Island of Fog translated into Spanish!

Posted on February 14, 2017 (Subscribe to Blog)

Around September 2016, one of my beta readers, Arantza, inquired about translating Island of Fog into Spanish. I didn't know what to think at first, but she wanted to do it anyway, kind of as an experiment... so I figured why not? And of course if it sells and makes a bit of money, I'm happy to split the profit.

This week, Arantza sent me the finished book. It's a wonder to behold, all those foreign words and unfamiliar squiggly characters. I'm a complete dullard when it comes to languages other than English; I've always admired those who speak more than one language fluently. The best I can manage is a French phrase that means "the pen is on the table in the garden," which is not very useful unless I actually go to France and purposefully put a pen on a table in a garden somewhere. Then I can proudly point and say, "Le stylo est sur la table dans le jardin!"

But the translated Island of Fog book is a whole other level of awesomeness. Look at this quick excerpt:

La Isla de Niebla (Primer libro de la serie Isla de Niebla)

Hal le seguía de cerca echando un vistazo a su derecha, a su izquierda y a veces sobre su hombro. La luz del día era bastante tenue por toda la isla, incluso en los días de mayor claridad, pero allí en el bosque era mortecina. Unos cúmulos de niebla se movían entre los pinos como si estuvieran solos y perdidos.
Se rascó el brazo otra vez. Ahora que lo estaba pensando, le había estado picando un montón últimamente. Robbie se paró tan de repente que Hal casi se tropezó con él.
—¿Qué...?
—Shh —dijo Robbie alzando una mano para que esperase.
Se oía el ruido del agua fluyendo más allá de los árboles y Robbie sonrió.
—Estamos cerca —dijo y empezó a andar otra vez, aplastando un montón de setas antes de elegir un camino para atravesar la formación rocosa que despuntaba de la tierra.
Tras agacharse por debajo de unas ramas, Robbie apartó un matojo de brillantes helechos verdes y desapareció. Hal le siguió con dificultad y emergió detrás de él en un descampado de densa niebla, donde un riachuelo, de unos treinta centímetros de anchura, gorgoteaba a lo largo de un surco poco profundo. El agua hacía espuma en una lisa roca y fluía bajo una red de sedientas raíces que sobresalían por encima, antes de bajar serpenteando por una suave ladera fuera de la vista. Robbie se encaramó al borde dándose la vuelta para mirar a Hal.
—¿Lo ves? —dijo susurrando.
Hal se paró y escudriñó el descampado. «¿Ver el qué? ¿Algo en el arroyo? ¿En los árboles?» Todo lo que veía era niebla, nada inusual puesto que siempre había niebla en la isla. Por otro lado no siempre era tan densa en medio del bosque...

That's just a quick snippet from Chapter One: A strange discovery (or Capítulo Uno: Un extraño descubrimiento). But you get the idea. See the upside-down question mark, the long dashes instead of quotation marks, the accents, and of course the words themselves... all utterly foreign to me and strangely mesmerizing.

The title is actually La Isla de Niebla, which means The Island of Fog rather than just Island of Fog. I understand that adding "the" is a better choice in Spanish for reasons I won't go into here. Of course, in many languages, "The" comes in both the masculine and feminine forms. In this case, "La Isla" is feminine (probably because Abigail is such a strong character), and the next book would be masculine, El Laberinto de Fuego (in which Hal really exerts his manliness as a dragon).

Anyway.

At this point, I'd like to call on Spanish readers (especially those where Spanish is your first language, English second) to beta-read this fully translated book. This is a difficult position for an author to be in, because I can't check it over myself. I totally trust Arantza's translation and -- judging by her keen eye and the typos she's found while reading my published books! -- I'm pretty sure the manuscript is very clean. Still, another few pairs of eyes certainly couldn't hurt. Arantza is more than happy for me to send your feedback to her.

Interested? Please apply by email to keith@unearthlytales.com so I can build a beta list.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Comment by ROGER ESCHBACHER on Wednesday, February 15, 2017...

That's exciting! I wish you lots of success in this new market. Keep us posted.

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