Fossend Publishing

Fossend Publishing

Tuesday 21 April 2015

The amusing side of writing



I think all writers have those moments when their writing day goes from the normal to the bizarre or random. 

I'm in the process of editing my latest book TEMPERANCE and a few things have been flagged by my editor.  These few things entailed me having to make random phone calls to companies to get some advice.

1. Abseiling. It was noted that American readers may not know what Abseiling was, but they may know what rappelling is, BUT, UK audiences may not know what rappelling is.
So a quick call was made to a London abseil company, a bit of laughter and bemusement later and I finally got an answer, so the issue was resolved. 

2. Water butt. Now, Americans don't know what a water butt is. In America butt means bum or ass, so this means that readers would be reading water butt as water ass...not good.
So another random phone call was made to a UK water butt company. Again, a bit of laughter and bemusement occurred, but in the end the company were very understanding and helpful, and the issue has been resolved.

Writers normally spend their time struggling with plots and characters, but never did I think that I'd be discussing the international names for abseiling and water butts! 

Well at least it makes life interesting.