Any suggestions on how to translate Crown Duel and Court Duel to appeal to German readers? Nothing I come up with seems quite right.

This post is specifically for the native German speakers here. I am in the middle of what is a huge investment for us: getting Crown Duel translated. (It's going to come out as two books again, it's the only way I can afford it.)

Here's the thing, I don't trust my German skills to proof the book. My translator is doing what I think is a great job, but everything always needs proofing, and I need someone who can read it fast, tag punctuation, spelling, or whatever kinds of errors. Any volunteers? If people are too busy, I totally understand, and will do my best on my own.

The first book should be ready fairly soon.

Hi! I'm super excited I stumbled upon this wonderful journal. I just finished reading Crown Duel for the third time (First was at age 17 and the third at 25). I'm pretty sure I love it even more than when I read it the first time. I would just like to say that you are the bomb dot com for being so wonderful and patient to answer all these questions on your books. I have learned so much in the past hour going back and reading all your comments Ms. Smith (I'm fairly sure I read that you are married, but I'm going to err on the side of caution). I am very irritated though that I just found out about the prequel to Crown Duel! LOL, I would have looooved to have read that before I re-read Crown Duel. I guess I'll have to purchase that and plan another big re-read in the near future. Vidanric is such a superbly written male character.

I have a couple of questions, one about your books and one about writing in general. All the questions that I can think of about CD have been answered in previous posts, except one (at least that I've seen). I saw on your website that you have a pronunciation guide for another one of your books (the title I cannot recall at the moment) but you have nothing for CD. Now I know the names aren't as taxing as the ones listed, but is there any pronunciation guide for CD on the web or something that I may have missed? I have this embarrassing tendency to mispronounce things and I like reading everything as the author intended.

The other question about writing is this: Do you need to have studied writing/classic literature/English/history etc. to be able to write a publishable novel/book? Now by studied, I mean a degree or any other type of writing classes. I always find myself looking at author bios and seeing how relevant their educational background is to what they do.

Ms. Smith, you are an absolute doll and I look forward to reading more of your work and reading the answers to all the questions these wonderful folks post on this journal.

Hi! I'm Bookworm.  I've been lurking around on here for 2 years, so I decided that I had better come around and introduce myself.  Crown Duel is my favorite book ever.  Unfortunately, my library is on strike against getting any of the new releases, but I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of A Stranger to Command.   Otherwise, I really enjoy great books and discussing them (and if anybody knows me from Sounis, disecting them!! :) 

Anyway, I come bearing gifts!!  I enjoy making book trailers, so I made one of Crown Duel (the Firebirds edition).  I hope you enjoy!! :)


( Here there be a trailer ... )

Live now is the podcast I did for the Skiffy and Fanty show. Shaun and Jen are SF and F readers at all ends of the genre. They were very friendly and relaxed; my struggles were partly due to end of book tiredness, and partly my worry about being too prolix, leading to far too many "uhs" and silences. There is also the element of no visual cues when one is doing an interview like this, making me think of the old radio days. Anyway, here is the link.

Hello. A question for Ms. Smith; how do you pronounce a lot of the names in Banner of the damned? I'm about 2/3 of the way through (fabulous btw. totally gripping) and I'm curious as to how the names are actually said. Especially since the transfer from Colend to Remalna to Marloven Hess means the pronounciation keeps on changing. like Tharais, who is later referred to as Therais in the Remalna books, etc.

Tharais (is it Ther-rae-us?)
Lasthavais (Las-tha-vice?)
Anhar (Anne-har? emphasis on first or second syllable?)
Emras (em-ras or eem-ras?)
Tdiran (ta-deer-an?)

Thank you!

I agreed to do that extreme rarity, a booksigning. I hoped that all two of you who might show up would buy something at the new Mysterious Galaxy, our new local indie. I'd love to drum up biz for them--plan to buy at least one book myself.

Banner got reviewed by someone who doesn't like most of my stuff, but seems to have liked this book.

Today Banner of the Damned is out. It's a stand-alone, poised between the Inda books and the whole modern arc--it introduces some stuff that will be recognizable in later stories. (People, places, and things.)

People who have read Crown Duel will recognize Remalna 400 years ago, for instance.


Things I kept thinking about besides the usual (families, permutations of love, the cost of power, human instinct including the torquing of the psyche when survival instinct is forced forward): narrators, truth, reliable and unreliable. Relationships. Besides adventure and magic and stuff.