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The Encounter with Ellanor

Before telling the story, I must first admit that I am not a big fan of fantasy fiction. 

I like The Lord of the Rings movie, but never finished the book; I like the first three volumes of Harry Potter, but somehow stopped after volume five. The only fantasy fiction I like is The Dragon Raja written by Korean author Lee Young Do, it is a story with amazing worldview, sharp characters and lots of touching moments. To me, it is a must-read for every fantasy fiction readers, the book should be published worldwide with many different language versions and made into a TV series…The book should have earned much more popularity it deserved.

Ok…back to the topic.

The story of encountering Ellanor began in Hong Kong Book Fair. Hong Kong Book Fair is a boring event where publishers and retailers offer huge discounts to offload the stocks, other than that there is pretty much nothing worth mentioning. But it was not quite the case in 2015. Author Kathryn rented a booth in the fair selling the first two volumes of the chronicles: Ellanor and the Search for Organoth Blue Amber and Ellanor and the Curse on the Nine-tailed Fox. I walked pass the booth and was surprised to see there were only two books available for purchase, and it’s from an indie author. I soon became interested, admiring the author’s dedication and was happy to discover something special among the boring booths, so I bought the copies without much thought. It turned out to be a worthy addition to my bookshelf and it gave me a glimpse of hope that there are gems in the sea of self-publishing. Kathryn published the first two volumes of the series through self publishing, it is actually a good way to have your book published this way instead of sitting there waiting for publishers’ call of interests. But believe me, good writing craft comes from nurture, either it be through professional training, or self-taught through enormous amount of reading (good books). Many people would go on the self-publishing route to have the works appear in bookstores. Some of them have great ideas, but most of them fall into the “professional editing / writing class required” category. Kathryn’s work ticks the all the good boxes, and good writers deserve to be noticed, right? 

Fast forward the clock to four months ago, when Hedgehog Publishing was born, and I was piling up a title list for publishing, this book came to my mind again. It took me quite a while to make the decision (large amount of the time spent on thinking how to approach Kathryn and present her my ideas). But thankfully Kathryn is willing to work with me and so far things have been smooth. 

Now the book is almost put to print, this is not the end of a story but rather a new beginning of it. Just let’s see.

Currently reading before sleep:
The Shanghai Free Taxi: Journeys with the Hustlers and Rebels of the New China by Frank Langfitt, on Kindle, progress: 53%
Country Driving:A Journey through China from Farm to Factory by Peter Hessler, TC version paperback, progress: below 20%

What I bought recently:
A compilation of mystery stories written by Hong Kong authors, a cooking 101 recipe book and a special edition if Zhi Japan magazine talking about the history and development of Japanese video games.
偵探冰室 — 陳浩基、譚劍、文善、黑貓C、望日、冒業
輕鬆成為烹調高手 — 馬達 甚麼值得吃
日本游戲完全進化史 — 知日

After several months preparing for everything. Finally I think I can get this site kick-started and posting updates (on regular basis, I hope).

Going on the traditional publishing route is not easy (financially), but at least it gives me the freedom to express my ideas and share the books I really like. God knows what’s coming to me in this journey, I am not expecting an easy ride but I believe it will be adventurous and loads of fun. This site will basically serve not only as an announcement board of Hedgehog Publishing, but also a blog sharing things I stumble upon in this journey.

I will be writing in both Chinese and English, depends on needs and moods.

Starting a publishing brand means I will have to make a publishing schedule. It is very important for publishers, it is something like a guideline so that publishers have something to follow and minimize the chance of mistakenly putting the resources into the wrong project at the wrong time. While I try to come up of such schedule, I don’t really see it as something I must strictly follow. The main reason is that being a one-man publisher means things can be very flexible, any change of plan won’t affect the work of other departments (because there is no other department haha) and I can make decisions within no time to accommodate the needs.

So, for anyone who is interested to know (possible no one because this is the first post of the site and Facebook page!) what books Hedgehog Publishing will be publishing, I am here to give you some ideas.

First of all, Ellanor and the Search for Organoth Blue Amber will hit the shelves of the bookshops in November this year. This is the first book of the five-volume The Ellanor Chronicles, authored by Kathryn Tse-Durham. A fun and inspiring adventure story of a young elf. It is very likely to be the only book from Hedgehog Publishing this year. More info on this book will follow in the next post.

Next up will be a recipe book for vegetarian authored by Mei Yijiu（梅依舊）, a famous Weibo KOL on cooking and lifestyle. A recipe book for vegetarian is always something I want to publish and actually it was supposed to be Hedgehog Publishing’s first title according to my already-adjusted schedule. Now I think it will be released sometime in February / March 2020. Will share a detailed story some time in the future.

The second book of the The Ellanor Chronicles, named Ellanor and the Curse of the Nine-Tailed Fox, as well as the Traditional Chinese version of the first volume, are in line to be released next year. Translation in process. Expected release date is May – July and this is something I am pushing myself to achieve.

I will also publish a book consisting fun-to-know facts about how some famous Chinese historical individuals made their living. Release date? Let’s see…

A Japanese adventurer wrote a book about weird foods (baboon meat and so on) he came across during his travel in Africa, I had so much fun reading it, and would like to share to everyone, so I decided to make a TC version. Release date unknown.

On the serious-reading side, we are going to publish an autobiography of a well established professional in the hotel management field. It provides a deep insight on the social cultural situation of HK in the 1970s, as well as the development the hospitality scenes in China from 1980s. Great to know more about the stories of the places we are greatly connected to, isn’t it? I told the author that I hoped to have it released during book fair next July and he could have a book signing session during the event. Still so much to work on…so wish me luck.

Oh, and also, volume III of The Ellanor Chronicles…

That’s pretty much all I have in my hands now. In the upcoming posts, I will be sharing things about Ellanor and the Search for Organoth Blue Amber, along with some interesting personal diaries (if any).

Please stay tuned.

Currently reading before sleep:
The Shanghai Free Taxi: Journeys with the Hustlers and Rebels of the New China by Frank Langfitt, on Kindle, progress: 42%
Country Driving:A Journey through China from Farm to Factory by Peter Hessler, TC version paperback, progress: below 20%

#theellanorchronicles #kathryntsedurham #hedgehogpublishing #publishing #hongkong