Back in the saddle

Carpal tunnel problems kept me away from my keyboard for almost one month.

That, and my difficulties mounting Dragon Naturally Speaking under Ubunt (now that would make my job easy!), kept me from updating these pages.

But I’m back.
I’m fit.

And now I am one full month behind schedule.

Oh, well…

Yo Soy Un Profesional

I was talking with Danilo Arona, yesterday night.
The Wolfman Jack of Italian imaginative fiction, he’s one of the most intelligent persons I know, and a great writer, with an impressive brace of titles on his CV.
It was a rainy night in Alessandria and we were waiting for some book presentation to start and I mentioned one of his stories will be up for translation soon (well, soon-ish).
“The big idea is to try and sell our stuff to the Yankees,” I told him.
He gave me his classic warning grin.
“That’s the closest market on earth,” he said. “Because they are totally dedicated to professionalism.”

Which means you are a writer when you earn your living writing, and a translator when translating is what gives you your daily bread.
Here in Italy, a precious few are up to that – many keep their day job throughout their whole career, and so are “teacher and writer”, “journalist and author”, “doctor and novelist”…
Translators are either part-time creatures or spend their lives chained to the keyboard, alterning a chapter of historical novel with a chapter of true confessions and one of popular science, to be able and reach that minimum page-count per month that will let them survive.

This state of affairs means different timetables for the publishing world – you can’t ask for fast churning out of novels to someone you pay so little he has to work an eight-hour day and then set down to write.
It also means a different attitude of the publishers towards the writers – a bunch of amateurs, after all, right?
And translators?
In the age of computers, if we can do without editors and proof-readers, what do we care for translators? Just go and hire someone fresh form Languages High School…

So, will this Anglo-tongued version of Alia crash and burn under the weight of the unprofessional attitudes of all those involved?
Will the Yankees, and the Japanese, and whoever else, look down upon our landing on their shores (metaphorically speaking), and dismiss our offer as a deliettante effort?

The only thing I know is, if we never try it, we’ll never know.

Ogres, Oni & Demons

I spent the day minding other business – I’m working on a book I hope I’ll be able to publish by the end of the year, so no translations today.

But Max Soumaré, the author of Northern Dream, was kind enough to send me a brief note.
The first part of the story is called “L’Orco della Shinsengumi” – The Ogre of the Shinsengumi.
It’s the nickname of a character, you see.

Now the author informs me that the Japanese word is Oni, which is translated as “Orco” (Ogre) in Italian, but that the Americans probably translate “Demon”.

Now isn’t this just wonderful?
I have yet to start my translation, and already the frigging author is butting in, thinking he knows better than me how to translate his work.
Ah!
I love this job.

And there’s another ten in line after him…

Pathetic?

This project is running the serious risk of turning into something pathetic – or so tongue-in cheekly suggests Massimo Citi on his blog.
Now Massimo is one of the editors of teh Italian version of the anthology, and will be one of the featured authors.
And he’s a publisher and bookstore owner – so he knows what’s he’s talking about.

And indeed, we might crash and burn well before take-off.
But in the meantime, we keep going as usual.

As the translation goes on – slowly. today’s saturday and I’ve still a tiny slice of personal life to nurture – more issues pop up about the English version of Alia.

What will we call it?

• Alia Selection
• Alia Export
• Alia Global
  
• ….
  

Or should we drop the “Alia” label altogether, as it does have little stopping power in the English-speaking world?
And then what?

And what about a subtitle?

• Voices from the Italian New Weird
• Contemporary Italian Imaginative Fiction
• Italians Do It Better
• ….
  

And then, ok, a title.
And what about the cover on which the title will be printed?
Should we contact artists?
Who?

And what should the cover represent?
Something lurid and eye-catching?
Or something stylish and refined?
How much will it cost? How much time will it take?

Problems, problems.
Or, should we say, growing pains?