PIP Takes The Plunge (Life Skills Programs Confidence Series Book 1)

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Certification can be expensive, especially for professionals who are accredited by more than one association, but it is an investment in yourself and your career, and one that will certainly pay off in the long term. In supporting professionals and their practice, associations need to provide a service for their members. Understanding how to keep a steady flow of stable, continuous work and methods of improving translating and interpreting skills, are two important areas where members look for relevant information. Most associations do meet this need; offering courses, workshops and other events, but there are other ways associations could help to make our profession a better and more reliable one.

The creation of appropriate avenues for translators and interpreters to work directly with their association in a positive and consultative way, with the ability to suggest new ideas or opportunities for improvement, would encourage the association to be more aligned with the needs of practitioners. Associations could also provide an opportunity for practitioners to talk about real issues encountered in their work, providing a platform where problems can be discussed and perhaps solved, offering peer support to colleagues navigating similar situations.

It is important clients are aware of language variants and localisation issues that may arise, so they can be better informed and therefore better equipped to choose the right professional for their specific needs. Creating awareness in the community about language services and localisation issues is a service that associations can and should be involved in. Finally, achieving better communication between associations worldwide, and ensuring the same standards were adopted, would improve the quality of services internationally and serve to promote a more uniform approach to this profession.

Other professions such medicine and law have their associations. Doctors, nurses and lawyers are not be able to practice without accreditation. She is the founder of Updated Words. Catia is passionate about the translation industry and loves to share her knowledge with others. I vividly recall back then how interpreters were once regarded as volunteers, then welfare workers, and how they would at times dread the school holiday breaks - given this means little to no income.

Nowadays, interpreters are seen as highly professional and increasingly well regarded in mainstream society. In years gone by interpreters could get away with wearing casual attire for business meetings, but as more Deaf people have become professionals or are in positions of influence, interpreters have similarly become more conscious of their self-image and professionalism. While increasing demands of interpreters will continue, so too the diverse nature of the task at hand will rise.

I am very mindful of interpreters who are embarking on work in a new setting. I have taken the liberty to ask interpreters as to how they prepare and maintain their ability to continually perform at optimal levels- both physically and mentally. I am somewhat surprised that they appear to have not considered how they are looking after their tools as much as they should. Whilst there is a general rule in regards to OHS and taking breaks etc. I am not talking about investing in further training and development which is always essential and wise but investing in their total physical and mental wellbeing.

Just as we are always committed to ensuring our car is regularly serviced, do you have the same approach to your main tools? If we neglect getting our car serviced regularly, then our car will continue to underperform - leading to more costly outcomes over time. With the ever-dreaded fear for any interpreters to acquire Repetitive Strain Injury RSI , interpreters should consider investing into areas such as recovery massages and the power of mindfulness.

This in turn will allow you to maintain high performance— naturally. As for your brain, again investing in looking after your mind is also critical. Just as it is important to eat and sleep right, your brain works extensively when interpreting. We should not discount that your role as interpreters can be unpredictable and the nature, tempo and complexity of your assignment can vary suddenly. Again investing in yourself to have a full body massage can not only help your body but evidently helps your mind.

Did you know your brain is actively processing around 2, bits of information per second on any given day for an average Joe Blow in society? Imagine how much more when you are actually interpreting. Just as builders, carpenters, painters, mechanics and welders need their tools to be working efficiently and effectively in their job, the same rule should apply for sign language interpreters.

This is no different to elite athletes in my case being an Olympian as prevention is better than cure and the power of resilience was important. During the prime of my career I was having almost three to four massages a week three were for recovery from intense training and one was purely a relaxation massage. Given my chosen event the Decathlon, I was susceptible to injuries and mental tiredness and having undertaken such proactive recovery treatment, I had little to no injuries and maintained mental focus during this time.

In addition to this, I invested in ensuring I looked after my mental health and resilience component. Incorporating all this allowed me to maintain and deliver high performance — and when it counted. Costs should not be a barrier in this issue as these could be claimed as a tax deductible expense check with your accountant as part of the gap if you can claim under health insurance. There should be no shame in treating yourself to these treatments regularly. In fact, it is a very smart way to go. Committing yourself to regular maintenance of your tools will ensure that you are treating and respecting your mind and body in a professional way which in turn will enable you to continue to deliver high performing interpreting.

There is nothing more frustrating than to be laid off due to injury or feeling mentally exhausted at the expense of losing income. Given the future will see more demands of interpreting skills across various settings, thanks to the National Disability Insurance Scheme, it is never more important to ensure your tools remain clean and sharp and well maintained. As a Deaf professional myself, having now written this I too am asking myself whether I should be practicing what I preach.

I need my tools to effectively do my job in my professional role and I shall be investing in maintaining these tools in the future. Dean is an Olympian, two times Commonwealth Games and four times Deaflympian. Dean is currently CEO of Deaf Children Australia and regularly sought to speak on various matters such as high performance, disability, marketing and communications. Translation across different legal systems must respect cultural differences in the legal system, as well as recognize and reflect the styles of the legal system for which the translation is being made.

How can the inductive reasoning of common law systems be meaningfully rendered into a civil law context, based on deductive reasoning? And what of legal concepts which are viewed differently in different cultures? This session will present an overview of the history and theory of legal translation, with examples drawn from international treaties between nations. It will also include discussion time for questions drawn from professional practice.

Dr Rocco Loiacono is a lecturer in Translation Studies at the University of Western Australia and in the Curtin Law School, where he teaches in the areas of property law and business law. After graduating with a combined Law and Languages Honours degree, he worked for ten years as a lawyer, most of those in the commercial property department at national law firm Clayton Utz.

Dr Loiacono was awarded his PhD from the University of Western Australia in , for research focussing on difficulties associated with the translation of treaties across different legal systems. Regular interpreter users are acutely aware of difficulties in accessing interpreters when needed. Undoubtedly, solutions to this issue are multifaceted, but I believe that the retention of interpreters, and fostering career longevity are a big part of the solution. I have seen numerous accomplished colleagues come and go over the years. Career attrition is normal, particularly considering the nature of the job and its inherent strains, but I suspect that something may be happening in the field that is exacerbating this attrition.

Having observed this situation from several angles: It surprises me when colleagues tell me that they are exhausted and overloaded with work, while others report insufficient work and require adjunct employment to supplement their incomes. Nine people a mixture of experienced still-working interpreters; early-career interpreters, and people who had left their interpreting careers were invited to complete a simple, anonymous Survey Monkey. Respecting word limitations, I will only discuss the two most consistently reported reasons for people considering leaving or leaving, the profession: Of the six people who responded to questions regarding why they have either left, or considered leaving their career, all mentioned adverse relationships with colleagues as a factor.

This survey yielded invaluable positive data, on which I would like to have expanded, but space does not allow. As an interpreter trainer, I am privileged to share the joy and excitement that students bring when embarking on their interpreting careers. It is my dearest wish that we nurture this positivity, and that these newcomers experience career longevity, buoyed by those supportive, generous and kind colleagues that I know. Every day Australian doctors see patients whose spoken English can be insufficient to communicate their symptoms or to understand their treatment.

Often the person can talk in English but may struggle to understand technical language. Over languages are spoken in this country and yet 80 per cent of us can only speak English. The linguistic diversity of the population is so great that no matter how multilingual the doctor is the languages of doctor and patient rarely match. Most doctors will need to make a decision about whether or not to use an interpreter every day.

Here is one day in a typical general practice in a suburb, the one where I work. The practice has eight doctors, two nurses, and around patients. Although the identifying details have been altered all of these are real cases. He stares glumly at his elderly patient Sara who has booked to see him because she thought he spoke her language, the Myanmar language.

The interpreter comes on line and Dr Win is able to work out that Sara has gastritis. He explains how to test for bacteria in her stomach. Time is one of the major reasons cited by doctors for not using interpreters. Efficient medical practices delegate contacting interpreters to the front-office staff. Dr Win has learned to clarify before the consultation begins that he needs an interpreter, ask the patient to wait while reception contacts TIS National, and use that four minutes to read the patient notes and prepare himself.

Her young husband hovers in the background. If they had been in their home country an extended family of aunties and sisters would now be helping her to recover from surgery and care for her baby son. I stare aghast at the angry wound with its ridges of infected skin, trying to bury the metal staples. These should have come out five weeks ago.

A new life in Australia leads to a rewarding career

When she was discharged from hospital the staff had explained using Google Translate that she had to get the staples removed in ten days. Amina had not understood and had been too embarrassed to say so. I have a regular appointment with Bruno who has started psychiatric treatment for depression and wishes to speak about his experiences in the war ten years ago.

