Yeah, I don't see Penny being your cup of tea at all, Sail - I'd have picked you for a connection with Jane.

I love Penny fiercely, but sometimes in a very exasperated way. She only has a few of my traits, and they're ones I exasperate myself with. May be why I connected with her, making myself look in the mirror. But none of them are Bree, that's for sure.

Weirdly enough, my editor - 87 years old - connects to Albert Wychsale. She says she recognises his reactions.

I'd have picked you for a connection with Jane.

You are so right! I was going to add something about that, but left it out!

Hec gave me what I expect to always consider my best review. He called me "funnier than a monkey in a crack house, and twice as twisted." It's kinda ugly, but fitting.

Somebody brought up editors. I am currently reading "notes" from an editor on my thing, and wondering if they teach a different English to editors than what was taught me.

The vocabulary of editors is strange and off-putting.

The vocabulary of editors is strange and off-putting.

You should hear a bunch of us sitting around having a conversation. It's stetted hyphens everywhere.

t sticks a hyphenated tongue out at Steph and goes ...

phbbbttbttttt!

Yesterday I had to explain to a newly-promoted editor the difference between "stet" and "stat".

stetted hyphens?

Please to explain? Or is this mystic arcana best revealed under a full moon while seated around a smoky fire while the hooded priests chant?

(also sticks tongue out at Teppy)

Seriously. You may stet all the hyphens you wish, so long as you leave my characters' voices alone.

Have I posted my snarly back and forth from two days ago? (edit: nope...)

I got a forward from my editor's assistant, from the head copy editor for Cruel Sister. This person was whingeing because she couldn't find a source version of the song lyric that was a precise match for the sequential lyric I use for chapter headings. Here's what I wrote back:

"Toni,

The version I'm using is the Anglicised version of a traditional Scots ballad, "The Twa Sisters", which is Child Ballad #10, Volume 1.

This Anglicised version is the one played and sung by Pentangle (John Renbourne, Bert Jansch, Jacqui McShee). There are essentially two Anglicised versions of it: Pentangle's "Cruel Sister" and "The Boughs of London". The story and lyrics are nearly identical. Pentangle does the definitive version of "Cruel Sister" and they made it accessible to an English-speaking audience.

Since I wanted to set the story geographically in London while using a Scots family, a certain melding of the three versions - Child Ballad #10, which is largely unintelligible to a reader unfamiliar with the idioms of Scotland, Pentangle's version, and "The Boughs of London" - seemed applicable.

While I want as much authenticity as is humanly possible, the elements vital to the story should take a higher priority than trying for an exact match with one specific version of the song.

She should credit all three sources, then.