Trudi Canavan

bestselling author of The Black Magician Trilogy

Trudi's Blog

A Peek into My Sketchbook

by on Jun 19, 2011 (14) Comments

If you’ve read my bio, you know that I’m an artist as well as a writer, and used to work as a freelance illustrator. I’ve always found that my writing improves whenever I have art and other creative pursuits in my life.

It isn’t easy finding time for art, but a couple of years ago I started trying to do a sketch a week, inspired by artist blogs and the Urban Sketchers. The sketches didn’t have to be good, just a way to keep in practise. Taking away the pressure to do a good picture meant I could experiment and play, trying new techniques and mediums.

I took a sketchbook along with me on The Tour. The hardest part about keeping a sketching habit while travelling is that you don’t often sit still long enough to draw anything, and when you do sit down you aren’t in view of anything to draw except, perhaps, the inside of an eatery. So to begin with all I drew were the fancy cocktails I ordered just to have something interesting to draw.

But good opportunities came along – or I made them happen by choosing the table at an eatery that had a good view. In the first case, I spotted this pier and heartily agreed to fisn’n'chips on the beach so I could sketch it:

And my instincts were right about the balcony in the cafe where I drew this:

And in the old town of Warsaw, I made sure I was facing this statue at dinner, and it turned out she was very famous and significant:

During the few days we had to ourselves, I could go out looking for things to sketch. We loved these old caravans turned into food stalls along the Thames:

But the view from a hotel restaurant was too good to pass up on, too:

Another great place for sketching, is museums. Here I stopped to do a quick one at the British Museum. Paints weren’t allowed, so I took notes on the colours and filled them in later.

Magic Mirror 1 at Imaginales was a challenge because of the complex detail, so I did an ‘impressionistic’ sketch.

These glass bottles in the shapes of birds at the Romano-German Museum in Cologne were utterly charming:

I didn’t have a time or energy to sketch during the German part of the tour, but later did a simple one from memory, of the sort of views we often saw from the train:

At the Berlin Zoo I had a go at sketching the polar bears. One of the good things about sketching over photography is you can leave out annoying people who get in the way, and ‘zoom in’ when your lens isn’t powerful enough. Sketching these bears has me itching to go to Melbourne Zoo for some sketching sessions when I get home:

And maybe a museum or two. Though our museums pale in comparison to European ones, with nothing as famous as the Bust of Queen Nefertiti below, I’m sure I’ll find something interesting to draw.

My Tour in Germany

by on Jun 12, 2011 (3) Comments

We caught the train from Paris to Germany, which was nice and relaxing. Well… until the end of the journey when we discovered Paul’s camera and some lenses had been stolen from his bag in the overhead storage shelf. The frustrating thing, other than losing the camera of course, is that I remember seeing a man fussing around with ‘his’ bag up there, zipping and unzipping, and never thought to check whose bag he was messing with.

Thank goodness I had nudged Paul into downloading his pics the night before so I could do my blog post about Paris! At least we haven’t lost the photos he took.

After spending an hour or so reporting it to the police and getting a report so that it can at least be claimed on insurance, we finally got out of the station and stopped in our tracks as we saw this:

One heckofa big cathedral, all black and spiky! The Cologne Cathedral is the biggest in Europe, according to my Lonely Planet ebook.

We spent the next four days being tourists, visiting galleries. The Romano-Germanic Museum had the most amazingly well-preserved and broad range of Roman artifacts.

The Wallraf-Richartz Museum also impressed with it’s range of art from medieval times to the nineteenth century, and information in each section was accessible and explained where Cologne fit into the different art eras and movements.

Then on Monday, after getting our laundry done, we met with Berit, my publicity gal in Germany, Regula, who would be moderating the first three evening events and Hans, actor and professional reader. Then, in the early evening, we set off to Bonn. There, in an amazing theatre converted into a Thalia bookstore, we held our first reading and signing event.

I found I could easily keep track, reading my English version of The Rogue while Hans read his parts. There were good questions from both Regula and the audience, and lots of books to sign for lots of lovely fans.

The next day we hopped onto a plane and flew to Hamburg, where the first task of the day was an interview. I wasn’t feeling well – a bit of sinusitis – and we only fit in a short walk and a nap before we headed off to Heyman bookstore. A smaller, but chattier audience this time.

