Guess what the postie delivered a few days ago? We weren't quite sure ourselves when the tightly wrapped parcel arrived a few mornings ago, which added nicely to the excitement of unwrapping the mystery box. We weren't disappointed either; nestled within countless layers of cardboard and padding were the advance copies of the bilingual - Simplified Chinese and English - edition of Willow the Wonderer picture books!
It's hard to describe the feeling you get when you see your work transcend the language and place it was conceived in - and grace distant lands, peoples and cultures...
For us the feeling isn't necessarily one of pride or excitement or even ecstatic joy. Rather, we felt an overwhelming sense of humility and gratitude that someone, somewhere picked up our books and thought it worthy of their time and effort to bring it to readers in their homeland.
This is the same feeling that arose when I saw the first few orders come through for our books. That was about three years ago and in all honesty, it's what I feel even today when I see new orders come through. It's always humbling to see perfect strangers choosing to share the stories we are creating with the special little ones in their lives.
It has never been lost on us that writing stories for the little ones is not a priviledge - it's a responsibility.
Stories shape who we are and the ones that we read in our early lives in particular, tend to leave an indelible mark on our psyche. We take great care when crafting ours to weave in timeless wisdom that may help our young readers navigate their future lives. Indeed, these are stories that we wish we'd grown up with.
So as our counterparts in China, Beijing Reader and Thinker Culture Co (BRTCC) get ready to launch the series across mainland China this month, we extend our gratitude to them for giving Willow the Wonderer a home - and as is abundantly evident in the books we received, taking great care in translating and producing the books.
None of this would have transpired had we not had the help from our Chinese rights agents, CA-LINK, who took the time to respond to my 'cold' email and take on the representation of our works. Our thanks goes out to the team there as well.
These days, even great books require great luck to find their way to their readers! So I conclude this blog by sending out some seriously positive vibes to the team in China as they get ready for the book launch:
Wish you all the best, or in the spirit of bilingual editions, 祝你好运 (Zhù nǐ hǎo yùn)!
Meeting the team during our recent trip to China
Second photo from the left : Lianwen Wang (Editor BRTCC), Tiannu (Tiffany) Guo (Copyright Manager BRTCC), Darren, Willow, Reeta,Wang Dan (Editor BRTCC), Karin Xioa (Rights Executive CA-Link)
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