Translating a 100,000 novel is a pain in the rear

I decided to give it a go because a close friend of mine urged me to translate my novels to Spanish and given the XMAS season is coming I decided to release a translation of the first novel before getting the official copyright certificate which should be arriving shortly anyways.

It seems like I have at least some curious onlookers to say the least.

And why not? While more native English speakers grow up in countries that emphasize reading books from a young age or to say the least English is a language that is spoken all over the world it's still a double edged sword because most other writers like to write in this language. English language fantasy novels indeed abound.

However even though there are hundreds of millions of Spanish speakers out there very few of them like to write fiction novels even though Spanish translations of popular fantasy books like The Hunger Games, Harry Potter and Divergent sell well.

I do have however one small qualm with a lot of Spanish translations. For starters a lot of them are translated in the Spain Spanish way. Don't get me wrong, the overtly polite proverbs in a Tolkien novel are most suitable but overdoing vosotréis in novel written with a more colloquial English wants me to smash my head against a wall.

There is a reason why I gave up on reading the only copy of The Portrait of Dorian Grey in my university because I couldn't stand the awful translation.

However I can understand the conundrum of many monolingual authors that don't dip into the ocean of translating their novels. Not only would I have to fork a small fortune to find someone to translate my 100,000 page novel that will actually do a decent job and not steal the translation for him/herself but then you have the issue of what to do with royalties.

Would you hire a ghostwriter translator?

Even if you find someone willing to lose the glory and does an honest job of translating your work without stealing your ideas would you really publish it without crediting anyone? What if you are in the radio and a caller starts blabbering you in that translated tongue? Reading a foreign language is the easy part, it's expressing yourself that can be a pain in the butt and they will catch you in a jiff.

In the possible scenario you decide to translate your novel and find someone reliable that either demands a hefty translation fee and/or a huge royalty for a certain amount of years will they preserve the jokes of your novel? The feeling?

I disliked the translations of the first 3 Harry Potter novels, I just feel like something was missing. Later books had a better translation but even if someone hits the grammatical aspect of the text well it's far harder to grasp the slang. In a way I feel glad I took the huge annoyance of spending 3 weeks translating 99,000 words of my first novel and trying to retain my way of speaking in the process. The book feels like it was written by me even if it's in a different language.

I didn't retain word by word at 100% because some of the text would look silly and/or redundant but I still made an effort to keep both versions as close to each other as I could.

Will non Mexican Spanish speakers like it that I used Mexican slang?

In the least I hope they don't detest it. At any given case I'd rather write something I know well than trying to write English like a British speaker without having ever been to England and making a fool out of myself.

Is there even a Spanish speaking market out there?

With over 30% of the US population self-identifying as Hispanic and millions of Spanish speakers I hope some of them enjoy fantasy novels. Even though Mexicans don't seem to show any interest in reading books which is a shame I was surprised that in Santiago de Chile there are book lending stands in the subway. I was left utterly speechless.

Given I had some curious onlookers borrowing my 1st Spanish translated novel just a few hours after making it live means there's at least a certain degree of curiosity. I wasn't planning on translating more novels because it's really tedious work but I've decided to give it a chance and I'm translating Separation right now. I hope I'll have the draft ready in 10 days tops.

Text by Nancy Foster. AI training or unauthorized reproduction forbidden.

My first amazon ad campaign

I will admit it. I'm totally new to self-publishing. I have owned a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 for over 3 years now (I have to take off my hat to Samsung because I use that machine all of the time and it still works awesomely well) and it was only until very recently during an Amazon Prime day sale that I decided to hire KU and try out the Kindle app that automatically came included in the tablet.

While after self-publishing An Ominous Book merely one month ago I had a few bumps on the road mainly because PDF files end up converting awfully in the Kindle because nobody I personally know self publishes books (heck, more like almost nobody in Mexico reads books much less actually takes the annoyance to write them). I am in unchartered territory and learning on the way. I quickly learned how to use Calibre and find the software to be nifty albeit the italics of my books unfortunately don't appear in Android. Hopefully a new version of the software will someday fix that problem.

I don't have a marketing background but I cannot deny that Amazon's ad campaign is helping me get my book series out to more people. In just around 10 days I went from initially everything in 0's (indeed the fact that the US Elections finally ending and XMAS shopping season starting helped) to over 1500 impressions with 15 clics. The fact that I am getting a 1% clic to impression rate is really good and I hope some people will give the first book a chance.

