Sounds like wish

Blogging about translated French fiction. Mostly my own published work, but never forgetting translators who inspire me.

[soundslikewish]

the art of poetry

“One day, you will be old enough to start reading fairytales again.” - C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia

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Book trailer for 'Stories to Read by Candlelight'

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Esme’s Wish by Elizabeth Foster Wish.

Esme’s Wish is the first novel in a series by Elizabeth Foster, published by Odyssey Books in 2017. It was written for older children or young teenagers. The protagonist is a 15-year-old girl who has two friends about the same age. The book’s focus is the fantasy world that Esme slips into after her father’s second marriage, and since it does not deal too much with the emotional dramas that can accompany a new family arrangement, including a mean stepmother, I see it as more suitable for pre-teens.

I liked the focus on individual Gifts, reminding young readers that we each have one, but for some of us it takes a lot of living to discover it. While the Gifts in Aeolia are magical – various inhabitants breathe under water, walk on top of it, cast songspells, are not burnt by fire – the inference is that every human has a gift. As a teenager I would have liked to be told this. Another truth in Esme’s Wish is that we don’t know everything about our parents’ past lives and it might be painful to go searching. But I also liked knowing that Esme’s friends, Daniel and Lillian, supported her when she was searching for her mother.

For young readers, the many references to Greek mythology are a great introduction to the epics and the terms that have become part of Western language and culture. Also valuable to dwell on is the Pearl of Esperance that represents all those temptations we encounter, things that are sweet and hard to resist but do us harm in the end. It represents addictions, or even promises that we will get what we want if we just do this one forbidden thing. Esme’s Wish reminded me of Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis in which some children escape reality through a painting, and there are ships and water and dragons in it, too. These are my kinds of story.

I really enjoyed the first half of the book that included Esme’s earthly family and her thoughts in Italics as she (and I) tried to understand the turn of events. In the second more fantastical half, the pace increased but the obstacles were quickly overcome and I was no longer guessing. I was keen to come to a resolution of Esme’s problem with her new family and how they would react to her discovery. However, I’ve just learnt that many novels are now published in series form, and it’s normal to leave things open at the end of the first one. I expect all will be revealed in the next book or books.

My favourite line is: ‘Just goes to show that you shouldn’t worry too much about whatever Gift you get. It might be the best thing that ever happens to you.’

Thank you to Elizabeth Foster for sending me a copy of Esme’s Wish.

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Arthur Rackham, illustrator in James Stephens’ Irish Fairy Tales, The Wooing of Becfola. ‘She looked with angry woe at the straining and snarling horde below.‘

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On one of these adventures, as they searched a flooded river to find the ford, they saw a solitary woman in a chariot driving from the west. "I wonder what that means?" the king exclaimed thoughtfully. "Why should you wonder at a woman in a chariot?" his companion inquired, for Crimthann loved and would have knowledge. "Good, my Treasure," Dermod answered, "our minds are astonished when we see a woman able to drive a cow to pasture, for it has always seemed to us that they do not drive well." Crimthann absorbed instruction like a sponge and digested it as rapidly. "I think that is justly said," he agreed. "But," Dermod continued, "when we see a woman driving a chariot of two horses, then we are amazed indeed." When the machinery of anything is explained to us we grow interested, and Crimthann became, by instruction, as astonished as the king was. "In good truth," said he, "the woman is driving two horses." "Had you not observed it before?" his master asked with kindly malice. "I had observed but not noticed," the young man admitted. "Further," said the king, "surmise is aroused in us when we discover a woman far from a house; for you will have both observed and noticed that women are home-dwellers, and that a house without a woman or a woman without a house are imperfect objects, and although they be but half observed, they are noticed on the double." "There is no doubting it," the prince answered from a knitted and thought-tormented brow.

‘The Wooing of Becfola’ by James Stephens in Irish Fairy Tales

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Ilena Holder's review of Stories to Read by Candlelight

5/5: Just finished this short read. it would make a classy girlfriend gift for Christmas. It did put me back into my childhood and I felt as if I was in a large old home in France with someone reading one story per night before I went to sleep! The translation was spot on!

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Jennie Rosenblum's review of Stories to Read by Candlelight

4/5: This book is a translated version of stories from France in the 1890s. The current author and translator did a wonderful job keeping the old-time feel of the read. With the glorious use of language this is the perfect read for this time of year. The stories have the edge of scary; you know that place where it takes a little thought to realize exactly how far your fear can go? This is a collection to bring back memories of your childhood and the ghost stories told in dark rooms with only flashlights under your chin. It is a short book that can be enjoyed in one sitting or bit by bit to be...

[michaelmoonsbookshop]

Initial letters - designs by Ethel Larcombe

Women Painters of the World 1905

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The sweetness of a Pushcart nomination

What to do, what to do, when a small achievement cheers you but someone in the world says Bah?

