Reflections (38 page)

tragedy, 54

Travers, P. L., 131

Treasure Seekers, The
,
345

Treasures of Britain, 74, 132, 169

“Tristram and Isolt,” 202

“Troilus and Creseyde,” 205

Truckers
,
180

typhoid germs, 116

 

UDI (Unilateral Declaration of Independence), 313, 322

Ulysses
,
85, 329

Unexpected Magic
,
299

University of Nottingham, 196

 

Valhalla, 55

Valkyrie, 203

vampires, 138, 327

Vector
journal, 175

Venus (goddess), 93

Venus and Adonis
,
85

violence in books, 4, 39

“Vltava,” 338

 

Wales, 134, 223, 260

Walsh, Jill Paton, 104, 120, 246, 292

Watership Down
,
106

Webb, Kaye, 247

Wells, H. G., 151

Westall, Robert, 106, 248

“what ifs,” 76–77, 117, 132, 168–69

What Katy Did
,
187

Whitbread Prize, 74, 167

White, T. H., 36, 173, 202

Who Got Rid of Angus Flint?
,
218; Angus Flint, 218–19

“Wicked Wedding, The,” 147, 157–58

Wilkins' Tooth
,
52–53, 126, 219, 296, 323

Wind in the Willows, The
,
xxv, 72, 102–03, 121, 129, 159, 165

Winnie-the-Pooh
,
102, 121

Witch Week
,
62, 129, 180, 248–49

witches, xx, 40–41, 129, 154, 185, 209, 248, 319, 348–49

Witch's Business
:
see
Wilkins' Tooth

Woolf, Virginia, xxii

World Fantasy Award, 237, 242

World War II:
see
Second World War

writers, 4, 7, 37, 41, 44, 58, 72–78, 85, 100, 110, 120, 134–41, 181, 204, 208, 213, 217, 255–59, 346; attitudes toward female and male writers, 180–81

writer's block, xxiv, 219

writing: conventions, fashions, and rules in, 73, 99–114, 237–38, 242, 245–46, 249; fantasy, 120, 196, 204, 208–09, 322; for adults, 35–43; for children, 34, 37–43, 51, 54, 72–78, 119–20, 200–01, 205, 247–50, 345

 

Yale, 295

Year of the Griffin
, xxi, xxiii, 237, 238; Callette, 199, 207; Corkoran, xxii; Kit, 199, 207

About the Author

I
n a career spanning four decades, award-winning author Diana Wynne Jones (1934–2011) wrote more than forty books of fantasy for young readers. Characterized by magic, multiple universes, witches and wizards—and a charismatic nine-lived enchanter—her books were filled with unlimited imagination, dazzling plots, and an effervescent sense of humor that earned her legendary status in the world of fantasy. In addition to being translated into more than twenty languages, her books have earned a wide array of honors—including two
Boston Globe-Horn Book
Award Honors and the
Guardian
Award—and appeared on countless best-of-the-year lists. Her best-selling
Howl's Moving Castle
was made into an animated film by Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki and was nominated for an Academy Award. Diana Wynne Jones was also honored with many prestigious awards for the body of her work. She was given the British Fantasy Society's Karl Edward Wagner Award in 1999 for having made a significant impact on fantasy, and she won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the World Fantasy Convention in 2007.

 

www.dianawynnejones.com

 

Visit
www.AuthorTracker.com
for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

Notes

Reflecting on
Reflections

1
. Virginia Woolf,
A Writer's Diary
(The Hogarth Press, 1953), p. 65.

 

The Shape of the Narrative in
The Lord of the Rings

1
. In 1925 Tolkien took up the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University, but in 1945 he became the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at the same university. He retained this position until his retirement in 1959.

2
. The page references are to the second edition in three volumes (
The Fellowship of the Ring
,
The Two Towers
, and
The Return of the King
) (Allen & Unwin, 1966).