We caught a train to Hanover the next day. I was feeling better, but it was raining, so Paul and I went for a walk along the subterranean shopping mall, where I found a knitting yarn store. Back at the hotel I had a few interviews, then we had a lovely dinner at an Italian restaurant with Heinz W. Hebestreit before heading off to Decius bookstore in Laaten. More lovely fans…

The next morning was an early one. We caught the train to Berlin, then settled into the winter garden where I met Urban Hofstetter, Editor in Chief of Penhaligon, my German publisher, and the moderator for the final two events, Margarete.

I spent much of the afternoon there, meeting with two interviewers. Then we gathered together and set off for Babylon, an old art deco theatre where my reading would be held – in a room upstairs, thankfully not on the stage!

First I met winners of a competition, signed lots of books and had my photo taken with them. Then we slipped downstairs and waited for everyone to arrive for the event. Margarete had the audience laughing a lot – often in German making me wish I could understand what she was saying.

The final day of the German tour – and of my European Tour – we travelled by train to Leipzig. I’m so impressed by the trains here. Australia could sure do with some high-speed services between capital cities.

I noticed, as we arrived, that there were more than the usual number of goths around (not that I know what the usual number of goths are in Leipzig!). Outside the station there were hundreds of people dressed in fabulous gothic outfits, and Berit remembered that there was a huge event on that weekend: Wave Gotik Treffen.

After a wander about town to orient ourselves, buy lunch and visit chocolate shops, we returned to the hotel, where I had an unintentionally long nap – I was more tired than I realized. Then after a very light snack we headed to Lehmann’s bookstore for the fifth and final event.

Lots of people and many books to sign. As a spontaneous farewell, I gave my English copy of The Rogue, with notes and doodles, to the reader who had come the furthest to be at the event.

By the end of the night I was feeling both happy that all the events had gone so well and I’d met so many lovely people, and sad that it was all over.

And so my European Tour came to an end. Thanks to everyone who came to see and hear me, who brought books to be signed (especially those who lugged all nine books along), and who stopped – even for a moment – to chat. Thanks to the other authors I met, all who were such good company, and some who gave me new ideas for competitions and publicity. Thanks to the wonderful publishing and publicity people that, with their organisational skills (and money), made the tour happen, run smoothly and were an absolute pleasure to work with.

I have many happy new memories – and lots of extra enthusiasm for finishing The Traitor Queen, and beginning the Millenium’s Rule trilogy, because there’s nothing like encountering rooms of people eager to read your stories to keep you inspired!

But Wait… There’s More!

by on Jun 05, 2011 (0) Comments

The Tour didn’t take me from France straight away. We still had one more event to attend…

A mini bus and train ride took us back to Paris, where we settled into a nice little hotel to rest and freshen up ready for one last event in France: a party at the office of Bragelonne, my French publisher, for myself and Peter Brett. I was amazed to find they have an event space, complete with bar. A generous buffet was laid out.

After signing a few books and having a tour of the office, guest started arriving. I mingled with the crowd, meeting some awesome people. When it came time to eat, I sat at the table with the grinning fans and towers of my books:

The Table of Book Towers

After a quick dinner I launched into signing, and had a lot of fun talking and joking with readers.

Yael, Benjamin and Gaelle

I was supposed to work my way down the tables, but abandoned that eventually because a lovely queue of eager readers kept forming.

At the end we took photos. First the fans:
At the end of the night we posed for photos.

Then the Bragelonne staff:

And then after a last drink and chat, we headed back to the hotel. The next day Paul and I explored some local shops and the Fragonard Museum of Perfume.

After that we headed for the final country of The Tour: Gemany. A few days to rest in Cologne, and then a busy schedule of events over five days.

Imaginales, Part 2

by on Jun 03, 2011 (1) Comments

The next item on my schedule was signing, so I settled in at my table at the Bulle de Livre. Soon I was signing lots of books, helped along by my lovely translator, Anneïg.

Anneïg and I quickly formed a good method of working together, thanks to what I learned from working with Piotr in Poland. I paused for her to translate a sentence at a time – which I realized later was rather like breaking what I wanted to say into short, efficient bites like I do in Twitter.


