Triskell Tales: Twenty-Two Years of Chapbooks

by Charles de Lint

Charles de Lint has been a seventeen-time finalist for the World Fantasy Award, winning in 2000 for his short story collection "Moonlight and Vines"; its stories are set in de Lintas popular fictional city of Newford, as is the novel" The Blue Girl "and much of the collection "Waifs and Strays" (a World Fantasy Award Finalist). His most recent novel is "Little (Grrl) Lost" (Viking). Charles de Lint and his musical and creative partner MaryAnn Harris live in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Genres: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Anthologies, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Collections, Short Story Collection

540 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Charles de Lint is the much beloved author of more than seventy adult, young adult, and children's books. Renowned as one of the trailblazers of the modern fantasy genre, he is the recipient of the World Fantasy, Aurora, Sunburst, and White Pine awards, among others. Modern Library's Top 100 Books of the 20th Century poll, conducted by Random House and voted on by readers, put eight of de Lint's books among the top 100.
De Lint is a poet, folklorist, artist, songwriter and performer. He has written critical essays, music reviews, opinion columns and entries to encyclopedias, and he's been the main book reviewer for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction since 1987. De Lint served as Writer-in-residence for two public libraries in Ottawa and has taught creative writing workshops for adults and children in Canada and the United States. He's been a judge for several prominent awards, including the Nebula, World Fantasy, Theodore Sturgeon and Bram Stoker.

Born in the Netherlands in 1951, de Lint immigrated to Canada with his family as an infant. The family moved often during de Lint's childhood because of his father's job with an international surveying company, but by the time Charles was twelve—having lived in Western Canada, Turkey and Lebanon—they had settled in Lucerne, Quebec, not far from where he now resides in Ottawa, Ontario.

In 1980, de Lint married the love of his life, MaryAnn Harris, who works closely with him as his first editor, business manager and creative partner. They share their love and home with a cheery little dog named Johnny Cash.

Charles de Lint is best described as a romantic: a believer in compassion, hope and human potential. His skilled portrayal of character and settings has earned him a loyal readership and glowing praise from peers, reviewers and readers.

Charles de Lint writes like a magician. He draws out the strange inside our own world, weaving stories that feel more real than we are when we read them. He is, simply put, the best.
—Holly Black (bestselling author)
Charles de Lint is the modern master of urban fantasy. Folktale, myth, fairy tale, dreams, urban legend—all of it adds up to pure magic in de Lint's vivid, original world. No one does it better.
—Alice Hoffman (bestselling author)

To read de Lint is to fall under the spell of a master storyteller, to be reminded of the greatness of life, of the beauty and majesty lurking in shadows and empty doorways.
—Quill & Quire

His Newford books, which make up most of de Lint's body of work between 1993 and 2009, confirmed his reputation for bringing a vivid setting and repertory cast of characters to life on the page. Though not a consecutive series, the twenty-five standalone books set in (or connected to) Newford give readers a feeling of visiting a favourite city and seeing old friends.
More recently, his young adult Wildlings trilogy—Under My Skin, Over My Head, and Out of This World—came out from Penguin Canada and Triskell Press in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Under My Skin won 2013 Aurora Award. A novel for middle-grade readers, The Cats of Tanglewood Forest, published by Little Brown in 2013, won the Sunburst Award, earned starred reviews in both Publishers Weekly and Quill & Quire, and was chosen by the New York Times Editors as one of the top six children's books for 2013. His most recent adult novel, The Mystery of Grace (2009), is a fascinating ghost story about love, passion and faith. It was a finalist for both the Sunburst and Evergreen awards.

De Lint is presently writing a new adult novel. His storytelling skills also shine in his original songs. He and MaryAnn (also a musician) recently released companion CDs of their original songs, samples of which can be heard on de Lin

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a somewhat unique collection of stories and verse that de Lint self-published as annual chapbooks and sent to his friends as Christmas greetings from 1977 through 1999. Though they're not Christmas stories (with one or two exceptions), they tend to have a lighter, more positive feel than much of his other work. I tended to prefer the prose to the poetry, but found that interesting, too. As noted in the introductions, it was interesting to note his development as a writer over the years from year to year, like a penciled line on a kitchen doorway measuring the growth of a child. (Though, perversely, my favorite stories were Crow Girls from 1995 and My Life as a Bird from 1996, and my least favorite piece in the book was the story from 1997.) Another interesting quirk was that the earlier stories mostly featured Cerin and Meran as magical characters in a Tolkien-esque high fantasy world, and the next year finds them living in contemporary Newford, de Lint's famous urban fantasy setting, with no explanation as to how the transformation occurred. I read this one like an advent calendar this month, reading a story or two every day with my morning coffee. It's a terrific showcase of all of de Lint's literary skills and contains plenty of good humor and positive feeling.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leaves for MaryAnn (poem) RE-READ 5/16/2015

