I'm utterly over the moon: the German book site Das Lituratur-Cafe has put up a German audio translation of my Christmas werewolf story "The Werewolf Before Christmas" today. This free download is a promo for the German version of the anthology Wolfsbane and Mistletoe that I contributed to in 2008. The anthology was edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner and it's a sweet collection of werewolf stories for Christmas. Check it out and if you speak German... please stop by Das Literatur-Cafe and check out the reading of Ein Werwolf zu Weihnachten!

That is to say... while I wasn't paying attention, the German translation of Poltergeist was released in Germany the first of December. So far it's getting better reviews than Greywalker and the plans for release of Underground in German are on track for August.



Is it not pretty? I got my author copy today plus one more to squirrel away for the day I'm rich and famous and out of print.... (as it those first two are as likely as the last.... hahahaha.)

And now... back to proofing the mmpb version of the US Greywalker to be released this June....

I'm tickled pink to say I got my first fan letter in German--my first fan letter ever that wasn't in English, but not the first fan letter from a foreign fan.  See Kat Squee! with excitement!

So Sunday I headed to several other bookstores before zooming down to Huntington Beach to hang out at the Barnes & Nobel in the Bella Terra center. The area's really changed since I used to hang out there with my boyfriend back in the late 80s. The center's very colorful and upscale and full of interesting-looking things I never did get to look at.

The event went well. Jeanne, the CRM, was terrific and set up a wonderful area to chat in. Here she is doing some last minute arraging as the audience waits patiently.

The YAs in the back were annoyed that I kept talking since they were busily using the bookstore's resources as a library to compose some kind of report or such paperwork. Tough beans, kids.

Aside from them, the event was pretty good, though I suddenly noticed just how pudgy I've gotten from sitting so much and walking so little. bleh... However very cool fans make me forget that I've been neglecting the gym far too long.

It was all tons of fun and I met so many great people and have been generally treated like a princess. Which is extra cool.
And when I was done at Bella Terra, I was whisked away to John Wayne Airport for a flight home, where I am still recuperating from the past four days before trotting off again for Roseville MN Thursday.

Today I checked the mail and got one more fabulous present:

Yup, more foreign language editions! These are the Polish (left) and German (right) editions. The Polish has a slight gloss over the figure of Harper which causes that odd white line on the photo from the flash and the German is a lot different from the version we saw online several months ago, but it's very cool, nonetheless! They are also really thick. The skulls on the cover of the Polish edition repeat at the top of each chapter heading and the German edition has an ad for Poltergeist in the back with a matching cover in which the eye is gold to match the type, as the eye in this version is red. I'm very pleased!

And my husband's first comment on seeing them? "Oh cool! She doesn't have her finger on the trigger!" Men....

I just wish I could remember my German well enough to read the one. Since I don't know Polish, I'm out of luck on that one.