This has been a banner month. I got a "fan e-mail" from France. It seems that Luna has released The Compass Rose in French this month. Probably not to correspond with the North American release of The Barbed Rose, but it's very cool anyway. The French title is La Rose des Vents, which, literally translated, means the Rose of the Winds.
Wind is a touchy subject this week. I live in the Texas panhandle, and this past week, the whole place has gone up in flames. From Childress in the southeast corner to Dalhart in the northwest, grass caught fire last Sunday and the wind whipped it out of control. Today, my little town--which is no more than thirty minutes from all three of the biggest fires--got some rain, but 30 miles away, they had to shut down I-40 again, because a lightning strike started yet another fire. When the equivalent of the whole state of Connecticut is burned bare, it tends to bring things into perspective.
And yet, once you've done what you can to help--which never seems adequate to the need--what else can you do but go back to your own life, hug your family and get your work done? Still, a few more prayers for rain and no wind wouldn't go amiss...
5 comments:
Gail, our small town and shire suffered devastating losses in a bushfire on New Year's Day so the news of your fires is very close to my heart. I'll keep praying, Gail.
Keep us posted, Gail. I'll definitely keep you, my cousin and her family, and everyone in that part of the country in my prayers.
Gail -- Too cool about the French edition! Congratulations. The French, btw, are very picky about what books they reprint. You must've impressed the socks off them!!
Having driven I-40 back and forth SEVEN times from AZ to the east coast, searching for a new state/town/house, I can picture where you are and remember how dry the land is even without a drought.
Growing up on the dry ranching part of Oregon, we'd live with the summer wildfires, as we did in AZ. Our last summer in AZ, a forest fire got within a mile of our mt cabin, so I know how scary it is! I'm keeping you in my thoughts and sending you lots of postive vibes and white light -- but not the electrical kind! -- from my mystical, magical, and very green Smoky Mts.
Thanks for the thoughts, all. They did some good--JoAnn, your mist came to visit us. We've received our first decent rain in 6 months--soft and misty all day yesterday, then a little harder today after the ground's soft enough to soak it up. Hopefully it will keep coming.
You're right, Ann--everybody gets socked with something or other. Too much rain makes mudslides or floods. Too little...
And yeah, it's really tough to tell which book got re-printed when it's in Korean and you can't even read the names!
You can usually find the title on the copyright page. I know when my Pocket books are being reprinted because we have foreign rights to all of them, but often I'll hear from readers in other countries who've bought my HQ and Mira foreign editions before I know they've been reprinted.
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