I got an email over the weekend from a person who works at Carlsen, the German publisher of Life As We Knew It and the dead and the gone. She sent me this link, which I promptly followed.
Of course, it was all in German. Google, which loves me a lot (I think it's sending me roses for Valentine's Day), translated it for me, or at least some of it. Enough that I catch the drift.
My character, Miranda Evans, has her own Facebook page and Twitter account and posts videos. Well, one video, and it's in German and Google didn't translate it for me, but it's still amazing.
I don't have a Facebook page. I don't Twitter. The only videos I've ever posted were of my cats. Miranda, who, to the best of my knowledge, doesn't exist, has more friends than I do.
There's also going to be a game of some sort called Helping Miranda Evans. There are four teams already, and I'm rooting for Team Miranda.
Part of me feels a bit Twilight Zonish about all this. Has Stephen King written a book yet about some writer's character having an independent life online? Complete with Facebook and Twitter? And more friends than the writer has?
But mostly I'm awestruck by this promotional campaign. And thrilled and ecstatic. Which, according to Google, means I'm begeistert and ekstatische.
And Google loves me far too much to lie!
19 comments:
That's great news! I'll bet it'll bring in some new readers.
Your character seems to be developing a mind of its own!
Your trilogy is really successful and it flows really well, so Im not really surprised. (I'll make sure to become a fan on Miranda Evans page on Facebook.) Still can't wait for THIS WORLD WE LIVE IN. (Marked the date on my calendar!)
I just cheecked facebook and could not find the Miranda page but I typed in Life as we knew it as well and found a couple of groups
Crystal
and in an unrelated story I saw both LAWKI and TDATG at school today when I was on my sub job (yes i'm a teacherish). When I told the librarian about the third book she asked if the two books were going to merge. I told her 'I think so'. She said 'skreeeeee!'
I feel the same way :-)
Tim
I think you shouldn't depend on Google, because it's freaking powerful enough- so here's your personal video-translation. ;)
Don't expect any surprises. Video is set in Germany, which annoyed me in the beginning, but it actually makes sense, I mean people are talking German, why should they talk about the situation in the US?
So here we go:
"Woman:
Dear Sir or Madam,
our program has been interrupted for a special live transmission:
What happened yesterday at 7.37 leaves the world holding it's breath. (sorry, no idea how to translate that properly)
Since an asteroid knocked in the moon, every minute more terrifying news arrive.
Obviously natural disasters tend to happen all over the world.
We're now talking to our reporter David Schiller.
David, what's happening?
Wet Guy:
Julia, I still can't tell you exactly what's happening.
In just a few hours the whole weather-situation has changed.
After sudden hurricans in Hamburg, first Informations arrived that Tsunamis are rolling to the coasts of North-Germany and that some islands seem to be totally flooded.
For the moment, back to the studio.
Woman:
Thanks David and my dear friends, it seems we have to prepare ourselves for the worst case.
We will try to report to you again, as soon as there's new information about the crisis. "
I hope that satisfies your curiosity.
Oh, and of course there's no grammar or wording mistakes in the video, they're all my own intellectual property. ;)
Greetings from Austria,
Katharina ( your friendly not-really-neighbourhood bookseller)
Hello and Dankeschon to Chris and Hailee and Crystal and Tim and Katharina-
I tried to find the German for Hello, but all the translations kind of scared me. Also there should be a couple of dots over one of those letters in dankeshon, but I know my limitations (and those I don't know, reviewers and editors and many of my friends are more than happy to tell me).
I think my fictional Miranda Evans's name on Facebook is Helping Miranda Evans. There seem to be some real Miranda Evanses and just think how confused they'd get if people started leaving comments on their Facebook pages about the world coming to an end in Germany and Pennsylvania!
In her blog today, Miranda wrote about the time the meteor hit Siberia. That's one of my all time favorite interplanetary disasters (no dinosaurs died in the making of that disaster), so it was fun to see Miranda found it interesting also.
Maybe her widespread interests are why she's more popular than I am!
hello all. :) my english is not good but i hope you understand me. I am from the Team Miranda in Germany. it´s a game of the publisher Carlsen. We had build groups / teams (10 people). and now we help Miranda to collect informations and help her out. it´s very funny. see you Janette
Hi Janette-
I think your English is great.
I'll be watching out for Team Miranda and all the other teams. I hope you all have fun helping Miranda Evens out!
yes we do it! :D the game (has? had? is? haha) started yesterday. we have 7 teams. team cullen, team superhelden (its german and means superheros), Team weltretter (it´s german, too. and means globalsaver / preserver), team heros, TEAM MIRANDA hihi... Team NASA and Team snow patrol .. here is the link to the site of "helping Miranda Evans": http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=271997258865&ref=mf#/apps/application.php?v=wall&ref=mf&id=271997258865
oh! and what you mean whit "Ekstatische" IT´S NOT GERMAN!!! hahah :D Janette
Wow, that is so cool!
Keep on posting such themes. I love to read stories like this. Just add more pics :)
AngreeDealer
Hi again Janette and Lisa-Marie Jordan and Anonymous-
I guess I'll never learn German, even if I befriend Helping Miranda Lambert!
But I'll have a lot of fun following it anyway.
Everyone forgets about "Team Cullen". Huh? :P Actually we are all "Team Miranda" since we help her =)
Yeah, I'm a part of that awesome game as well. It was really a good idea of Carlsen starting such a freaky campaign. I'm sure it will be much fun.
"Ekstatische" does exist... though the basic form is "ekstatisch"
You needed those umlauts? Here you go *laugh* Ää Öö Üü
Goodnight =)
Hi Barbara-
Go Team Cullen Go!
And thank you for the umlauts. I know they'll come in handy!
Das ist echt toll!! :D
Hello die Hexe von Blogspot and Dankeschön!
Team Miranda need YOUR help. Today we get the second challenge. It's really hard. We need as much comments from people all over the world!
Write your town and country and tell us, what the weather at the moment like. Tell us, is there storm, flooding, volcanic eruption something like that.
You have to write the comment till 11.2. 22:00 (german time).
Team Miranda needs you comment here: http://blog.bereite-dich-vor.de/2010/02/09/world-news-team-miranda/
Sorry for my english and thank yu so much. Perhaps you can promote it a bit.
Hi Miri and thank you for your comment and for being a part of Team Miranda-
If this is any help to you, it's snowing very hard where I live right now. The wind is howling, and they're predicting blizzard conditions this afternoon.
It's definitely a good day to stay indoors!
Post a Comment