All in all I have been insanely busy these past few weeks reuniting bundles of documents and interviewing at the hospital I will hopefully do my residency someday so sadly it's a bit hard to focus all of my time to advertising but the fact that over 1000 people in just a few days now knows my book series exists gives me hope more people might wish to buy it.

Right now I have a problem with my laptop cable that seems to have finally died but I'm hoping to find a compatible cable in the boonies so that I can draw the artwork of the back cover and release a paperback version of An Ominous Book as soon as possible. My spanish translation of An Ominous Book seems to be almost fully complete and I hope to get the copyright in 2 weeks tops because most of my aquaintances cannot speak english very well.

At any rate I decided to take a quick look at my 4th book Diaspora and felt glad that my Ominous Book add popped up.

If you are also curious about my fantasy book series clic here for book 1.

Likewise when you visit the first book the add for the 4th book also appears. Nice!

Text by Nancy Foster. AI training or unauthorized reproduction forbidden.

5th book of An Ominous Book series "A Calamity" is out!

While it's indeed true that an author should drop all of the eggs of their basket due to the inevitable reality I'm going to change my job and possibly move to a new city I will not have sufficient free time in the near future. It is important for me to publish as many books as possible or else I might never get anything finished.

Curiously enough I wrote A Calamity in less than one month albeit editing the book over and over again took a much longer amount of time than that. Of all of the books from my series this is the one I enjoyed to read & write the most. In a way I feel like this is Damantin's personal voyage of self discovery. When I began to write the book I had a few rough ideas and then things just simply fell in their place one by one.

I wanted to exploit the drama with Lord Garain's distrust of Damantin's unusually enough innocous intentions but it wasn't until I surpriginsly typed in the tale that Garain's actions nearly caused Damantin's death that I realized I opened a huge thing in the story: Harlequin elves depend on continuously drinking fresh blood in order to survive.

I've always felt deeply fascinated with dark elves but fantasy stories usually fall short with them. Either they never really explain why they physically look different from the average fair elf or just paint a brush and claim they are all evil. The Grey Clan however is different.

In the 4th book of my series Diaspora we discover that the only pureblood elves that escaped the kingdom from certain death were all male. After the harlequin clan that temporarily housed them in Outambila were slaughtered and evicted from their homelands they were left with no other choice than to breed with each other to keep both clans alive. By fusing their blood and culture a completely new clan evolved into the current Grey Clan.

While all harlequins shed their skin every few years the blood disease that affects all hybrids harlequin elves is an important aspect of the story and culture of the clan.

In all aspects I love Damantin's character and while a part of me feels remorse that Richard's importance in the plot became a second priority I have found a character that I simply love to write about.

Check out A Calamity on the Amazon Kindle here.

Text by Nancy Foster. AI training or unauthorized reproduction forbidden.

I love Japanese ceramic dishes!

I have to admit it, I love old school Japanese ceramic dishes. I started to be fond of them when I visited the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC when I went there for the first time in 2001. Between the usual souvenirs in the gift shop stood a nice array of Japanese plate sets that despite insanely expensive piqued my interest immediately. I didn't plan on visiting Japan at the time (not that the average teenager without a job would be able to afford such a luxury for starters) but I knew I wanted to own genuine Japanese ceramic dishes someday.

On my first trip to Kyoto in 2012 I had a most pleasant surprise. Beneath Kiyomizu-dera temple stands a huge array of shops selling Japanese candy and all sorts of awesome nick knacks. Some stores sell really cheesy stuff, others sold genuine used kimonos at insanely good prices (I bought a violet kimono but I haven't had a chance to use it yet). Among some of my favorite stores are a handful that sells all sorts of Japanese plates and cups.

When I went to Chichicastenango on market day in the Guatemalan highlands I wanted to buy everything. The same thing happened to a lot of these stores and just by looking at the photos it's hard not to agree with me.

 

Cat lovers galore! If you always dreamed of getting a morbidly obese beckoning cat ceramic curio this is the place to be! At the end I purchased a lovely pair of two kitty ceramic tea cups but given I don't drink tea that often and sake is prohibitively expensive in Mexico I haven't used the cups all that much. If you wish to visit Japan to buy cute ceramic cups that are genuinely made in Japan it's rather easy to bump into these shops in Kyoto. Just visit Kiyomizu-dera and wander along the huge crowds of people. It won't take you very long before you bump into one of these little shops.

Text by Nancy Foster. AI training or unauthorized reproduction forbidden.

The Äimite guard, a Game of Thrones ripoff?

