We missed last week, I know. I was being swept away by the city of Rome and decided that it was less messy to wait until today, rather than send the newsletter halfway through the week and confuse everybody (mainly myself). I wonder how many of you have been to Rome, how many of you have stared gaping at its ancient bones and scattered little city-centre histories.
THINGS THAT HAPPENED ON THE JOURNAL THIS WEEK, AND OTHER UNRELATED RAMBLINGS:
I'm including the week before, because I can cheat here. The journal received a found thing, this and then this. Below I've put a fancy photo of The Illustrated Book of Sayings, because my book has been deemed worthy enough of Anthropologie (insert loud cackling of glee here), and they look far nicer than any photos I would be able to take.
There is a store where I live, and I sometimes (every time) go in and casually wander upstairs to stroke my book in the least strange way possible. It will never cease to be odd, watching strangers look through the pages (it feels like someone looking through your underwear drawer).
BOOK-RELATED NEWS:
I spent last Saturday at the Più libri più liberi book festival in Rome. My lovely Italian publishers, Marcos y Marcos, took the most spectacular care of me, and there were so many different places to be and people to talk to and discussions to have, that I almost forgot to be nervous (almost). In the evening, we had an event at a bookshop called Giufà, where they have created the perfect blend of books and café. I highly recommend you sniff it out if you're ever in Rome.
Possibly the best thing to come out of the trip was finally meeting Ilaria Piperno, who has translated both of my books into Italian—she did an unbelievably beautiful job. Ilaria first emailed me maybe two years ago, after a friend gave her a copy of the original US edition of Lost in Translation, and I'm sure it was love-at-first-email. There is no substitute for people who truly understand you, your work, your essential humanness; it calms the soul and fills it up to the brim with renewed, fiery hope.
The photo below is from the afternoon event at the book festival, which was a conversation about The Illustrated Book of Sayings, and everything from Roald Dahl to first impressions. Left to right: Angelica (a lovely interpreter), me, Marco Filoni (a superb Italian journalist who wrote one of the first reviews for Lost in Translation) and Ilaria (looking pensive). I may have added the bird.
The end.
I realise, belatedly, that I've talked about this and that for a long time, but I figured as it's all part of my job, that's what the newsletter should contain. And somehow, the fact that Christmas is a mere week away hasn't entirely registered with me, but I plan, perhaps, on doing a shorter (more existential) newsletter to ping out on New Year's Eve.
P.s. If you're craving a quote, I posted this one yesterday.
Farewell, see you next sometime.
Copyright © 2016 Ella Frances Sanders, All rights reserved.