An Anglophile I’m Apparently Not

There are so many great ways to start out a blog. I’m sure of it. And as a published author and an avid writer, I should automatically have some brilliant opening line.

I’ll admit, however, that I don’t. Maybe because it’s so much easier to begin a book about fictional characters than it is to talk about myself. That’s probably what comes of being an introvert at heart. I’m a great listener, but for heaven’s sake, don’t make me carry on a conversation by myself!

So since I have a natural allergy to being the center of attention, I’ll shove one of my books-to-be into the spotlight instead.

Brilliant wallflower strategy, I know.

Last week, I sent in one of my upcoming manuscripts to an editor in Scotland. Why would an American author be sending her work to a Scottish editor, you might ask?

Easy answer: My series, Faerietales, starts out in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and quickly progresses to Glasgow, Scotland. Being the perfectionist that I am, I want to make sure to get the language and setting correct. Sure, I studied abroad in England for a semester and got to travel to both Glasgow and Edinburgh (two of my absolute favorite cities) while I was there…But let’s face it, a week’s worth of tourism does not a cultural expert make.

I’ll talk more about Faerietales – the first of which, Not So Human, is due out next month – in upcoming posts. Right now, however, I want to focus on my Scottish editor. He’s wonderful, just for the record, and I really appreciate his paid-for insights. However, I have to admit that I felt dreadfully ethnocentric when I got his edits back this weekend…

You see, in my head, there are the English, the Scottish, the Irish and the Welsh. They’re all (with the exception of the Republic of Ireland) part of the United Kingdom, also known as Great Britain. I know all of that. Seriously.

Yet somehow, when I hear “British,” I think of English-only. They’re synonymous in my book.

Apparently they shouldn’t be.

Oops.

Hopefully I can redeem myself when I send in the (potentially) last installment of the series next month.