Sebastien de Castell

Writer of swashbuckling fantasy

Travel

Travel

Visiting new places is one of my favorite activities.

In London and Edinburgh

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So, my travels for the next several months include journeying to London for the launch of my latest book, The Malevolent Seven, in late May. I suspect the atmosphere of merry old London will be a little bit different this trip, in the wake of the new King’s Coronation, but it’s one of my favorite places to visit and I’m looking forward to meeting with my publishers, who are based there.

I will be attending the MCM Comic Con in London, which is taking place on the 26th-28th of May 2023. I’ll be joining them on the Friday. 

I will also be attending the Forbidden Planet London Megastore for a Malevolent Seven book signing on Tuesday 30thMay, between 17:00-18:00 BST, which will be a lot of fun!  

Then I’ll be heading up to the Cymera Festival in Edinburgh on June 2nd at 5pm for a lovely event. Hopefully, it will be warmer then. Did you know that Edinburgh Castle is built on an extinct volcano? I might have to steal that for one of my books.

And I may or may not be doing another little, secret event, if time permits…

In Southern France

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Travel has been a huge part of my life since I was a young boy. I drove $200 beater cars so I wouldn’t waste money that could better be spent on plane tickets and learned to love youth hostels and the sounds of other people snoring because it meant I could go on longer trips. My wife and I are a lot better off financially now, of course, so for the last ten years we’ve been able to travel as often as our schedules allowed. But of course, Covid came along and we’ve all been largely stationary for the past twenty months.

With the minor miracle of effective vaccines and the greater miracle of health officers making tough decisions, travel is starting to open up again. It’s not easy, of course, and there’s never an absolute guarantee of safety, but both the risks and the inconveniences of following COVID protocols are manageable for us now. So, we’re off to France, specifically, Dordogne.

Dordogne, France

In Vancouver for the Summer

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British Columbia has done a pretty good job of managing the Covid-19 pandemic overall, but one consequence of that is accepting certain public health rules which, though not draconian by any stretch, nonetheless make you long for the halcyon days of going to movies and getting on airplanes.

Fortunately, as places to be stuck in go, Vancouver is a pretty nice place to spend the Summer.

In Vancouver For The Winter

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I’m pretty addicted to travelling and it’s rare for me not to fly to Europe a couple of times a year, elsewhere in Canada once or twice, and usually some new country I’ve never been to before. Covid 19 made that impossible this year, and I was lucky that I’d travelled to Toronto in January and then briefly to Mexico in early February before the lockdowns began. Now, however, it’s been many months and I’m going pretty stir crazy. On the other hand, if you’re going to be stuck somewhere during a pandemic, British Columbia is a pretty good place to be stuck.

Some interesting facts about Vancouver:

    • The Lions Gate Bridge (a beautiful bridge once used for the Tom Selleck movie “Runaway” which featured homicidal mechanical spiders running across it) was originally built by the Guinness Beer Company.
    • We have the second largest port in North America, second only to New York. Suck it, Los Angeles.
    • We have 5 – count ‘em – 5 sister cities, namely: Odessa (Ukraine), Yokohama (Japan), Edinburgh (Scotland), Guangzhou (China), and Los Angeles (United States). Uh . . . sorry about what I said before, Los Angeles.

Oh, and we invented Ryan Reynolds. You’re welcome.

In Vancouver For The Summer

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There are worse places to spend a pandemic lockdown than Vancouver, British Columbia. In fact, it would be hard for me to envision a better place to hunker down during these strange times. Here are just a few of the reasons:

    • Vancouver features a wide range of outdoor spaces and is on a quest to become the “Greenest City in the World”
    • Our pandemic, though not without its tragedies – especially in long-term care facilities – has faced significantly lower cases and deaths than in almost all other major jurisdictions.
    • We have the amazing Dr. Bonnie Henry as our Provincial Health Officer, and she’s led us through an incredibly efficient and effective process for managing the pandemic. She even has her own catchphrase: “Be Kind, Be Calm, and Stay Safe”.
    • While none of us are perfect, British Columbia’s had relatively few morons running around “protesting” social distancing guidelines.
    • Canada’s done quite a lot so far to mitigate the direct economic impacts on citizens. That doesn’t prevent there being tremendous hardship, but those measures are keeping most of those in need from slipping under water.

