Fall 2008

I haven’t updated my website for over a year, almost two years, actually. There are several reasons for that.

On May 21th , 2007 my brother married an old family friend in a very small and private ceremony. The next day, we celebrated my mother’s 70^th birthday with left-over wedding cake. Three weeks later, my father Mansoor Varzi passed away in his sleep on Thursday June 12^th , 2007, at the age of 78.

Death in the family is always a hard shock, but this was really unexpected. He had been getting weaker over the past two years since his heart attack, but he was still mobile and completely by his senses. We had expected, and planned for years of gradual decline, long-term bed-fastness, and how to nurse him. For him this was the best way. For us… after a year, still unbelievable. All of our daily plans and rituals had revolved around him, he was my “beta-reader” to find typos and spelling errors, and we would spend a couple of hours every day watching anime together - he loved Detective Conan, One Piece, and Naruto, which he expected me to translate for him from German, and followed any other animation shown on the German and French Channels avidly.

We were still reeling, trying to cope with our loss and the traditional 40 days of official mourning and visits, when another news hit me hard: Hossein Ebrahimi Elvand, a superb translator and my mentor - as he was the mentor to many many others too - after long years of fighting had finally fallen to cancer on September 24^th , 2007. The main cause of his death, though, was disappointment: The House of Translation, his life-work, a haven for translators of Children and Juvenile Literature, had been closed down shortly before. I’d been too involved with my own grief at that time, but it is easy to imagine how this sudden loss of his hopes and dreams, not to mention all of his hard work, had caused a shock that weakened his body to the critical phase.

There are many eulogies written about Mr. Elvand, and many gatherings took place to remember his large body of works. Nothing that I say could be enough about this kind, humane, HUMAN gentleman who touched so many people, and was personally responsible to start me off as a translator and researcher, the first “adult” who took my interest in Science Fiction and Fantasy seriously, and would proudly present me as his “specialist” to everyone who’d listen. My single hold on reality after my father’s death had been the thought of the few other “father-figures” that I had, losing the one who’d encouraged me so much on a professional level was catastrophic.

I confess not even to think about work or anything work related for several months. My brother wasn’t much better off, the saving grace being that my sister-in-law and her sister and parents had been very close to my father, and genuinely shared our grief and took care of us. My mother… coped, as she had coped with the death of my brother Keyvan fifteen years ago. Miss Kitty was thoroughly confused, she had lost her napping partner and kept searching for him, and barely let the rest of us get out of her sight.

A slight return to normal occurred in winter 2007, when I received a price from the 8^th Festival of Children and Juvenile’s Press for two of my articles: “An Introduction to Fantasy” and “Popular Fiction”. My stuff wasn’t that good, but the judges complained about a dearth of new subjects in the category, so I probably got chosen for introducing something new. Huh.

This made me go back to work, though at a slower pace than before. In spring 2008 I wrote my second original novel, Old Woman Bad Luck and the Gold Crowned Bird (rough translation, if I ever write it in English, it will need a better title). Currently I’m trying to find publishers for that, the Collection The Adventures of Leila, and the various translations I did before Dad’s passing and after. It doesn’t look very hopeful, as the publishing community in Iran is under severe financial pressure. As I keep saying to people, writing and translating is a work of heart, not a paying job!

I also became a member of the Society of Children’s Book’s Writers on the strength of my translations. This older institution is actually the very place I met Mr. Elvand for the first time, and it is now THE place where we are trying to follow his dreams. Right now we have started a series of semi-seminars on SF&F, with me being responsible for the “F” talks…. The poor audience!

Lastly, another surprising piece of news that was very unexpected - my last published translation was chosen for a very acclaimed award. It was unexpected, because I loathed doing the translation for personal reasons. But, well… - I even got my 60 seconds of fame on the TV, even if I didn’t see it myself. The bitter drop is of course that my father would have been so proud and would have bragged so much. Sigh.

And, of course, I have now a new incentive for working, since I’m going to be an aunt around Christmas.