The German publisher Fischer just sent me some copies of Kalix. Fluch der Werwölfe, which is due to be published any day now. At the start of September, I think. This is their translation of Curse of the Wolf Girl.I like the cover. It's a really nice book. It's also extremely large, a good deal larger than the English edition. Quite a hefty object in fact. You could really do some damage with this book, if you were annoyed with someone and it was the only object to hand.
I'll give two signed copies of this book away free to any German speakers. If you are German and would like one of these two free copies, then do this -
1) Write a reply here saying you want the book.
2) Write something in German that will convince us you actually are German.
3) Email me your address
And I'll send the first two people to do that a signed copy of the book.
[edit 3.40pm - I've given away the German books now, it's too late to enter. Sorry]
Also on the subject of book giveaways, my publisher Piatkus has a competition to win copies of Curse of the Wolf Girl. Go here to look at the competition. They're giving away ten copies so it is worth entering.
I notice the German edition of the book uses quite an old photograph of me. So if you're planning to visit London from Germany to stalk the handsome young Millar, prepare to be disappointed. I look a lot older now, am ageing fast, and spend most of my time just slumped on the couch watching SpongeBopb SquarePants, occasionally shaking my fist at the modern world. But even that feels like quite an effort these days.
What is your fav episode of Spongebob? For me, the one where Krabs sells him to flying Dutchman for pocket change, and then the Dutchman returns him for being annoying.
ReplyDeleteYes! Jahr gute Möglichkeit, um besser auf eventuelle Deutsche!
ReplyDeleteI! WANT! A! BOOK!
ReplyDeletefew months ago you mentioned you like german umlauts, so something with many "pünktchen" für you:
"Hallo Martin, viele Grüße aus dem trüben Süden von Saarbrücken von der müden Jassa"
cheerio, old chap ;-)
OK, that didn't take long for the German books. Jassa, I have your email, and I'll post you one. Andrew, email me you address and I'll post you one too.
ReplyDeleteSo, end of German book give-away.
My favourite SpongeBob? That would be hard to pick... I think my favourite was when he ended up wearing an 18th Century style white wig.
ReplyDeleteI already ordered the english edition of Curse of the Wolf Girl, but it would be a real treat to have a signed book in German too.
ReplyDeleteNow how do I convince you, that I'm German apart from my stilted English?
Perhaps I should cite Goethes Faust:
Vom Eise befreit sind Strom und Bäche durch des Frühlings holden belebenden Blick, im Tale grünet Hoffnungsglück. Der alte Winter in seiner Schwäche zog sich in rauhe Berge zurück. Von dorther sendet er fliehend nur, ohnmächtige Schauer körnigen Eises in Streifen über die grünende Flur.
But surely I could have snatched that from some online source, hmm,
at least you see my keyboard has all the German umlaut marks.
Ha, found something, probably only German people know about: There's a children's good night program called Sandmännchen, which is shown for 40 years now and it has it's own song:
Sandmann, lieber Sandmann,
es ist noch nicht so weit, wir senden erst den Abendgruß, ehe jedes Kind ins Bettchen muss...
I hope I could convince you, Thank you for writing great books!
I don't mind being too late, but you should know, the first sentence by Andrew C. makes absolutely no sense in German ;-)
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry Ola. That was a good blog post, and you are very convincing about being German! But I've given away the books now. To the two people above, and also another book to a third person who contacted me at the same time, from Germany. So I don't have any more to spare.
ReplyDeleteIf Andrew's sentence makes no sense, I think he must be learning German.
I suppose I'd better change the blog above now, to say I don't have any more books to give away.
Thanks for answering me. As I said, I don't mind. It's my fault, because I always seem to need too much time and words to make my point. Maybe I'm lucky next time. Keep up the great work and have a nice day!
ReplyDeleteYeah, my fault there, I was trying to type "Ein guter Weg, um besser auf Deutsch zu erhalten" (A good way to get better at German) but got lost in translation.
ReplyDeleteAs I said in the email sent to Martin, he's free to send the book to a native (or at least better :D ) German speaker.
auweh ! zu spät !!!
ReplyDeletenun ja ... Das macht nichts.
Ich muss Ihren Blog lesen häufiger
cheers anyway,
Flat hat
Hi Andrew,
ReplyDeleteI don't begrudge you the book. I try exactly the same in the opposite direction. As I said, I already ordered Martin's book in English ;-)
BTW: A correct translation of your sentence would have been: Eine guter Weg, um besser in Deutsch zu werden.
Have fun with the book!
Cheers,
Ola
THANK YOU !!!
ReplyDeleteomg, I'm so excited! :-)
Wow, I love the cover art on the German edition. I realise book covers are a bit of dark art at the best of times and the current UK cover really probably is the best for the UK market, but I still feel a little envious.
ReplyDeleteI think you should see if you can get a manga/graphic novel made out of the books. I know I'd buy a manga version (even if it was untranslated from Japanese) just to see your story in dramtic art form.
Warum stoße ich immer erst auf so etwas, wenn es schon vorbei ist? :(
ReplyDeleteÜbrigens hat Ola aber recht, da sind einige dabei, die geschummelt haben. ;) Ich will aber auch nicht wissen, wie mein Englisch für einen Muttersprachler klingt und das, obwohl ich Bücher auf englisch lese.
Das Buch kaufe und lese ich auf Deutsch, weil meine Mutter den ersten Teil auch sehr mochte und die spricht kein Englisch.