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29. Juni 2009

Basically, I am this whole Twitter thing with skepticism. But after many requests - and because it just distracts me from what I really should do, namely to write a short film - I have now registered with Twitter and then write similar nonsense staccato like everyone else. Who will keep track's can do so here:
www.twitter.com / KaiMeyer
Or in the spine right in the Journal ...

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22. Juni 2009

Frisch is published "Gonji" by TC Rypel, a novel I in Quote on the back "the most important rediscovery of classic fantasy since" Conan had "mentioned". Gonji is a samurai who studied in the late Middle Ages in the Carpathian Mountains, the mythical city of Verdun, to be there to provide a prophetic destiny. I wrote a foreword for the book that explains what connects me with Rypel novel, and here are some excerpts:

A while ago I read an interview with fantasy author David C. Smith, who in the seventies and eighties some colorful Sword & Sorcery-published adventure. Among other things, it was about how fleeting success can be, and a certain level of popularity. To illustrate this, he mentioned eine Romanserie mit dem Titel „Gonji“; vor rund 25 Jahren sei sie in den USA recht populär gewesen, heute aber zu Unrecht völlig vergessen. (...)
Neugierig bestellte ich mir antiquarisch alle fünf Bände seiner Reihe. Ohne allzu große Erwartungen, ehrlich gesagt. Sword & Sorcery ist jenes Subgenre der Fantasy mit dem schlechtesten Ruf: Pralle, meist recht maskuline (und muskuläre) Abenteuergeschichten, gern nach dem ewig gleichen Strickmuster gebaut, viele davon lediglich Variationen von Robert E. Howards Storys um den Barbaren Conan. In den Siebzigern feierte diese Spielart des Genres einige Erfolge, geriet aber seither unter den jüngeren Lesern, die sich für Phantastisches begeistern, in Vergessenheit. Many may not know Conan (rather than film, because as a book), but some of the other, perhaps even better heroes of the literary environment, from the perception of the fans disappeared: Elric, Kane, Fafhard and the Grey Mouse Ling - their adventures are reading today Unfortunately, hardly anyone.
"Gonji" but that was already clear to me on the very first pages, is different. Sure, here it all starts with a sword fighter, well-made action, a monster - but in order to exhaust the parallels. "Gonji" is above all: a phenomenally well written! So good that I immediately started the web for this obscure writer named TED Rypel search. Found I have nothing but some contain notes - apparently had Rypel after the fifth "Gonji" band in 1986, never published anything. Can not
, I thought. No one who has such talent, listen to easy. Two possibilities were considered: Either Rypel was no longer alive, or he wrote very well continue to books, just under another name. Some of the Sword and were Sorcery veterans of that time later in other genres into bestselling authors - is the most famous John Jakes, which began with naive barbarians stories, and then with his multi-volume Civil War saga "North and South" to present a worldwide success. (...)
So I extended my research. I ordered stacks of old American genre fanzines like "Amra" and "Fantasy Newsletter," which were up in the eighties was the voice of the scene. In it, it had evidence of Rypel - and if it were just a tribute.
But a few mentions of the title at the time of the show were all that I encountered in dozens of magazines. No reviews, no interviews. I wrote to David C. Smith - and got no response. Increasingly impatient, I set search requests in the largest U.S. Internet forums on Fantasy. Someone had to give it but who knew what had become of Rypel. But here, too: First even non-existent. (...)
Meanwhile, I read the first volume, then the second. Until, months later, at my e-mail notification was: Someone had reported in the official forum of the "Conan" homepage. I looked - and found an entry from Rypel daughter Beth. Her father was not a pseudonym, not dead, but, on the contrary, alive and kicking. I wrote her back that I was very relieved and happy I would be if she could forward my mail to him. She would like to do, she said, but balk at her father a little, by e-mail to communicate. Anyway, I thought I just wanted to get rid of my compliments to him and his books . Congratulations
went back some time, with complete radio silence. I was happy anyway, but all I had to get rid of that I had to say. But then, after several months, trickled in an unusually long and extremely friendly e-mail in to me - this time signed "Ted". Obviously, he could hardly believe that anyone still interested for him and his books. He just go into retirement, he wrote, after decades in a job that had filled him only moderately. Yes, he had always written, but actually the fifth since "Gonji" band released anything. Trouble with then-publisher, with an agency, all sorts of external circumstances have meant that he had himself by no longer seen as a real writer.
I disagreed - writer, you always, even years after the last publication. The books remain in place even if they are found only in the back alley of a second hand bookshops.
We started to write detailed emails, books sent back and forth, and I asked him the "Gonji" volumes show my publisher here in Germany are allowed to. Bastion Luebbe had just lost to the late David Gemmell Sword & Sorcery the last successful author, and I could imagine that Ted Rypel and Gonji " could fill this gap. Ted was delighted with my enthusiasm, but did not seem to want to believe it really, that could actually have a publisher interested. Nevertheless, he sent some copies to Luebbe fantasy editor Ruggero Leo and I had it tuned already a glowing recommendation and reiterated it again on the phone and on the next book fair. A few weeks later came the signal: Yes, they wanted to "Gonji" published in German, once the volumes one through three, a form self-contained trilogy, then perhaps the following two separate novels. (...)