We have booked an on-site interpreter who speaks his language. Hana, who has been in the country for five months stands crying at the front desk with a three year old child in her arms. We have a huddled consultation with a phone interpreter in the treatment room. The child has swallowed the lithium battery from a toy. It will need to be removed by an endoscope under general anaesthetic. Hana wants to wait till her husband, who speaks better English, comes home from work. The practice pays for a taxi, and through the interpreter the nurse explains the urgency of the situation.

I ring the hospital to say they will need to get an interpreter on the phone for the consultation. Not every consultation where the person has limited English will need a professional interpreter. Sometimes the situation is of low acuity and the patient can make themselves understood. There is no doubt however that interpreters are underused in Australian medical practice.

For every consultations of a patient who speaks poor English, only one will a professional interpreter be used. There are four circumstances where doctors looking after people, whose command of English may be—at that moment—suspect, must think of using a professional interpreter, and have a defensible reason for not using one.

These situations are consent, complexity, crisis and to assess the competence of the patient to make decisions on their own behalf. Performing a procedure without informed consent is an assault. Yet all too often people with limited English proficiency are asked to sign a paper thrust in front of them, or have it explained by a family member whose technical English may be very limited.

Even though Amina spoke some English, her understanding was compromised because she was recovering from a major procedure, and she had no prior experience of wound staples. Denied the opportunity to clarify, Amina left hospital believing that staples could be left in permanently. Complexity is also the reason that pharmacists can access TIS National. Mistakes in medication dosage can have major impacts on the patient, as in a case in our study of a patient who overdosed on a medication that was to be taken intermittently, resulting in major neurological side-effects.

In a crisis professional interpreters are often overlooked in favour of any available person. In a famous case in the United States of America, a nine-year-old child who suffered a severe reaction to a medication was herself used as interpreter in the emergency department. Her sixteen-year-old brother was subsequently co-opted into interpreting to their parents when she died. Failure to use an interpreter in a crisis is an indefensible approach when there is a hour priority phone line to access interpreters. On the way home from work I called into a nursing home to see Wilf, an octogenarian whose ability to speak English, his third language, had declined as he aged.

The absolute numbers have increased by two thirds over the last ten years to at least , people. Wilf was ignoring staff and refusing meals, and the staff were worried about his mental competence. As I walked down the corridor to his room I called the telephone interpreter service. Wilf sat up clutching the phone to his ear and wept as we talked in his language. Wilf was perfectly competent, but starved of conversation. In a huge linguistically-diverse country like Australia the majority of interpreted consultations by doctors will always be by telephone.

Rather than being a secondary fall-back option doctors should think of telephone interpreting as their best option. Using a telephone interpreter requires some practice, good administrative processes that empower reception staff to access interpreters, and telephones with speaker facility. Once mastered, telephone interpreting helps doctors to be safer, more efficient and most importantly, to provide better service to their patients. This article was originally published in the Summer edition of Talking TIS and is reproduced with permission. I started my journey into a working life as a clerk for over a decade.

I then developed an injury, which saw me unable to continue working and I stayed home for eight years doing nothing. Almost immediately I fell in love with this amazing language and my hunger to know more was ravenous. I joined every class that was offered. After I completed all of the certificates, I still wanted to know more about Auslan and the next step up in my education was the interpreters course.

This journey into the Deaf society was one of great trepidation for me. My fear was almost overwhelming but Auslan was like a drug and I needed more. I would go to the Deaf Club and sit in a corner on my own with a Diet Coke these were two signs I knew so could order this drink.

After a few weeks sitting in a corner, a group of ladies took pity on me and invited me to sit with them. The next important part of my journey commenced, getting to know the Deaf community and culture, and watching native signers conversing. I feel privileged to be seen as a friend and ally to the Deaf community as well as having the honour of providing a service for them as an interpreter and occasional transliterator. The next step in my journey was to become a qualified interpreter and to work in the Deaf community. I remember my first job well as a NAATI paraprofessional accredited interpreter, it was a medical appointment.

What did they say? Please repeat the word? Another lesson in my journey learnt, Deaf people would often sign and fingerspell the same word for emphasis. Throughout my career as an interpreter there have been many opportunities for me to learn lessons and improve my skills. They have all taught me so much and given me opportunities to work in amazing places and bear witness to even more remarkable things.

Some of the jobs I undertook were as a tandem or in a team with both hearing and Deaf interpreters. These opportunities provided more experiential steps along my journey. I almost groan with envy when observing a DI interpretation. To work with them and know that they are there for the benefit of all of us in the room is a privilege.

I thank them for these working opportunities and I am so grateful to have worked with them during my journey. Reciprocity is a wonderful thing! Our association has also provided extremely valuable professional development opportunities locally and at the winter schools and ASLIA National Conferences. These have made my journey all the more knowledgeable and enjoyable. I cherish those who taught me and those with whom I studied. I tried to use this simple but effective tool at every booking. Sadly my journey within the Deaf and interpreting communities will be coming to an end all too soon.

So I implore you all to embrace your individual journeys with all the enthusiasm and desire to succeed that you can muster. She achieved her first accreditation in Are you thinking of expanding internationally or entering a new market? One of the first things you are likely to do is to have your marketing materials translated.

So how do you get your message and call to action across effectively in a different language.

Take the time to find a translator who is experienced in marketing and who understands your business. Translating marketing documents requires creativity, cultural competency and an ability to convey ideas whilst at the same time retaining meaning and eliciting a desired emotional response. Your company name, slogan, logo or tagline all feature prominently on your website and marketing materials. Getting it right the first time around avoids costly corrective action and damaging your reputation. Your goal should be to maintain brand coherence as much as possible within any cultural limitations.

The more informed translators are about your brand, the more accurate and effective their work will be. They do this in order to convey these to your target audience in such a way that the message really speaks to them personally. Putting these recommendations in place will go a long way to ensuring that your translated marketing content retains its original compelling message and stand-out qualities.

She has been practising since after completing a Masters of Interpreting and Translation Studies at Monash University. Nicola specialises in legal, marketing and business texts, drawing on over five years' experience in marketing, as well as a background in international business. She also authors a translation blog here. This article is republished with permission. As part of their work, our friends at TIS National have allowed us to share some personal stories from their interpreters. This is Hoa's story. I am still doing it for the love of it, not for the money".

Hoa started interpreting as an unofficial volunteer assistant when she was about 20 years old in a refugee camp in the Philippines. Her personal drive fuelled her to persevere. Overcoming my nervousness and anxiety became my top priority. I met and befriended many people including my mentor who inspired, motivated and encouraged me not to give up my goal of becoming an accredited interpreter.

Being a registered nurse and an accredited interpreter Hoa wears different hats for different settings.

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She believes that maintaining professionalism and following the code of conduct and ethics is important. Sometimes I am called out to help interpret for Vietnamese speaking clients. Hoa believes interpreting services have changed a lot with the advent of new technologies as well as emerging demands in the community. Telephone interpreting has become an important tool to enable culturally and linguistically diverse CALD people in the rural areas to have access to a variety of services.

Hoa says "less people rely on their family members, relatives and friends for assistance". She continues, "However, sometimes machine-interpreting or translating is not very accurate. Video interpreting is another potential area. It saves time and reduces traffic congestion. It enables people to have equal access to services from anywhere in Australia". Hoa feels strongly about training for interpreters.

She believes that the interpreting industry has evolved along with social and economic progress in our society, especially with new migrants coming to Australia every year. She also feels that a professionally trained interpreter workforce will help government and private organisations provide services effectively to non-English speaking residents in different communities.

As a nurse, I like to interpret more in the health field where I can use my professional knowledge and cultural understanding to reduce any confusion or doubts helping non-English speaking Vietnamese clients regarding complex health related issues. They will be better prepared and may be advocates in the community about these programmes," Hoa said enthusiastically. Hoa also believes people should help themselves, "actually everyone should also be encouraged to learn English to support themselves help others and be independent".

Hoa believes that as an accredited interpreter one of the challenges is to keep up to date with language skills because everything is changing and it is important to have good knowledge of vocabulary. She offers these great tips for those who want to become an interpreter and keep their language alive.

Hoa suggests "There are many ways to do that, such as reading material in your language, listening to community radio programmes or just catching up with other native speakers. Your group could become not only a social club, but a professional group to learn from each other. Peer support is important as most interpreters work independently". Did you ever interpret for the police or courts? If not, are you planning to take on interpreting assignments for the police or courts in the future?

If you answered yes, then this free workshop is for you. Elizabeth Woods was admitted as a legal practitioner in The project involves the delivery of a series of public events throughout the year that promote language learning and will culminate in a revived, state-wide acknowledgement and celebration of Languages Week from August This competition is open to all ages, although the short description category via Facebook is only open to adults 18 years or older. The entrant must live in Western Australia and hold a valid Australian residency visa or be an Australian citizen.

