The Wind In His Heart

Cover and Interior Art:  Cory & Catska Ench

Ottawa author Charles de Lint celebrates  triumphant return to adult fantasy fiction

Ottawa author Charles de Lint has finally returned to adult fiction with the release of his first major fantasy novel in eight years. The Wind in His Heart arrived on the shelves September 19th in conjunction with de Lint being inducted to the Canadian SF and Fantasy Association’s Hall of Fame. Renowned as a trailblazer of the modern fantasy genre, de Lint has won the World Fantasy, Aurora (three times), Sunburst, and White Pine awards, among others. 

The new novel weaves a rich tapestry of story. Young Thomas Corn Eyes sees into the otherworld, but all he wants to do is get off the rez. Steve Cole escaped from his rock star life to disappear into the desert and mountains. Fifteen-year-old barrio kid Sadie Higgins has been discarded once too often. Blogger Leah Hardin needs to leave Newford, come to terms with the suicide of her best friend, and actually engage with her life. When these lives collide in the Hierro Maderas Mountains, they must struggle to escape their messy pasts and find a way to carve a future for themselves. 

In recent years de Lint took a break from adult fiction to focus on juvenile books, which were weathering the rocky publishing business with greater stability. His young adult Wildlings trilogy earned him two Aurora awards; his middle grade novel The Cats of Tanglewood Forest won the Sunburst award and was also chosen by the New York Times as one of the top six children’s books of 2013.

The Wind in His Heart took de Lint three years to write. Rather than go the traditional route with a major publisher—which he says would have been simpler and probably far more lucrative—de Lint prefers the creative freedom that independent publishing offers him. The novel is was published under his own imprint, Triskell Press, but it ended up as a hybrid indie/traditional release since Recorded Books, the “Rolls Royce of audiobook publishers” snapped up the audio rights when the editor read and loved the novel, and British specialty publisher PS Publishing grabbed limited edition hardcover rights.

Limtied to 500 signed copies

Lettered It is our understanding that PS Publishing sold 26 lifetime subscriptions, as a perk of that subscription the purchaser would receive a copy of the signed state of a particular book but instead of a number in the limitation line, it would contain a letter, each subscriber was assigned a letter, in all other aspects the book is identical to the signed, Slipcased or traycased copy.