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truepennyBut first, an announcement.
Mélusine is going to be translated into Chinese.
(!!!)
This is my first novel-length foreign rights sale (a couple of stories have gone to Czechoslovakia), and I am geeked beyond words.
Which segues nicely into the first question:
Q: Are there any plans to publish the Doctrine of Labyrinths series, The Bone Key, or A Companion to Wolves in other countries?
A: Okay, here's the thing. This is yet another of those aspects of book publication over which the author has practically zero control. About all I can do is say, Yes, I would love to see my works translated into as many languages as possible. (Dude. I need the money. Also, I think it is BEYOND COOL. Because I am a big geek. See above.) It's up to non-American publishers to choose to buy the rights. (I know for a fact, as it happens, that several German publishers have turned down Mélusine, and it makes the baby pandas cry.) So, much as I wish I could make it happen by force of will alone, I'm not actually the person to ask.
[Something in my turkey sandwich just went KRNKKCH! Mercifully, it does not seem to have been any of my teeth. o.O]
Q: Any plans to return to write another Shadow Unit episode in future seasons despite the very much not-fantasy setting?
A: Not in Season 2, I don't think, because I am pretty well burned out (although more collaboration à la "Ballistic" might happen, depending on how the other writers' lives are going), but there are tentative plans to collaborate on an episode with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
matociquala and maybe do another solo episode further down the line.
Q: This isn't exactly a question, but I am broadly curious about the theatrical traditions alluded to and occasionally quoted from in The Mirador. Mehitabel's stories of the theater are some of my favorite parts. I guess I wondered if there's a lot of submerged stuff that you know about all that, or if the snippets are just what came along when you needed them. Please ignore if this is a really irritating question.
A: The person who asked this is the only person I know who could ask such a fascinating question and then apologize for it. :)
For the most part, the snippets are all there is. I know that Asline Wren is a rough analogue of Shakespeare. Eofor Henning is an Othello analogue; Uriel Glabney is actually more Uriah Heep than a dramatic character. Morthenar in Brannell Heath is clearly Heathcliff. Basically, every time I went reflexively for a literary allusion when writing Mehitabel, I invented a play to fill in what I needed. (It's a very elaborate answer to the moss-troll problem.) Berinth the King and Edith Pelpheria are obviously Renaissance tragedies (as is The Singer's Tragedy mentioned in Mélusine)--Berinth is pretty clearly late Caroline, actually. The Wooden Daughter, the play Shannon cites and Mehitabel quotes, is a very warped version of Coppélia.
Trouser-farces are Restoration comedy, essentially, only with a focus on cross-dressing a little more typical of the Renaissance. The rest of it is based mostly on Renaissance and Victorian theatrical practices, with a little bit of the twentieth century thrown in, plus my memories of doing community theater as a teenager.
Basically, it's a version of what English theater might have looked like without the English Civil War and Interregnum.
Q: If there was just one book that you could make everyone in the world read, what would it be?
A: Mine!
Sorry, no. Honestly, my answer to that question varies radically from day to day, and it's a different answer if you mean "read and understand."
Some options, however, include Hamlet, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Nineteen Eighty-Four, and A Room of One's Own.
[To ask a question, go here.]
Mélusine is going to be translated into Chinese.
(!!!)
This is my first novel-length foreign rights sale (a couple of stories have gone to Czechoslovakia), and I am geeked beyond words.
Which segues nicely into the first question:
Q: Are there any plans to publish the Doctrine of Labyrinths series, The Bone Key, or A Companion to Wolves in other countries?
A: Okay, here's the thing. This is yet another of those aspects of book publication over which the author has practically zero control. About all I can do is say, Yes, I would love to see my works translated into as many languages as possible. (Dude. I need the money. Also, I think it is BEYOND COOL. Because I am a big geek. See above.) It's up to non-American publishers to choose to buy the rights. (I know for a fact, as it happens, that several German publishers have turned down Mélusine, and it makes the baby pandas cry.) So, much as I wish I could make it happen by force of will alone, I'm not actually the person to ask.