Click here to learn more about the submission process along with the judging criteria. Disruption is staring us in the face. We read about it online, hear about it in the news, and participate in it almost on daily basis. Paying by touching your smartphone? Checking out at Woolworth through self-checkout? Booking accommodation on BnB? Telling a cafe owner off by threatening a one-star review on TripAdvisor? All these and more are in a way or another disruptions to how things were done in the not-so-distant past.

Yet as translators we are led often to believe that disruption must be about doing translations better and faster for cheaper. In fact, preferably for free. This is not totally correct. Disruption is primarily about innovation. It also about coming up with solutions to things that could not be done before or to things that were annoying and inefficient in the way they were done. Remember the days of bulky typewriters? PCs that weighed a ton? Xerox machines with perpetual jammed hiccups? I am sure few of us would want to go back to working that way. Everything that improved our modus operandi - from the access to knowledge and professional networks online to CAT tools and electronic termbases - disrupted the way we work.

However, it wasn't all positive. The same portals that open global market opportunities to us, also expose us up to global competition. If we were once big fish in a small pond, we are plankton in an endless ocean. The widening of our horizons meant we are better informed, provided we can deal with information glut. Disruption brought with it TM and its anagram MT.

Both help us work faster if we know how to use them, but with these tools come the dubious blessings of ambiguous intellectual property and post-editing. Many practitioners complain that translation quality is suffering and this is also abetted by the disruption known as crowdsourcing. As I write this, more disruption is predicted, this time from artificial intelligence and machine learning. For the uninitiated, a simplified explanation would be that we are teaching computers to use language like humans do. In its position paper on the future of the profession, FIT was more circumspect about what effect.

These models could include various types of added value or involve translation services provided as part of a diversified offering. New innovative ideas are needed. Disruption is a two-sided coin, but we do have a bit of say on which side we want it to fall. That ability to decide is called learnability. In January this year, a survey of 18, employers across all sectors in 43 countries, published at the World Economic Forum in Davos, showed that,.

This means that, regardless of how artificial intelligence will develop, we cannot just continue doing what we have always been doing, the way we have been doing it. The learn, apply and adapt principle is about learning to code, applying the code creatively to our work, and constantly adapting to an environment in which change is exponential. A golden opportunity to listen to people in the know, to debate and to enrich your professional knowledge. Having spent over 30 years translating, Sam continues to mentor and motivate many aspiring translators to expand their vision globally.

I saw an advertisement for a job in risk management that prompted me to think how risk management is what we do as sign language interpreters. In the business and financial environments, risk is part of daily life and companies and institutions structure themselves in order to manage risk. The types of risk include credit risk, financial risk, operational risk, technology risk, insurance risk and regulatory risk. The professional skilled in risk management has undergone specialised training and possesses the ability to compile, analyse and evaluate data and report on how to either avoid or reduce risk to the well-being of an individual, organisation or business.

There are a number of things they do to achieve this. For this article I will refer to two:. In the interpreting environment, risk is a part of our everyday practice on two levels. The interpreter the person is at risk; this could be from fatigue, from vicarious trauma, from Occupational Overuse Syndrome OOS or other occupational hazards. Like the risk manager, the interpreter has undergone specialist training and is conversant with the Code of Ethics, but can also access data from a range of sources, such as literary work, articles, research, PD sessions, peer conversations, conferences, media and many others, that reduce any risk.

An example is data from the research of Cokely which encourages the interpreter to allow enough time to process the source text in order to reduce the risk of omissions, additions, substitutions, intrusions and anomalies Cokely, Another example comes from Dean and Pollard who encourage the interpreter to develop control measures to mitigate risks from environmental, paralinguistic, interpersonal and intrapersonal demands placed on them Dean and Pollard, Witter-Merithew and Stewart make a case for reducing risk to consumers of interpreting services by the interpreter, novice or veteran alike, developing a solid foundation in ethical fitness and decision-making Witter-Merithew and Stewart, Woodcock and Fisher, in their work Occupational Health and Safety for Sign Language Interpreters report extensively on ways the interpreter may reduce risk or personal injury by offering a wealth of advice and a range of exercises Woodcock and Fischer, So being familiar with the Code of Ethics, its purpose and its content is important.

Analysis and evaluation of a range data provides new ways of understanding what lies behind our actions and their consequences and thus provides opportunities for us to better manage the risk to our service and those who rely on it. Interpreting can be a very isolating profession, especially in the area of educational interpreting. Two years ago, despite being involved in the Deaf Community for over 20 years and being a qualified interpreter for over 13 years I still felt I needed to increase my experience and knowledge of the Deaf Community and improve my interpreting skills.

I decided to find ways to improve that did not involve formal study. I have always been involved in professional development and have benefited greatly from the professional development run by ASLIA and ASLIA New South Wales over the years and thought maybe it was my turn to volunteer on the committee and give back to the organisation that had helped me so much. I benefited greatly from the experience and gained an appreciation for those who came before me.

Being part of the committee broadened my understanding of what our professional association does and I gained better knowledge of the disability sector and all the stakeholders involved in providing services for Deaf people. Knowledge like this can only help in the variety of situations in which we interpret. I also made friends and got to know more of the amazing people who share this great profession. I had mostly done educational interpreting up to that point.

I was unsure at first and felt out of my comfort zone but would highly recommend to anyone who has been interpreting in the same area for a while to try something new. Working with a range of Deaf adults, in a variety of different settings helped me to improve my skills dramatically. Being able to work with co-interpreters on a regular basis was also extremely beneficial. Just the incidental learning is amazing and if you are lucky enough to work with co-interpreters who are willing and able to give constructive feedback it can make a huge difference to the speed of your improvement.

I would also recommend approaching the interpreting agencies you work for in your state or territory about mentoring programs. I applied for the internship and was lucky enough to be accepted as an intern in the program which meant that I was paired up with a mentor — a more experienced interpreter- to work for the Deaf Society once a week for a whole day for 13 weeks. This gave me the confidence I needed to accept jobs that I might never have before. Interpreting is a profession where you never stop learning and improving. Have a think about ways you could continue to develop and improve your knowledge and skills so that we can continue to raise the standards of this wonderful profession!

Karen O'Toole lives in the Blue Mountains with her husband and two children. She has been involved in the Deaf community for over 30 years both here in Australia and in England. She has interpreting experience in a range of settings including education, medical, business and the disability sector. She is looking forward to meeting the challenges that the NDIS will bring and hopes to be part of this rewarding profession for many years to come. There will be dedicated streams for localisation, social media translation trends, globalisation, technology, and creativity.

Specific streams for indigenous and sign languages, interpreting in the community and conflict zones, and literary translation will also feature. As a platform for international exposure, global networking and latest industry intelligence, this is an unrivalled opportunity. Brisbane will be the focal point of the over , professional translators, interpreters and terminologists, which FIT represents, as well as senior policy makers in multilingualism, inter-cultural and inter-lignual communications, international literary publishers and international intellectual property and copyright professionals.

Through face to face engagement, video, social media, traditional marketing, television, radio and print, the congress intends to raise the profile of the importance of effective interpreting and translation skills, particularly in this globalised, interconnected corporate economy.

NAATI and the event organising committee look forward to welcoming you all to Brisbane in August and encourage all practitioners to register their attendance now. AUSIT members are also eligible for discounted congress registration. Other event partners, sponsors and exhibitors include:. The Business of Multiculturalism in Victoria is a leading-edge industry forum being held once again during Cultural Diversity Week celebrations.

The forum will explore key multicultural issues and help connect business, government and diverse communities themselves, showcasing examples of inspirational practice and innovative solutions. This seminar will consider the role of interpreters within legal proceedings, with a particular focus on situations where an interpreter may be asked to give expert opinion evidence, beyond their role as an interpreter for a witness or defendant. This might include being asked to comment on the interpretation of cultural or linguistic matters, or even to identify and compare voices on surveillance tapes.

This seminar will outline the key evidentiary and procedural frameworks that are relevant to consider when an interpreter is being asked to offer opinion evidence. It will raise some of the legal limits and ethical challenges that can arise when interpreters are asked to give evidence as experts, including the reporting requirements contained in the NSW Expert Code of Conduct.

She lectures in Evidence, and has published nationally and internationally on the role and regulation of expert opinion evidence in criminal trials. With Professor Sandra Hale and others, she is one of the Chief Investigators on an ARC funded project examining the participation of deaf citizens on juries. Basically, when the communication is taking place entirely in one common language. The support worker may be introducing the new arrival to essential processes and systems in our society—for example, showing them how to take public transport to TAFE, or take their children to school—all the while speaking in the shared LOTE.

