Thursday, June 19, 2008

Finished things

I feel like a million bucks. The reason: I finished some hours back the first draft of the translation of a major new American hardboiled caper novel. I'm a bit too busy to write about the whole thing more fully, but you can guess what that novel is, when I tell that I burst out laughing when I received a spam e-mail two or three minutes after completing the job - the message "came" from "Wachovia bank". (And you may remember that I've hinted at the past on this blog and probably elsewhere, too, that I'll be editing a series of crime paperbacks. More on this later. Stay tuned.)

The translation is not the only thing that was finished lately. Yesterday I picked up from the printers the latest issue of Ässä. You may remember that my hobby is to publish small press crime magazines (or fanzines; I don't know what word I should use). Ässä is the kid brother of the family. It contains only stories under 1,000 words, preferably even shorter. It's the world's smallest pulp mag, a magazine with flash fiction stories.

The newest issue, No. 2, is a bit smaller than the previous one, from the last year, but it was only due my lack of time. There's not, for example, an old story from the archives (the last issue had two, one by Otso Kantokorpi and one by Jussi Kylätasku, both Finnish writers). There are more translations than original Finnish stories - Ässä has stories by JT Ellison, Patti Abbott, Patricia J. Hale, Pearce Hansen, Todd Mason and John Weagly. The Finnish writers in the issue are Pasi Karppanen, Tapani Bagge, Salla Simukka and myself. (Well, okay, Tapani's and Salla's stories are old - they were published in a flash fiction series I edited for a weekly paper, Valo, last year.)
The picture accompanying this post was just too hilarious not to use: when I went to the printers, the magazines were wrapped in a pink paper. That's just too cute!

The cover illo is by anonymous - I found it in a sixties' book that dealt with media violence.

Happy Midsummer's Eve to everyone!

10 comments:

pattinase (abbott) said...

Any way I can order a copy of this? Looks like so much fun to have.

Juri said...

Forgot to say that all the contributors will receive a copy. That goes for you, too, Patti!

pattinase (abbott) said...

Thanks, Juri. What a treat! I don't have your email address for some reason. If you need mine for a street address, it's aa2579@wayne.edu

Todd Mason said...

Glad to be published in translation for the first time (that I'm aware of) in such good company. Looking forward to it!

Since no monetary payment is involved, you could call _Ässä_ a little magazine or a fanzine, in English terms current in academic, crime fiction and fantastic fiction circles...if you paid some token amount or had a circulation into four figures, it might be a "semiprozine."

Juri said...

Yes, I'm aware of the non-payment criterion, but for some reason, perhaps wrongly, I've associated the word "fanzine" with a magazine that has articles in it. This - as are my other zines - contains only fiction, and I've been thinking about calling them "fiction fanzines", but that sounds odd.

And thanks, Todd, for the Malzberg info. I'll at least take a look at Earl's fanzine (sic).

Todd Mason said...

Fanzines have leaned toward nonfiction mostly since the tradition of fan-fiction has usually been pretty dire (often because if it was good, it would've been picked up by a professional or semipro magazine). But a lot of faan-fiction (and other varieties of fiction about fans and faans and other topics) still appears. To say nothing of slash and related things.

Little magazines, whih can pay decent amounts of money or in copies (or not even that), might be the term to go with for yours.

JT Ellison said...

Juri, what an incredible honor to be included with such luminaries! Thank you for my first real translation. I'm so excited, and can't wait to see the magazine!
All best,
JT

Patricia said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Patricia said...

What JT said, ditto!

Thanks, Juri.

Juri said...

Thanks, everyone, nice to see so much enthusiasm!