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News Post: A French Translation of Spellwright

Nota Bene: This Friday, March 19^th 7:15pm I will read and sign Spellwright at my hometown bookstore: Kepler’s Books & Magazines. If you’re in the area, please come say hi and/or join me for a pint afterward.

Between high school and college, I spent a summer in Moroccan Atlas Mountains, splitting my time between two host families in the cities of Meknes and Fez. The country was beautiful, the cities ancient and majestic, the people friendly if sometimes given to swindling a naïve tourist. Being 18 years old, my time there made a lasting impression. I can’t say what made me think I could get by in the country where Arabic, Berber, and French were the dominant languages. I had studied Latin and a little Ancient Greek for five years. But somehow, I picked up a few words of Arabic and (mostly) managed to stay out of trouble. With some Latin bumping around in my head, French was much easier to mangle. My host fathers were more than happy to help me along.

Later, when I traveled to Paris to meet a friend, I think I nearly gave the poor Parisians a heart attack in surprise: a large, loudly laughing America speaking French intermixed with Latin and Arabic words. Even so, once I explained that my French was miserable but I was trying to get better, the Parisians were wonderfully accepting and helpful. To this day, I think that the first phrase anyone should learn to speak in a new language is something to the effect of “I don’t speak ____ very well, but I’m trying to get better.” I’ve had complete strangers take me step by step through irregular verbs (they that abound in French) once I’ve said that.

I haven’t much love for French’s orthography (ignore any consonance after that last vowel unless it’s a C R F or L? For serious? I must be misremembering that rule). But English has it just as bad, if not worse. However, when I returned to the US for college, I left with a love of Moroccan culture and the beauty of spoken French. That is why I’m very proud to announce that I’ve authorized my agent to accept an offer from Fleuve Noir to translate Spellwright into French! Especially interesting, Fleuve Noir plans to market the book as a “YA Crossover;” one of my great hopes is that the book speak to younger readers as well as adults. I’m very excited to see how it does.

After a listener to one of my interviews applied the word to me, I’m hoping that the translator somehow managed to work into the manuscript the word “verbomoteur” (literally ‘verb motor’) adj. 1) talkative, or 2) moving from thought to speech to act.

Ancillaria

As mentioned, the big hometown reading will be this Friday, 7:15pm at Keplers Books in Menlo Park. This one should be a lot of fun, with a convergence of friends, family, medical classmates, and physicians. If you’re around, come say hi or join us for a pint later in the BBC just across the way.

For the rest of the week, enter to win a copy of Spellwright from Debuts & Reviews.

The illustrious Library Journal has added Spellwright to their “Spring for It” books-worth-the-cash list!

Shellie over at Layers of Thought interviews me “with the female reader in mind.” Gents, you might laugh at me, but I don’t really care. I’m too busy blushing.

Flashy new fantasy author with antisocial features to his personality disorder, Sam Sykes interviews me on his blog.

Paper Spaceships checks out Spellwright and contemplates the importance of magic-systems:

A great story with a wobbly magic system is kinda like wearing a nice pair of shoes with a small stone in it to a party. Sure you have a good time, but when its over you realize it could have been better without a fucking rock distracting you.

I’m not so good with analogies.

No, my friend, with analogies, you are rad.

Born Reader reviews Spellwright and concludes that it is a “excellent blend of old and new.”

Gillossen on Elbakin.net scrutinizes the book in French. Best I can tell, given my shaky French, he finds a fair number of problems but over all gives it a positive ranking. More specifically, he finds that while Spellwright might not be a masterstroke, it does possess some innovations and makes for a enjoyable read. (If your French is better than mine-and trust me it’d be hard for it to be worse-and I’ve mistaken this, please do let me know!)

La Biblioteca de Korranberg examines the book in Spanish and calls for a Spanish translation of Spellwright. Espero que sí!