However, such support workers are amongst those who frequently find themselves, sometimes reluctantly and often inadvertently, asked or expected to provide interpreting services. Many cognitive skills come into play, and not all bilingual people can engage in interpreting adequately, especially without training. In Latin America, Europe, Japan and China, interpreters working at a level of community interpreting equivalent to that experienced in Australia are required to have undertaken a full-time four-to-five-year degree course at a tertiary institution.

As Australia has long been the final destination of refugees and migrants from all corners of the world, our universities and TAFEs offer interpreting and translation degrees in many of the languages spoken here, but not all. As a result, it would be near impossible for every interpreter to comply with the rigorous educational standards that apply elsewhere. NAATI was created to provide testing for those aspiring to be interpreters.

It sets minimum benchmarks of competence and accuracy, and the recipients of interpreting services by NAATI accredited or recognised interpreters can at least get some idea of their levels of linguistic skills. NAATI is currently undertaking a revision of its testing and accreditation processes ; in the future, all aspiring interpreters will need to undergo a specified number of hours of appropriate training before they are deemed ready to sit NAATI accreditation tests. Ideally only accredited interpreters should be doing this work, for two main reasons.

Firstly, the acquisition and application of the knowledge and skills required, as well as the professional ethical obligations, take years of specific training and experience. However, factors including cost and convenience frequently propel bilingual support workers to act as interpreters. It is very difficult to ascertain when the content of any exchange will be and remain simple throughout. Risk will always be present, as parties cannot be assured that what they have said has been accurately rendered into the other language.

They should be expected to decline to undertake any interpreting task that goes beyond a simple conversation, without prejudice to, or belittlement of, the bilingual worker; especially as anyone who engages in interpreting, whether they are accredited or not, may be subject to legal liability, as mentioned above. Anyone who is already providing interpreting services, who enjoys doing so and feels they have the makings of a good interpreter, should be encouraged to seek support from their employers to formalise their skills via the NAATI accreditation process.

She can be contacted at patriciaeavila yahoo. Or whether the mode of interpreting used affects the perceptions of those listening to your interpretation? A research team set out to find answers to these questions. The goal of the interpreter, therefore, is to interpret accurately both content and manner of speech in order to render the situation as close to a monolingual situation as possible.

This research project set out to ascertain whether the mode of interpreting used affects the fulfilment of that goal. Each juror was randomly allocated to one of the three conditions. The trial participants, including the accused and the interpreter, were played by professional actors and the dialogue was scripted. In other words, all jurors, across all three conditions, heard exactly the same testimony from the interpreter and the accused.

The interpretation languages were Spanish to English. This suggests that an accurate rendition can, as intended, place a non-English speaker in the same position as an English speaker with respect to likelihood of conviction. However, there were significant differences between C1 consecutive and C3 monolingual , with the former eliciting a more positive perception of the accused overall. The interpreter used in the study was well dressed and acted professionally, and it may be that in C1, in which the jurors were often visually focused on the interpreter, the positive impression that this created was projected onto the accused.

In the afternoon, jurors in C1 consecutive tended to report more loss of concentration than in C2 simultaneous , indicating that consecutive interpreting is more distracting to jurors than simultaneous. That the study found no significant differences in the rate of conviction across the three conditions is encouraging, as this seems to indicate that when interpretation is accurate, the interpreter will not change the outcome of the case. However, the study also seems to indicate that the simultaneous mode C2 may be preferable to the consecutive mode C1 with respect to achieving the intended interpreter role of placing the non-English speaker in the same position as an English speaker.

The consecutive mode tended to distract jurors more and to interfere with their assessment of the accused—effects which did not occur with the simultaneous mode. However, research into the difference, if any, that mode makes to accuracy is needed before any recommendation can be made. The research team has applied for further funding to conduct the next phase of the research, to try to ascertain whether the same level of accuracy is achieved using consecutive and simultaneous interpreting, across three typologically different languages: Arabic, Chinese and Spanish.

The other investigators were Prof. For the full research results and more publications, click here. Learn more about her here. Polaron are offering translators and interpreters a number of free professional development sessions throughout the year to improve the delivery of language services. The first session for will cover the basics of superannuation with guest speaker Cameron Stewart. This session will cover the following topics:. Participants are encouraged to stay after the session for networking and afternoon tea.

There will also be minute sessions available with our speaker to discuss your super individually. I have been a Swahili interpreter and translator for over a decade. I feel amused about Swahili being categorised as a rare language because it is spoken by about 80 million people globally and is the second most widely spoken language in Africa after Arabic.

Swahili is an official language in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda but is also spoken in neighbouring countries. After four months of language school, we lived in villages and later the capital, which were wonderful environments for language learning. When I returned to Australia, a community worker suggested I consider responding to the need for interpreters. I leapt at the chance of flexible employment which could help me keep my second language, and might also guide me in finding my place in Australian society again.

Swahili-speakers have arrived in Australia due to migration, fleeing wars in Burundi, Rwanda and the Congo and as returning expatriates like myself. In the census, there were 6, Australian residents who reported speaking Swahili as their main language at home. In my experience, many interpreters are newly settled refugees with good English, who then move onto other full-time work as soon as they can.

The first interpreting agency I worked with in took me on although I had no training or recognition: I was their only Swahili interpreter for some time. At an initial job, I discovered a teenager had missed about 16 days of his TAFE lessons due to interpreting for his family. As I gained confidence and skills, I entered contracts with other agencies.

The NIP was a project that aimed to increase the number of interpreters in specific language groups by covering the cost of obtaining NAATI accreditation or recognition. NAATI shows foresight in running such projects, since interpreters of rare languages only receive income from casual appointments. Being a rare interpreter and translator brings some unique challenges and benefits. If I cannot accept a job on a particular day or time, a person might go without an interpreter, with consequences like having to come back to court again, or being held in police custody longer, or getting less than ideal service.

This means that I may be asked to nominate alternative days and times that I am available. Occasionally, even if I am not logged in for telephone interpreting, I may be contacted outside the system to check on my availability. Another particular challenge I deal with is that I defy the usual expectations about African interpreters. I speak English with an Australian accent, since it is my mother tongue. My Scottish and Irish names match my appearance - white skin and freckled with red hair. On the other hand, some of the professionals I meet are taken aback by my appearance and have to readjust their expectations and control or not their curiosity.

Jean Burke is a senior social work lecturer at Australian Catholic University, and a Swahili paraprofessional translator and interpreter. She learnt Swahili as her second language when she and her family lived in the United Republic of Tanzania from On returning to Australia she has interpreted for many Congolese and Burundian refugees and others from East and Central Africa. To learn more about our INT project, click here. Otherwise, keep up with our latest project news by signing up here. When I migrated to Australia from Italy, in , I already had 10 years of experience in translating and interpreting.

Most of my experience had been acquired on the job in Italy, as it used to be in those days. Like many migrants, I relied on the information obtained from my relatives and from the Government institutions I dealt with on a daily basis. It was in fact my first visits to a hospital and to Centrelink that led to my being advised to continue my line of work in Australia.

Professional associations can really help us to develop our support networks and develop our own professional knowledge and awareness of the issues concerning our profession. All this makes us more informed and more effective in managing our business and assisting the people who most need our help. If we, as professionals, are able to communicate with each other and learn from each other, we are also less likely to be taken advantage of by unethical clients and language service providers.

This can mean that we can then reach out to our colleagues at all levels and in all nations, creating awareness of the importance of protecting ourselves from vicarious trauma and the risks associated with exposing ourselves to unnecessary emotional and physical stress-related illnesses. We need to look after ourselves above all others, or we lose our effectiveness in our professional capacity.

This applies, of course, to all professionals. Unfortunately, particularly in Australia, many interpreters and translators do not see themselves as professionals partially because of how the industry itself came into being. In fact, the history of translating and interpreting in Australia is a fascinating subject of which many lack awareness. This lack of awareness also contributes to the frequent misconceptions about what it means to be a language professional in the Australian environment.

It is important, not only for interpreters and translators, but for everyone to become more aware of what has led to the current state of the profession and to work towards the necessary improvements which will benefit Australian society as a whole. Raising awareness and facilitating professional development is what professional associations do best.

Please consider joining us. Eirlys Josephine Chessa, Grad. She obtained her first NAATI accreditation in , and has been working in the public service translating and interpreting field ever since. With over members nation-wide, AUSIT focuses its attention on issues of professional development, collaboration with educational institutions, liaison with other bodies such as NAATI and raising awareness of the profession amongst the public. In addition, I have served on the national and the state branch executive committees throughout my career. This is something I am very passionate about.

