Page 2

By popular request by at least one person, here is the second page of the novel. ( Read more... )

Sod and Bugger

No, I'm not having a swearing fit; I'm thinking about how culture-specific many swear words are, and whether I was right to use the word "sod" in the novel. It's in tune with our narrator's character to say "sod" or "bugger", but "sod" comes from "Sodomite" and "bugger" from "Bogomil", and I'm not sure I want characters in this world to be dropping references to religious history. On the other hand, SF swear words tend to sound comic or strained, or at least not quite natural. There are some notable exceptions, such as Ursula LeGuin's wonderful "Meshe's tits!" but in that case, it's the tits that provide the profanity, not Meshe, so it doesn't count.