May 2012
80 posts
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Diana's World Fantasy Award acceptance speech →
In 2007, Diana received the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award. Since she wasn’t able to make it (the convention was in the USA), she sent me her speech, which I read at the banquet. Channeling Diana was quite an experience, believe me. — sdn
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Reflections: A DWJ Read Begins →
Bookwitch is a British blogger who had never before read Diana’s work. She started with Reflections (hence the UK cover above) and continued with Earwig and the Witch, and will keep going …
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Patricia C. Wrede on DWJ →
Pat Wrede and Diana met at a convention in 1987, and continued to affect each other’s lives (and writing). This is a tribute written shortly after Diana’s death.
“She looked like the best kind of witch in the world, with bushy black hair down to her shoulders and an infectious grin, a book in one hand and a cigarette in the other.”
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Notes on Diana Wynne Jones's papers at Seven... →
tacroy:
so this is a link to a google doc into which i copy/pasted all 88 pages and 28,000 words of notes i took from 2 january to 13 january 2012 when i was at seven stories in newcastle, england looking at diana wynne jones’s papers. the google doc is commentable-on, you don’t have to log in to view it, and there are some nice warnings at the top from me you should read. if you have any...
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“Grundo sighed enviously. ‘When I grow up,’ he pronounced, ‘I...”
– The Merlin Conspiracy (via theswordintheparsnip)
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The Turkish version of Howl: Sihirli Ev →
kahvealti:
Büyücülerin dünyasında dolaşmayı seviyorum. Özellikle kadın yazarların elinden çıkan…
*Yürüyen Şato*‘yla başlayan seri, üçüncü kitap olan *Sihirli Ev*‘le devam ediyor. İkinci kitap *Uçan Şato*‘yu bitirdiğimde Diana Wynne Jones hayattaydı. Şimdiyse değil.
Alice’vari bir başlangıçla…
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DWJ Publishers Weekly Interview Excerpts
PW: Was House of Many Ways easy or difficult for you to write?
DWJ: I suppose, it was sort of [in the] middle. Because at the point where the Lubbock arrived I suddenly realized that the way I’d been conceiving the plot was not the way it was going to go, so this made me have to recoup and think furiously. I always knew that Howl was going to turn up as a small boy, because I’d tried that in various other contexts, actually--my house is filled with heaps of half-written books and one chapters and things--and I’d tried that and I knew he was going to come in, and this was the perfect venue for him. So that part was moderately easy, but the way it all wove in was--well, I wouldn’t say it was horribly difficult, because I find that the difficult ones are the ones where you have a huge philosophical point to think through, but it wasn’t one of the easiest, no.
PW: Can you talk a little bit more about Howl being disguised as a totally enchanting but infuriating toddler in House of Many Ways?
DWJ: He’s odious, really! This originated from Howl’s love of being someone else. Even in Howl’s Moving Castle, I think it’s Calcifer who says he loves having different names and being different people. And I took it on from there and I thought about him being--this is what he’d love to be--an absolutely infuriating but beautiful child, because he is very attentive to his own looks, and it sort of developed from there. It was fun to do, actually, when I finally got him in the right context. I felt also that he needed a slight change from being forced to be a genie as he was in [Castle in the Air].
PW: Speaking of Howl, what was it like for you when Howl’s Moving Castle was made into a movie? Did it bring more attention to the books?
DWJ: Oh, quite a lot more. Up until then, the Chrestomanci books had all the attention, and oddly enough there’s never been any kind of movie of them. Now the Howl books are being sought for all over the world, so that’s nice. And the procession of people, which was enormous already, has increased--doubled and tripled--of all the people who want to marry Howl. Now it seems to me that Howl would be one of the most dreadful husbands one could possibly imagine. But there are these thousands of girls who write and say “Is Howl real? I want to marry him.” All around the world. About the only place where they don’t seem to be wanting to marry him is India, I think. But everywhere else--Thailand, Taiwan, New Zealand, Spain, massive amounts from England and huge amounts from America too. It’s extraordinary.