There are other vectors of privilege than where one lives, however, and those make a huge difference. My wife and I own our home, live in a lovely part of town and have a modest back yard. That means its easier for us to get a bit of time outside without compromising social distancing guidelines. We also have nice neighbours, so being around home all the time doesn’t increase stress from people shouting or banging the walls. Not everyone lives in such relatively idyllic circumstances, and it must take incredible amounts of will power and commitment to keep it together during these times.

I’ve become even more conscious lately of how fortunate I am to be able to make a good living writing books. During the pandemic, I’m able to write more novels (and have written just under 300,000 words in the first four months of the year), and while the economic impacts for novelists like me are likely to hit more profoundly in the second half of the year (because publishers pay out royalties 6-9 months after they’re earned), I’ve been fortunate to have two series that are successful in the digital markets as well as in print, and so that, too, mitigates some of the losses.

The only sad part for me is that my wife and I love to travel, and that may be out of the question for a long while to come. Still, we’re together and we have our strange and demanding cats to keep us busy.

Hope all of you are holding up and looking forward to better times to come.

In England & France for the Summer

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Doing a bit of traipsing about England and France, visiting with publishers and discussing various new series in the YA fantasy and thriller genres. Of course, sometimes there’s no way to avoid getting in the occasional theatre play . . .

Here’s a fun fact: Britain and France have been to war against each other 23 separate times.

In Europe for the fall

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I’m on a five-week book tour that’s taking me to Denmark, the United Kingdom, France, the Czech Republic, and Ireland!

I’ve spent a lot of time in the U.K. these past few years since Traitor’s Blade was first published. The main reason for this is that both my main publishers (Bonnier and Quercus) are based in the London. Every time I come here I get to see a bit more of the city and the way it’s evolving as time goes by. Despite the multitude of transit options, I walk everywhere, which gives me plenty of opportunities to take in the sights. I’ll also be heading to Glasgow, Wigtown, Bath, and Cheltenham for various literary festivals.

I’d never been to Denmark until this year, and strangely this will be my second visit. In March I was in Aarhus for a couple of events, and in September I’ll be at the Esbjerg Fantasy Festival along with Patricia Briggs as guests of honour.

Next to the U.K., France is the country I’ve visited the most. Still, it’s always a thrill to go to Paris and this will be my first time meeting my delightful French publishers in person!

Prague will be an entirely new city for me, so that’ll be exciting, too. I’ve been to Ireland once before, but that was ages ago, so a visit to Dublin for DeptCon will be a terrific treat!

In Vancouver for the summer

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Back at home base for the summer months until my next European book tour in September. Usually Vancouver is remarkably lovely in June, but this time around it’s been a bit rainy.

Some interesting facts about Vancouver:

  • Vancouver is the third largest film production centre in North America after Los Angeles and New York. Okay, so you probably knew that already.
  • But I’ll bet you didn’t know that our Stanley Park is a massive 1001 acre urban oasis 10% larger than New York’s Central Park. Suck it, New York.
  • Vancouver has the mildest climate in Canada. Although, it receives on average, 1,589mm of rain per year. It’s also probably the place where people complain about the climate the most.

Oh, and it’s highly likely we’re infested by vampires. And elves. Vampire elves?

In London For The Weekend

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My favourite thing about living in the Netherlands temporarily is just how easy it is to hop on a cheap flight to some of my favourite places in Europe.

Highlights this time around were:

  • A visit with some of the team at Quercus to discuss the launch of Saint’s Blood.
  • An excellent lunch to discuss Spellslinger with the fine folks at Bonnier.
  • Seeing the terrific play, Nell Gwynn in Leicester Square.
  • A quick stop at the British Museum for a wonderful tour of the new room featuring collections from the Enlightenment.

In Morocco Over Christmas

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We spent Christmas this year cycling around the Atlas Mountains in beautiful Morocco. One of the highlights was actually spending time on a camel. I tried to give mine a royal name but he told me to bugger off.