Isn't that what John Denver told us, once upon a time? "Some days are diamonds / some days are stone" -- which has always bugged Glynn because (and he has shared his wisdom more than once), diamonds are stones and...well, I don't care, I just enjoy listening to the song. I imagine Glynn would prefer it if John D. had sung, "Some days are diamonds / some days are stones of little or no commercial value" but it would have been a bear for the songwriter (Dick Feller) to have made those lyrics work. Interesting, yes, but I'm fairly confident there would have been one less gold record on Dick's studio wall.
Today, however? Not a diamond. Let me share.
The backstory: When it comes to Babelcube, we've recently been experiencing days of little or no commercial value. Our World War Zelda was translated into Portuguese recently by the amazing Karla Marques V. The novella was made available to multiple outlets but has found very few readers. WWZ is a mostly science fiction story centered around the perfume industry...and when's the last time you saw that in a story description?...with zombies and a dark (but sexy) conclusion and the English-version has yet to find an audience, either.
I absolutely understand why. What I didn't understand is why Karla Marques V. wanted to translate it in the first place. Zelda is nobody's idea of a sure moneymaker. But when she approached us again, wanting to do a Portuguese take on Twisted Games, well, that I understood. The story has drifted down the Amazon rankings these days but it sold quite nicely on release. If the crowd in Portugal wanted a hot shape-shifter romance with a mystery at its core, TG absolutely fit that particular bill.
So we agreed and contracts were signed. In short order, Karla had done her thing. Before Babelcube could publish the Portuguese take on Twisted Games, they needed our approval. Because I was buried in our current writing project, this meant Glynn had to go over the piece by himself, page by page.
Glynn will tell you, he has no affinity for foreign languages. Honestly, there are times when he isn't all that good at English. On the other hand, he's been practicing Klingon, so we'll always have that to put on the resume. The task took him hours and hours, not always the happiest hours, but he finished the job. He said Karla had done a lovely translation once again, then he said he'd already told Babelcube to go ahead and publish, then he said, "This has been the longest day of my life", and "Thank goodness for Google Translator", and "I need a beer".
How I wish I'd purchased a six-pack of Warnog, the Klingon beer. It would have made Glynn so happy.
With this blog post, I was going to encourage the world at large to rush out and pick up Jogos Perigosos: Um Misterio Paranormal but things didn't work out. Some days aren't diamonds, remember? JP:UMP has hit some mysterious glitch, keeping it from reaching the usual channels in a timely fashion. Babelcube wrote to tell us, asking that we fix " ----- " and send the novella out again. Unfortunately, " ----- " means nothing to us. You can't fix what you don't understand.
We'll get this straightened out, sooner or later. Babelcube can mess with us all they want but I'm pretty certain that Karla Marques V. won't tolerate such nonsense. I'll let you know.
Today, however? Not a diamond. Let me share.
The backstory: When it comes to Babelcube, we've recently been experiencing days of little or no commercial value. Our World War Zelda was translated into Portuguese recently by the amazing Karla Marques V. The novella was made available to multiple outlets but has found very few readers. WWZ is a mostly science fiction story centered around the perfume industry...and when's the last time you saw that in a story description?...with zombies and a dark (but sexy) conclusion and the English-version has yet to find an audience, either.
I absolutely understand why. What I didn't understand is why Karla Marques V. wanted to translate it in the first place. Zelda is nobody's idea of a sure moneymaker. But when she approached us again, wanting to do a Portuguese take on Twisted Games, well, that I understood. The story has drifted down the Amazon rankings these days but it sold quite nicely on release. If the crowd in Portugal wanted a hot shape-shifter romance with a mystery at its core, TG absolutely fit that particular bill.
So we agreed and contracts were signed. In short order, Karla had done her thing. Before Babelcube could publish the Portuguese take on Twisted Games, they needed our approval. Because I was buried in our current writing project, this meant Glynn had to go over the piece by himself, page by page.
Glynn will tell you, he has no affinity for foreign languages. Honestly, there are times when he isn't all that good at English. On the other hand, he's been practicing Klingon, so we'll always have that to put on the resume. The task took him hours and hours, not always the happiest hours, but he finished the job. He said Karla had done a lovely translation once again, then he said he'd already told Babelcube to go ahead and publish, then he said, "This has been the longest day of my life", and "Thank goodness for Google Translator", and "I need a beer".
How I wish I'd purchased a six-pack of Warnog, the Klingon beer. It would have made Glynn so happy.
With this blog post, I was going to encourage the world at large to rush out and pick up Jogos Perigosos: Um Misterio Paranormal but things didn't work out. Some days aren't diamonds, remember? JP:UMP has hit some mysterious glitch, keeping it from reaching the usual channels in a timely fashion. Babelcube wrote to tell us, asking that we fix " ----- " and send the novella out again. Unfortunately, " ----- " means nothing to us. You can't fix what you don't understand.
We'll get this straightened out, sooner or later. Babelcube can mess with us all they want but I'm pretty certain that Karla Marques V. won't tolerate such nonsense. I'll let you know.
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