3
. D. S. Brewer, “
The Lord of the Rings
as Romance,” in
J. R. R. Tolkien, Scholar and Storyteller: Essays in Memoriam
, edited by Mary Salu and Robert T. Farrell (Cornell University Press, 1979), pp. 249–64.

 

Two Kinds of Writing?

1
. Diana's first published novel,
Changeover
, was for adults but was not fantasy. Here she is referring to her first adult fantasy/science fiction novel,
A Sudden Wild Magic
, which was published in 1992.

 

Reading C.S. Lewis's Narnia

1
.
Prince Caspian
, published in 1951, was the second Narnia novel to be published.

2
. Diana's son Michael points out that he actually preferred
Prince Caspian
and
The Silver Chair
.

 

Creating the Experience

1
. When Johnny discovers how to use his magical chemistry set to become invisible, but as a side effect becomes a “sort of angry ghost.”

2
. In the 1988 US edition of
Eight Days of Luke
, published by Greenwillow, Diana provided an afterword explaining the Norse legends and gods she drew upon for the story. The god Loki, one of the major figures of Norse mythology, was associated with fire as well as with tricks and mischief.

3
. This character is based on Tew (also Tiu or Tyr), the Norse god of strife and war. He gave his name to Tuesday.

 

Fantasy Books for Children

1
. Diana's afterword explains that Brunhilde (also Brunhilda or Brynhild) was one of the warrior women, the Valkyrie, and a daughter of Woden or Odin, the chief of the gods. When she disobeyed Woden, he sentenced her to sleep inside a ring of flames. The hero Siegfried (Sigurd) rescued her by braving the fire and waking her with a kiss, but when he betrayed her by marrying Gudrun (whose mother put him under a spell to forget Brunhilde), Brunhilde returned to her circle of fire. According to some legends, she killed Siegfried first, but in other stories she wreaked her revenge on him in a way that will eventually bring about Ragnarok, or the final battle of the gods.

 

Writing for Children: A Matter of Responsibility

1
. In ancient British mythology the gods and heroes owned thirteen Treasures varying from an invisibility cloak to a chariot that magically transported its passengers anywhere they wished to go. The Treasures included a forerunner of a thermos flask in the shape of a horn that provided any drink that was desired. According to the legend, the magician Merlin took the Treasures with him into seclusion in a cave until such time as they are needed again.

2
. After 2005, the Whitbread Book Awards were renamed the Costa Book Awards when Costa Coffee took over sponsorship.

 

The Heroic Ideal: A Personal Odyssey

1
. In Greek legend, the priestess Hero lived in a tower on the one side of the strait of Dardanelles (formerly called the Hellespont) in what is now Turkey. Every night she would light a lamp in her tower room to guide her love, Leander, as he swam across from the other side of the strait. This worked well in the summer, but in a winter storm Hero's lamp blew out and Leander was blown off course. Leander drowned, and Hero threw herself from the tower to her death.

2
. Originating in the Scottish Borders, the ballad of “Tam Lin” tells of the maiden Janet, who rescues her lover, Tam Lin, from the fairies by holding fast on to him although the fairies transform him into several dangerous animals.

3
. The Goon is as big and dangerous as a gorilla, and he is also supposedly a debt collector sent by the mysterious Archer, who “farms” or controls part of the town.

4
. T. S. Eliot, “Burnt Norton,”
Four Quartets
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1936), 13.

5
. T. S. Eliot, “The Dry Salvages,”
Four Quartets
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1936), 35, 37, 38.

6
. T. S. Eliot, “Burnt Norton,”
Four Quartets
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1936), 14.

7
. T. S. Eliot, “East Coker,”
Four Quartets
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1936), 29.

8
. T. S. Eliot, “Little Gidding,”
Four Quartets
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1936), 58.

 

A Talk About Rules

1
. Chris Bell was a close friend of Diana's who lived near Diana in Bristol. She is involved in British science fiction fandom.

