Siri here. I’m excited to introduce our first guest blogger for 2012, Megan Crewe. Megan is, as of today, the author of two published YA novels. She’s also a cat lover, a critiquing guru, a kung fu fighter (yes, really), and a Torontonian (like me). Like Megan, many Canadian authors’ primary market is the United States, but that can lead to a culture clash. Here she is to explain…
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Growing up next to the US, watching American TV shows and movies and reading American books, I saw their stories and Canadian stories as being pretty much the same. Sure, I changed my “centre”s to “center”s and “colour”s to “color”s when submitting a story to a US magazine or anthology–to make it easier for the editors, who’d have to do it anyway if the piece was accepted.
It was only when I started publishing novels with American publishers that I realized how many little cultural and linguistic differences there are, as my Canadian foibles were corrected in copyedits. Where I’d say “grade ten,” Americans say “tenth grade.” I use “washroom” interchangeably with “bathroom,” but to most Americans it sounds old-fashioned. And everything from high school classes to the health care system works differently.
Setting my second novel, The Way We Fall, in Canada was kind of a relief. I could let characters say “eh” (sparingly)! I could have Thanksgiving in October! But there were still details my editor asked me to change (she had no idea what a “toque” was) so my main audience in the south wouldn’t be confused.
Which gets me thinking–how much does it bother American readers to see “grade ten” or a school with different rules than their own? So far I’ve only seen one US reader mention being confused by my October Thanksgiving. No one seems bothered that my characters can get treated in the hospital without worrying about insurance. I wonder if they’d enjoy the story even more if it fit their expectations, or if the unexpected details make it interesting.
What do you think?
The Way We Fall
It starts with an itch you just can’t shake. Then comes a fever and a tickle in your throat. A few days later, you’ll be blabbing your secrets and chatting with strangers like they’re old friends. Three more, and the paranoid hallucinations kick in.
And then you’re dead.
When sixteen-year-old Kaelyn lets her best friend leave for school without saying goodbye, she never dreams that she might not see him again. But then a strange virus begins to sweep through her small island community, infecting young and old alike. As the dead pile up, the government quarantines the island: no one can leave, and no one can come back.
Those still healthy must fight for the island’s dwindling supplies, or lose all chance of survival. As everything familiar comes crashing down, Kaelyn joins forces with a former rival and discovers a new love in the midst of heartbreak. When the virus starts to rob her of friends and family, she clings to the belief that there must be a way to save the people she holds dearest.
Because how will she go on if there isn’t?
Poignant and dizzying, The Way We Fall is the heart-wrenching story of one girl’s bravery and unbeatable spirit as she challenges not just her fears, but her sense of what makes life worth living.
The Way We Fall is out today, available from Amazon, Chapters, Barnes & Noble, Powells, and Indiebound.