Okay; So I Misunderstood The Topic....

Vernacular Pet Peeves, not whether or not we like to write native dialects or use slang terms!

(Kenzie sighs heavily and looks thankful no one commented on previous post.)

I commented on Mia and Dakota's posts, but here they are again:
-'Took and...' This one drove me crazy from 1998-2006....okay, every time I speak to a former neighbor this drives me batty! Maybe the word is 'tooken' or 'took in'? She'd say, 'We took and went down to the park....' or 'we took and went to the doctor's today...' Why not just say 'we went?' You didn't 'take' anything out of the ordinary! So why say it?

-'Honest and truly...' My aunt says this. 'Honest and truly Kenzie, I don't know if we'll make it down for the party...' 'Honest and truly, I hope (insert cousin's name) will get this divorce settled soon...' Okay, I get what you're saying, but why do you think I think you're about to lie to me?

-'Warsh' or 'Waish' (wairsh?) This one absolutely drives me insane. And my own SU and his entire family says it! 'Time to warsh the dishes...' 'I warshed clothes yesterday...' For god's sake people! The last time I checked, there was no 'R' in WASH! W-A-S-H! And growing up, my best friend's mom used to say it, with an 'i' inserted. 'Don't forget to waish your face and hands...' 'If you want me to cut your hair, let's wairsh it first...'

-'Fixin' to...' As in, 'I'm fixin' to go to the store today...' You're going to fix what before you go to the store? Grandma, you're 88 years old. I don't think the shuttle bus needs your help. And if your dress needs fixed before you leave the apartment....well, that's another matter.

What sayings make you want to cringe and auto-correct every word you hear?

Bring Back Uncle Remus!

"Zippidee Doo-Dah, Zippidey-ay...My oh my, what a wonderful day..."

"You can rip out mah ears, chop off mah tail, but pleeze oh pleeeze don't frow me in dat briar patch!"

Am I the only one in the world who misses Song of the South and the stories of Brer Bear, Brer Fox, and Brer Rabbit?

Several years ago, my oldest son brought home the stories, and I delighted in reliving a childhood love of hearing these stories and doing the dialect. I can 'hear' the Walt Disney characters in my head, and wish my children could too. I heard the movie was going to be rereleased, and eagerly asked Amazon to notify me when it became available. I sincerely hope it will be; I think I saw this movie two or three times as a child, and had the read-aloud storybooks and records.

Does this make me a racist? No. This was made at a time in history when African-Americans were perceived a certain way. Do we jump all over Father Knows Best, because the moms were seen as subservient to the fathers? No. And Peter Pan is still on shelves, even though the Indians (Native Americans) are portrayed saying 'Ugh". (Yeah, I take issue with the 'PC Police' sometimes!)

What does this have to do with writing veracular language? I like it. I have no problem reading Gone With The Wind and reading Mammy and Prissy's words. I'll admit, the first couple of times, it helped to read it out loud, so I could understand it.

And in contemporary works, I don't mind the use of slang; it adds flavor to the writing. If we all used 'The King's English', it would make for pretty boring reading. I find Bronte, Austin, and original Shakespeare hard to follow. But if I'm taking my Northern characters to the deep South, I'd expect more 'honey-chile', 'cute as a bug's ear', and references to pimento-cheese sandwiches or Mint Julips.

And yes, if I read that a character is from Australia, I expect to read 'G'day mate' instead of 'How do you do?' (Does anyone even say that anymore?)

"Mr. Bluebird on my shoulder...it's a fact, it's actual, everything is satisfactual, zippidy do-dah, zippedy-ay, wonderful feeling, wonderful day!"

How Do I Love Thee; Let Me Count The Ways...

My beloved,
By now it should be painfully obvious how much I adore you. I give you every desirable attribute a woman looking for love would want; you patiently overcome any objections I toss your way, and you're very easy on the eyes.

Your flaws are minor; every man has them. Yet you don't mind the occasional yelling match; the week of silence; the little things to attract your attention. And may I remind you make up sex is always fantastic?

Sometimes you misbehave and take a U-turn in the relationship. That's okay. As long as everything works out in the end, we'll work well together.