There are writers out there who pooh-pooh the Pushcart Prize which honours the best poetry, short fiction and essays published in the American small presses over the previous year. One such writer has a piece that appears first in a Google search with the title 'Open Letter to Pushcart Nominated Folks'.

Roughly 10,000 nominations a year, he says, are contributed by small literary journals and presses for this prize, and therefore being nominated doesn't matter. Only winning matters. He begs: Stop adding 'Pushcart nominated' to your résumés and cover letters. To him it's nothing, it's not a big achievement. We click on his site and straight away are dressed down for feeling good about a piece of work that someone not only wanted to publish but also to nominate for a prize. His rant is thick with bitterness and editor's fatigue.

Of the 93 comments to his post, some express agreement, others say he disrespects writers who have written for long hours to earn those nominations, not to mention all the small presses working diligently to choose a few stories to nominate from hundreds they've published.

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The best comments are from those who say: Let us enjoy good things.

A few years ago my translation of 'Princess Mandosiane' by Jean Lorrain was nominated for a Pushcart prize by the journal Eleven Eleven. I didn't win anything but it was an extraordinarily sweet surprise. At the time, I did what others do, I went to Google for information and stumbled upon the result with the magnetic title of Open Letter to... I read to the end, and walked away from the screen feeling tainted, like I'd been fooled.

That was then, this is now, and just last week another of my translated stories was nominated. I went to Google again for information and was disappointed to find that very same Open Letter come up first, even after all these years. It's a wet blanket of a blog post. But there are many commenters now who assure the nominees that the small victory must be celebrated and must be included in résumés. My second nomination was by Sunspot Lit for 'Other People's Land', a translation of 'La Terre des autres' by the New Caledonian author, Claudine Jacques. Simply having it published after many rejections makes it a winner for me.

In the ebook, 365 writing prompts, there is a task:

"The internet is full of rants. Help tip the balance: today, simply be thankful for something (or someone)."

Today I'm thankful for the Pushcart prize nomination for 'Other People's Land'.

Sunset, Noumea, New Caledonia

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[maaarine]

Talks at Google: Alice Walker

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This has encouraged me to write on my blogs and forget there’s a comment box, ‘that little thing where you can get comments’, and to ignore it and turn it off. From the brilliant writer of ‘The Color Purple’.

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You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot - it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.

Maya Angelou

Read More on wordsnquotes

(via wnq-quotes)

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Recently I was asked to write a book review in exchange for my own book being reviewed (Stories to Read by Candlelight). What I thought would be like work has become something of a pleasure. The book I was offered is Esme’s Wish by Elizabeth Foster, about a 15-year-old girl who wants to know why her mother died. ‘Lost at sea’ was not acceptable to her. I’m taking notes as I go along to remind me of great lines that I can learn from.

[sleepydrummer]

As I laid down my copy of War and Peace tonight I felt I could no longer refrain from thanking you for the whole other world that you have revealed to us through those marvellous translations from the Russian… . The books have changed our lives, no less. What could it be like to be without them! I am only one voice among so many who appreciate the greatness of your task, the marvel of your achievement.“

Katherine Mansfield, writes to Constance Garnett (via sleepydrummer)

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‘Contemplation’ by M. H. Gray, illustration for ‘Le Manteau de Joseph Olénine’ in ‘Les Lettres et les Arts’, Paris, 1 July 1886

Each time I approached the desk, my eyes would meet the polonaise; she was lying on the sofa in the half-light of the lamp, with the sort of fantastic, life-like demeanor that long-worn garments have of an evening. Sometimes she seemed to be stirring, sitting up. Her poses were sensual, and a passing stream of light lit up the golden chestnut glints with more movement and life than in the morning, as though the wild curls of a Venetian head had appeared deep within the darkness of my large looking-glass. “Joseph Olenin’s Coat”, E-M de Vogüé, trans. by Patricia Worth

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Tall, bony, angular, and dry, in stiff crackling dresses of golden brown fabrics, with the air of an old goat - as she herself would say, ironically aware of her ugliness - fundamentally good and of a generosity proverbial among the destitute, but quite the free-thinker like many women brought up during the Revolution...

‘About a Portrait’ in Stories to Read by Candlelight by Jean Lorrain, trans. by Patricia Worth

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It was on the belfry of Saint Etienne's, our parish church, that I suspended her by the hole in her underskirt; but strangely it was on the towers of Saint Ouen's, bristling with grimacing figures, serpents with dragon heads, dragons with lion heads, and winged frogs, that I placed the deathly dialogue of gargoyles: On this night, rainy and cold, the silent gargoyle, suddenly bold, began to speak in words overt...

‘Marjolaine’ in Stories to Read by Candlelight, by Jean Lorrain, trans. by Patricia Worth

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On the North Bridge they were dancing, a strong cold wind was blowing, and it carried away Marjolaine. [...] And far from the town, the poor girl flew round circling and dashing through the sky. [...] Marjolaine, a soul distraught, was abruptly suspended, caught by a hole in her underskirt.