The Doctor is In

Next story on the drawing board – Il Motore di Mario.

Mario’s Engine.

The author is Alessandro Defilippi – writer, psychoanalyst.
The real thing – he even has a short entry on Wikipedia.

Mario’s Engine is a long story, 16 pages.
It is set in Turin, and soaked with jazz music.
Miles Davies, Duke Ellington.
Coltrane.
As it deals with an engine one would expect a science fiction number, maybe a hard science fiction number, but there’s something softer and darker underlying it all, that makes the story had to classify.
Is this truly the New Italian Weird?

Maybe.
But we don’t need no stinking badges at this moment.
The text is thick on the page and deceptively plain – sounds like a monologue, like a confession.
Like a sitting with your favorite shrink.

It will be a long job.
It will be a learning experience.

Absolutely Fabio

Wonders of the web.

I never met Fabio Lastrucci personally.
We exchanged a few mails, or comments on on-line forums, but we never occupied contiguous spaces.
And yet here I am translating his “Nella Stagione Arsa” - In the Scorched Season.

Pure unadulterated fantastic fiction, perfectly written.

Going through his opening passage is like phisically visiting the places he describes – not only Fabio has been able to tap into that pool of shared youthful memories we all share, but he’s been able to conjure them on the page through language and tempo.

The story will catch a few readers by surprise – the revelation of the narrator’s true identity, his musings and experiences…

But after all, isn’t that the reason why we read imaginative fiction?
To be surprised?

Kitty, Mousy and Good Year – finished

Wow!
Now was that fast or what?!

OK, so Consolata Lanza’s story is only 3000 words long, but that’s not the point.

Not the only one, at least.

There is the fun factor – the fact that I am actually enjoying myself translating the story, finding the right turn of phrase.
That normally makes me go a lot faster.

And there is the quality of the writing.
This one helps a lot.
Maybe that’s why it’s taking me so long to finish translating my story.
Or Max’.

Anyway – now I’ll let the story rest for a few days and then I’ll revise it, before inflicting it on my revisors.
Nice and smooth.

I somewhat changed the tito to Kitty, Mousy and Good Year, which I hope better conveys the fact that these are not just names, but terms of endearing.

OK, time for a short break.
Who’s next?

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?

Garbed in Steel and Thunder

Thunder variations seem to be off-limits…

Rolling Thunder is a 1977 Tommy Lee Jones movie.
Thunder and Lightning is the last Thin Lizzy album.
Riding the Thunder is a romance published by a publisher called Love Spell
Thunder Knight is a character created by Mark. J. Orr

And let’s forget about Riders on the Storm….

And yet – I need a title for a story that has… armors, knights, politics, clockwork contraptions, rabble in arms, steam and black powder, European history remixed…

Garbed in Steel and Thunder

Now this is not half bad, if I say so myself.

Might give it a go, as a working title.

[once again, translating myself I can spare myself a mail about the new proposed title, the wait for the opinions of the author and all the rest... I better not get used to it.]

(title pending) 2/20 done

First two pages of my story translated.
No big deal.
It appears obvious that I’ll have to go and refresh my vocabulary where combat maneuvers are concerned, but apart from that, no big deal.

I’ll have to find another title for the story.
Gli Anni del Tuono translates as The Years of Thunder – which sounds like a bad Tom Cruise movie.
Alas, Robert E. Howard already optioned the best thunder variation out there, with his The Sowers of Thunder.
Finding something equally striking is hard going.
I’ll have to find something completely new.

Apart from that, looks like – barring incidents and extra engagements – I’ll be able to do a story in one week/ten days.

I have already secured the services of a few swell friends as proofreaders (hi, kids!), and all in all, the future looks bright.