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  1. Congrats!! This IS totally cool.
    How do you think your publisher would feel about a book tour in the Netherlands? It’s a really lovely country filled with sensible people.

    Has your book been published in any other languages? If not, I think it’s interesting that a Dutch publisher was the first to pick up the rights.

  2. @Donna: This is our first international edition. I’d *love* to tour the Netherlands, but somehow I doubt our little indie publisher will be sending us on a European vacation!

    We also thought it was interesting that the Dutch picked us up, and wonder how our message fits that culture, what the local scene is like, etc.

    We also wonder how the many Americanisms in the book got translated! What did they do with “The chicken is the new pug”? And ha! that’s already sounding dated. The chihuahua is the new pug. The goat is the new chicken!

  3. I am very impressed and pleased for you. Thanks for the page of more information in Dutch. LOL….the only thing I recognized was the double “oo” as in my last name, a Dutch name.

    A book tour would be wonderful. Last year, I watched videos that gave me the impression that the Dutch were far ahead of us in backyard “farming.” Maybe not. Maybe I was watching a few people with your mindset. I could be mistaken, but I think the Dutch were gardening in cemeteries. Don’t quote me.

    Congratulations!

  4. Mrs. Homegrown:
    One of the things that impressed me most when I was in the Netherlands is how far they go to accommodate bicycles. Many of the train stations are below ground and I noticed that alongside the steps leading up and down were narrow ramps so that bike riders could roll their bikes easily on them – not bump them on the steps. Of course, you could bring your bike on the train if you needed to.

    As for the translation, I wouldn’t worry at all about it. Europeans, especially northern Europeans, speak English fabulously well and speak it to Americans to save us the embarrassment of admitting that most of us only speak English. Therefore, I try not to let anyone know that I’m American and I stick to countries where I speak the language (or a closely related language) fluently and without an American accent. It doesn’t hurt that I was born in Germany and look German/northern European.

    Anyway, when I visited Haarlem in the Netherlands, I stayed in a pension that actually had a television in the room and to my surprise, I could watch re-runs of “The Dukes of Hazzard”. I wondered if the Dutch had any idea how loaded a symbol the Confederate flag was and how so many American stereotypes of southerners were wrapped up in the program, but I discovered that Europeans know an awful lot about American culture. I watched “Hogan’s Heros” in Germany, too (flawlessly dubbed into German), and I was assured by my dear friend Susanne that Germans loved it. Who knew?

    I have a fabulous photo I took in Munich last time I was there (alas, not digital) of a sign reminding bikers not to lean their bikes against a particular building. Naturally, there were piles of bikes leaning all over the place. Those wild and crazy Germans.

  5. Hi Donna,

    I too admire how the Dutch have integrated bikes into their transportation system. I’ve been there many times on business, and got to ride bikes around quite a bit. Up until the 1970s they were headed towards the same auto-dependent planning model that has dominated the US but they had the foresight to reverse direction. I’ve seen old photos of towns where the central square was nothing but a big parking lot. Perhaps because they don’t have their own source of oil, they realized the problems with just getting around in private autos. The result has been that most Dutch towns have pleasing, walkable/bikable cores. It helps that it’s the densest country in Europe.

    And you are quite correct that almost everyone in the Netherlands (except some older folks) speak flawless English. A translation is almost unneccessary.

  6. “Do it yourself, Do it Green.” Funny No direct equivalency for “Urban Homestead” but that still pretty much sums it up. Congrats on the new edition!

  7. Hey there!

    The Dutch version of The Urban Homestead was actually promoted in our local newspapers’ gardening section (Eindhovens Dagblad, if you’re curious). I remember reading a very good review about it from the journalist, which prompted me into buying it off Amazon UK (as with all books over here, those that are translated into Dutch are twice – sometimes thrice! – as expensive. Since most Dutch people know how to read English anyway, this seems a bit silly).

    Anyway, in the meantime I’ve also bought your 2nd book and have just began to discover your blog; Im slowly going through all your posts right now, fantastic stuff. I had no idea you two lived in Los Angeles, where the climate is very different! Kudos for managing to write books that are universal enough to still be usable in a cold & wet climate such as ours (at the time of writing, it’s thunder storming over here..). I’ve been on a 5-months exchange to UCLA in 2008, and remembered that not having a car really does leave you a bit handicapped. I had to walk like an hour one-way to get to Trader Joes, but since one could always depend on the Californian sun it wasn’t all too bad.

    • Hey Dutch Girl,
      I’m glad you like our books! I’ve been to the Netherlands many times and was very worried when the translation came out, wondering how the projects would work in your country. And, like you, I was puzzled as to why a translation was necessary for a country where nearly everyone speaks fluent English.

      And, I have to say, I had a really great time riding a bike in Amsterdam. I wish more Americans would visit your country and see how you’ve made bikes a part of your transportation system.

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