The Guardian Unlimited book blog has an interesting post about translating poetry. Really, I think it pertains to translating most writing that is not soley instructional or informational.

Some people would disagree, saying poetry in translation is the wrong side of the tapestry - it just can’t be done. But they are talking about replication, not translation. It is perfectly true that you will never get a replica of the original - nor would you wish to. The way it works, when translator and original are in tune, is that a third poem is created. It is the child of two parents and simply couldn’t exist without them.

If you pitch Chronicle Books and it rejects you, be on the lookout for them to pitch you back a self-publishing service. If a writer referred by Chronicle uses the self-publishing service Blurb, Chronicle gets a piece of the action. [UPDATE: Chronicle Books says the information in the article I read to get this information is inaccurate. See comment from Chronicle in this post’s comments.]

I don’t think this is unethical, assuming proper disclosure, and I would hope most writers would know better than to assume one rejection means that they have to pay to get their book published. However, I find it very distasteful and rather insulting. Tacky, tacky on you, Chronicle! (Read more about it here)
I am very happy self-publishing is possible and think many people get a lot out of having control over the publishing process. There is a great community of people who share their work this way. But then there are people who believe that they will make back all the money they spent self-publishing once some big shot agent or publisher sees their book. I think that is a terrible misunderstanding of the potential and purpose of self-publishing.
Self-publishing is not the YouTube of the book world. It costs money — in many cases, a lot of money because most people can’t really do it themselves; they need to pay a service. And distribution is a nightmare. I’ve seen people with stacks of self-published books on a foldout table at a local book fair, shouting at people to buy their writing like it was some kind of multi-purpose, infomercial kitchen gadget.

Getting the book on paper isn’t the hardest part. Getting people to read it — and pay to do so — is.

–Marcia

September 19 is Talk Like a Pirate Day! In honor of that, I give you a ridiculous picture of a man who is obviously not a pirate along with some pirate lingo.

Here is some good pirate vocabulary for you to sprinkle into your conversations on this special day:

Ahoy! - “Hello!”

Avast! - Stop and give attention.

Aye! - “Why yes, I agree most heartily with everything you just said or did.”

Arrr! - Can mean, variously,”yes,” “I agree,” “I’m happy,” “I’m enjoying this beer,” “My team is going to win it all,” “I saw that television show, it sucked!” and “That was a clever remark you or I just made.” And those are just a few of the myriad possibilities of Arrr!

Bilge rat – The bilge is the lowest level of the ship. It’s loaded with ballast and slimy, reeking water. A bilge rat, then, is a rat that lives in the worst place on the ship.

Bung hole – Victuals on a ship were stored in wooden casks. The stopper in the barrel is called the bung, and the hole is called the bung hole. That’s all. It sounds a lot worse, doesn’t it? “Well, me hearties, let’s see what crawled out of the bung hole.”
Grog – An alcoholic drink, usually rum diluted with water, but in this context you could use it to refer to any alcoholic beverage other than beer, and we aren’t prepared to be picky about that, either.
Lubber – (or land lubber) This is the seaman’s version of land lover, mangled by typical pirate disregard for elocution. A lubber is someone who does not go to sea, who stays on the land.

Smartly – Do something quickly. “Smartly, me lass,” you might say when sending the bar maid off for another round. She will be so impressed she might well spit in your beer.

(From the Talk Like a Pirate Day website, which also includes pirate pickup lines such as “Ya’ know darlin’, I’m 97 percent chum free” and others that include puns on the word “booty.” –Marcia

Neato thing to check out: Largehearted Boy has a series in which authors create and discuss a playlist related to their book.

The authors and types of books featured vary. An interesting one was Chuck Klosterman talking about his playlist for “Killing Yourself to Live,” which is about his road trip visiting rock ‘n’ roll death sites. Music and writing are personal and public, so I love the intersection.
From Klosterman’s interview/playlist:

There is a long passage in the book where I analyze girls I’ve slept via the context of the 1978 KISS solo albums, and the highest-charting single from those albums was Ace’s disco metal effort “New York Groove.”

Thanks to Andre for the link!

–Marcia

All of the winners of the New Writing Ventures awards this year were women. The chair of the judging committee had this odd comment:

“I think it’s harder for a fledgling male writer to establish themselves, because market forces are swayed towards women,” he suggested. “But in this case women produced the best writing, so perhaps men just need to wake up.” – via Guardian Unlimited

Is it really harder for a male writer to establish himself? I am sincerely asking. That sounds completely counterintuitive to me. But it could be true. Writing could be one of those fields dominated by women in numbers but with the power players at the top being men. Or, I could be talking out of my bottom.

At any rate, boo hoo, men. I don’t think years of sexism toward women makes any sexism toward men appropriate or fair. However, so damn what if all the winners are women? Is that significant somehow beyond it being unusual? Good writing is good writing, and if the judge is to be believed, the best writers won. The End.
–Marcia

Bonus: If you’re all up in social networking, there’s a network for book lovers called Goodreads.

Word Pirates: Our next meeting on Sept. 20 is part two of the essay critique. Since Joy will be on the open road traveling, the meeting will be at Laura’s house. The deadline for e-mailing your essay to the group is Sept. 16.

In our meeting last night, we talked about what we’re looking for in this second editing phase. Ideally, we will all submit these to a contest. Each of us is looking for something a little different, and we should all mention that in our e-mail to the group. However, generally speaking, it will be deeper and more focused on “Does this really work? Is this going to get the attention of a judge? What would it take to make this jump to the top of the pile?”

Do you know of a good essay to inspire us in this final phase of editing? Send it along!

We also played Jabberjot, a game in which you come up with brief stories based on visual prompts. We have to remember next time we play this to change the rules to make it less complicated! Fun game, though.