Anneig and I looking cool in our sunglasses

One of the artists introduced herself and brought her books for me to sign. She had drawn these delightful drawings inside the covers:


Character drawings

She also gave me a copy of her sketchbook, full of illustrations of characters from my books, as well as other such as Garth Nix’s Sabriel and Harry Potter. She was working on the mural at the end of the Bulle de Livre, and I stopped by now and then to check the progress.


Laurence and me


The finished mural

At lunch we joined some authors and festival people to have lunch at the restaurant we had been so puzzled by the night before, Citizen, and were amused to find that it was just as confusing for the French speakers there. But the food was delicious. In fact, we wound up eating there three times during the festival, including at the official dinner.

I met Isobelle, who translated most of my books into French.


Isobelle

And many local writers, including Erik L’homme, who was both charming and interesting to listen to on panels.


Erik L’Homme

Occasionally, when signing, I’d look up and marvel that I was there, sitting next to a new favourite author, N. K. Jemesin, and an old favourite, Robin Hobb. I had to have a fan girl moment and get a photo of myself with Nora:


Nora and me

Other entertainment at the festival included period costumers:

Who must have been involved in reenactment or demonstrations, because from time to time there’d be a bang loud enough to make us jump out of our seats.

There were painted stilt people:


Blue and tall

All too soon the festival came to an end. The closing ceremony was held in the bar/lounge, with this castle cake:


Nomnomnom

Which may have been modeled on this local castle ruin, which we spotted while having lunch one day. But which I imagine wasn’t as tasty.


Castle ruins

The festival was fun – both busy and relaxed. I was able to talk to most of the people who brought books to sign, and also sold out of The Magician’s Guild (which may mean that lots of people decided to give my books a try or buy them for others – thanks!). I’ve made lots of new French friends, and really want to come back to Imaginales again some day.

A Very Cool Way to Keep Warm

by on Jun 02, 2011 (0) Comments

Last year, at Aussiecon4, a young Melbourne fan stood in line for many, many hours to get as many author signatures as possible on little squares of cloth. I’m not sure how much of the convention she actually saw, other than author signing queues. Then she went home and sewed and sewed and sewed. What did this dedication result in?

The Con Quilt!

I love the starry design and the colours! Wouldn’t you love this quilt hanging on your wall? Or wrap yourself in all those authory names while reading your favourite fantasy or science fiction novel?

The quilt will be auctioned on eBay beginning at 9pm on Friday 10th June and ending on 20th June. (Link will be provided on the website above.)

Imaginales, Part 2 to come soon!

Imaginales, Part 1

by on Jun 02, 2011 (1) Comments

After a couple of days resting and sightseeing in London, we embarked upon the next stage of The Tour – the Imaginales fantasy literary festival in Epinal, France. We caught the Eurostar train to Paris, where we were met by Leslie from my French publisher, Bragelonne, and Lora, my French agent. Soon after we were joined by Peter Brett and his wife and cute daughter, and Helene, our guide and translator.

Two more train journeys later we, Helene, Peter and family arrived in Epinal. We checked into Hotel Le Manoir. For the first night we had a nice room with antique furniture, but on the second we moved into The Blue Room, which the manager described as being like a swimming pool. He was right: the walls and carpet were a perfectly matched shade of blue.


Blue Room

We headed into town to look for dinner, and were so perplexed by the menu of the first restaurant that we returned to the hotel to eat at their restaurant instead, figuring that they’d be more used to tourists. But it turned out that the restaurant was a separate entity to the hotel and not only was it very expensive but we had no luck asking for a table.

But we had spotted a pizza/burger shop not far away, and wound up having some very good pizza.

The next day we met Delia Sherman and Ellen Kushner in the breakfast room, and joined Peter and family to make our way to Imaginales, which was literally across the road, in a lovely park along the river. There was one permanent building, in which the opening ceremony was held:


The Opening Ceremony: Brandon Sanderson, Silvie, Ellen Kushner, Nora Jemesin, Helene, Me, Stephanie, Catherine Dufour, Peter Brett, Lionel.

A big tent with wooden floors called the Bulle de Livre, where authors sat in a huge rectangle of tables at the centre to sign books, and stalls around the outside housed publishing houses, gifts, accessories and artist’s work. At the rear was a bar and lounge, and a mural that local artists worked on during the festival.


