#WritersCoffeeClub 16. Is there a writer who surprised you recently?
I'll be polite and not name the writer who surprised me this morning, by having a character thrown out of a casino for trying to gain an advantage by counting cards...
...at *poker*.
@klepsydra and I take it they were not attempting to establish the level of stupidity of the character ;)
I can beat you on the Underground error: an underground station in Cornwall. (FFS)
Though I'm not 100% clear on your fish'n'chip argument - should be "salt and vinegar" or just the general structure of the question?
@adaddinsane @leinir have you ever been asked for "vinegar and salt", or has it not always been "salt and vinegar"? (generally run together from tried and true usage into one word, "saltnvinegar").
It'd be like asking a shopkeeper for a pack of onion and cheese crisps, or saying a ceremony was held with circumstance and pomp. Word order matters, and (to me anyway) it jerks me out of immersion horribly when someone gets it wrong.
Where was the Cornish tube station? Down a tin mine?
@adaddinsane @leinir Did Tintagel ever even have a regular railway station? I don't believe so!
No. The nearest is over 15 miles away.
So I was in an anthology of fantasy books aiming to hit the bestsellers list (which it did) and the organisers had the first two stories.
These were big authors.
They had the first two novels and, to me, they were both unreadable. Complete shit from start to finish, like poor first drafts.
The anthology got massive sales and glowing reviews, but only for those first two awful stories.
Except one reviewer, who said there were only two decent (5*) stories in the collection: mine and another. 😎
And that's how I justify saying I'm a USA Today Bestselling Author. 🙃
@adaddinsane @leinir The novel with the 1940s Jubilee Line blooper won a Hugo...
@leinir No, just inadequate knowledge/research.
Like the very well respected US author who had a British character go into a chip shop, and be asked "Would you like vinegar and salt?"
Or the other very well respected US author who had her character travel on the Jubilee Line in the 1940s, and pay in decimal currency. And who got an award for that book.