Before I say anything else, I’d like to turn your attention
to this brilliant picture that was drawn for me by Daniel, a fellow Pole who
goes by the moniker of “daekazu” on DeviantArt. You can find his profile
here. He does some really fine stuff,
and I’m absolutely delighted with this picture!
“Ah, but Patrick,” you must surely be saying, “that’s not
all! Would you create a new post just
to show off a new picture of yours?” I can only congratulate your deduction
skills, for this is a post that will deal with several things at once. The
first of these is, of course, the new picture, which will be displayed on some
parts of the site from now on, such as the “Prime Suspect” page (which had a
fairly generic and somewhat dull picture before this).
Well, another year has gone by and guess what? Today is May
14
th! (Unless, of course, you’re from the future, in which case,
please let me know whether the public has had the sanity to forget the
Kardashians, whoever they are.) And do you know what that means? It’s my
birthday—more specifically, my 19
th birthday! For those of you who
fail to grasp the significance of this, the legal drinking age in Canada is 19.
So how about joining me
in a
glass of rough cider?
 |
| No, seriously, I went to LCBO just for these. |
What does this new milestone mean? Well, for one thing, I am
no longer saluting you with a glass of Perrier (which is the nectar of the
gods, of course, but that’s for another day). By a strange coincidence it’s
also my 250th post! But more importantly, it gives me the
opportunity to write a reflection on this blog… and I swear this is all heading
somewhere, so please, don’t change that channel.
When I started the blog, I was doing it for my book reviews.
I had been doing something similar for a while, doing a sort of one-man-book-club
by reading several books and posting my running commentary as I progressed
through them, summing up my thoughts in the end. Unfortunately, at times my
fast reading pace meant that I would write two posts: one to announce that I
had just started The Affair of the Abominable
Albino and looked forward to reading more, and the other to announce that I
had just finished the book and here-are-my-thoughts and what-book-should-I-read-next...
A blog seemed a good solution, especially after TomCat created Detection by Moonlight.
But it took me a while to put the idea together—more specifically,
it took an infuriating book to kick-start it. Readers are probably well-aware
by now of the embarrassingly bad video I put together mocking George Baxt’s The Affair at Royalties. I have already expressed
embarrassment at my line delivery and the way the video was shot, so I will
spare you my detailed thoughts. But the mystery community is a forgiving one,
and instead of being crucified I was welcomed into the world of mystery
blogging.
 |
| Remember this monstrosity? It used to be on top of the page... |
They were humble beginnings, right enough, but where am I,
over a year after the blog’s creation? Well, I can now legally consume alcohol,
so my first video is far easier to watch now… My book collection has also
increased at an alarming rate—when I started out, I didn’t even own a single
Paul Halter
novel. Now, I have almost all of them, and have sizable collections of books by
other French authors, such as
S.
A. Steeman and
René Reouven.
There have been several memorable moments on this blog— reading
J. J. Connington and Henry Wade for the first time, finding out about Margaret
Millar (thank you, Julian Symons—and no, that wasn’t sarcasm), blatantly
plagiarising Doug Greene in an article on Derek Smith and his novel Whistle up the Devil, getting to do
several crossover reviews with other bloggers, contacting Roland Lacourbe and
Paul Halter (and getting to interview the latter!)… and now I’d like to
announce something else that I will be focusing on for the next little while...
That’s right.
I’m going to try my hand at translation.
More specifically, I intend to attempt translating René
Reouven’s
Tobie
or not Tobie, a wonderful book I read last year which I consider a
masterpiece of a detective story.
Why am I going to do this? There are several reasons. Most
notably, I’m going to have several months off of school, and during my break, I
want to do something useful with my time. Translating a novel like this seems
like a good idea, and the only challenge left (once I’ve made up my stubborn
little mind to go through with such a project) is talking to the people
responsible to negotiate the English translation rights. But like I said, I can
be incredibly stubborn, and I hope I will soon be able to announce something
more definite on translation rights.
But wait! That’s not all! What else can I possibly be
holding up my sleeve? Well…
Thanks to the help of M. Roland Lacourbe (to whom I will
forever owe a debt of the deepest gratitude), I was able to contact M. René
Reouven himself over the weekend! This was an incredible honour for me, as
someone who holds the deepest admiration for the author’s work. M. Reouven
turned out to be an extremely intelligent and kind man, who was only too glad
to help me out as best as he could (although unfortunately he himself did not
own the translation rights to his work). And afterwards… he consented to give me
an interview!!! But that’s not the best part yet… what’s even better is that this interview was recorded and is now
on YouTube (with the author’s permission, of course)!!!
That’s right, it’s a 50 minute session of me pestering M.
Reouven with questions, which he kindly answered. After a while, though, I
decided to abandon a traditional interview format, and the discussion went its
own merry way, while I tried to worm in some questions here and there that I
had prepared. The result is a discussion between two enthusiasts, as M. Reouven
elaborates on his reasons for writing his new young adult novel, how he came to
love mystery and science fiction, and what he considers is the greatest crime a
mystery author can commit. We talk about locked-room mysteries, French authors
both past and present, Jules Verne, Nero Wolfe, political correctness in modern
day reprints, and of course Sherlock Holmes, whom we both admire—in particular,
we spend quite a bit of time on the untold stories in the Canon that Dr. Watson
alludes to!
Those who can understand French can find the YouTube video
posted on my French-language blog, along with an introduction in which I
apologise for my atrocious French accent and some factual errors I made in the interview.
I also warn viewers of potential spoilers (the spoiler-heavy section is between
4:30 and 10:00), although for a 50 minute discussion, I think we did an
admirable job avoiding spoilers as a whole!
But what if you do not
understand French? Well first off, I must thank my lucky stars that you will not
understand just how bad my oral French is. But rest assured you will not be
forgotten: I will translate our interview (all glorious 50 minutes of it!) and
will post an update when the translation is ready. So here’s my question for
you: would you rather read subtitles on the French-language video, or have a
text interview like the one I did with Paul Halter?
It was a true honour to get to talk with an author I admire
so much, and to let him know how much his work means to me. I’m cursed with the
knowledge that I can never write a fan letter to John Dickson Carr. I can never
ask Agatha Christie where she gets her ideas, though she kindly answered me
anyways in Passenger to Frankfurt’s introduction.
I’ll never get to correspond with Edmund Crispin, and I can only insult Julian
Symons posthumously (which is too easy a target). That’s why this interview is such
a major moment for me. And I cannot think of a more perfect birthday present.
Thank you to everyone for checking in to the crime scene,
because without you, I wouldn’t be writing these reviews. I hope you all enjoy
the interview, whether you get to see it today or whenever I finish translating
it.
