General Gossip:
To start of the the very first Author Gossip post I decided to start out with something positive. So what’s more positive then a free book? The first book of author Jess Haines H & W Investigations is being posted for free in Ebook formats as part of a new promotion. It’s running from December 31 to January 2. Yeah, I read the date wrong and thought it extended to the end of January. Luckily Amazon still has it free to download for Kindle (Amazon).
SUPERNATURAL (an anthology with the fabulous Larissa Ione, Jacquelyn Frank, and G.A. Aiken) in September 2011
BOUND BY DARKNESS in November 2011 (Ariyal and Jaelyn's story)
MY LORD VAMPIRE will be out in March 2012 (a re-release of my regency vampire book I wrote under the name Debbie Raleigh)
The next Darkness book late summer or early fall 2012
MY LORD ETERNITY late 2012
There’s many questions by fans that come up of how it’s going to translate to TV. Clearly we’re not going to get so much nudity( yeah, I’m a prude).
One question I have is what will the do about the “relationship” in the story? I’ve only read the first book, but I felt a little too much sibling love. Fans who have read more of the series are also expressing concerns.
Ever since Harper Connelly survived a zap from a lightning bolt, she's been able to find dead people, a skill that makes the protagonist in the first installment of Harris's new series a tad more bizarre than the mind-reading heroine of the author's Sookie Stackhouse books (Dead as a Doornail, etc.). Harper travels to the Ozark town of Sarne, Ark., to find a missing teenage girl's body, accompanied by her stepbrother, Tolliver, who acts as her manager and bodyguard and with whom she shares a thinly disguised physical attraction that they manage to keep at bay by engaging in casual sex with various partners. Finding the body takes no time at all, but leaving town afterward isn't so easy. When Harper's life is threatened and Tolliver ends up in jail on trumped-up charges, it quickly becomes apparent that something sinister is going on in Sarne. Harris delivers a knuckle-gnawing tale populated with well-developed, albeit edgy characters. A nifty puzzle toward the end will challenge the most jaded mystery buffs.
It’s a New Year and I’ve gotten my bad news in from the from Daily Finance a certain article: Borders: Getting Closer to the Bookseller's Final Chapter
Trust me I could rant about this forever. Borders is my only book store if it goes under, then it’s a two and a half hour drive to the next book store. Personally my only thoughts can be that Borders is under some bad management if it can go to ruins. They dominate book sales whether ebook or paper print, DVDs, CDs, and other such media. They’re a big online store as well as brick and mortar. Sure Walmart and other stores sale books and DVDs, but they don’t have the selection or some of those sweet discounts.
To ease my mind I’m going to say they are going to make it.
I really recommend reading the link to the original article to get the full effect.
New Covers:
This is the UK cover for My Soul to Take straight from the authors blog. I really like the look of them and it’s cool. Yet . . . the open mouth look just looks tacky.
What the author has to say:
I love how the color scheme matches the US covers, but the image is completely different. I think that both versions (the US and the UK) capture different elements of the feel of the book, and I could not be more pleased. Also, I love that the UK versions show the Netherworld fog that surrounds everything when Kaylee's crossing over. Love
Succubus blues hits Japan!! The cover looks a little YA, but who knows how the marketing is in Japan. Apparently the title loosely translates to There are many dangers in the bookstore" or "Bookstore Full of Dangers." The authors full post is really interesting.
What the author has to say:
A helpful person on Twitter told me that the title they've given the Japanese edition of Georgina's adventures translates to something along the lines of "There are many dangers in the bookstore" or "Bookstore Full of Dangers." A lot of people were really surprised by this, with reactions ranging from puzzled to offended on my behalf. So, I figured I'd weigh in on the topic since changing titles is fairly common when books are translated into other languages.
Why is it done? Well, translation is a lot more than just word for word substitution. Internet translators are proof of that. You can translate five words into another language and not have that new set convey the original meaning at all. Some concepts simply don't translate the same away across cultures. Puns and idioms especially don't translate well into other languages. Titles of mine that are almost never changed are ones that describe very, very concrete things, like Thorn Queen and Vampire Academy. You can do a pretty direct translation to Reine des ronces or L'Accademia Dei Vampiri with those. (Interestingly, when VA is changed, it's usually because the country's publisher thought it sounded too young--again, cultural perception).
Having the "blues" is a little harder, and while people certainly get depressed in other countries, that concept as we know it in English isn't matched in other languages. So, that title gets changed about half the time and usually into something like "Sad Succubus." The Japanese title of SB may sound unwieldy in English, but again--a word for word translation doesn't always convey the full meaning. Trust me, the new title works in that language, and even in English, I think it's kind of cute. My wallet certainly faces danger in bookstores.
Hands-down, the most contested title of all my books is Frostbite. We know what the condition of frostbite is in English, but our usual connotations of it are just "really cold" And, of course, it's a pun on bite. In a lot of other cultures/languages, when people think of frostbite, they think of the condition at its absolute worst: cold that's so intense, it destroys skin/tissue and can result in losing parts of your body. That's not a really attractive title, if that's what comes to your mind. So, almost every country has changed the second VA book. In German and Spanish, the titles translate to "Blue Blood" (a pun in all three langauges, apparently). The Eastern European countries tend to adapt it as "Biting Cold" or "Cold Fire." And in Korean, it's "Sad Illusion," a different concept altogether.
Someone asked if these modifications bother me. Nope, not at all. Languages are filled with nuances and rich meanings that take a lifetime to learn and craft. I can only claim ownership of one, English, and I'm always learning more. I feel confident in dictating titles and wordings in my own language but wouldn't presume to make those calls in another language. Sometimes adaptations have to be made even between UK and Australian English editions. A lot of times, translators of the books write to me with questions, which is really great because then we can make sure concepts are getting across the way I'd originally intended to the readers. It's a neat and exciting process.
Check out the German cover of Iron Crown. It’s so stunning, the colors just look so beautiful. Plus she looks kick-ass, and I’m digging the black swan design.
What the author had to say:
. . . as I was writing this post, I went searching out some foreign editions of my books in order to reference them. And guess what I discovered is out there? The German cover of Iron Crowned, or as it's called in that language: Feenkrieg. I hadn't seen it yet. Germany sure knows its cover art.
Here’s the German cover for Nice Girls Don’t Live Forever. Personally I’m not a fan.
What the author has to say:
How cute is this? It will be available in July 2011.
Another German cover!! This one is Friday Night Bites. I really like the style, but the US edition wins out.
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What the author has to say:
Isn't it cool?
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