Bulle de Livre

Panels were held in one of two ‘Magic Mirror’ temporary wooden pavilions. One was highly decorated:


Magic Mirror 1


Magic Mirror 1 exterior panel


Magic Mirror 1 detail


Magic Mirror 1 doors


Magic Mirror 1 interior

Another big tent housed the gaming part of the festival and a few small tents were set up for administration and other purposes.

It was a lovely site for a literary festival, in a pretty town. More in the next post…

Imaginales!

by on May 25, 2011 (1) Comments

We’ve posted a few boxes of gifts and souvenirs home, repacked our bags, rested and explored London for a few days, and now we’re setting off to France for Imaginales.

Second Week of UK Events

by on May 23, 2011 (2) Comments

When we got to Heathrow on Tuesday there was a car waiting to take us to Guildford. We spent the afternoon drinking tea and coffee, and recharging our batteries in preparation for the night’s event at Waterstones Guildford. A big crowd turned up:

I signed for over 71 people. It was a wonderful night, overseen by the super-organised Jess (who may have missed her calling as paparazzi).

It was a very late night by the time we got back to London, but we had the morning free on Wednesday to catch up on sleep and laundry. At midday we jumped on a train to Romford, where we signed for 40 or so people and the very enthusiastic Waterstones staff.

From there we were driven to Basildon, where we had afternoon tea and I broke out the giant wafer cookie given to me in Poland:

Yum! Afterwards we headed for the library for another reading, q&a and signing.

On the way ‘home’, rather than grabbing a sandwich yet again,we had prepared for dinner by buying bread, meat, cheese and salad so we could have a picnic on the train. a good and very tasty idea:

The next day, Thursday, was the last of the official UK tour. We had another free morning, then headed to Nottingham where we stayed at the very nice Lace Market Hotel. I met the publishers of some of my Aussie friends’ books, Marc and Lee of Angry Robot books. When I heard that Kaaron Warren’s new book had just arrived, I ordered them to bring me a copy. They happily obliged, and I might have squeed a little:

That night we headed to Waterstones and were welcomed by James, who has this impressively big ‘events room’:

Another wonderful night followed, and I got to sign books for another 70 or so fans. We had a late dinner at the hotel then collapsed into bed. On Friday we caught the train back to London:

That night I got to meet the BSFA and talk about my books and writing. It was lovely to sit and chat with fellow fantasy enthusiasts, and made for a relaxing way to end the UK part of my European Tour.

Thanks to everyone who came to the events, for listening to me read (despite the awful cough I had) and ask great questions. Thanks to the people who brought little gifts, too. (I now have more chocolate than I can safely consume or cart to my next port of call. A nice problem to have!)

Thanks, too, to all the bookshops (and the library in Basildon) for organising and hosting the events. You’re all awesome!

Finally, thanks, as always, to the team at Orbit, and especially to Rose who organised everything for us, pointed me in the right direction when I was too tired to think straight, and lugged a suitcase around for a weekend when the hotel wouldn’t mind it for us.

Next? France!

Poland

by on May 21, 2011 (21) Comments

Next on the big Tour was Poland, and we had an amazing, wonderful time there and now really want to go back.

We flew into Warsaw on Saturday and were greeted by my assistant for the weekend, Kasia, holding a big bag of Polish chocolate, a huge bunch of gorgeous red roses, and my schedule.

She took us to the Sheraton so we could drop off our bags, then suggested we head to the Old Town and find some dinner.

I fell instantly in love with Warsaw, with it’s wide streets and low buildings making the streets bright and airy. There were people everywhere. It was an open day for some important buildings, and there were long queues to get in. We climbed a tower for a view of the city…

… ate traditional toasted cheese, had dinner in the market square in the middle of the Old City while watching historical films on a big temporary screen and admiring the famous mermaid statue:

On the way back to our hotel, just as we reached an intersection that allowed a great view, there were fireworks.

It made for a perfect evening and introduction to Poland. The next day began with an interview with Marcin of Nowa Fantastyka in the hotel lounge. Kasia had told me that my books were notable in Poland for breaking the assumption that fantasy was written by men for men, so there were questions about this. I think every interviewer was intrigued to discover there are more female than male fantasy writers in Australia.

Next was the Warsaw Book Fair, held in the huge Palace of Culture.

