1. Tell us a bit about your background and how you got into translating books.

I came to translating via a career in the legal world. I read both Law and Arts at Adelaide University, majoring in French language and literature. I then completed an Honours year in French at Sydney University. Languages have always been my first love, I think; I have polyglot parents – a Swedish mother who speaks 5 languages and an Australian father who also speaks 5 languages (although two of his are no longer really “spoken”, ie Latin and Ancient Greek.) It’s probably fair to say I inherited a love of words – in many languages: French, German, Italian, Swedish -from them both!

After practising as a solicitor in Sydney and London, I made a decision to go back to my love of French and sought my NAATI qualifications in translation. It took me a while to launch myself into the wonderful world of literary translating after spending a number of years working as a legal translator.

It was a conversation with my brother, an art critic, that prompted me to take the leap from law to literature. That, and the never-ending support of my husband who encouraged me to focus on my first project, the translation into English of the Countess de Ségur’s iconic French children’s books. I have also been extremely fortunate to have wonderful friends and mentors: Cheryl Akle, director of Better Reading, who introduced me to Lou Johnson at Simon & Schuster, publishers of my translations of the Countess’s beautiful books; and Sophie Masson, author and one of the directors of Christmas Press and Eagle Books.

2. What has been the most exciting part of translating a Jules Verne novel?

It is an enormous privilege to be part of this exciting publishing event. It’s not every day one gets to translate a Jules Verne novel!

While Mikhail has been, and continues to be, enormously popular in France, it is almost entirely unknown to Anglophones. So, perhaps one of the most exciting parts of the project is knowing that I am part of the team bringing this wonderful historical adventure story to a whole new English-speaking audience.

Jules Verne is a masterful story-teller, and I feel very privileged to be helping to continue his legacy. And what a legacy it is!

3. What has been the most challenging part?

The challenges involved in translating such a novel are numerous, but they are part of the fun! Verne is the master of creating a very immediate sense of place, even if that place is a village in the heart of Siberia. Part of his technique involves the extraordinary degree of detail with which he paints his scenes – one can almost see the lightning cracking over the Urals in the middle of a thunderstorm, feel the bumpy road as the wooden telega wends its way through the mountain pass. His vocabulary is enormously rich and I often find myself delving into my wonderful 19th century dictionaries and poring over old maps of the Russian Empire given to me by my father-in-law for just the purpose of confirming place names and geography. Yet Verne’s dialogue is sharp and fresh. It scarcely feels like any work is needed to render it into engaging English for a 21st century reader!

4. Is there anything that simply won’t translate into English and how do you get around that?

Linguistically, challenges often arise when translating humour and wordplays, but working on such sentences can be the most entertaining and gratifying for a translator. There have certainly been some concepts and even sentence structures favoured in the 19th century that have had me sitting back on my haunches while I determine the best way to render them for our new readership. Hopefully I have been successful in my endeavours in this regard!

5. What’s next for you and Eagle Books?

I am very much focussed on this exciting launch title for Eagle Books, but I hope it is the first of many wonderful collaborations.

Thanks Stephanie for your insights into an unusual, but different, fun and rewarding career. Please do consider backing Stephanie’s project here.

You can like the facebook page for Eagle Books here and the Eagle Press website here. I will be interviewing others involved with this project in coming weeks so stay tuned…

About Stephanie…

Stephanie is a translator into English of all things literary and French. Having worked as a lawyer in Sydney and London, Stephanie happily traded in a legal career for a return to her linguistic calling. After several years as a legal translator, she left the world of pleadings and contractual documents behind and made her literary translation début with a new English translation of 19th century French children’s author, the Countess de Ségur’s Fleurville Trilogy published by Simon & Schuster (Australia) in 2010. The Trilogy includes the perennially popular Sophie’s Misfortunes, Camille and Madeleine: A Tale of Two Perfect Little Girls and The Holidays. Stephanie’s subsequent translations of the Countess’ works – also published by Simon & Schuster (Australia) – include the wonderfully cheeky Monsieur Cadichon: Memoirs of a Donkey (2011) and A Room at Guardian Angel Inn (2012) and its sequel, General Dourakine (2013). Her original short story, The Right Path, was published in Once Upon A Christmas (Christmas Press, 2014). Stephanie lives in Sydney with her family. Her website is at www.stephaniesmee.com

1. Tell us a bit about Christmas Press and its imprint Eagle books.

Christmas Press is a small children’s publisher, a partnership business between four creators: myself; illustrator and designer David Allan; author and illustrator Fiona McDonald; and writer and editor Beattie Alvarez. We started in 2013 and to date(March 2015) have published 4 books – three picture books featuring retellings of traditional tales – fairy tales, folk tales, myths and legends by well-known authors(to date, Ursula Dubosarsky, Kate Forsyth, and myself, with more to come this year) and lavishly illustrated by emerging illustrators – in this case, David and Fiona (though more illustrators will come on board next year). We have also published a Christmas anthology, Once Upon A Christmas, with poems, stories and illustrations by lots of different authors and illustrators.

