Sunday 21 February 2010

A Vowel Movement

flurries, mild, temps minus 2

Still have not been outside. I'm goin' for the record, ma.

Laughed over your comments about the US vs Canadian/UK versions. Totally agree about titles. I think/hope that has stopped. Not my first choice either. To be fair to the publishers, it's not their first choice, but they genuinely believe they're dealing with different sensibilities - and what attracts in the UK might not attract in the US. They really are doing their best. But I agree, it's annoying.

And in terms of what you're missing...I can guarantee you aren't missing much...except of course the final chapter of The Brutal Telling. We kept that out of the US version.

Kidding...

You are only missing a few 'u's but you get a bunch of quotation marks in exchange. But I'll be happy to tell my US editor there is a ground swell of support for keeping the Canadian/UK spellings etc.

We're having a lovely day here, basically just getting caught up with Doug and him with us. Planning the next family reunion. We realized after our mother died there was a danger we'd drift apart...that her home and seeing her was the focal point for most of our lives. So we decided we needed to make a pledge to get together once a year, and rotate it among us. last year it was our turn and everyone came for Thanksgiving. Next year it's our brother Rob's turn. he and audi just moved to Regina where he'd the new deputy minister of Transportation for the province. We're very proud of him. I remember when he was in his early 20's and had just moved out to Alberta...he'd send hundreds of photos home of roads he was building...honestly, they all looked like dirt roads through forest, but we looked at them all and exclaimed over them.

What was obvious was his absolute passion for transportation, and road building specifically. A passion that has stayed with him all his life.

Back to the reunion...since we've been doing these reunions for many years now we think we might adjust the concept and go somewhere else...and we think maybe it'll be Arizona in october. But it's early days yet. Tried to phone Rob earlier today so we could speak with him but there was no answer. Will try later.

Such fun having Doug visiting. He needs to get back to Toronto tomorrow and we need to be at a doctor's appointment for Michael's eye in Montreal - so we've decided to get up reeeeeally early and drive in...miss the runsh hour traffic. Will leave here at 5am.

Going to order pizza from Knowlton and watch the Canada/US hockey game tonight. Doug's kids and Mary are actually there!!!

Be well - will try to blog tomorrow.

6 comments:

Marjorie said...

Just as long as the family reunion doesn't interfere with Bouchercon!!!

--Marjorie from Connecticut
p,s.--the part about the missing last chapter had me laughing a lot.

Dana said...

I agree about changing the titles. I order books for friends in the US (gifts) and in Canada. Amazon.com is great! Sorry to say the Canadian counterpart is not. My daughter, who lives about 20 minutes from you, Louise, has been waiting almost 3 months for the same books from Amazon.ca. I suspect they don't have the Canadian version. Next visit I am going to Lac Brome Books. And Coaticook for ice cream.
Good luck at the doctor!
Dana

Sue Mom of Two said...

I agree with the other comments regarding leaving the original spellings in......makes it so much more fun for us US people.

Jodi said...

Yes, keep the spelling the same!

And three votes (never mind one person, one vote) for keeping the titles the same. I'm in an online book group and different titles drive us crazy.

Someone in the US will recommend a book, and the UK people can't find it because the title is different (or vice versa).

Or, we'll think a favorite author has a new book - and it turns out to be an older book with a different title.

Sometimes, people even end up with the wrong book!

Anonymous said...

GASP!! there was another chapter!!?? And I missed it!!! That made me laugh very hard.

That and the words vowel movement, have made me chuckle all day.

Jill Sherbet
Texas

Louise Penny Author said...

Hi all,

this is most interesting. As I say, I will pursue this with the US publisher. Totally agree how annoying different titles are. Especially since I'm the one who gets the angry emails, not the publisher.