ASLIA is led by practitioners for practitioners. Secondly, Auslan-English and Deaf interpreters work in very much the same way as spoken language interpreters do. There are a number of areas where Auslan-English interpreting work does differ to that of our spoken language colleagues working in Australia. My passion is to ensure training and ongoing learning opportunities that encompass the complexity of our work as practitioners.

ASLIA supports this by encouraging professional development and networking opportunities across the sector, and this is why I have been an involved member, to promote the profession and ongoing training, ensuring practitioners are kept abreast of the needs of our clientele. Further to this, ASLIA is committed to ensuring that ongoing professional development opportunities are available to interpreters and work closely with state ASLIA associations to ensure the needs of the industry are represented nationally.

ASLIA membership supports practitioners by providing a range of benefits that enhance our professional standards of service provision. Membership means interpreters are supported and kept informed about research and training opportunities to ultimately enhance our practice. If you would like to find out about other industry association and professional bodies, click here.

We found that the majority of practitioners surveyed preferred to do online training to meet professional development requirements. As NAATI's Revalidation Officer, I am often asked about what kind of activities practitioners could do that do not require face-to-face attendance at conferences or seminars. Whilst there are more and more online workshops available now, NAATI does also accept self-directed learning activities for the ethics section. But where can you find this sort of material?

There are a number of texts available in libraries, however there are a number of good articles that can easily be found online. Below are some links to free ethics material. Whilst this is not a comprehensive list, or representative of all the literature available today, these links are a good starting point to do some more research yourself -. When using these or other texts please make sure you quote your source and provide the word report along with your other revalidation documentation. Natural skin and hair grow swiftly over the surgical opening.

Her parents can't handle her. They abandon her as young girl, paying what they can to Unkar Plutt to look after her. He abandons her as a child, but she turns scavenger and somehow, survives. Rey is shaken by the recovered memories. She relaxes, sways, shuts off her saber.

Ren holds off, still conflicted, but finally decides that he has to kill her. To save her from herself. To purify the Force. For his own sake. She falls backward, her eyes closing in resignation and exhaustion, and he moves in. Right into her reactivated lightsaber as her eyes snap open. Startled, run through, and as conflicted as ever, Ren dies in front of her The fireball that has surrounded him vanishes. The First Leader is triumphant. A Jedi Master may go on and on, but a lightsaber's power is finite.

The trio of Snokes surround him. Below, Finn yells at the imprisoned Rose, but she just smiles at him. The clone manufacturing area is destroyed. Above, a startled Snoke reacts. With his attention momentarily distracted, Luke reactivates his twin sabers and throws them. Two Snokes are speared and killed. The surviving Snoke looks toward the rear doorway, but there are no more Snokes, no more replacement First Leaders.

The many have been reduced to one. But it is enough.

Raising his own weapon, he starts forward. Luke waits for the end. He stumbles over to Rey and she falls against him, sobbing. We see the exposed part of her "brain" twinkling. I am a monster! Just an enhanced version. Above Almuria, Poe and R2 are triumphant. So are the Almurians. But they're still determinedly neutral, their leader warns Poe. The Resistance needs more neutrals like them.

R2 informs him that via the secret hyperspace communications channel that he has been told that the First Leader is no more and that Rey and Finn are all right. Finn and R2 turn sober. They head back down to the surface of Almuria. In the palace on Coruscant, the victorious uprising salutes Luke and Rey as they emerge from the palace into the surrounding area, which is littered with smoking fighting machines, etc.

C3PO, brushing at himself, follows behind. Luke suddenly staggers, has to sit down up against a tree in the imperial park. A concerned Rey bends over him. Everything is alright now. The Force is, finally, in balance. She tells him he's going to be okay. He tells her he already is okay. There is, however, one small thing she has to do for him. Take care of the galaxy. No in-between existence this time. Holding back her sobs, Rey gently closes his eyes.

C3PO is there to comfort her. But he has seen a great deal, and if he has learned anything it is that nothing is ever, really, completely for certain. Reaching up, he touches her exposed skull portion. Has anyone told her lately how really beautiful she is? She sniffs, then starts to laugh, softly. Then her expression changes as she sees Finn, battered but alive, limping out of the smoking Imperial complex. He comes toward her and she rises to meet him.

C3PO shakes his head dolefully. I'll never understand them. This story follows upon the events of Ep. That which could not be corrected is passed over. No timeline for completion. Like an old clock, I'm just slowing down. I suppose everything is relative no pun intended. The energy that drove me or the compulsion, if you prefer back when I was in my twenties and thirties these days seems to be devoted to more homely tasks i.

With currently six cats and a dog, there's a lot to look after I should have bought stock in a cat litter mine Ever since the maid, butler, and chauffeur quit har-de-har, as Jackie Gleason was wont to exclaim I've had more to do than in earlier times. The house is too big for us, but after living in it for 38 years there seems no point in moving.

Tahiti is too far away, New York is too busy, Anchorage too cold although that is I reckon we'll just stick where we are. Besides, if we moved I'd have to box up all the books although strangely, totally unknown folks as well as friends have repeatedly offered to kindly relieve me of any need to hang onto them. To quote from their webpage, "NXS explores "the self" in the age of digital technology". When time allows and interest evolves, I love doing stuff like this. You can't buy a dinner for two at the Five Crowns restaurant in Amsterdam with the proceeds, but it lets you explore.

And I love exploring. So, eighteen stories featuring the crazy like a wolf or just plain crazy mountain man. It's great to see them all together in one volume. Also, new introductions to the stories. Hardcover publisher still to be determined. I'll announce the publication date when it is made available. And that's about it. February's a short month, anyway. Those of you who'd like to read it can google 5senses. It's a freebie, so no need for hesitation. The weather here is ridiculous.

The high today will be 70F. Other than the utter lack of precipitation, it's paradisical. The local critters, especially the cottontails, are more than a little confused. I will reserve my own judgment until after I've seen it later today. And no, I have had nothing to do with the film or any subsequent related material. I am not doing the novelization, spinoff titles, or anything so much as a quote on a cereal box.

They, my agency, and I are actively looking for someone to do the hardcover. It's very flattering to constantly get requests to revisit or follow up on previous work. Something else featuring Skua September. It's not that such projects don't interest me. That's not the problem. The problem is that they all do. Time is finite and as it passes, there always seems to be more demand on it. I love doing short fiction, too. Time, and ever less of it. Temps in the 70's until today and still above normal.

The vegetation can deal with it but the birds are confused. On the other hand, our roadrunners always look a bit confused. Whereas the coyotes are delighting in the ongoing late season surplus of rodents, which is why they never bother to chase the roadrunners coyotes are the canid antithesis of stupid. If they reflected zoological reality those great Chuck Jones cartoons would not only be boring but gruesome, with roadrunners horking down snakes and lizards while their coyote counterparts squatted nearby noisily and messily dismembering ground squirrels, chipmunks, and pack rats.

Now, how did I get on that? Reality, one learns, even reality involving charismatic animals, is more of a George Carlin routine than a Hallmark Special. Out next year from Del Rey. Which led me to a meeting with the wonderful and somewhat reclusive author James H. Schmitz, a favorite of Analog editor John W. So I can claim 47 years as a contributor. I wish I had more time to write short fiction. Heck, I wish I had more time, period. A hundred years is scarcely long enough to begin to emerge from childhood. Arthur Clarke knew that. I think it's one reason he never passed on an opportunity to play ping-pong.

Last month I posted that the Discussion Board was deactivated. Just a different system. Going to see COCO next week. I've always been a huge fan of animation. Got to give it up for Pixar. Their cinematic takes on old age, emotions, superhero life, fish family loss, and now death do not constitute typical cartoon fare. Also note that the Discussion Board is currently deactivated. I can be contacted with questions, verbal flailings, etc.

If someone would like to re-open, re-vamp, or otherwise re-handle a discussion board, I'm open to submissions. I have the time to answer questions but not to moderate. I hope everyone enjoys it. It was fun, though sometimes difficult, to write, due to the need to transcribe the Larian language into comprehensible human terms you'll understand when you read the book.

I'm trying to find time to compile some short story collections, since there hasn't been one in a while. The leaves of our wild grapevines have taken on veneers of metallic green and copper and all of the non-evergreens are losing their leaves altogether in preparation for winter The goldfinches are still all over the feeders while the first dark-eyed juncos, our omnipresent winter birds, arrived a few weeks ago. Canyon and Spotted Towhees are preparing to winter over along with the scrub jays. I don't know where our roadrunners go Hollywood?