2
. John Clute and John Grant,
The Encyclopedia of Fantasy
(Orbit Books/St. Martin's Press, 1997). This award-winning book was compiled by several contributors, including Diana Wynne Jones and her friend Chris Bell.

3
. In
Eight Days of Luke
, David can summon his friend Luke, who is really the Norse fire god Loki, by striking a match.

4
. In Charles Dickens's
Hard Times
, Thomas Gradgrind is the founder of a practical, utilitarian educational system.

 

Answers to Some Questions

1
. Twyford is a longstanding British manufacturer of bathroom equipment.

2
. As her father was dying, a group of drunken male students besieged Diana and her sisters in the house by beating on the front door and roaring for women.

3
. A common element in European folktales, seven-league boots transport the wearer seven leagues (twenty-one miles or nearly thirty-five kilometers) with each step. In
Howl's Moving Castle
, Sophie attempts to use one boot and ends up “zipping” all over the countryside when she keeps accidentally putting her foot down.

 

A Whirlwind Tour of Australia

1
. The words “agony” and “action” are believed to have a common Proto-Indo-European linguistic root
ag
, meaning “to drive, draw out, draw forth, move.” Agony developed from Greek, through
agein
, “to lead,” through
agon
, “contest” to
agonia
, “a struggle for victory.” Action developed from Latin, from
agree
, “to do” through
actionem
, “a putting in motion, a doing.”

2
. Fanny Cradock was a British restaurant critic, author of best-selling cookbooks, and a celebrity cook who presented a long-running television show from the mid-1950s through to the mid-1970s.

3
. This book is unpublished.

 

Some Truths About Writing

1
. The British newspaper the
Guardian
, founded in 1821 as the
Manchester Guardian
, is famous for its misprints. Because of this, it is often called the
Grauniad
.

2
. See “The Heroic Ideal.”

3
. Libby was Elizabeth Shub, an editor at Greenwillow Books.

4
. The “hero” of
Fire and Hemlock
is called Thomas Lynn, while one of the names of the villains is Leroy—“king.”

5
. See “Answers to Some Questions.”

 

Freedom to Write

1
.
Spindle's End.

2
. This is the sixth book in Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series (New York: Tor Books, 2000).

3
. By James Barclay.

4
. Diana's fantasy/science fiction books for adults are
A Sudden Wild Magic
(1992) and
Deep Secret
(1997).
The Dark Lord of Derkholm
(1998) and
Year of the Griffin
(2000) were published as adult novels in the UK and young adult novels in the US. The cluster around the turn of the millennium implies that this is the period she is referring to.

 

Our Hidden Gifts

1
. Diana gave out the certificates first but was very nervous and forgot to shake the pupils' hands!

 

Something About the Author

1
. Its real name is Peel Island.

2
. Since this article appeared, Diana has published other adult novels.

 

The Origins of
Changeover

1
. In the “Something About the Author” autobiographical article, Diana says it was in 1966.

2
. UDI, or Unilateral Declaration of Independence, was the proclamation made in 1965 by the white government of the British colony of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) that the country was cutting its links with the United Kingdom. The central issue was the refusal by the Rhodesian government, led by Ian Smith, to acknowledge the political rights of the African majority population of the country.

 

A Conversation with Diana Wynne Jones

1
. St. Frideswide is the patron saint of Oxford. The priory she is thought to have founded in the late seventh or early eighth century was on the site of Christ Church, and the anniversary of her death is still commemorated every year on October 19.

2
. See endnote 2 in “The Origins of
Changeover
” chapter.

3
. The 2004 animated film directed by Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli, Tokyo, Japan. The Japanese title is
Hauru no Ugoku Shiro
, and it was nominated for an Oscar in the best animated feature film category in 2006.

4
. Garth Nix, Introduction to “The Hill,” in
Across the Wall
(HarperCollins, 2007), p. 167.

 

Two Family Views of Diana and Her Work

1
. See Neil Gaiman's blog: http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2011/03/being-alive.html