Done and Dusted...(and bacon butties!)

[cj2017]

I think that's it.

Over the weekend I sent my approval of Snowbound's front and back cover PDF (bar code included - check all those numbers!) and I reckon the whole thing is probably on its way to the printers by now. 

Despite an editing deadline that gave me a good few sleepless nights, I actually got the rewrites finished in good time. Apparently I'm quite disciplined at writing under the cosh. Strangely - having been warned about the trauma of receiving your beloved manuscript from your editor covered in red pen - I really enjoyed the process. It might have been something to do with the fact that everything I'd been worried about (the characters, the dialogue, the plot, the English setting, the number of times my characters say 'bollocks'**) escaped completely unscathed and the majority of the changes were instead related to point of view and my tendency to use a lot of words that ended in 'ing'. I also got to write a few new scenes which was easier than I would ever have thought (this is a novel that's been about four years in the writing) and quite lovely to do. I'd forgotten how much I loved these characters until I started to write them again. The novel went back slightly longer and a lot better than the version I'd originally submitted. So happy days :-) Now all I need to do is fidget nervously until December 12th...

I was going to write an English to American translation guide for the carihunter lj, but I think most Americans are aware that we talk funny over here and have mobile phones as opposed to cell phones. Going through the novel looking for words that might make you go "huh?" I was instead struck by just how much food there is in the bloody thing (I spent the editing process permanently hungry!). So I decided to write a bit of a Snowbound menu. At some point I will probably stop writing daft stuff for the blog and maybe get permission to put up an excerpt or something but for now you have a guide to bacon butties and rice pudding...


**I think that would be twice *g*

Comments

Divided by a common language

[tackdriver56.livejournal.com]

For the longest time I thought a "fanny" was the same as a "butt".
Silly me ;-). Now I call it a "butt-pack", 'cause, y'know, it's more MANly.

Re: Divided by a common language

[cj2017.livejournal.com]

I don't think anything can make a bum bag (term for them over here!) manly. There's just something inherently naff about them which explains why they're rarely seen anymore. And heh, yeah, a fanny is the direct opposite of a butt! (Although fanny is now pretty rarely used as a term over here.) Once upon a time it was a girl's name. Poor sods.

Making a bum bag manly...

[tackdriver56.livejournal.com]

Before I used one as a wallet while bicycling across North America (where no one knew me), I would have been self-conscious about wearing one. It was so comfortable and useful, that I bought a few nicer ones to use when I got home, and wore one for years. Often, it had a small, rust resistant .38 caliber revolver concealed in the main compartment. That always made it feel manly.

I assume "naff" means "gay"? It's kind of funny that I grew up thinking "fanny" was a euphemism for buttocks; had it backwards ;-)