Marlies Bugmann's Blog: My Karl May translations / My Tasmaniana - Posts Tagged "karl-may"

This day a year ago, our neighbourhood erupted into what was to become the biggest bushfire disaster in Tasmania since many decades - by 5th January, we were nearly surrounded by a sky-high inferno. We evacuated - and did not know what we would come back to. My computer was in the back of the car, but my research, all of my books, and much more, remained with the house. We were cut off from the rest of the world, friends and family had no way of knowing what had become of us, as the disaster had made headlines around the world. Would I be able to continue with my translations? With the photography, the art, and reconnect with the creative mood needed to render complex works into another language?
Thankfully the flames skirted past us by some 900 metres; however, they destroyed two entire communities within minutes, along their race towards the Tasman Peninsula.
2013 was a year to recover from that shock - no new publications for the first time since 2000. Quietly I worked on several Karl May novels; three of them will be published towards the end of January 2014. The others will become available later in the year.
Two more translations are well underway, as are a couple of related projects ... January 2014 has started quietly, with a bit of rain, a bit of wind, and comfortable temperatures. But this blog is not about weather forecasts - it's about living in a wide, brown land downunder, with flooding plains and searing bushfires, and translating Karl May in the middle of it, and photographing it, and writing about it.

Veni, vidi, vici - he said; but unlike J.C. I'm still some ways off the 'vici'. I've managed to give my 50 or so books a proper home on Goodreads, yet I'm sure there's some tweaking to do here and there. And after two days of moving in (the removalists have now left), I'll head over to 'Sketch' and my 'wacom tablet' to see how I can move from pencil on paper to digital pen on virtual canvas. Hm ... never too old to learn. And it'll keep me occupied until I can unveil the latest Karl May translations later in January.

Just had an interesting discussion about Old Shatterhand, Old Firehand, and the romance between the young greenhorn (later Old Shatterhand) and Old Firehand's daughter, Helen, on another social channel. A romance between Old Shatterhand and Old Firehand's daughter? http://connect.lulu.com/t5/Shameless-...
Helen is a well-kept secret - a romance that could not be in Winnetou II.
Although Karl May's chronology is just slightly more than messy - as it doesn't really exist - his novels are nevertheless interconnected in one way or another. That's the real romance of Karl May's adventures.

... and sometimes that's what life should truly be about (you can get serious again at some later date).

Finally! FINALLY! I got my studio all worked out and ready. The easel is standing, the brushes ready, the paint pots open ... virtually - that is! Wacom tablet with intuos pen, ArtRage, Aperture, Elements 11 and my antique PS 5.5, and goodness knows what else - oh, yes, that thing with the 'retina display' the new skinny macbook. It's a life-changing experience.

... just spent a full day 'dabbling' ... can't tear myself away from it.

For the Winnetou projects I have planned I truly need all of that ... and my trusty publisher Lulu.com, of course. Karl May wrote a story about a 'self-made man' ... all I can say is: 'selbst ist die Frau' nowadays; you'll work out what I mean.

Only a short one today, as I've got to get back to my current Karl May translation ... one of the 2014 ones.