Translations in Celadon

Translations in Celadon (1998) Post 330

Translations in Celadon is one of my favourites. It's a YA fantasy, written around the same time as Trinity Street, Shadowdancers and Aurora.

Rosanna Hopestill is a shy student at St Boniface College. She falls under the manipulative spell of Sari Roberts, an exotic-looking girl who is convinced she has great powers. In a way, she has, but they don't work the way she thinks. Sari has a fascination with name magic, believing, or pretending to believe, that names influence the way destiny plays out. Her name "translates" as Princess Fame Bright, and she is determined to rule her kingdom. Sari's kingdom is the green world of Celadon, whose capital city is Cerulean. 
Under Sari's influence, Rosanna, whose name translates to "Horse Still Hoping", the golden boy Asher Phillips (The Happy One who Loves Horses), misfit Suzanne Wise, (White Lily Wisdom) and Asher's foster brother Rafe Winter (Wolf Shield Winter) arrive in Celadon, "translated" into the literal interpretation of their names. Sari is the princess, Asher, her faithful groom, Suzanne, a crone, Rafe, a werewolf and Rosanna, to her dismay, is literally a horse.
   Sari conducts her band to the city to take the throne, but everything goes dreadfully wrong because Sari is in fact harnessing and using Rosanna's power of s'imagination and, Rosanna, being a horse, now thinks like a horse. 
   Of the five who enter Celadon, only three come home.
    Names have always been an interest of mine, and s'imagination, the creation of reality, is a metaphor for the way authors work. My son was a teenager when I was writing this, and so I talked over some of the plot points with him, in a general fashion. I was interested in the way a teenaged boy (which of course I've never been) would see things. I remember asking him if a pair of David-and-Jonathan friends ever found themselves on opposite sides of an issue, and fought seriously, whether they could ever repair the friendship. He said no, because one would kill the other. (He knew I was talking about fiction, I should add!) Well. After that, I knew at least one of the characters would never leave Celadon. 
   This one belongs to one of the elite band of books that worked exactly the way I wanted them to. 
   I love the cover, but it's an odd one. If viewed from one angle, it's a girl's face blended with a horse. Viewed another way, I can see a pistol. I'd be interested to know which of these images (if either) jumps out to readers.

ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. If you enjoyed a post, or want to ask about any