If the excerpt from the preface. "Gonji" may seem like all Debut novels from a couple of teething symptoms (such as too many adjectives, which in German is still a little more evident than in the original), but what made me even more packed than the interesting main character, is the perfect own voice that speaks from the books. Similar to David Gemmell - who was a much weaker stylist - you can feel the presence behind every paragraph of the author and has the feeling that a real, individual person speaks to the reader. In modern fantasy that has become rare, and therefore it is one more reason the "Gonji" novels, to give a new chance.

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15. Juni 2009

This is Heidi. It is made from four weeks ago Portugal nach Deutschland gekommen, war seither in einer Pflegefamilie und wohnt seit vier Tagen bei uns. Im Moment liegt sie neben meinem Schreibtisch und schläft. Sie ist noch ziemlich ängstlich, gewöhnt sich aber allmählich an die neue Umgebung. Fremde Menschen machen sie nervös, in Portugal wurde sie an einer Kette im Stall gehalten; offenbar hatte sie dort auch Junge, die getötet wurden, kurz bevor Tierschützer sie freigekauft haben. Die gaben ihr auch ihren Namen, und wir haben ihn beibehalten, weil er derzeit so ziemlich das Einzige ist, auf das sie hört.
Im Garten liegt ihr neuer Lieblingsplatz anscheinend unter einer Funkie; im Haus gilt, je höher oben sie sich befindet, desto wohler fühlt sie sich. Das untere Photo shows them in the gallery above the living room. (Anyone who wonders why the narrow curtains hang in the background apparently outside. The window is located in house, it's part of the old building to which the new part of the building was built) But it may not yet right now the ground floor more ...

***
The Spain tour was short, fairly strenuous (especially since English people eat incredibly late in the evening and then find no end, no matter if you had to get up in the middle of the night to get on a plane ...). The focus was two press conferences in Madrid and Seville, also diverse - one suspects it - dinner with Publisher employees. Very beautiful was the evening with my local agent Alicia and her boyfriend Carlos, who have shown me, following the historic center of Madrid at night. The hardcover of
VATICAN CONSPIRACY is still stacked everywhere in the English bookstores, and even while I was there, I announced my editor that they would publish in the autumn of next year, the alchemist.

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07. Juni 2009

It's for a few days to Spain, congratulatory of the local edition of the Vatican conspiracy in the highest terms. Only after the Madrid Book Fair journalist and a round, then to Seville for a panel discussion and a book signing. I interviewed there was written by Eric Frattini, the various books about conspiracies, the Vatican and all sorts of other Geheimnisumwölktes. 28 degrees Celsius, says the report. What you take with it? What does not? 14 kilo hand luggage and you may in the 1 transport class of Iberia, that's enough, I hope. Has yet to weigh my suitcase. And choose a book. Or just the iPod for the fifth "Lost" season? Getting up at 4.15 clock. Good night.

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01. Juni 2009

I'm back from the spring tour, I met old friends again in Berlin, on the train Michael Moorcock Elric latest novella in "Weird Tales" read (nostalgic value, high ... na ja) und auf der Bahnfahrt von Trier nach Hause einmal mehr entdeckt, wie schön die Eifel ist - tatsächlich dürfte dies eine der hübschesten Bahnstrecken sein, die mir überhaupt je untergekommen sind, weitgehend durch enge Waldtäler und an schmalen Flussläufen entlang. In Bielefeld habe ich die alte Villa des Splitter-Verlages besucht und das halbe WOLKENVOLK-Comic-Team getroffen, die beiden chinesischen Faltenhunde von Dirk Schulz und Delia Wülner geschmust und Ralf Schlüters Originalzeichnungen des Drachenfriedhofs bestaunt. Unterwegs habe ich den Großteil eines Kurzfilm-Treatments für Dominik Grafs Regieassistenten Johannes Sievert geschrieben, ein paar Folgen "True Blood" auf dem iPod angeschaut und noch einmal die ersten vier CDs des grandiosen WELLENLÄUFER-Hörspiels durchgehört. Bei den Lesungen selbst, die ungünstig gegen Biergartenwetter, ein Fußballspiel und - in Gütersloh - gegen eine gleichzeitige Lesung von Fernsehprominenz programmiert waren, gab´s das erste Kapitel von DSCHINNLAND, eine längere Passage aus WUNSCHKRIEG (Khalis erklärt die Welt in der Flasche), eine Schlüsselszene aus ARKADIEN ERWACHT und zum Abschluss, immer wieder gern, die Kurzgeschichte SCHAU HIN.
Jetzt bin ich wieder zuhause und habe bemerkt, dass ich noch fünfzehn Kurzgeschichten für einen Storywettbewerb lesen muss, in dessen Jury ich sitze. Eigentlich sollten gestern alle Bewertungen fertig sein. O je.