The Cards Fall
29 October 2007
So, just two days to go ...
Halloween is the eve of All Hallows - in the Christian world a kind of catch all for the saints who do not have their own day. It falls on 31 October, the day before All Saints Day.
In the Labyrinth website, Greg and I made a study of the Christian saints and their many stories of martyrdom and sacrifice. Sometimes, the hagiography - the overblown character description - allowed a real person to shine through. Then we felt that we were looking into the eyes of history.
We wrote a set of thumbnail sketches of saints to act as inspiration for some writing projects we were running at the time. If we were running the same kind of project today, we might well use images, such as the beautiful Tarot paintings prepared by my publisher, Orion, of the major characters in my new novel Sepulchre. (There are links to them in the right nav.)
But All Saints Day used to be celebrated in March and was moved to coincide with an autumn festival - generally of pagan origin - popular among many European peoples.
I came across the change in date - decided in the 8th century CE - as I was researching the domains and politics of the Visigoths, a Christian people who shakily took on the baton of the fallen Roman Empire around 450 CE. By the middle of the 8th century, they were on a slippery slope to oblivion. But some of their buildings remain and one - imaginary - structure figures at the centre of Sepulchre ...
... which publishes on Wednesday 31 October, Halloween.
Hence 'two days to go'.
For any author, the days before publication are difficult, challenging times. It is a commonplace but true - you feel like a parent sending a small child off to school for the first time, or down to the shops alone. You would like to watch over them, just in case they get into trouble.
It will be much easier at the Chichester Writing Festival in November, where I will chair discussions with our headline guests at West Dean College - Marian Keyes, Sarah Waters, Joanne Harris and Jacqueline Wilson.
Counting down the hours now to the Sepulchre ...
