Booksigning of The Faery Reel

Yesterday I went to Books of Wonder and listened to five fantasy authors read portions of their contributions to The Faery Reel.

Delia Sherman's reading of "CATNYP" was especially warm and funny, perfectly suited to the candid voice of her first person teenage protagonist. She mentioned The Changeling (release date August 17, 2006), which will take place in the same New York Between of the "CATNYP" tale.

Gregory Frost had some interesting things to tell us about the relationship between the tengu of Japanese folklore and yamabushi monks and their mountain defenses against the samurai.

Jeffrey Ford joked that although his son gave him a hard time about writing a fairy story, he thoroughly enjoyed writing about the Twilmish- a special brand of sand castle fairy that Ford loosely based on childhood memories of the Teenie Weenies comic he used to read in the New York Daily News.

One of the anthology's editors was present. Ellen Datlow discussed the question of targeting to age groups when assembling fairy collections. She also talked about some of her literary influences (she specifically mentioned Ray Bradbury and anthologies culled from the best of Playboy in the 70's), and some of her editorial nitpicks (for example, she hates seeing the same word over and over again, as though it were a verbal place holder when a writer is having trouble getting to the point).

Other authors who read, cheerfully fielded questions, and signed, included Steve Berman, who admitted a fascination with London played a role in creating his story, and Holly Black, who talked about her late-night conversion from education major to fantasy writer.