[Caitlin]

The interview was done just after A Telling of Stars came out, in 2003. The interviewer, James O'Hearn, has a fanastic webiste featuring reams of interviews with fantasy (and other!) authors.

As for my own - at http://www.engagingtheword.net/caitlinsweet.mp3 - well, I feel the usual "Don't tell me I sound like that??" quasi-aversion, plus some genuine satisfaction about revisiting my first book, and what I/others had to say about it. The past few weeks have been Telling-flashback ones, and it's been thoroughly lovely.

[Miriamele]

Great interview Caitlin. Very enlightening. I waited until I was finished the book to listen to it, and it cleared up some questions I had that now I don't have to bother you with. (You don't sound weird at all--you speak very well and clearly, much better than I would have done! ) :)

Just a note--the link above doesn't seem to work. To hear the interview I had to go to the engagingtheword.net homepage and find the interview manually.

[Duanawitch]

I just got around the settling down and listening to this today...and thoroughly enjoyed it. Its been a couple of weeks now since I read "Telling" and revisiting it brought back a whole deposit of memories. :)

I was very excited by the interviewer's question about the circularity of storytelling and your response to it. I love the way a story is experienced in parallel with our own lives... as we read and share in the existence of another individual, the duality of experience is almost akin to having memories and nostalgic moments. It becomes, in a sense at least, our own past, intimate and breath-close. For moments at a time stories interpenetrate with our own processes of remembrance, particularly in a story like a "Telling" when reconciliation to the past is such a theme. I love the way we are invited to be listeners in the story...catapulted into a future where we and Jaele are almost contemporaries, telling stories and listening to them together. Memories intertwining.

Also, I thought your voice would be very suited to reading aloud...perhaps "A Telling..." should be turning into an aural experience. We need an audio version read by you! ;)

[Caitlin]

Your comments about the potential for "reader participation" in a narrative made me think of a recent post at http://ofblog.blogspot.com/2005/06/i-narrator.html. The responses to this post are as intriguing as the post itself! (a couple of people weigh in on how closely - if at all - they as readers like to be tied to a story).

Thanks for your praise for my dulcet tones! :D I must admit that I love reading aloud from my books. Love it. I love glancing up as I'm reading and seeing who's asleep (there's almost always someone, but I don't think of this as an insult!), who's wandered over because they're interested, even though they never intended to come to a reading. Very, very satisfying - and often enlightening, as I hear things I'd never noticed, reading the words silently. (I often catch little repetitions neither I nor my copy editors caught in draft form...)

There actually is an audio form of Telling in the Toronto Public Library system (recorded by the Canadian National [?] Institute for the Blind). Apparently a local actress read the book. I haven't listened to it; maybe I'll order a copy transferred to my library branch when I get home. It could be extremely interesting to hear my words spoken by someone else.