Saw a young bobcat last week, fattening up on rodents. Autumn in the Arizona mountains. Might take awhile, but I expect it will get done. If you ever have the opportunity to attend one of their live performances, it'll leave you smiling from ear to ear for days afterwards. Meanwhile, here's a link to the video of Lakalaka, a new single from the album: Watch it whenever you're feeling down. Plenty of other Te Vaka on Youtube. I regret that I am unable to travel due to domestic considerations, which is why I haven't been to a con or booksigning in quite some time.

Couldn't even make it to the San Diego Comicon this past weekend. Until circumstances change, it looks like a couple of days at the annual Phoenix Comicon will be all I will be able to manage for the foreseeable future. The ebook will be downpriced to 2. On that day the ebook will be available for 1. It's what is called monsoon season here in Arizona, even though the meteorological setup is not technically a monsoon. But it's close enough, and the name is popular enough, that the moniker has taken hold. Moisture from the gulf of California and central Mexico is drawn northward to dump as rain over the Southwest.

The lightning shows can be quite spectacular and dangerous. The thunder freaks out some of our cats while others just ignore the noise. The rain brings out other local residents who, in the absence of Tinder, have to travel to engage socially. Here's a picture of one taken yesterday in our driveway. Many, if not most of you, will be aware that there is a forest fire of significant dimensions in "the Prescott area".

While we have friends who are under evacuation orders, the fire is 17 miles southeast of our location with winds blowing east-northeast. We can see plenty of smoke, but neither our property nor the town of Prescott are in any immediate danger. Still, it gives one pause. Some of you may know the article I wrote for the New York Times a number of years ago which addressed the wisdom and will of living in a periodic fire zone.

We all live with our choices. That fire, the infamous Yarnell Hill blaze that killed 19 hotshots was far closer to our home than is the current blaze. Publication dates to come. I was able to attend Phoenix Comicon for a couple of days, though it entailed driving down each down, driving home, and repeat on the second day. About a hundred miles each way. One of our cats, Frosty, is diabetic and I have to give him his insulin shots on a regular schedule.

It was such a whirlwind couple of days that I saw practically nothing of the con. Had to find out about the armed idiot who early on nearly got the con closed down the incident was all over the national news from other folks who actually witnessed the takedown. I'm afraid we're in for more of such nonsense. Getting your face on TV by any means possible seems to be a defining moment for all too many whackos these days. All 17 to date published stories will be incorporated together with introductions on how each tale came to be. Hopefully, the cover will actually give readers some idea of what the mountain man looks like.

And Worthless too, of course. Publication details to come. In it I have tried, as I always have over the years, to be as true as possible to the film while adding what original material I could. As always, I work as a combination author and fan, and I think I hope that comes through in the finished work. For those who have asked: All of the Flinx books track his life chronologically.

The official Commonwealth Chronology is available for perusing on my website and gets updated every time a new Commonwealth tale comes out. Keeping it all straight over a period of 46 years so far has been a challenge. The eternal question writers get asked, "where do you get your ideas?

I love doing the Mad Amos stories. They're always fun, relaxing, and allow me to wander around the real Old West, a place of myth, legend, and real history where I've dwelled for the past 36 years Arizona. I'd concocted this notion of having Mad Amos meet up with John Muir, in relation to an actual incident in Muir's life. But as is not uncommon in such circumstances, while I had what I thought was a good idea, I couldn't quite get into a story.

Then one morning, while reading the news, a title struck me. But the interest arrises from the juxaposition. What has a mountain man to do with a cat? More intriguingly, what has a cat to do with a mountain man? Most interesting of all And from that the story, as stories are wont to do, wrote itself. To my delight and amusement.

Hopefully before too long it will equally amuse an editor. With a proper cover. There are 20 tales extant now. That would make for a nice, substantial book. If all goes well, I'll see some of you there. Murray was a warm, open human being and a wonderful artist. Years before I made Murray's acquaintance I struggled to get U.

Perhaps because Footrot Flats, being set on a working farm, dealt with actual farm topics like birth, death, and sex. I thought it would have done wonderfully well in the American heartland. Metropolitan areas, too, but the strip never got the chance. Certainly it was syndicated and immensely popular all over the rest of the world All of the daily and Sunday strips are collected in book form and are available on line, including A Dog's Life, the feature-length animated film that for years was New Zealand's highest-grossing film until it was topped by, I believe, The Return of the King.

I cannot recommend them all highly enough if you enjoy good comedy writing, good comic art, and a knowing sensibility all too often absent from most daily strips. I wouldn't devote this much space out of a brief monthly update if I didn't believe in what I was saying. For a proper introduction you can go to www. This official site is maintained by Murray's son and will ease you into the world of the comic. A number of you keep inquiring about future short story collections. I know there hasn't been one in a while. This is due to changing publisher priorities, even though every previous collection has done well.

If there's a small publisher out there who's interested, I reckon we could put a group of recently published tales together relatively quickly. I'd also like to do a Complete Mad Amos Malone, which would reprint the dozen stories from the long out of print Del Rey collection plus the last eight or so that have never been collected and published in book form. Together with a cover that would actually be a decent representation of the character.

The ebook will be downpriced to 1. Grab 'em while you can. Though a somewhat different atmosphere from a con, I will be happy to chat and sign books when not breathing hard. If Open Road Media has a booth, I'll be around there, too. Hope to see some of you there. Phoenix in May is a lot more comfortable than Phoenix in July. Tenative release date is end of summer. These one-volume editions provide a compact, convenient way to keep all three books easily at hand for reading at a single or extended, sittings. Thanks go to Open Road for publishing them in that format.

Anyone who subscribes to the EBB newsletter can get advanced info on all their titles, etc. I was only able to attend for a day and a half and didn't expect to have time to do anything except fulfill my indicated responsibilities, but it turned out I was able to chat briefly with Mark Hamill again regular guy and meet a few other folks, including the gentlemanly Billy Dee Williams. My schedule was pretty full and didn't really coincide with anyone else's. I was determined, however, to try and at least say hi to Fisher, whom I had never met before.

I managed to ease into the very busy signing area where I politely introduced myself and asked if she would mind signing my copy of the original SW novelization. As she was obliging, I tried to make small talk. She lit up immediately, all but jumped out of her chair, and planted me with one seriously emphatic kiss. Expecting maybe a quick "thank you" or "that's sweet of you to say so", I was more than a little taken aback And that's how I'll remember Carrie Fisher. I am working with Titan Publishing and Fox on what will be an original prequel to the film story. There may appear another original novel in , but at this point in time nothing is set.

There will be a number of short stories, however, whose publication I'll announce as they appear. This is a monthly column on art and science that I do for 5enses, a local paper. If you're curious, you can likely find and peruse at least some of them on line. That decision is up to publishers, not me. I don't have my own publishing house and even if I did, not the time to manage it.

Email Open Road for price and release date. So if you've ever been curious to read it, that's a killer deal on the price. I just enjoy writing them. When finished, they go to my agent Virginia Kidd Agency and the agency offers them to magazines and anthologies. It's different when an editor specifically asks you for a story. I've always delighted in writing to a theme, be it SF, fantasy, or horror. The challenge lies in forcing you, as a writer, to place yourself in a framework of someone else's imagining as opposed to your own.

It's unlikely, for example, that as a writer you're sitting around one day envisioning the future of evil can-openers. So when an editor requests a story for an anthology built around that particular them, it pushes you into a different place. Mental stretching keeps the mind and the imagination just as active as physical stretching does for one's muscles and tendons.

Perhaps the most common question writers are asked is, "Where do you get your ideas? The closest I've come to conversing with a truly alien lifeform. It's a comparison of Star Wars vs. Star Trek, very heavily illustrated. I contributed the introduction, though I have to confess it had to be translated from the English by the book's authors, Oliver Cotte and Jeanne-A Debats, as my French is pretty limited sidebar: Patti's done well since then.

Even if you don't know any French, the chapter titles will give you some idea of the book's content. Uhura", "Deux sagas, deux destins", "Robes de Princesses", and so on. For completists, Francophiles, Trekophiles, and Star Warsophiles. The publisher is Dunod. I don't know how to say "bon appetite" in Klingon The tadpoles in our little plunge pool have just about turned into frogs. Mostly they're canyon tree frogs, so we have the privilege of finding frogs on the sides of our house without having to hunt for them in the creek.

Saw two Peregrine falcons fighting over Willow Lake yesterday. Prescott is something of a renowned bird area, especially for Arizona. The several lakes in the area are important wintering-over grounds, Granite Mountain is home to numerous nesting Peregrine families, and bald eagles nest and fish here as well.

In the summer there are quite a few different species. It's not Ecuador or Peru, but it's not the Sonoran Desert, either. I'm not a birder, but I still enjoy seeing a less common species like the Crissal Thrasher, green-headed towhee, and blue grosbeak in our yard. We'd have more except that the chipmunks tend to keep them off some of the feeders. It can be a difficult time of year to write, what with all the birds finishing off the last of the summer seeds, the wildflowers in full bloom the catmint outside my study is flourishing , and the grape vines of Virginia creeper starting to change color.