Over At Brynn's...

I'm her Wednesday Wonder Writer. Come over and visit me? Please?

Plus, heard from my publisher last night: She requested the full manuscript of Class Reunion, the unexpected sequel to All She Ever Wanted:)

Advice to New Writers....

If writing is your passion, and you feel you must write or burst, then write, write, write.

And then get online; learn as much as you can about publishers, genres, critique groups, and start talking to other authors. Read their work and learn from osmosis.

Join author/publishing chat loops; you'll need the support of authors who have struggled, yet made it to Published Author status.

But most importantly, toss your work out there. Submit, submit, submit. Ask others to read and critique it. A manuscript on the the hard drive or under the bed will never fly if you don't give it the chance.

Update on Lucky:
Mourning has been postponed until tomorrow. Don't know what I'm talking about? See Molly's blog.

Mixed Bag of News...

First, the good news. I pitched a story yesterday over at The Publishing Trove loop and within an hour, had a publisher asking for the full manuscript:) Made me positively giddy the rest of the day! You know how it is; something rocks your world and no matter what LIFE throws at you, you refuse to be brought down? I decided to make my favorite meal, knowing it would be a lot of work, and my oldest would pout, since he had to work and would only get leftovers.

Here's the way the rest of the afternoon went:
4pm-K overturns the freshly changed rat cage, trying to put it back together. Cedar chips all over the floor and the dog bed.

4:15pm: Discover dog bedding is soaked (dog is having bladder issues). Have discussion about doing the humane thing and putting my baby out of her misery. I prepared myself for this moment three weeks ago, but the SU wimped out and requested more medication.

5pm: I discover a neighbor has a newly-purchases Kindle:) I took my Sony Pocket e-reader and we played 'I'll show you mine if you show me yours', hee hee....Discovered I'm not on Kindle's library. I may be making a deal with him as far as book purchases go....

6pm: Started dinner.

7pm: Ate dinner. Yuuuuummmmyyyy!

7:30: For whatever reason, I decided to check my Facebook status...and look up an old friend to see if she's on it yet. She isn't, but her kid is...and surprise, surprise...the father is no longer listed as a parent, but the 'rebound-man' which caused me to lose my temper with her last summer is listed as 'step-dad'! Turns out my friend either is lying to me to (ahem) spare my feelings, or the kid wants a dad so badly he's fantasizing. This caused my eyebrow to raise, but you know what? It's my friend's life. If she chooses to confide in me the next time I see her, great. I'm not going to confront her; I'll simply ask her 'So when were you going to tell me you and J got married?' And hopefully we can have a normal, civilized conversation about why she felt the need to lie to me.

8pm: Discovered that it is K's week to do the dishes. Since our agreement is he doesn't have to do them on the nights he works, I clean up the table so the SU can do them.

9pm: Discover he has no intention of doing the dishes tonight. Fine; I'll do them in the morning.

10pm: Take the daughter to the ER, because the sores on her hips are back. Good news there was no, she's not diabetic:)

11pm: Leave ER and she discovers I have $22 I didn't know I had in my wallet! We head off to Walmart and the pharmacy to get bandaids and her prescription filled.

Midnight: Too keyed up to sleep, so I read a bit. Finally turned off the light around 1am.

3am: Am awakened by K; the youngling has had an accident for the first time in two months. I get the poor child dry undies and tuck him into my bed. K takes the couch.

6:30am: Cocker Spaniel wakes me out of a bizarre dream involving my friend's son and his new relationship with Rebound Guy. Time to pry my eyes open and start my day.

I may need a nap later on today....

But yes, I'm still in a fairly good mood:) Just got another busy day ahead of me, washing bedding and slowly working on getting the 2nd room in my house thoroughly clean...curtains, shelves, floor, baseboards, and trim. On the other hand, maybe I'll just go back to bed.....

You Can't JJudge A Book By Its Cover...Or Can You? Pt 2

This is one of my all-time favorite books:)



















Molly did a much better job on her second cover; she picked out the photo, designed the AU logo, and while it's received some criticism, I like it and more importantly, she likes it!