Warts and All

Revisions and edits are coming along just fine for Voices in the Briars, and I'm trying to be extra careful when it comes to my linguistic weaknesses. I'm Asian-American, born and raised in Southeast Asia, where I enjoyed the benefit of intensive English language education. I also grew up watching nothing but American and British TV programs and movies, so it's safe to say I got the hang of English pretty well. 

Immigrating to the US in 1984 wasn't as big of a culture shock in terms of language barriers and all that, though it was really all about smoothing out my accent that was my daily challenge as a teen. 

I do have two major weaknesses, though, when it comes to English, and those are (1) prepositions and (2) the past perfect tense. You guys have no idea how much I struggle with those still even decades after English turned into my primary language -- to the point where I can barely speak the language of my birth. 

And I know my previous books read fairly wonkily (is that a word? I say it is) because of those issues, so please excuse my erratic grasp of prepositions and the past perfect tense. Hey, at least I own those mistakes and will always be the first to admit to them. 

I actually slowed down my revisions and edits even more for this book because I want to make sure I get at least one of my warts fixed (or at the very least, barely noticeable). It's a never-ending process, and having enjoyed every English class throughout my childhood and early adolescence in Asia, I'm very keenly aware of my shortcomings. I'm also not deluded enough to believe myself an expert now that I write and publish books and even majored in English Literature in college. If I were that good, I'd be writing like Edgar Allan Poe or M.R. James.

So to reiterate: I apologize for any and all mistakes that still got missed in all of my previous books. And I'm sure even after all the careful combing through for Voices in the Briars, the warts will still show themselves (though hopefully minimally).

Oh, in case anyone's wondering, my pen name was purposefully chosen to be a generic Western name because I wanted it to be as far, far removed from my real identity for privacy reasons. My family already knows I write and self-publish books, and they also know in what genre, but they've been very supportive of what I do, so I'm not hiding from them.* I'm hiding from the rest of the world. I just don't like having my real life self be put out there and be subjected to careful scrutiny or even just passing interest. I'm okay outing myself to my site visitors as Asian (now a naturalized American citizen), but that's the extent of that.

And I'm sure there are a few linguistic warts in this blog post as well, but I won't bother cleaning anything up. God knows I've done enough of that this weekend. 

At any rate, I expect to spend all of July polishing this book and will be diving right into The Perfect Rochester in August. 

* bless them, they also respect my wishes not to be outed to their social circles and extended families by marriage