Italy Calling!

I got a pretty cool email a couple of weeks ago. It came from Virgi Books, an Italian language publisher based in the UK and Rome. They wanted the rights to In the Shadow of El Paso and The Bastard Mummy, to publish in Italian.

In the Shadow of El Paso, Italian edition

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The Bastard Mummy, renamed for the Italian version:  The Mummy Has Disappeared

Now, since I’m Italian, there was an extra measure of coolness to the request. And after some due diligence, I accepted their offer. So these two novellas will be appearing in Italian in 2019 and 2020!

How cool is that? It’s the first time my work has been translated into another language.

In the Shadow of El Paso retains its title, but they changed The Bastard Mummy to The Mummy Has Disappeared. Which is an accurate description, since that’s exactly what happens, but the change does blunt one of the jokes in the story. However, comedy is likely something that doesn’t always translate anyway, so we’ll see. And I get the sense that ‘bastard’, regardless of its usage, is a bit of a stronger word in the old country.

Another funny thing about translation is that something always gets lost. Now, I don’t know if this is a Google translate faux pas or not, but I still thought it was interesting. My bio in English reads, in part:

[Frank] currently resides in Redmond, Oregon, with his wife, Kristi. He is an avid hockey fan, reader, movie lover, gamer, and a tortured guitarist.

But the Italian translation reads:

Frank lives in Redmond, Oregon, with his wife Kristi. He’s a hockey fan, loves reading, watching movies and torturing the guitar.

If you didn’t catch the difference on your first read-through, give it a second pass.

Yeah. Torturing the guitar.

Ah, ’tis true, ’tis true.
Source: All The Madness In My Soul