Por Ser Mujer: en español

I’m slow on the intake, as it were. Creatively speaking, I seem to be hovering over ideas but not executing. I wouldn’t call this a period of writer’s block so much as a break.

Stress and real life issues get in the way, and this is a real test but not one I’m willing to take sitting down.

Instead of waiting for it to go away (it will not), the next project simply suggested itself. How Nadine and Libby Escaped Destiny was born during March Madness, and from it came its Big Sister: Because She Was a Woman.

If I can’t take a stand to finish ongoing projects, then I can do the next best thing (which I intended to do anyway): translate BSWaW into Spanish.

The Spanish version will differ only in that the last story (The Last “It” Couple) may not make the final product and might be replaced with a story I rejected for the original book – not because its quality was subpar but because it was too painful to read and reread.

Of course, this translation will be different from the other two because even when I was translating dreams or fictionalized accounts of life, the words conveyed facts; whereas this tome, tentatively tiled Por Ser Mujer will be all fiction. I can allow some poetic license and even change a few details to suit the translation.

Is this cheating? It might be, but then the audience for the Spanish versions is likely to be different to those who read the English versions.

It gives me something to do (and don’t think this is a simple thing, you are likely to agonize over words in as much the same way as when you are creating the work). This is an act of recreation and, yet, it is also a transformation. You have to strike a delicate balance so that you don’t effect change so striking that you end up with a whole new story. Also, you do not want to make changes that will affect the characters and their motivations.

Ridiculously enough, in some instances it feels perfectly okay to change the characters’ names and give them Spanish names, but in other cases it seems like absolute sacrilege: it’s all in the balance.

Ultimately, it might take a few months to release Por Ser Mujer—if for no other reason than making sure it doesn’t read too choppily in translation. But life, in all its tribulations, will not prevent me from getting it done. Life may put hurdles in my way, but I dictate how the race goes.

Any comments on the two covers?