Christmas Press itself will continue to concentrate on those sorts of books but we have just started a new fiction imprint for young people, Eagle Books, which will concentrate specifically on adventure fiction. And very excitingly our launch title is the first new English translation in over a hundred years of the great Jules Verne classic, Mikhail Strogoff, which will be translated by Stephanie Smee, whose previous translations of the great classics by the Countess de Segur have been bestsellers.

2. What made you interested in setting up a small press?

We felt there was a gap in the market–and that there WAS a market for retellings of traditional stories, the kinds of books we weren’t seeing around but that we’d all grown up on, loved, and been inspired by. And then as Christmas Press developed, we felt there was also an opening for the kinds of very adventure-focussed fiction that Eagle Books will focus on.

3. What is your long-term vision for each imprint?

Christmas Press will very much concentrate on those twin elements: beautiful picture book retellings of traditional stories, and one Christmas-themed title a year. We may also consider other possibilities in the future, such as standalone picture books or reprints of out of print books. But that’s for later. With Eagle Books, we’ll be concentrating on adventure fiction: whether set in historical, contemporary or fantasy backgrounds, and with a mix of classic and modern authors. We feel it’s important for a small press to not try to do too much and go haring off in all directions. So our lists are very focussed.

4. What is your top learning from starting your own small business?

Do your homework regarding sales possibilities, pitching to distributors etc: very important you get that right!

5. What opportunities are there for people to:

a) get involved?
Have a look at our books, check out our websites and Facebook pages and let us know what you think!

b) support your press?

Right now, it would be great if people might have a look at our crowdfunding campaign for Mikhail Strognoff and consider contributing to and/or publicising this fantastic project.

Thanks Sophie for some great insight into your latest projects! Please do consider backing Sophie’s project here. You can like the facebook page for Eagle Books here and for Christmas Press here. You can find the Eagle Press website here and the Christmas Press website here. I will be interviewing others involved with this project in coming weeks so stay tuned…

About Sophie:

Born in Indonesia of French parents, and brought up in Australia and France, Sophie Masson is the award-winning and internationally-published author of over 60 books for children, young adults and adults, published in Australia and many other countries. Among these are her bestselling historical novel for children, The Hunt for Ned Kelly (Scholastic Australia), which won the Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children’s Literature in the 2011 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. She has also written four popular YA romantic thrillers under the name of Isabelle Merlin. Under the name of Jenna Austen, she has also published two romantic comedies for tweens and early teens.

You can follow Sophie’s blog or read her website

1. The Time Machine by H G Wells

Though this story is not steampunk per se, it was books such as this, 20 000 Leagues Under the Sea, and Journey to the Centre of the Earth which influenced the scope of the genre. If you wanted to try another precursor type, The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde is very famous.

2. The Mortal Engines quartet by Philip Reeve

A post apocalyptic story which involves airships aplenty.

3. The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers

A time travel fantasy novel involving dangerous Ancient Egyptian magic! There’s something for everyone in this book. Incidentally, Tim Powers wrote On Stranger Tides, which Disney optioned to use for ideas in the fourth Pirates of the Carribean film.

4. Northern Lights (Book 1 of His Dark Materials) by Philip Pullman

Pullman’s alternative Oxford was plenty steampunk in this first book which sees Lyra off to find out the mystery of Dust.

5. Soulless by Gail Carriger

I have reviewed this novel previously on InkAshlings. A comedy of manners crossed with the paranormal crossed with romance crossed with steam punk might seem a bit much. Surprisingly, it works and is a heck of a lot of fun!

6. Perdido Street Station by China Mielville

This book has won a lot of literary awards for its writing style and originality. A parallel fantasy universe with steampunk technology, Mielville depicts an industrial police state tackling Victorian values along the way.

7. Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

A young adult novel which explores an altenate World War One using the steampunk genre.

8. Worldshaker/Liberater by Richard Harland

Another young adult author from Australia, Harland explores an alternate Imperial era marked by different choices made during the Napoleonic Wars. Harland explores leftover British values of class, gender and status in these two juggernaut steampunk novels.

8. The Extraudinaires by Micheal Pryor

Yet another YA Australian author, Pryor loves the steampunk genre and writes about it often at his website. This particular series sees old school magic, adventure and steampunk settings combined to generate a whole lot of exciting reading.

9. Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

Steampunk combined with zombies in New York. Exciting stuff!

10. Infernal Devices by K. W. Jeter

A steampunkian Victorian fantasy which has recently been reprinted by Angry Robots Books. This older book features clockwork creations which were to become a mainstay of the genre.

Do you read steampunk? What are your favourites?