Hi everyone–
You’re going to love this conversation with my guests J.A. Rock and Lisa Henry, writing buddies from down under and up above who are introducing their book The Good Boy. And if you leave a comment with your email, you might win a copy! (I may enter.) Here they are.
Australian vs. American English: The Gloves Come Off
When I first started writing
The Good Boy with Lisa, everything was great. She totally “got” me. Same sense of humor, same appreciation for angst and pain and sexual blackmail, same total willingness to indulge in any and all forms of kink (in our book, I mean). Our writing styles were similar enough that we never had the this-looks-like-it-was-written-by-two-different-people problem. Even our time zone difference worked in our favor. Every morning I’d wake up and race to that house I steal internet from to see what she’d written while I was asleep. And whenever she was sleeping, which was wildly inconsistent, because she works for the Australian Secret Service or something
, I’d continue the story.
Yes, things were going swimmingly, until some odd words started to crop up in the manuscript.
Aussie words.
I politely corrected the de-sexed pets, the car parks, and the sand shoes, not sure how kindly she’d take to me flagrantly making fun of her silly, silly “words.”
Until we got to the flat white.
She’d written a scene where Derek enters Lane’s motel room with a flat white for Lane. “Oh, did he go to the paint store?” I wondered “Are they re-doing the room?” Through context, I figured out that the flat white was some kind of beverage. So I made a note that I had no idea what the f*** it was. Lisa replied that it was coffee with milk. “So it’s a latte,” I said. “Sort of,” she said. “But more coffee than milk.”
I helpfully informed her that in America we call that “putting milk in our coffee.”
After that, there was nothing horribly disconcerting in the manuscript. Just a few petrol fumes here and there, some plasters that should have been bandages, and a bin rather than a trash can. But Lisa continued to goad me with e-mails containing strange Aussie runes. One time we were talking about fairs, and she whipped out “fairy floss” for cotton candy. I can’t even explain how uncomfortable that term makes me.
And then she told me that the species of tree frog that lives in her toilet was a pobblebonk.
That’s when it hit me: Australians make s*** up. The whole country is just one big Dr. Seuss book. Pobblebonks playing didgeridoos and dunny budgies riding clouds of fairy floss. Steve Irwin did not prepare me for this. He never finished cuddling a croc, tossed it back in the swamp, and said “Oy, mates, I’d punch a pobblebonk for a flat white right about now.”
Probably because even Steve Irwin knew how ridiculous that sounded.
This book is set in America, Lisa Henry. We speak English here. Learn it.
Luckily, she did. Sort of. She was catching her own petrol fumes by the end. But she continues to force me to work from Aussie-formatted word docs that put the red squiggly line under favorite, neighbor, honor, etc. because I haven’t spelled them with a completely unnecessary u.
The Rebuttal by Lisa Henry
A pobblebonk is a thing, I swear. It’s a small brown frog, and it’s cute as all hell. I don’t know what you guys were busy doing when there was important frog-naming work to be done: were you throwing all of your Harbor. And what did the letter udo to you anyway, that you despise it so much? It happens to be a very useful letter, and frankly I’m a bit tired of the way you treat it. Ignoring it won’t make it go away, you know. Sorry, yo know.
tea in Boston Harbour? Sorry,
Look, I’ll admit that cotton candy sounds better than fairy floss. And I’ll admit that a car park sounds like some place you take your car so it can have a go on the swings. But let’s talk about the other thing, J.A. You know the thing: the bill.
Paper money is called notes. As it logically should be. Like an IOU is a note. It’s probably short for “promissory note” or something sensible. A bill is not a note. A bill is the exact opposite of a note. A bill is something you get in the mail that says how much money you owe. And you use a note to pay it. You can’t pay a bill with a bill.
“Hello, I’d like to pay my electricity account, please. Here you go.”
“What’s this?”
“Oh, this is a bill. I’d like to pay my outstanding bill with this different bill, please.”
“But that’s your rates notice. You can’t pay your electricity account with your rates notice.”
“Oh, really?”
See, this creates, if not a paradox, then a very confusing situation for the lady at the post office. Where I sometimes pay my bills. With notes.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to say g’day to the pobblebonk.
Blurb: The Good Boy
Introverted college student Lane Moredock is in a bad place. His mother has been arrested for securities fraud, his father is on the run, and everyone, including the SEC, suspects Lane knows where the missing millions are. Lane, with no money and nowhere to live, makes a desperate deal that lands him in trouble and leaves him unwilling to trust a so-called Dom again.
Photographer Derek Fields lost money to the Moredocks, and is as sure as anyone that Lane is guilty despite his claims. A chance meeting with Lane shows him there might be something more to the young man than arrogance and privilege, and Derek wonders if Lane might be just what he’s been looking for: a sub with the potential to be a life partner.
As Lane slowly begins to open up to Derek and explore his needs as a submissive, the investigation closes tighter around him. Lane might be everything that Derek wants, but first Derek needs to trust that Lane is innocent–and Lane needs to trust Derek with the truth.
Buy Link: http://www.loose-id.com/the-good-boy.html
My website: www.jarockauthor.blogspot.com
Twitter: @jarockauthor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ja.rock.39
Lisa’s website: www.lisahenryonline.blogpsot.com
Twitter: @LisaHenryOnline
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Don’t forget the comment with the email. You won’t win a pobblebonk, but the book sounds great! Thanks so much for coming by. : )
Hi everyone–
