Romania Goes to Africa

 Annamaria on Monday

This story begins at Icelandic Noir in November of 2014.  I am exercising a great deal of self-control not to turn this post into a pean to one of my favorite crime conferences.  It was at the meetup in question, for instance, that I found friends who have been boon companions ever since.

And where Stan and I pledged to draw the world's attention to crime fiction set in warmer climes, which resulted in Sunshine Noir.

Besides, being in Iceland in winter means one sees the sunrise and sunset every day with images like this:

That year, Jeff and I were on a panel about locations outside the Scandinavian sphere.  With us were two Romanians, including Bogdan Hrib--an author/publisher that I have stayed in touch with ever since.

About a year and a half ago, Bogan suggested that the first in my Africa series, Strange Gods might appeal to his readers and be a candidate for translation.

The ensuing effort moved along quite quickly, especially given the usual plodding pace of publishing.  And voila:

The Romanian edition of Strange Gods will launch in a couple of weeks.  What fun!

Others of my books have been translated, often into languages I cannot read at all.

I can read the page numbers!

But Romanian is a Romance language.  In Italian "Strange Gods" would be "Dei Stranieri." Zei Straini isn't that different.  So, though I cannot read the description for potential readers, since I kind of know what it says, I can get the drift.

I am sorry that I can't be in Bucharest for the launch.  I am hoping to right that omission as soon as such travel is possible.  How I pray it will be soon!