The Three That Came 10/30/2006 RE-READ 5/16/2015
My Ainsel' 10/30/2006 RE-READ 5/16/2015
Grymalkin 10/30/2006 RE-READ 5/19/2015
The Oak King's Daughter 10/30/2006 RE-READ 5/19/2015

The Moon is a Meadow 10/31/2006 RE-READ 6/1/2015
Humphrey's Christmas 10/31/2006 RE-READ 6/2/2015
A Pattern of Silver Strings 10/31/2006 RE-READ 6/2/2015

Root of Horn (poem) RE-READ 6/2/2015
Meran's Stone (poem) RE-READ 6/4/2015
Withered Trickster (poem) RE-READ 6/1/2015
The Piper (poem) RE-READ 5/20/2015
Secret Stones, Hollow Hills (poem) RE-READ 5/19/2015
Days of Fading (poem) RE-READ 5/20/2015
They Will Come Again (poem) RE-READ 6/4/2015
Glass Eyes and Cotton Strings re-read 1/7/2003 11/1/2006 RE-read 6/9/2015
In Mask and Motley 11/2/2006 RE-read 6/9/2015
Blood to Blood (poem) RE-read 6/10/2015
Telynros (poem) RE-read 6/10/2015
Alken's Song (poem) RE-read 6/10/2015
The Mysteries (poem) RE-read 6/13/2015
Root Truths (poem) RE-read 6/13/2015
Four Seasons and the First Day of the Year (poem) RE-read 6/13/2015
Laughter in the Leaves 11/1/2006 RE-read 6/15/2015
An Fear Glas (poem) RE-read 6/15/2015
The Calendar of the Trees (poem) RE-read 6/15/2015
The Three Plushketeers Meet Santy Claus 11/3/2006 RE-read 6/19/2015
The Badger in the Bag 11/2/2006 RE-read 6/19/2015
The Old Tunes (poem) RE-read 6/19/2015
The Three Plushketeers and the Garden Slugs 11/4/2006 RE-read 6/20/2015
And the Rafters Were Ringing 11/6/2006 RE-read 6/22/2015
The Lark in the Morning 11/7/2006 RE-read 6/24/2015
Bones (poem) RE-read 6/24/2015
The Drowned Man's Reel 11/8/2006 re-read 7/12/2015
The Stone Drum 11/9/2006 RE-read 7/13/2015
Ghosts of Wind and Shadow 11/9/2006 RE-read 7/20/2015
DESERT MOMENTS: 11/11/2006 RE-read 7/21- 7/25/2015
• Tapu'at House (poem)
• Sacred Land (poem)
• Apollo, Arizona & Oliver Twist (poem)
• The Fairy House (poem)
• The Fairy House Jig (poem)
• Mission San Xavier del Bac (poem)
• Flatbread & Chili (poem)
• Bajada (poem)
• Tucson (poem)
• Mount Lemmon (poem)
• Saguaro Dream (poem)
• Coyote (poem)
• At the Border (poem)
The Bone Woman 11/8/2001 11/13/2006 Re-read 7/30/2015
Mr. Truepenny's Book Emporium and Gallery 11/14/2006 Re-read 7/31/2015
Coyote Stories re-read 11/12/2001 11/15/2006
Heartfires 11/17/2006
Crow Girls 11/18/2006 RE-READ 5/21/2015
My Life as a Bird 11/20/2006
The Fields Beyond the Fields
Second Chances
The Buffalo Man 11/22/2006
Pixel Pixie 11/24/2006

[Jaimie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's great that MaryAnn talked Charles into publishing this collction because it gives his fans a glimpse of his early work and of the evolution of his writing style. Without this book, many of these stories and poems would remain read by only the receivers of his Christmas chaobooks and his wife, as they often weren't republishd in his normal collections.

As for the contents of the volume, they're prime examples of de Lint's talent, though his poetry is distinctly different from his narrative style. I don't find his poetry to be quite as emphatic as his short stories, but they are still interesting to observe as part of de Lint's portfolio of work.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always a joy to return to de Lint's world and spend time with the Kelledys, Jilly, Geordie, the Crow girls, and so many others. Also interesting to watch the development of a writer over 25 years of stories.

[Shad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very enjoyable collection of short stories.

It was cool to see where he started with Meran and Cerin (two characters that reoccur in his later works)

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's fun to see de Lint's evolution from a somewhat crappy young writer to the great talent he is now.