some of us who WERE at that Wiscon nonetheless missed that reading because we always get there late on the first day, and then spend hours driving around the damn capitol building trying to find the friggin’ hotel, which exists in a pocket of extradimensional space (admittedly just a theory, but it would explain why I have been going there 10 years and still can’t ever find said friggin’ hotel) and then when we finally get there we are so desperate for food that we barely throw our junk into the room before we go out in a frantic search for noodles.
Not, of course, that this ever happens to me. Ahem. :)
In that case you must have heard my reading. (Nyah nyah . . . :))
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Yes, of course I did. In an extradimensional sense. :)
I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT. Please post antecedents for your poor sad memory-failing blog writer with WordPress that won’t give you what came before!!!!
Please post antecedents
Will keep that in mind–I’ve not used wordpress, so wasn’t aware you couldn’t see the entire comment thread while unscreening. :)
THANK YOU.
If you’re going to insult me, I want to know from what DIRECTION. :)
If you’re going to insult me, I want to know from what DIRECTION. :)
Usually from directly overhead. :) But in this particular case I wasn’t even being insulting! Not your fault I’m incapable of getting to Wiscon in a timely fashion OR finding the stupid hotel…. :)
Okay, that’s page one, so now could you photograph (and post) the other 271 pages please, Robin?
No?
Well, it was worth a try!
It’s a lovely looking book, and I can’t wait to read it. Can it be September now please?
It’s just beautiful. *drools*
next page please…
(and please keep on going with the pages thereafter)
A
ps – gorgeous cover and design, can I get mine faster if I’m willing to accept the words only version?
Yay! Yay! Yay!
(re covers: was around–at university, in a friend’s office–when a Noted Sci Fi writer came in cursing and spitting about the latest cover on her latest paperback: Dire, ugly, and sexist. I was an innocent 18, and it had never occurred to me that famous writers didn’t get any choice about covers. Then I worked in publishing and found out that their were writers so famous they got to pick the paper their books would be printed on. It’s a mighty short list though.)
Chalice is beautiful and I can’t wait to read it–
hope other things improve.
It is beautiful!
I’d e-mail it to you, but it’s formatted in html and your website says not to e-mail anything but plain text….
But!
Every week, the Children’s PW e-mail newsletter picks two books out of all the reviews to feature in the e-mail newsletter. And CHALICE is one of them this week. So it’s extra super-duper special. =)
(If you do want to see the newsletter, which just formats it pretty and shows the cover next to it, I can e-mail it. I was just wary because it’s in html.)
Every week, the Children’s PW e-mail newsletter picks two books out of all the reviews to feature in the e-mail newsletter. And CHALICE is one of them this week
********** Oh, COOL. No, I didn’t know that! :)
Can you send it as an attachment? A friend already tried to send it in her email and it wouldn’t open. If I know who something is from, I can get round some of the auto-ban (so to speak). If you want to try, be sure to ID yourself in the email itself.
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Oh, it’s all lovely! Cover, design, artwork. Also, the first bit of story.
Cannot wait.
Anyway, Go You! That is a very nice package. I will snap it up as soon as it lands at my local indie bookstore.
I already have my copy being held at Borders…and made sure that the library I work at has SEVERAL copies on order…must spread the McKinley gospel…
(In light of the upcoming release of “Breaking Dawn” by Stephenie Meyer…I have become a full fledged Sunshine pusher:
I notice patron with copy of previous Meyer novel and ask: Oh, do you enjoy books with vampires?
Patron: yes…
Me: Do you want to know what the BEST vampire book ever is?
Patron: sure…
Me: Sunshine by Robin McKinley. Its better than Meyer…more adult…and more fantastic than Anne Rice…can I place a hold on it for you?)
must spread the McKinley gospel…
************ Yes please! :)
Although I wonder how many Meyer/Rice readers are going to make the brain-shift to SUNSHINE. If you drew a line between the two and put a point halfway between, *that*’s probably where SUNSHINE lives.
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I’ve been doing the same thing!!!
heehee. Ah, the wonderful things one can do, when one is a librarian!
:)
–Julia
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Oh hooray hooray! I’ve already read the galley, but I’m super excited to own the finished book. I love the cover, and the art inside is great. I can’t wait to start selling it. : ))))))) <–multiple mouths to signify extreme happiness
I can’t wait to start selling it
*********** Oh you beautiful person. :)
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Oh, delicious anticipation! Throughout the year, I rely on new books written by you, Diana Wynne Jones and Neil Gaiman to keep my literary life interesting, (hell, to keep my LIFE interesting) but it doesn’t happen often enough that all three of you come out with new books in the same year. Yay 2008!
September is going to be a very good month.
[preens self for being in this company] :)
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Oh my!!!
I want it so much, and as a former freelance book designer.. hats off for a lovely design.
Bot the cover art and the interiors make me extraordinarily jealous.
Want…my…COPY! NOW!
C’mon, Amazon, what’s taking so long??
Judith
Apropos of nothing here, but might be of interest:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 comic book series by Joss Whedon and Brian K. Vaughan has won the 2008 Eisner Award for Best New Series. It was announced Friday evening at the Eisner Awards program at the San Diego Comic-Con International.
This was one of the few categories for which I voted for the winner; this was the first year I was eligible to vote for the Eisners, due to some freelance editorial work I do on some educational graphic novels.
Hot damn! –And thank you! I’ve been trying to find an excuse to post Maren’s librarian confession and haven’t been able to think what to put *with* it. This will do nicely. :)
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Since 2005, the Eisner Awards coordinator, the lovely Jackie Estrada, has made sure librarians are included as Eisner judges (the panel of 5 judges selects the nominees and the comics industry professionals vote on the winners from those nominees – pretty much like the Oscars). I was the first librarian Eisner judge. Since then, two of my colleagues (who also happen to be my friends ^_^) have been judges, and we think one more will be selected for the 2009 Eisners. We in the library world have been making an increasingly substantial impression upon the comics industry – we comprise perhaps 10-13% of the market right now. And we’re growing, despite budget cuts all over the place. This has been building for more than a quarter century – I’ve been actively promoting comics and graphic novels in the libraries since 1983.
I look at the librarians who are the current movers and shakers in the comics movement, and they’re almost all of them young enough to be my children. When we get together, I’m like the den mother, which is kind of fun, actually … A few of us are gray-haired and middle-aged.
Yaay librarykat. See today’s entry. :)
Your publishers did a beautiful job with this book. I’d seen the cover on B&N’s order page, so no surprise there, but the interior artwork is lovely. Well, my copy is on order. Fortunately or unfortunately, I can fill up most of my time between now and the end of September digging weeds (the neverending summer task), cleaning the house (eventually you HAVE to, and mine has been neglected for deadline gardening), and–HOPE HOPE–bringing home a puppy.
Congratulations!!
HOPE HOPE–bringing home a puppy.
******** Yes yes! When?
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