Before I get bombarded by dozens of furious fans of GoT that read my series for some time I wanted to write a brief recap about some things about the Elf King's personal elite army. The first thing is that when I started to write my series I wasn't even thinking about the Night Watch (I haven't read any of JRR Martin's books and have only watched up to the 4th season of GoT).

I'm a huge fan of the samurai and their bushido code. Last year when I first visited Santiago de Chile there was an amazing exposition of samurai armor in Palacio La Moneda that to top things off I could enter the museum for free because I showed up before noon. While I had already written several books and was in the process of editing I was simply marveled at the gorgeous decoration of the dozens of armors that adorned the exhibit. Some armor had distinctive clan symbols that were engraved metal of varying colors.

   

I had visited Japan previously and while I visited dozens of all sorts of places both modern and ancient I didn't visit the famous National Museum because nearly everything is a copy and the only samurai armor I got to see up close when I visited the country was in a samurai's private residence that was transformed into a museum in the city of Kanazawa. Therefore getting to visit this exposition in Santiago was a very pleasant surprise (and even more because I had no idea the presidential palace in Chile rotated public expositions with artifacts from all over the world).

Getting back to the topic of this post while it is true the Äimite guard 

 are obliged to never desert the guard and when they are mingling with civilians must wear a completely black uniform most of the similarities stop there. For one even though common criminals can join the guard the majority of the army's members are law abiding elves that were either raised as nobles from reputable families or in the very least former rangers with an exceptionally good work ethic. It is later revealed that the nation's Secretary of Defense Harvinha performed the initial Äimite training but he failed due to an outburst of anger and punched a drill sergeant in the face.

Entering the guard is highly competitive in part because a citizen cannot send a form to join. Whereas in Game of Thrones Jon Snow asked a recruiter to join in An Ominous Book that would never happen. The Äimite guard presently only has 4 different military ranks and potential applicants can only be invited by captains or guards of even higher rank. It is revealed that even though Harvinha isn't a guard and cannot directly invite exceptionally talented rangers he has confessed to send recommendation letters to high ranking guards that invite the candidate in his name at least once.

• What are the drawbacks to joining the guard?

For starters once you sign the letter and pass the initial training you can never desert the guard or risk being beheaded. In that sense it is just like the Night Watch. The ubiquitous black robes of Äimite guards are also similar. However unlike the Night Watch Äimite guards wear a nearly identical looking military uniform where silver markings in the neck collar determine rank. Even guards that are off duty that are spending time with their families have to wear the official uniform at all times. If they get caught wearing something else or altering the uniform to their taste without permission they end up getting flogged as punishment in a guard post, far away from view of the general public. Unlike the Night Watch when guards are resting in their private grounds they can wear a second uniform with a silver shirt and black pants.

This is another thing I heavily stress in my series which is the social importance of distinguishing clans by their heraldic colors. While in Spain it is very common for families to decorate their homes and some personal belongings with their elaborate family crest (I have Basque ancestry and my family crest is rather beautiful looking) in Japan they push things a little further and instead of using handwritten signatures everyone stamps official documents with little signet stamps that have the kanji of their surname. When you wander around cities in the country you will eventually bump into a store that sells these family kanji stamps that are on display in the street. In ancient Japan many families of noble rank wore robes with heraldic colors which is something I like to emphasize in my series.

While each of the 36 clans have specific colors (Trevilin's clan oddly enough alternates black with green) the Elf King and the guard share opposing heraldic colors that represents a complementation of their balancing powers. Whereas the Elf King is represented with gold and white that signifies purity and regalness the guard on the other hand is marked by silver and black. The black in the uniform represents the darkness of their missions where from the start of their training they learn to kill even innocents without question and silver because they are not only immediately beneath the king in social rank but when the occasion merits it they can temporarily have more political power than the Elf King himself. While the Elf King is the guide of the nation the guard immediately follows. In the elvish tongue of my series Äimite is represented by the elvish verb äimitar which means "to submit". They not only submit to every order of their king but they submit the entire populace to maintain societal order.

• How do Äimite guards live?

