“I
want readers turning pages until three o'clock in the morning. I want the
themes of books to stick around for a reader. I'm always trying to find a way
to balance characters and theme.” – Guy Gavriel Kay
Born in Canada on this date in 1954,
Kay has had a knack for creating “page turner” books over several decades. He
cut his teeth on fantasy writing by traveling to Oxford to assist Christopher
Tolkien, son of J.R.R. Tolkien, with editing J.R.R.’s unpublished work The Silmarillion. With that experience as inspiration he began
his own career with The Summer Tree.
Many of Kay’s novels are set in
fictional realms that resemble real places during real historical periods, such
as Constantinople during the reign of Justinian I, or Spain during the time of
El Cid. His current bestseller, Children
of Earth and Sky, is in the Balkans, Italy and Turkey in the 15th
Century. 
Kay’s 13 best-selling novels
have been translated into some 30 languages, with settings and lead characters
from almost every era.
Kay’s 13 best-selling novels
have been translated into some 30 languages, with settings and lead characters
from almost every era.
He’s won multiple awards, including
The World Fantasy Award for Ysabel,
set in modern day France while also putting his teenage lead into direct
contact with characters from both the distant past and a “parallel” world to
ours. “I have always argued,” he
said, “(that) in a good novel, interesting things happen to interesting
people, no matter who they are or where they are from.”
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