IWSG: Google Gaffes

Thank goodness for the IWSG, otherwise I'd be out of the blogging gig altogether. It allows me to stay in touch with other writers, which soothes my soul. The sense of community is amazing and I'm so thankful for it. Heh, this wasn't meant to be a Thanksgiving post, but there you are. 

Anyhoo, if you're a writer and/or author and would like to join this supportive group of like-minded folks, please go HERE. 

Thanks a million to our founding host Alex Cavanaugh and this month's awesome co-hosts: Sadira Stone, Patricia Josephine, Lisa Buie-Collard, Erika Beebe, and C. Lee McKenzie! Please stop by their blogs and say hey. 

This month's optional question is: What's the strangest thing you've ever googled in researching a story?

Kind of a funny story. I don't know how many people know this, but I'm an American who writes in "English". In other words, my main character is American/English and lives in England. We speak the same language, but some things just don't translate. I have a British editor, so it helps when she catches stuff and calls me out on it. 

I recently published my short story, Lady Sings the Boos, a cozy paranormal mystery. I love my ghosties and they keep me so entertained by the things they say! Like when one of the ghosts speaks Pig Latin to Indigo at the Blue Note jazz club:

“Eddie don’t talk to the living. e’ says you lot can’t be trusted.” He shoved his bulbous nose close to my face, and ghost spittle sprayed my cheeks. “Now amscray before Eddie gets angry,” he said, blowing smoke in my face.

Stunned for a moment, I stood in a backward-leaning position, like an ancient headstone right before it topples over. I stepped back and waved away the smoke. Ghost-dude could use lessons from Miss Manners. And had he seriously just spoken Pig Latin to me? So last century.

Oopsie! Who knew that the Brits don't do Pig Latin? It seems that they might've heard of it (through American film), but it's not really a thing there. I googled it after the fact, but I hadn't thought about googling it beforehand. Even so, I didn't find much info about origin and whether the British ever used it. 

So I had to remove a couple of scenes, like the one above, that really tickled my funny bone. (FYI, for you Brits out there, amscray means scram in Pig Latin, a made up language.)

What about you? What's the strangest
 or funniest thing you've ever 
googled in the name of research? 

IWSG: Book Titles vs Character Names

Time flies and here we are again! It's the first Wednesday of the month when our Insecure Writer's Support Group writer's tribe make the rounds to visit, touch base, share and support our fellow writers. 

If you'd like to join, go HERE. 

Thanks to our host Alex Cavanaugh and this month's co-hosts who make sure every one of us feels special: Beverly Stowe McClure, Tyrean Martinson, Tonja Drecker, and Ellen @ The Cynical Sailor!

This month's optional question is:

What's harder for you to come up with, book titles or character names?

I write cozy mysteries. As a genre, titles of cozies tend to be punny. So fans of the genre know right away that this isn't the kind of read that's going to stress them out. In part, it's why we read the genre. It's so important to get the title right. 

My current WiP is a short story called, Lady Sings the Boos. You can probably guess that the story is about a ghostly jazz singer from the title. It's punny and fun. I don't know why, but it just came to me and I'm sort of in love with it right now. I am never going to say that titling is easy because *whispers* the title gods might decide I'm getting too cocky and put me in my place. 

Lately I'm finding character names harder to come up with. I mean, every Tom, Dick and Harry is named...Tom, Dick and Harry. Which reminds me, Lady Sings the Boos has a "Tom" in it. *scribbles note to change Tom's name to anything but Dick or Harry* 

How about you? 

Which do you find harder, titles or character names?

Do you find either of them easy?