Monday, October 23, 2006

 

It's All Greek to Me...

I had a surprise offer from Athens based publisher POLIS last Friday. They want to buy A New Universal History of Infamy for translation into Greek and suggested an advance rather larger than the advances I'm usually offered. I accepted immediately. The translator will be Achilleas Kyriakides, main translator of Borges into Greek, so the end product should be very classy. I know very little about POLIS but a quick internet search reveals that someone called Jonathan Coe has just had his novel 'The Closed Circle' published by them... Whoever he is, he went to Athens for the launch: that's always a good sign!

Earlier that same day (Friday 20th) I had a photo shoot for the South Wales Evening Post. We wandered around the marina until a suitable spot was found -- an iron bridge that led nowhere -- and I was asked to "look more sinister", a request identical to that voiced by the photographer of Os Meus Livros in Lisbon last year... Does this mean that my writing is regarded as sinister? Or perhaps my normal expression is too cherubic to be photographed effectively? Whatever the case, I have been told to expect a feature on my work on Halloween, a date stunningly inappropriate to my literary aims... (My real literary aims are utterly transparent in the new novelette I am writing: a pirate story that takes place in a giant cup of tea...)

Meanwhile, At the Molehills of Madness has just reached #2 in the Shocklines bestseller list. Partly because of this, I have managed to persuade Pendragon Press to issue another collection, provisionally entitled Mirrors in the Deluge, that will follow the same format as the first book. But this probably won't appear until 2009... Plenty of time to decide on the contents and even to write new stories for it!

Comments:
As we say in Portugal, you can't please the Greek and the Trojans at the same time. A sort of "you can't have the cake and eat it too". Wisely, you chose the Greek pastry. ;)
 
Boa tarde Pedro!

Usually when I have a cake I try to eat it too! That was especially true in Lisbon. I had a bolo rei (given to me by Safaa) and I ate it. Ergo: it is possible to have a cake and eat it!

When I return to Lisbon next month I will demonstrate the proceedure! :-)
 
Oh how nice to see you lighting the road to literary wealth with both cherubic and sinister visage, dare i mention that you are malign, and you shall always be in my heart, foremost, malign.
Lets go and drink and celebrate your now less than Spartan (pun intended) existence! love and hugs
 
Well done you Mah Jong thug! Please let me bask in your reflected glory.
 
Yep, the iron bridge. In the marina. Looking moody. "More moody, more moody! Like a horror writer!" I was told. "But I don't really write horror," I protested. "It's Halloween, of course you write horror," came the reply. "Now spread your legs," the photographer continued...
 
I happened upon that photoshoot, but kept a safe distance once it got into the realms of:-

The camera really loves you, Rhys! Now just slip your string vest down a little and pout some more...

It just started to get too horrific for me, you sure you didn't script it?
 
Hi Bob! Coincidentally I found a picture of you. I'll post it on my blog now...
 
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