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“Interviewer: If you weren’t a writer, what would you be?
Diana Wynne Jones: If...”
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No truer words were typed.
babblinganddoodles:
Can I hug all the Diana Wynne Jones fans? (I’ve talked to people before about how Diana Wynne Jones doesn’t have much of a fandom but I have say that tumblr’s got a pretty awesome one now)
So yeah
I want to hug all of you
yup
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“My very latest book was sitting there, and it’s been sitting there for five...”
– A 1992 Interview with Diana Wynne Jones…
I love that she describes me as a horror writer.
(via neil-gaiman)
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The book she refers to, of course, is Hexwood (which is dedicated to Neil).
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“People are wrong when they say things like, “I didn’t have time to think.” If...”
– Diana Wynne Jones (via illuminatedreverie)
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Blog visit -- Please Don't Read This Book! →
Two smart bloggers (Julie and Marirosa Mia) read, re-read, and love Howl’s Moving Castle (of course!)
“Four pages in, I decided it was genius. As is so often the case with books that I love, it’s the voice that got me. Jones uses the perfect matter-of-fact, wry voice to introduce her magical world. It’s as if she’s saying, ‘Come on in. Yes, it’s...
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Tribute: Some words about Diana Wynne Jones, on... →
myownrobotbutler:
reflection on Diana Wynne Jones, 13 months after her passing. Not as good as what I wrote immediately following her death, but as sincerely meant and as important to me.
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Quiz: What DWJ Character Are You? →
An online test — written by Diana herself — where you can figure out which of her characters you are. (I was Ann/Vierran in Hexwood [and Cat Chant the second time I tried], by the way — sdn)
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Tribute: Emma Bull →
Emma Bull wrote a marvelous, funny, detail-filled post in 2011 — you can get a real sense of what it was like, spending time with Diana!
“The drawback of associating with Diana Wynne Jones is that she seemed to carry her story-generating equipment with her, hidden somewhere on her person. If you spent any time at all with her, you had Adventures.”
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“What I really often seem to want to say is that, O.K., maybe there isn’t the...”
– Diana Wynne Jones (via ach-nein)
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Twenty-second (and final) stop on the DWJ blog... →
The DWJ blog tour comes to a conclusion care of the thoughtful Judith Ridge, who explains in depth why Charmed Life is the perfect example of a perfect children’s novel — and why Diana’s books are always worth returning to.
“Anyone who comes to a novel by Diana Wynne Jones thinking they’re knowing what they’re getting on *any* level is in for trouble. She destroys the...
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How to make butter-pie: A tutorial
Remember Leonie’s post from yesterday?
Rush-That-Speaks worked long and hard to reverse engineer a butter-pie, and was kind enough to share the recipe when asked.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There are three parts to a butter-pie. The outside is cold and solid, the inside is hot and runny, and of course there needs to be a barrier between them to keep the inside from melting the...
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And who could forget butter-pie?
“One of my favourite books ever is A Tale of Time City. It may even be the first DWJ I read, although I can’t remember. My favourite aspect, apart from the time-travel (which I love), was the butter-pies! I would give anything to try one, and I always hoped someone somewhere would come up with a recipe. I imagine them as something close to creme brulee, but much much better…....
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The Book Smugglers' double-header: Eight Days of... →
You can’t go wrong with the Book Smugglers’ opinionated take on things.
“It always fascinates me how DWJ never underestimates the children she is writing for.”
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Twenty-first stop on the DWJ blog tour -- The... →
Samuel Montgomery-Blinn (who is also behind the very terrific Bull Spec) provides a comprehensive overview of DWJ audiobooks. You’d be surprised by some of the narrators!
“[Howl’s Moving Castle] is done so well, so earnestly, and so authentically that those with an ear for dialects might begin to wonder why Howl speaks with a ‘tapped r’ long before we find out...
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