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steepholm
I considered asking for this to be blazoned on my new book, thinking it might attract attention in Waterstone's, but in the end we went with a shot of the charming (but I suspect unlicensed) Peter Rabbit-themed shop in Yufuin Floral Village, Oita Prefecture. You must wait until the final chapter to makes its acquaintance in the text, but it's worth it.
Either way, my book is finally published! (At least in electronic form - the physical lags by about a month.) Will it do well? Will it languish? I've been in this game long enough to know that commercial and even critical success are unpredictable and bear only a slight relation to my own estimate of a book's worth. (Why was The Lurkers, easily my worst novel, the only one to win any sort of prize - albeit a very small one?) At any rate, if it does sell, it will be only partly due to me. There are always people hungry to read about Japan, and Studio Ghibli has its own draw, so they will deserve a lot of whatever credit there is to be shared round.
Despite, that, I intend to take it all.
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Date: 2023-09-23 02:35 pm (UTC)mazel tov!!!
I love how the image you made looks like the typesetting in Figgs & Phantoms, lol.
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Date: 2023-09-23 06:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2023-09-23 07:12 pm (UTC)Congratulations! I hope many people want to read it. I certainly do.
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Date: 2023-09-23 07:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2023-09-25 11:47 am (UTC)Arthur Ransome gets a mention (as one of the authors translated by Teruo Jingū), but not really more than that. This needs further investigation...
Anyway, if you do read it, please let me know what you think.
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Date: 2023-09-25 12:45 pm (UTC)I have a very vague memory that I once attended an event somewhere on the shores of Coniston Water involving the Arthur Ransome Society and its president Brigit Sanders (nee Altounyan) - Brigit was the youngest of the family and played the smallest role in the books, but seemed more comfortable with the legacy than her siblings. Anyway, I am trying to remember whether there were Japanese fans present; there must be some reason why I have the Japanese-Ransome connection so firmly established in my head. I see there is a Japanese Arthur Ransome Club (not sure if that link will work, my copy-and-paste doesn't seem to like the Japanese characters).
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Date: 2023-09-25 02:50 pm (UTC)I have a glass-fronted bookcase (inherited from my father) for my family books, an ever growing collection as there appears to be few Butlers who haven't at least dashed off a tract or pamphlet. Putting it in order is my retirement project, but I fear I stand about as much chance of finishing it as Mr Casaubon his Key to All Mythologies.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were phalanx of Ransomites somewhere in Japan - in fact, I shall make it my mission to seek them out!
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