I was doing crowd control at a work event yesterday, when I noticed that one of the people in line was holding Ysabel, Guy Gavriel Kay’s latest book. I finished instructing the crowd, and ended my speech with: “And great book, by the way.” She thanked me, and I went on to do something else.

A short while later I was back by her, and we got to talking about the book. She told me that she’d only read the prologue so far. I asked her if she’d read the Tapestry, and she said she hadn’t. I must have looked concerned by this, because she asked me if she should read it first. I told her it wasn’t necessary but that there’d be a few things that would make more sense to her once she had.

It was so wonderful to be able to talk to someone just discovering my favourite author. She seemed really interested in my GGK stories (how reading one of his books in Grade 11 turned me into a reader and contributed greatly to my decision to go to journalism school and to become a writer; how he e-mailed me once when I wrote a short blog about A Song for Arbonne in a book feature I edited back in the day over at Moxie.ca). She said her best friend was a huge fan. I suggested to her that Arbonne and Ysabel were perhaps the least intense of his books, and that if she wanted an emotional rollercoaster she should borrow her friend’s copy of Tigana.

I hope she comes to the spring event so I can see if she followed my advice.