Speer by Nicola Griffith, translated by Elena Helfrecht (Carcosa Verlag, 2026)
Last week I got my copies of the German translation of Spear: Speer. They are gorgeous objects. The front cover has a wonderful trompe l’oeil 3-D effect; the end papers are a gorgeous autumnal berry colour; and each comes with its own beautiful bookmark ribbon. You can see that better in this photo:
I don’t read German, but given the fine attention to detail in the physical presentation, I have no doubt the translation, by Elena Helfrecht, is very good. (Any German readers out there who read it, please let me know what you think!)
A special item has just gone up for auction to support a fundraising for Locus, the original and best SFF trade magazine. The item in question is a handmade art book based on Ammonite—even some of the paper is handmade, special Japanese paper; the art is all linocuts, hand printed; the type is letterpress—signed by both me and the artist, Vicki Platts-Brown. (Vicki, if you recall, is the creator of several prints hanging on our walls—a gorgeous birch tree, two herons, a brilliant rooster—plus the huge collage we call Petalville.)
To tempt you, here’s a gallery of images you can click through:
Note the gorgeous texture of everything. And, as you can see, there’s some ingenious folding, a case with a tiny little gold magnet, gold (I think? might be wrong) ink, and just a really interesting concept.
So the book-as-piece-of-art is in itself a wondrous thing. But more to the point it is up for auction for a worthy cause. Locus is one of the linchpins of the SFF genre, essentially the journal of record for the field, and has been for decades. It’s been a nonprofit for a while now, and they know how to make a dollar stretch. But to maintain the reviews, the archives, the interviews, the reporting on major SFF events, moments, and milestones does cost money.
If this iteration of Ammonite is currently beyond your budget, no worries, there are many other wonderful ways to support Locus and the genre the magazine itself supports.
Many of you are, I hope, currently at or heading to a No Kings gathering this fine, sunny Saturday. I’m sorry to say I can’t: I’ve just got back from Florida and brought a nasty upper respiratory tract infection with me. I’ll be coughing my lungs out and feeling like death warmed up while everyone else competes for Best Signage and Most Witty Takedown of our current political leaders. And also make connections and sign up for organisational and observational training. Because it’s that kind of hard, continuing work that leads to change. As I’ve pointed out elsewhere.
Charlie and George of course also have no time for kings—mainly because, being god-emperors of Broadview, such lesser beings are beneath their notice.
I will leave you with Charlie enjoying the morning sun and hoping that some bird or squirrel will come down from the cherry tree—which as you can see if being colonised by the over-exuberant clematis—and join him for lunch on the deck.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
nicolagriffith_feed