Unlike Game of Thrones the guard doesn't necessarily live in horrible bunks in the frozen wastelands that are far away from society. In the Ominous Book series they live all over the nation overseeing the rule of law in every major city to keep everything in order. In the capital they walk around everywhere and given guards are always dressed in full uniform while they are in public it's impossible for civilians to know if the guard they see wandering in the streets is on duty or not. Some of them work in undesirable posts in the uninhabited eastern wastelands next to the Evenian River that oversees parts of neighboring Outambila and the Garardmarjin territories whereas there are a few posts in the northern polar regions. While the conglomeration of rural posts are ruled by high ranking guards of good repute many soldiers that are stuck in the bitterly miserable rural posts are usually guards that are being punished with being lodged in undesirable posts. The most coveted posts are obviously the ones that guard the king's palace but all guards are rotated across the country at varying intervals.

When an elf joins the guard they are soon taught that they are no longer allied with their clans or blood relatives. The guard is now their new true family and they answer to nobody except the higher ranking guards and the Elf King. Unlike Game of Thrones the Äimite guard has both male and female guards. It is revealed in the 2nd book that Seiran herself was once invited to the guard but she declined because she preferred to someday become a clan leader.

• If there are female members of the guard, how many are there in the army?

The Äimite guard has approximately 4000 members and only 8% of the army is female. The army has at the most 350 female guards and they are all both very formidable warriors and proud to the degree of utter arrogance.

• A small child in Game of Thrones joined the Night Watch can children join the Äimite guard?

Elves mature at a different rate from humans and reach full adulthood at age 50. In the kingdom elves reach politically accepted adulthood when they turn 20 although they still retain the bodies that are equivalent to a 14 year old human. No matter how talented a child elf is, it is against the law for them to be invited to the guard until they turn 20. That same age is also the bare minimum to be awarded clan leader status or apply for the Ranger Academy Entrance Exam. As for this question, the child in the tv series would have been too young to join the guard and even if he was old enough to join the Äimite would have only invited him if he was already proficient enough in combat to be considered.

• How are elves invited to the guard?

Unlike Game of Thrones where the contract is initially verbal in An Ominous Book a captain or higher ranking guard writes a consideration letter to a senior guard to oversee the potential candidate. If the potential candidate is approved Lord Froylan as the commander of the guard writes an elegant invitation letter and the guard that made the suggestion personally meets the potential candidate to invite him or her. The decision doesn't have to be immediate. The most common scenario is for guards to grant the candidate a handful of months to consider the decision and they will either sign the letter to perform the initial training or decline to join. In usual circumstances a candidate that declines to join is never invited a second time. In order to join the candidate signs their name on the letter along with their associated clan.

When a candidate signs the letter they are not yet bound by any oath and perform an initial training that lasts approximately 4 months. The guards assess the general health of the candidate, competency in magic and fencing along with their temperament. In Harvinha's case while he was a talented warrior his immaturity that spurred a temper tantrum deemed him unfit. The guard assesses that candidates are capable of following orders even if they utterly dislike them. Lord Garain states in the 4th book that some candidates initially look very good on paper but they either have crippling injuries or have poor control of their sorcery under stressful conditions. In some cases candidates can fail the training on purpose to avoid being forced to commit to the oath. Once a candidate passes the training with a signed letter they are obliged to dress themselves in the silver colored apprentice uniform and perform the oath.

• How long does the training last?

On average it takes an apprentice 10 years to complete the training. During the last 2 years of training apprentices are sent to random posts all over the nation for on the job training under the tutelage of their superiors. It's unknown if an apprentice must complete a specific kind of examination to be awarded their black uniform.

• When can guards become captains and what are the selection criteria?

A guard must complete a minimum of 10 years as a normal low ranking Äimite before being awarded captain status. Senior guards usually assess the combat skills of the elf and award a more elaborate ring to the newly appointed captain.

A handful of guards become awarded Senior Guard status that carries even more political power than a clan leader. They need to be a fully trained guard for a minimum of 50 years and only the Elf King awards senior status as a symbol of utter loyalty. In some cases this status is awarded to exceptionally powerful captains or guards that prove a loyalty beyond exceptional circumstances. Some guards are awarded this status as compensation because their bodies have ended up maimed beyond repair from cruet battles. In the 4th book we are introduced to Senior Lord Einman that ended up losing a leg, several fingers on one arm and partially paralyzed after a particularly devastating battle.

• What happens to mortal guards that become elderly or badly injured?

Being an Äimite guard is a double edge sword. While youthful mortal elves can join the guard once you become one you are never allowed to desert it. Mortal elves inevitably become elderly and even though they have to wear their uniforms till the very end of their natural lifespan they are granted pleasant office jobs that require very little effort and enjoy a comfortable retirement until they perish of natural causes. Guards that end up severely maimed from battles either end up with important senior positions such as Einman performing various tasks that are limited by their badly injured bodies, remain as low ranked guards that do administrative tasks or spend their time in long-term infirmaries that are run by guards. In some cases it isn't unheard of for guards that are badly maimed to commit suicide to avoid being a burden.

