There was a pause as he was moving around the kitchen area and grabbing the stuff from fridges under the counters and I felt compelled to translate it for him.
“She means yes please,” I told him.
He laughed, and this led into another huge conversation about the differences in how we talk to each other. Honestly, to us (English folks) it sounds a little rude and a tad demanding just to say “sure.” I mean, if someone offers you something, it’s only proper to acknowledge the kindness and say please, no?
Saying “sure” makes it sound like you’re doing the other person a favour by accepting it! Well, to our ears anyway.
Sigh.
Anyway – we laughed about it for ages… and even weeks later, now and again she’ll respond to these kind of questions in her best English accent and say, “Yes, please”.
(It can be taught! Even if it’s only ironically…)
[EDIT: NO, AMY, DON’T GIVE UP THE FIGHT!]
[Ellie Edit: (eyeroll)]
Hot World Problems
Recently I was on a call with MA. We’d been talking for some time, and I’d been drinking something with ice in it. It’s kinda hot at this time of year, and being in Texas that means the effects are multiplied a hundredfold.
Anyway, as you know when you have cold drinks in hot climates, the condensation cools on the glass and makes sopping wet puddles everywhere you put your drink. I realized that I had another puddle by my laptop and got up to grab a cloth to dry it off.
I muttered something by way of explanation as to why I was leaving the screen. “This isn’t a problem in countries where you don’t need ice in everything.”
MA shot back immediately, “You’re so dramatic!”
I’m seeing a theme here.
(You may recall last book I told you about how Amy has me profiled as a four on the enneagram profiling system, which primarily means she gets to point out how dramatic I am in even the smallest comment.
It appears MA is catching on.)
[EDIT: GO AMY!]
[Ellie Edit: (double eyeroll) Clearly I can’t let you two in the same room together now.]
Steve Is Taking Over My Author Notes!
Zen Steve is the guy who looks after the massive task of getting our words published. We basically complete the manuscript as far as we can and throw it over the fence to him. At this point he wrangles our awesome team of JITers, implements the changes, and then uploads the formatted file to the Zon.
What follows is an excerpt from a recent conversation about the length of our author notes… And why we have to cut them down:
steve [1:00 PM]
Apparently, there’s a deadline of today to have back matter under 10%. Republishing a batch of books today.
ellleighclarke [1:02 PM]
ah I see. Yeah, i only heard about that this week! So much for 10k word long author notes, eh?
Rampage (Deuces Wild Book 2) Page 21
