DSAC Round 2
I haven’t been blogging as much as I used to. Part of this is being super-busy, but another part of it is circumspection, out of a desire not to offer any spoilers about The Great Bazaar or The Desert Spear before people get a chance to read those stories for themselves. In the same vein, work on The Daylight War continues to go really well I think, but it is a lonely kind of well. The working file is now 150 pages long, but I’m not ready to show it to anyone, so I have literally no one to talk to about it. It’s kind of depressing, that I have this thing that consumes half my life that I’m unable to talk to anyone about.
Sometimes I love my job, but sometimes I really hate it, too.
But then I love it again, as my readers continue to bombard me with awesomeness. Last week I mentioned that there would soon be more ARCs of The Desert Spear, and so the DSAC contest would live again. Brendon from New Zealand, a serious contender last time around, submitted this series of pictures:
With the second leg of the DSAC give-away live I thought I’d supplement my earlier entry with some more shots. Rather than more “mountain high” photos this time we’re in “valley low” territory, a place called the Waiohine Gorge. So here are a few photos of myself reading in places of tranquility on the Waiohine Gorge track.
I’m travelling north on holiday soon…there might be more to come 😉
Man, is there a single square mile of New Zealand that isn’t gorgeous? It’s kind of ridiculous. I need to go there sometime before I’m too old and rickety to hike ten miles.
Also, my buddy Myke has always wanted to enter the contest, but his status as a beta-reader disqualifies him. Instead, while on a trip to Germany defending freedom or whatever, he found someone to enter in his stead. In his words:
I visited Stangl & Taubald (Buchhandlung, which I think means bookshop) on 14 Worthstrasse in Weiden in der Operfallz, or just Weiden, as we call the city. The clerk there was a young lady who spoke English. They were sold out of both the print and audio versions of Das Leid der Dunkelheit, but she had heard of it and you and knew that a sequel was coming out soon. She was very excited and said that it was a big fantasy over there. She hadn’t read it yet because she said it was gigantic even by German standards, and I did my best to convince her. I asked her to order me a copy, and hopefully I can find time to swing by and buy it. Otherwise, she said she’d put it on the shelf.
The next day, he wrote again:
I headed back to the Bucher in Weiden to check in with the pretty bookseller there. Her name is Verena, and she’s a HUGE fantasy fan.
She had ordered a copy of Das Leid der Dunkelheit because I asked her to yesterday. I bought it and gave it to her as a gift, but made her promise to read it and (if she liked it, which she assures me she will) to recommend it to customers and to her fantasy reading friends. I also directed her to your website and asked her to contact you when she was done.
Lastly, I photographed her for DSAC, holding the book in front of the fantasy section.
Myke is a prince among men.
Two interesting things about Verena’s store: One is that my friend asked them to order a book, and they had it THE NEXT DAY. Unheard of, in my experience.
Also, if you look behind her, I love that Stan Nichols’ book Orcs, the only novel I know sympathetic to the plight of those burly older brothers to goblins, translates into German as DIE Orks, the battle cry of just about anyone who’s ever played D&D or read Tolkien.
Translation is fun.
I loved that bit about “Die Orks!” That was great. Made me laugh out loud at work. And whenever you’re ready — take your time — but I’ll be an ear if you so choose to discuss that which you’re working on.
Jay, I totally knew you were going to love the Orcs joke. While I wrote it, I was laughing about how I knew it was going to make you laugh.
We’ll discuss secret projects later.
I really love the 5th New Zealand picture. That could be a warded walkway such as they have in that one hamlet Rojer visited.
Myke is awesome. Verena’s hoodie is awesome too.
Mykes mails are even funnier when you are a german and see how he writes german words 😀 I laughed out loud when I read “Operfallz” And yes “Buchhandlung” means bookstore. 😉 Does Myke even know a single sentence in german? If not he should come to Karlsruhe. I’ll teach him a little bit 🙂 And the “Die”-Joke is fun for every english native speaker. Just a little word, which means so much 😀
Sorry, my German is terrible :). I’m going to be over there quite a bit in the future, and I will put Karlsruhe on my list! Good luck for Verena in the DSAC!
Hi! This is Verena! 🙂
Currently reading the book and enjoying it! 🙂
Btw… even if it sounds like a good commercial for our store that we can order books overnight…most German bookstores can do that. (Somehow we have to keep up with amazon…)
Why don’t you come to Germany for a reading tour? (or to one of our big book fairs in Leipzig or Frankfurt. It’s as crowded there as at a rock concert…)
🙂
OK. So I finished the Warded Man in 2 days. Picked it up on a whim. Obviously, I couldn’t put it down (well, until 11:30 last night). I didn’t rush, but I had to keep reading. My wife is glad to have me back.