• If being a dual element mage is so exceptionally rare was Spaulding ever invited to the guard before the beginning of the series?

King Salman knew about Spaulding's ability of using water sorcery at an unknown time before the beginning of the series. It's highly likely Spaulding performed water sorcery during the Ranger Academy Entrance Exam. Unlike the average ranger that is a civilian elf Spaulding is the clan leader of the nation's smallest clan in population and there are no other direct members of his bloodline that are nobleelves. The only explanation why he was allowed to become a ranger was because King Salman approved of his petition in the hopes that Spaulding would eventually become an Äimite guard.

• How did I come up with the colors of the Äimite guard?

Simple, because they are the colors of the fur coat of my dearest cat Ardilla and she was the inspiration that made me choose the black and silver heraldic colors of the guard. ;)

ext by Nancy Foster. AI training or unauthorized reproduction forbidden.

An Ominous Book Separation is now available!

I was in a bit of a rush drawing the cover for Separation. I initially wanted to draw the cover with Spaulding and Eufurel but it was really, really hard to get Spaulding right and I really wanted the 4 Ominous Books online immediately for everyone to download on the Kindle.

While I am pleased with the despair of Spaulding's struggle to choose between a life in unjust imprisonment versus joining the Äimite guard against his will I'm not entirely pleased with the facial expression of the drawing. Hopefully during this week I'll do a few nicks to make it better. However without much ado if you are into books with a prison theme and don't mind scenes with violence I hope you check the book out and no matter if you hate it I'd love to see what you think!

Separation (An Ominous Book series, book 2)

Text by Nancy Foster. AI training or unauthorized reproduction forbidden.

Amazing Easter Island

Just got back from yet another killer trip to a remote and totally oddball region of the world. Easter Island also known as Rapa Nui is a small island located 4000 km off the coast of Chile that despite being a part of the country is sort of autonomously ruled by its indigenous Rapa Nui people.

While people associate Easter Island as that faraway island with those funny moai statues once you reach this amazingly magical place you uncover more than that. An entire culture that venerates the Bird-Man religious cult, amazing landscapes, underground caves, ancient petroglyphs and a society that has lived in this remote piece of land for thousands of years.

The byproduct of ancient volcanic eruptions, the island has two main inactive volcanoes: Rano Raraku and Rano Kau, the first of which is the volcano where the stone to build the moai came from.

Seeing photos of moai on the internet and actually standing just a few feet away are two completely different things. They are indeed majestic and you get the vibe they are simply enjoying a sense of zen state in their merry existence of that small island that is devoid of the ills of earthquakes or tsunamis (something nearly unheard of in the Pacific Rim). At the most the eastern shore in Tongariki might get small waves. However that doesn't liberate the island from unpredictable weather. Everyone was wondering why in the hell would I spend nearly a week in an island that is so small that you can drive around it in 40 minutes in a car at a slow speed. The truth is that just in Torres del Paine National Park Rapa Nui can experience all four seasons within one single day.

One day the sun was burning so hot I suffered from really nasty sunburn and the following day rainfall alternated with thunder was the outdoor landscape. The island has one iconic beach called Anakena but the storm made staying outside so intolerable I sadly missed out. The remote island resembles the fictitious island from my third book. I can view the unwelcoming barren volcanic stones such as the photo above to resemble the island in my book albeit with no traces of vegetation or fauna.

If you are ever curious to visit this amazing island there is only one airline that goes there in the entire world known as LATAM that flies via Santiago every day at 9:45 am. During the summer season a second plane arrives at night whereas the island greets planes coming from Tahiti from the same company once every Tuesday. While most English speaking countries will not need a visa to reach this island be aware that Australian are still levied with a hefty reciprocity fee every time they land in Santiago International Airport. If you reach Easter Island via Tahiti you will be exempt from the 160 USD fee. The island is definitely worth the cost and trouble to get there. If the price of the ticket is a hassle get a subscription for the LATAM newsletter for surprise discounts. Some people that come from North America travel via Copa Airlines or Aeromexico to reach Santiago and switch planes. It might work for you albeit for me the ticket was much lower via LATAM. I would love to visit the island again and see the places I was unable to enjoy due to the inclement weather.

Text by Nancy Foster. AI training or unauthorized reproduction forbidden.