Makes one want to take a walk and soak it all in instead of doing battle with the English language. Yet, compulsion to work drives me back to the keyboard, if only to write my monthly column local arts and sciences free paper Adams, to be released 1 November. At least a couple of short stories coming out next year, including a new Mad Amos. Like to put out the cat at night except our cats stay in at night, or the coyotes would get them, or the great horned owls, or the red-tailed hawks in the morning, or a cougar might show up, or But enough about cats.

It bores them anyway. I did make it to Midamericon: And my, how things have changed. Never seen so many white beards in my life. Worldcon attendees are definitely skewing older. Which means that everyone else is now going to Comicons. The world doth change around us, especially when we're out of touch with certain of its sociological aspects. Anyway, it was fun to see a Dealer's Room full of books instead of T-shirts and photos and weapons. Saw quite a number of friends I hadn't seen in years.

The panel, with myself, Charley's counterpart at Fox Marc Pevers, Charley, and producer Gary Kurtz, got to see and hear something that will never be repeated. It was, thankfully, all professionally videoed, and Charley will be selling DVD's of it all once editing and such is done. As a participant, I was fascinated to hear Charley and Marc disuss the early days of marketing Star Wars, the ins and outs of the deals, etc. And of course Gary's input was unmatched.

Something that belonged on PBS, actually. Good barbeque, too, at the original Joe's. I forgot about the bottle restrictions in re carry-on luggage and the TSA confiscated by bottle of Joe's original bbq sauce. Clearly explosive material, and no flexibility. Why don't they just hire Israeli airport security to run the whole outfit? More common sense, better security. An unusual approach that's never been tried before in a novelization. Look for it, along with the film, next year. If I can make it, I will be there from Thursday evening through Sunday morning. Look for me at the Del Rey and Wordfire Press booths.

There will be some significant Star Wars panels and doubtless others as well. I hope to meet some of you there. This will be my first Worldcon in many, many years since Chicago, I believe. I'll keep everyone posted on its future. See the Early Bird Books newsletter for 2 July: I will be there on the 19th and 20th, possibly also the morning of the 21st. I am led to believe that Friday of the convention will officially be Star Wars day. There will be special panels including one with myself, Charley, and producer Gary Kurtz, a huge slide show presentation, and much more, including some special guests.

Since I almost never get to conventions any more, I will also try to do as many signings as possible. I'd much rather post artwork, or travel photos, or cartoons However, since last month's update was late and prompted some queries as to whether or not I was alive it would have been interesting had I not been but had promptly replied , I'll stick the recent shot up. Usually it's to discuss books, or science-fiction in general, but on this occasion the subject was the future of EV's electric vehicles. As I drive a Tesla, the show wanted some shots of the car: The car was purchased in July of It was in the course of researching auto paint protection options that I first learned about such materials as vinyl wrapping, CG Quart, OptiCoat Pro, and Modena.

You can see the results from having had the car done with OptiCoat Pro a week after it was delivered. The car has never been polished and rarely had soap applied. Just rinse and wipe off. Wish I'd known about such options earlier, but I've never been a car guy.

The poet Alex Ness recently conducted a very nice interview with me. Of especial note are accompanying numerous cover reproductions, some of scarce printings, that can be enlarged on the site. This will likely be the only appearance of any kind I'll be able to make this year. I reckon if you research the show, you can find them. One where the ick factor, as you can probably surmise from the title, is a tad higher than in similar books like Icerigger, Sentenced to Prism, and Midworld. One thing I love about describing a new world is that in the course of writing about an entirely different biome I'm forced to learn a good deal of new information about the relevant biology, biochemistry, geology, and sociology.

It's an as much an adventure and exploration for me as it is, hopefully for the reader. Once I've done the rewrite we'll see about finding it a proper home. Lamb to speak at the famed Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. In the 35 years we've lived in Prescott, we've been to Flagstaff many times, and yet I've never managed to make it up to the observatory.

So it will be a treat for me to finally visit the site from which Pluto was discovered. Many years ago I attended the first Saturn flyby. While everyone at the JPL in Pasadena, CA was oohing and aahing at the first ever pictures to come back from Saturn, I happened to notice a little old man ignoring them while he poked and prodded at assorted instrumentation. A bit anxious that what he was doing might not be authorized, I pointed the activity out to one of the technicians.

We let him do pretty much whatever he wants. If you're at the con, be sure to drop by and say hello. Unless I manage to make it briefly to the San Diego Comicon, Phoenix will be the only convention I will be able to attend this year. I'm going to start making some occasional music recommendations here. You haven't heard anything until you see a 7-year old European crooning Billie Holiday and Gershwin.

For classical, see if you can find the Symphonie gaspesienne by the French Canadian composer Claude Champagne. I'm going to go pretty obscure with some of these classical recommendations. What's the point in my suggesting you listen to Beethoven's Fifth? Stop writing, that is. But I can't seem to do it. If I go more than a few days without writing something, I get antsy and worse, I feel guilty. Set in the Commonwealth but independent of everything else, although there are allusions to the thranx, KK-drive ships, and more. The book is a bit of a specialty item, so we'll see if there's any interest.

Although the manuscript contains covers for each of the books, I would sincerely hope that whichever publisher picks it up also takes the time, trouble, and possibly investment to also include stills from the relevant films As folks are eternally curious about such things, I felt it important to set down everything I could remember. Now, when that meteor fragment hits me next week and voids my insurance, at least that bit of book-into-film history will exist somewhere outside of my head. Stu and I go back more than 40 years. He's a noted collector of SF and movie memorabilia.

It's nice to be able to converse with someone without having to spend five minutes providing background material for the subject at hand. We talked books, art, film, mutual acquaintances I have a few books and a few pieces of art: Stu has rather more. It was a nice break from all the interviews in re TFA. Those have finally begun to slow down, as the film itself runs its course through theaters.

I imagine there will be a pickup when the DVD is released. The more I delve into it, the more intrigued I become with the story's ecological and cultural background. Whence it all will take me I do not yet know, but I'm certain it will be down a slippery alien slope. I'm very proud of that book, which I think is different from any other fantasy out there, and hopefully it will find the audience for which it is intended. Additionally, it allows those readers who have never met me in person to see something of the mensch who writes the stuff.

These interviews are easy enough to search out online, but one especially fun one was done for a CNN-backed website called greatbigstory. Go there and look for the piece titled "This guy wrote Star Wars and his name isn't George" titles and narration aren't my purvue. It's a rapidly-edited two minutes and thirteen seconds of me, but more interestingly, of my surroundings and my study NBC channel 12 out of Phoenix also did a nice video piece that's up on the Entertainment portion of their website, though I don't know for how much longer. While their individual interests in my writing varied considerably, it was to be expected that every one of the interviewers would concentrate on the novelization of TFA.

As a consequence, I found myself answering many of the same questions over and over again. This didn't bother me: I've grown used to it over the years. But it set me to thinking: So, why not jot them down all together, in one place? In other words, put together a book: While I've told a number of the stories before, there is a fair amount of reminiscence that isn't widely known.

And as I get older, I'm less inclined to shut up about topics and occurrences over which I might have skipped in the past. I'll post when the book is finished, and again if and when it finds a publisher. If nothing else, it'll obviate the need to relate the same anecdotes over and over again.

I can just say, "Oh, what you want is on pages ," and go back to my writing. BAIT, an original short story featured the character Grummgar the big walrus-like guy with the broad on his arm in Maz Kanata's castle , is now out in the magazine Star Wars Insider, issue And this is one of the best covers of a pop song I've ever heard and I've heard a lot.

It's always interesting when fictional names appear in other languages. For example, in Mandarin "ren" can mean kind or benevolent person or Written differently, pronounced differently. I'm afraid I can't, at least at this point in time, address any of the many questions regarding the film and the novelization that have come my way beyond what has already appeared in print and in assorted interviews. It's not my property and I have no more right to the unspoken than I do to what is public. One of my domestic duties is to clean out and empty the cat boxes utilized by our eight cats.

So that I don't forget the day to do such chores, I frequently make quick notes to remind myself. The other day I misspelled "cat boxes" as "cat hoaxes". There's a story or two there All the TFA-related communications appear to have crashed the adf alandeanfoster. Feel free in the interim or at any time to utilized thranx commspeed.

Some interesting new stuff lined up for the new year, including a new Mad Amos Malone story. The preceding quotes my instructor in the UCLA film dept. I was a graduate student in the writing program at the UCLA School of Arts when our subject matter for one day in were the two films mentioned. And indeed, our guest speaker following the screening of the two pictures was their director; the esteemed, very Teutonic, and somewhat intimidating Mr.