[Something in my turkey sandwich just went KRNKKCH! Mercifully, it does not seem to have been any of my teeth. o.O]
Q: Any plans to return to write another Shadow Unit episode in future seasons despite the very much not-fantasy setting?
A: Not in Season 2, I don't think, because I am pretty well burned out (although more collaboration à la "Ballistic" might happen, depending on how the other writers' lives are going), but there are tentative plans to collaborate on an episode with
matociquala and maybe do another solo episode further down the line.Q: This isn't exactly a question, but I am broadly curious about the theatrical traditions alluded to and occasionally quoted from in The Mirador. Mehitabel's stories of the theater are some of my favorite parts. I guess I wondered if there's a lot of submerged stuff that you know about all that, or if the snippets are just what came along when you needed them. Please ignore if this is a really irritating question.
A: The person who asked this is the only person I know who could ask such a fascinating question and then apologize for it. :)
For the most part, the snippets are all there is. I know that Asline Wren is a rough analogue of Shakespeare. Eofor Henning is an Othello analogue; Uriel Glabney is actually more Uriah Heep than a dramatic character. Morthenar in Brannell Heath is clearly Heathcliff. Basically, every time I went reflexively for a literary allusion when writing Mehitabel, I invented a play to fill in what I needed. (It's a very elaborate answer to the moss-troll problem.) Berinth the King and Edith Pelpheria are obviously Renaissance tragedies (as is The Singer's Tragedy mentioned in Mélusine)--Berinth is pretty clearly late Caroline, actually. The Wooden Daughter, the play Shannon cites and Mehitabel quotes, is a very warped version of Coppélia.
Trouser-farces are Restoration comedy, essentially, only with a focus on cross-dressing a little more typical of the Renaissance. The rest of it is based mostly on Renaissance and Victorian theatrical practices, with a little bit of the twentieth century thrown in, plus my memories of doing community theater as a teenager.
Basically, it's a version of what English theater might have looked like without the English Civil War and Interregnum.
Q: If there was just one book that you could make everyone in the world read, what would it be?
A: Mine!
Sorry, no. Honestly, my answer to that question varies radically from day to day, and it's a different answer if you mean "read and understand."
Some options, however, include Hamlet, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Nineteen Eighty-Four, and A Room of One's Own.
[To ask a question, go here.]
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no subject
Date: 2008-08-22 07:39 pm (UTC)thanks to Forever Amber, but I wasn't always paying enough attention...anyway, I find background information like that really interesting.Thanks to the person who asked, too. :)
no subject
Date: 2008-08-22 07:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-22 08:17 pm (UTC)That's awesome.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-22 08:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-25 08:26 am (UTC)It's not as if there weren't people interested, though. I have a couple of friends who want to read Monette's books very much since I recommend them all the time, but their English simply isn't good enough.
I wish they'd try. I could imagine Heyne would give it a shot.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-22 09:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-22 10:46 pm (UTC)Foreign rights
Date: 2008-08-22 10:54 pm (UTC)Which is a lot of useless information, but I'm also a geek.
Re: Foreign rights
Date: 2008-08-23 04:12 am (UTC)If Mildseien is a direct trasilation of Mild may, it's possible Keeper in German!Melusine would have stripped it down to just Mildsei, because the meaning is still apparrent.
Or they would leave it Mildmay, and maybe put an umlaut over the a. The thought of a German translationof Melusine makes me geek all over the place, and I would pay importing and everything to buy them. Heck, I'd translate them myself if I was a little better at that sort of thing.
But yeah. Chinese! Eeee! I can't wait to at least see the cover...
no subject
Date: 2008-08-22 11:04 pm (UTC)Your answer to the question about theatrical traditions made me very, very happy.
P.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-23 12:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-23 01:06 am (UTC)Learning about the theatrical traditions of your stories is very interesting, and I'm surprised by how much I understood of that explanation.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-23 06:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-23 03:29 pm (UTC)SUCH A HONOUR!!!
Date: 2009-02-22 12:32 pm (UTC)I have found many answers in your Q&As that would help with my translation. Thank you so much.
I will mail you a Chinese one once it comes out.