Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Swimming the Pond

 Even though we speak the same language, all things are not the same when it comes to the U.S. and the UK. Those differences can have a huge effect on writers who hope to get published on both continents.

Tomorrow, author Donna Fletcher Crow is going to stop by and talk about her life as an American who writes books set in the UK. Since Donna’s primary publisher is in the UK, her next book will premiere first in England, then in the US. She’ll cover topics like what this means when it comes to taxes, editing, and promoting.

Donna has published thirty books. Her latest, which comes out June 1 in the UK and in September in the U.S., is called A Very Private Grave, Book 1 in the Monastery Murders series. Because of the different release dates on two different continents, Donna probably feels like she’s wearing different hats to do the what would appear to be the same job, but, in many ways, isn’t.

Here’s a blurb about A Very Private Grave:
Felicity Howard, a young American studying for the Anglican priesthood at the College of the Transfiguration in Yorkshire, is devastated when she finds her beloved Father Dominic bludgeoned to death and Father Antony, her church history lecturer, soaked in his blood...

A Very Private Grave is a contemporary novel with a thoroughly modern heroine who must learn some ancient truths in order to solve the mystery and save her own life as she and Father Antony flee a murderer and follow clues that take them to out-of-the way sites in northern England and southern Scotland. The narrative skillfully mixes detection, intellectual puzzles, spiritual aspiration, romance, and the solving of clues ancient and modern.
I’m looking forward to hearing what she has to say, what the process has been like, and some differences she’s seen. You can also take a look at the book trailer.

You can leave a question for her today - and come back tomorrow to read her post. You’ll probably have even more questions then! (A shout-out to BFF Sally Baker for cropping photos for me while I await new software after a computer crash. )
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24 comments:

  1. I'm looking forward to it, Helen. :)

    Hope you didn't lose any data in your computer crash!

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  2. In my writing class, there is a man from the U.K., and on the flip side, he is very concerned about how his "voice" comes across to U.S. readers. He was just talking about it last class and I found it interesting because I really never thought about it in any great depth. I suppose I think, "write from your heart and people will get it no matter what." But it is obviously a real issue.

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  3. Looking forward to tomorrow's post. This new series sounds quite intriguing.

    Mason
    Thoughts in Progress

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  4. Donna sounds like an interesting author and the new book series also sounds quite interesting. I’m looking forward to finding out more.

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  5. It'll be interesting to learn about the UK's writing perspective, sounds like a great post.

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  6. I'm thinking the data will be okay, Elizabeth, but while the family computer is down, I'm stuck.

    Lisa, the book I worked on recently has a great voice that will go over well with American audiences. The main difference is spelling and some words that would be foreign to Americans, but the same thing can be said about some high tech thrillers. You may not know exactly what the terms mean, but you can figure them out from the context.

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  7. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's post. :)

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  8. I was through the same a few weeks ago, Helen; bad computer crash, had to reinstall everything from the recovery disk, Fortunately, I had a fairly recent backed up, so didn't loose much

    Cold As Heaven

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  9. Looking forward to meeting Donna, and will try to stop by tomorrow. I will be out of my office all day at a Funder's Forum, so may not get much computer time.

    I am hosting Donna next week, and have been reading Private Grave to review. Good so far.

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  10. Cold as Heaven, we have so many computers in this house, it's ridiculous. My Fireworks program was on one, the one that crashed. I've ordered new software and when it arrives, it'll go on my laptop.

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  11. I don't even want to think about a computer crash. Hope you had good back-up.

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  12. Looking forward to tomorrow.
    Sure are a lot of author computer crashes lately. :-(

    Maribeth
    Giggles and Guns

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  13. Luckily for me, my stuff is on my laptop, so it wasn't affected. Luckily for my husband, it was his computer that crashed but he had backup. Not on the software, though, just the data.

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  14. As I'm another North American writer who places her plots in England, I'm really looking forward to this post tomorrow!

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  15. I'd like to know more about promoting a book in another country!

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  16. Watery Tart, that's a cute example!

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  17. Looking forward to it, Helen! As a native Canadian turned Brit, I can attest to the many differences!

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  18. This sounds so interesting. My daughter just read a YA novel written by a UK author and she pointed out numerous differences and how some confused her. It will be interesting to hear an author's side of it.

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  19. When I read a book originally published in another country, I don't expect the book to have been Americanized before it comes out here, but it does help if words or terms are put in context so I can understand them.

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  20. I never think of things like taxes and different laws & practices for other countries - it'll be interesting! :)

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  21. This pronmises to be interesting. I know what I write is very English, but have no idea how it would translate into the American market.

    Because what I write is humour (humor - see there is already a difference!) there is also the differing senses of humour.

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  22. Enquiry vs. Inquiry, colour vs. color, a lot of be careful about British and American English.

    Steamy Darcy

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  23. The different spellings don't bother me at all. And I love learning new words!

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  24. I worked with a British girl and we would tease her by asking what language she's speaking. Ot was all in good fun.

    Stephen Tremp

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