And I just found out about, and tried/failed to order The Great Bazaar, and Other Stories, but it sold out (already!). Yeesh!
SO that tanked, and I can’t wait another three months for the Desert Spear – but now on my first visit to your website I find out I can win an advanced copy of it?! Cool!
Does the second part of the contest start now? Is it too late? Most importantly, DO you consider Wisconsin an exotic location?
Verena, welcome! I’m thrilled you’re enjoying the book. I wish I had an army of Mykes to go to bookstores for me. He’s far better at getting people interested in my work than I am.
I am definitely planning to visit Germany sometime soon, hopefully in 2010. I looked into the Frankfurt book fair, but sadly it overlaps with NY ComicCon, which I am already committed to attend. Hopefully I can find another excuse. I may be in Europe for the London Book Fair, but I don’t know for how long.
Alekalumnus, the fact that TWM so consumed your attention from beginning to end is the greatest compliment any author could ask for. It’s happened to me with many good books, and I’m proud to have done it for someone else. It’s a great feeling to be so riveted by something.
The Great Bazaar is only sold out if you want the fancy signed and numbered edition. If you want the regular one (which is only different inasmuch as it is not signed and numbered by moi), it is still available:
http://www.subterraneanpress.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=brett01&Category_Code=PRE&Product_Count=6
As for DSAC, the second part will start officially when I receive the new advance copies from my publisher, but people are free to enter whenever.
It doesn’t matter where you’re from. Not every winner entered a picture of wondrous scenic beauty, but even if they did, I’m willing to bet that there’s plenty of beauty to be found in Wisconsin.
yes, translation is fun 😉
I don’t know why they translated “the Warded Man” with “LIEd der Dunkelheit” which would be something like “Song of Darkness”, but “LEId der Dunkelheit” is more like “Woe of Darkness”.
Not so bad either…
Peat, wherever you gonne be in germany, I will definitly come and say “Hello!” Well, it will be more like “OMG! It’s you! Waaah!”
But it’s sad that you won’t be at the Frankfurt bookfair. It’s really awesome! i was there the last two years and I’m sure you would really appreciate it. And as Verena said, it’s really like a rock concert 😀
But the NY ComicCon waits for you 😉
Thanks for the info on the Great Bazaar! I don’t know how I missed that it was only the limited edition that sold out. It’s ordered. And I guess we do have some exotic backgrounds in Wisconsin after all:
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2244
I’ll have to plan a trip to Hayward.
You’re going to ComicCon? Comics are another passion next to RPGs…
🙂
About the translation topic: As I am currently totally absorbed into reading the German edition of the Painted Man (yes, stilll, but I think I’ll finish it Sunday latest…) I can’t help but wonder if I should order the English one immediately. Why? Because I’ve been wondering at some parts “Was this really what the original version said at that point?”. I guess translating isn’t that easy after all.
A nice story that will make every author happy (I hope): I was attending bookseller-school during the week and one of my classmates, in charge of the fantasy section in her store, mentioned in a presentation that The Painted Man was currently her fave book and that she loves selling it.
Not quite as stunning as Myke’s promotion but I was nevertheless smiling like a maniac. 🙂
Have a wonderful weekend!
Verena, I used to manage a comic book shop, believe it or not. I’ve always been a huge comic book fan. In fact, I wanted to write comics before I ever thought to write novels. Still do. Still might…
But I digress. Translation is never easy, even if you speak both languages fluently. There are always various meanings and word choices to sift through, not to mention all the made-up words that SF writers like myself throw around. I am in contact with many of my international translators, and I want to sing their praises, because they are all extremely hard working people doing very difficult jobs.
But that said, translation is never perfect, and as I craft my prose very carefully, I will always agree that English speakers can probably get more out of the original.
I can’t believe I became a topic at bookseller-school! That is awesome.
A comic bookshop? Holy on a sandwich! That’s A-W-E-S-O-M-E. I can spend hours in Forbidden Planet whenever I’m in England just marvelling about all the art inside these books… It’s funny with comics, isn’t it? You love them as a child and you will still love them when you’re old and grey. (Sorry for spamming your blog XD)
I totally agree on the translating topic. I am pretty sure that translators give their very best but the English language has such a beauty in itself and so many words meaning almost the same but not quite! Thinking back to uni days and struggling to find an adequate German expression… sometimes it’s just impossible cause you need an entire phrase to describe one word!
Well..anyway, before I start ranting even more I might as well read the last pages of your awesome book. 🙂