He proved, however, to possess a dry sense of humor that greatly alleviated the nervousness of his young audience. The UCLA film school has always had the best available screening facilities. That was true even 46 years ago. Among other trivia I recall from that day is that Mr. Lang was and remains the only person I have seen wearing a monocole outside of an actor in a film. I remember only two of the questions and Lang's replies. Bearing in mind that all we had available to screen was then badly butchered and highly incomplete version of Metropolis, one student asked, "Mr. I told him I would think about it.

I went home, watched Metropolis, packed my bags, and the next day left for the United States". Later in the session, one gal stood up and positively gushed, "Mr. Lang, I just loved your films! Could you please, please, tell us how you did those wonderful special effects in Metropolis! The audience erupted in laughter.

The real revelation of the day was my first viewing of "M". Tight, terrifying, and with a script advanced for its time, it featured the performance by Peter Lorre that brought him to the attention of studio heads in the U. Lorre's anguished monologue near the end of the film is astonishing to see for those who know him only as an actor in cheap horror films, as Mr. Moto, and as the comic relief in Disney's 20, Leagues Under the Sea.

Though Lorre's voice and physical appearance unfortunately typecast him, he could usually rise above his material even when doing comedy roles, most notably as Dr. Now that I've managed to diverge considerably from Metropolis, I recommend a viewing of Charles Lippincott's amazing Facebook page. Peruse it and you'll learn all you need to know about Charlie and the history he's lived. Look for the steady release of audio recordings he made back in the mid's of him, myself, and George Lucas discussing story lines for the Star Wars novelization and Splinter.

I'd forgotten nearly all about them, and reading Charlie's painstaking transcriptions of the old and miraculously surviving tapes put me in the position of viewing myself from a great distance, as an actor in an ancient drama. Fascinating stuff, and all kudos to Charlie for preserving what a lot of folks in his position would simply have chucked into the nearest wastebasket.

It's always fun to be able to develop characters we may only glimpse briefly in a film, and provide them with some background and motivation of their own. With today's CGI, the story can finally be told properly. Well, here it comes! December release from WordFire Press Not only is the cover stunning, it's astonishing accurate So as you delve deeply into it which you should, to enjoy and appreciate all the details Rob has included you can do so knowing that you're seeing not some art director's interpretation intended solely to maximize sales, but what both the artist and the author intended.

Because of all the fine detail, the image is a fairly large file, so give it some time to load. OSHENERTH is set entirely underwater and, while an epic fantasy, draws on as much actual oceangraphic knowledge and personal experience as I was able to bring together. The inspiration for the novel came from an encounter I had with a couple of giant Pacific cuttlefish off the coast of Blupblup I am not making this up Island, off the north-central coast of Papua New Guinea. There I was privileged enough to observe how cuttlefish communicate through the use of color changes. This got me to thinking about any number of things involving cephalopods I also once played hide-and-seek in the Maldives with a small and very engaging octopus.

That, in turn, led to the notion of creating an entire fantasy world that was also realistic example: Nobody shoots cannon balls underwater because they'd only travel a short distance before dropping harmlessly to the bottom Rob Caswell has been engaged to do the cover, and you can see some of his amazing digital artwork here: The web address for the monthly column I write on art and science for the local paper 5enses is: The columns are all less than words each, and I get to muse on everything from rain chains to advertising to medieval art.

The drawing's not bad, but there really has yet to be a truly good rendition of a thranx. The problem is one that has recurred throughout the entire history of SF. When an author refers to an alien in a story as "cat-like", the assigned illustrator or cover artist invariably draws a cat, with if the author and reader are lucky a few alien fillips. Think of all the covers for Larry Niven's Kzinti stories. If the author says an alien is bear-like, you get a drawing of a bear. Ape-like, and so on. So when a thranx is described as insect-like, or an insectoid, even with a fair amount of additional physical description, we still tend to end up with an ant, or more commonly, a praying mantis.

There are very clear descriptions of thranx in the Commonwealth books. The thranx are insect-like, certainly. In the stories everything down to the correct number of limbs is specified eight , yet the artist or art director hear's "insectoid" and therefore we get a creature with six legs. I frequently refer to the thranx's feathery moth-like antennae, and yet every depiction to date features standard non-feathered insect antennae. The most common error shows the thranx's legs emerging from the thorax because that's where they're situated in terrestrial insects instead of from the abdomen, as described in the books.

A thranx has a thorax and a higher additional segment called the b-thorax that contains the breathing spicules, but no illustrator has shown this. Because terrestrial insects don't have a b-thorax. Thranx bodies are bisymmetrical but also quadri-symmetrical. They have four limbs, each of which has four segments. Each hand and foot has four digits. It's all consistent and apparently too Or for art directors. In the cover art, the thranx-to-human body size proportions are excellent. The thranx eyes, both size-wise and in color banding, are perfect.

The digits are correct in number. The four trulegs should all emerge from the abdomen. The foot-hand limbs emerge from the lower thorax and are smaller than the trulegs, as befits limbs that can be utilized either as grasping hands or as a third set of legs depending on the thranx's posture. As s hown, the truhand arms are too big and should be smaller than the foothand limbs. So to be accurate we need big legs, smaller foot-hand limbs, and still smaller truhand arms. And sadly, the antennae shown are not feathered.

But it's a good attempt. Best of all, this thranx is animated. There's a real sense of life to the illustration; its not some stiff, awkward lift from an entymology text. Drawing appropriately alien aliens is tough. John Schoenherr was the best at this, and a favorite of Analog editor John W. Having a complete understanding of animal anatomy, John was able to twist and contort and alter it to produce believable aliens that also served as true reflections of the author's intent. John was arguably more famous as an illustrator of wildlife tales than of SF.

He's gone now, alas, but his art lives on. Thankfully, Wayne Barlowe is still with us. Not only does Wayne pay close attention to an author's descriptions when he's bringing their aliens to life, he is also careful to factor the alien environment into his work. A few years back, the Discovery Channel did a whole show based on his artwork. If I were putting together a film that was set on an alien world, he's the first artist I'd pick to help create the fauna and just as important and usually overlooked the flora. This seems unnervingly appropriate. Actually, the problem, which revealed itself for the first time some seventeen years ago, involves a process known as calcium resorbtion.

Basically, the body starts re-absorbing the calcium in one's teeth, leaving nothing behind but a hollow shell that eventually crumbles. On an x-ray it looks like the mother of all cavities, but there's no decay involved. It's weird, and I could do without it.

Anyway, after losing two lower back teeth to this genetic anomaly some 17 years back, replacing them with implants, and then having the process go on blissful hiatus, it has returned to claim an upper back molar. The Dentists are no less bemused. My reaction to the recurrence has been somewhat less benign And that is more than any of you want to know about orthodontic calcium resorption.

Writing the novel gave me an even greater appreciation for authors who do compose such material on a regular basis. Not to mention for those who write actual history. The amount of research is daunting and there is always some expert on, say, guns of the period who is there to follow up your egregious errors with suitably lengthy corrections "No, no, no!

Musket balls of that caliber did not come into use in that part of Africa until six months later! Even though while writing the book I had access to very little material on the history of 19th-century New Zealand, the depth of the plot and the need to concoct believable and historically believable characters left me little room to go into While I am always interested in such things, to include them all would have resulted in a 2, page book.

Where fiction is concerned, including fiction of a historical nature, I believe in keeping things moving. I could never write the kind of book that is David McCullough's specialty. I admire that kind of patience, which I don't have. Whether the woman in question was the model for Ian Fleming's Vesper Lynde or not. There is also a panel featuring myself and several other DR writers. It's pm Sat. Should be an excellent round-table. Joshi, to be released on October 20th. That's the Mythos tale I wrote based on my visit to Chernobyl. There's a picture from that visit not from the story!

Ia, Ia, shub-nuclear fission I remember when not so very long ago, said event consisted of a roomful of comic books dealers, a few jewelry vendors, and some costumers. This year, the con took over the entire Phoenix convention center. One legacy publisher in attendance: But I can only lament the absence, if not the actual passing, of bookdealers at conventions. It's not that books and dealers no longer exist; it's just that the internet has made it unnecessary for them to attend and to haul boxes of books from city to city and convention to convention, and the cost of attending cons has become, especially for smaller specialty sellers, prohibitive.

Given their increasingly diminishing profile at such events, maybe it's time for con organizers to offer real, traditional booksellers a discount. I doubt con committees would be overwhelmed with sudden applications for table space from, say, Moosehead Books of Walla Walla, but it would be nice to see a few of them present.

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