There was already a queue when I arrived and it grew to around 300 people. The Australian ambassador dropped by to say hello! There was also a quick interview with a tv show called TeleExpress. It’s online here here, but it looks like it’s restricted to Polish viewers.

With so many people waiting, I had to sign quickly. Piotr, my interpreter, worked hard translating and writing down names for me. I was given yet more chocolate, as well a drawing of Sonea, a box of souvenirs from Krakow, and a bracelet. I managed to sign everyone’s books in three hours. My publishers, Joanna and Paweł of Galeria Ksiazki, were very happy!

After a late lunch, we headed to the very cool Paradox Café, which is a pub and a library and a club house all in one. I was interviewed, with the help of Piotr, which was frustrating in ways I didn’t expect. It wasn’t the wait for the translation, it was having to keep my replies short enough that Piotr could remember it all!


Lots of good questions from the audience here, then more signing and at the end a lovely chat to some readers. But we couldn’t stay longer, as there was a dinner booked. We had a delicious meal at a castle – Qchnia Artystyczna Warsaw at Zamek Ujadowski.

On Monday we began with more interviews. First with a lovely pair from an internet portal, Fantastyka, then a pre-recorded chat with Radio Zet. On the way we spotted this:

Yes, that’s a three storey tall poster of The Rogue!

After a yummy lunch at SushiZushi, where they had not a sushi train but a sushi canal…

… we headed to Empik bookstore. Though I had ‘interview’ on my schedule, I was surprised and amazed to find a stage awaiting me. A great chat and q&a session followed, then a few hundred more autographs on books. And more chocolate…

Afterwards we enjoyed dinner and many toasts of cherry vodka at AleGloria Restaurant, beautifully decorated with artfully cut and arranged paper flowers and curtains. I had one of those meals I will remember for the rest of my life: duck in rose sauce, strawberries in a peppery sauce and exquisite little dumplings. Sublime!

By Tuesday morning I was feeling sad that the Polish part of my tour was over, but also a little tired. We said our farewells to Joanna and Paweł, and Kasia saw us off at the airport. We headed back to the UK laden down with lots of chocolate, some delicious Polish plum liquer and many, many good memories.

Roaming Around the UK

by on May 17, 2011 (12) Comments

Week two of The Tour had me hopping around the UK. On Monday we started off at Gardners, where I signed some stock at the distribution centre:

Then we were off to Eastbourne, where we had lunch while admiring this view:

Then went on to sign stock at Waterstones in Eastbourne and Horsham before heading to Woking for a reading and signing:

Where a lovely fan gave me cupcakes decorated in the colours of the magicians’ robes. Yummm!

On Tuesday we headed to Staines, Bracknell and Reading to sign more stock. Here I am in Reading:

We headed back to Orbit headquarters in London to do a Twinterview via the Waterstones twitter address. It was a whole lotta fun! Thanks to everyone who submitted questions and sorry to those those questions I didn’t get to. Twitter said I’d made 49 posts over the hour, though some were ‘dud’ posts where I’d forgotten to add the hash tag. You can see the transcript here.

On Wednesday we travelled to Cambridge and checked into the awesome Varsity Hotel and Spa. This was our room:

After a quick dash to Bury St. Edmonds Waterstone for another stock signing, we headed for Heffers Bookshop for a big SSF night: ten sf author signing books and taking it in turns reading. It was a fabulous night, with a delicious dinner afterwards and a chance to chat with other writers.

On the Thursday we popped into Heffers and signed some stock, since it was too busy the night before to do it. Then after a spot of shopping, we headed for Lincoln. Once settled in, we visited Waterstones to sign some stock, then headed for the Alt Fiction event at the Lincoln Festival. I did a reading in an old court room. the acoustics were great!

Afterwards I signed books, then we headed back to the hotel and had a lovely hour chatting over drinks with Alex from the festival.

Friday we headed to Manchester, staying at the very cool Malmaison Hotel. I love a good pun, and there were plenty in the labelling of toiletries and such.

I signed stock at Waterstones and WHSmith at the Trafford Centre and Waterstones at the Arndale Centre before heading to Waterstones Deansgate for another evening event. A big crowd this time, and the signing went late so thanks to everyone who stayed back. Some very inspiring stories from fans.

Saturday we headed for Poland, but that’s another story for another post!