Shadow of the Bear in POLISH!

I am pleased to announce the release of Shadow of the Bear in its first foreign translation: POLISH!

Yes, Cień Niedźwiedzia: Wspotczesna Basn is available now at Polish sites online.Since my husband is half-Polish and our family has a devotion to both Saint Maximilian Kolbe and Sister Faustina Kowlalska, both Polish saints, we were delighted when we were approached by the Polish publisher for this edition. When we discovered that they are the diocesan publishers for the Diocese of Katowice, the original diocese of Karol Wojtyla, later Pope John Paul II, we were even more thrilled.

We just received six copies of the new edition in the mail today, and they are beautiful, with thick glossy covers and beautiful inside flaps, a detail not often seen on American paperbacks. The publishers did their own typesetting, including lovely sihlouettes of dark and light roses on the chapter headings:

And, what is even more charming, they used a dark rose to indicate sections in Rose's viewpoint, and a white rose to indicate Blanche's, as you can see from this section of the climax:

Thus we are very excited about our first foreign translation. To some authors, a Polish translation of their work might not be a big deal: a Spanish translation might yield a bigger market. But for me and my family, who owe so much physically and spiritually to the Polish people, having the first foreign translation be into the native language of John Paul II is simply fitting. One might even say perfect.

So if you have any Polish friends, please let them know about this new translation! And tell them that there's more to come: the publishers hope to bring out the rest of the "Snow White and Rose Red" trilogy as well within the year. Black as Night is up next for translation.

In the meantime, we have been contacted by a Spanish Catholic publisher, and I understand I have some Mexican fans who would love to see a Spanish edition.... I joked to my husband that we'll have to ask St. Josemaria Escriva (and Teresa of Avila and Blessed Miguel Pro) to help us out with that one!

And check out the : we had fun reading the Google translations. (There's no Amazon for Poland, but it looks like it can be ordered through Amazon Germany)