Guest Post: Talking Like An American by Clare Lydon |

Happy Friday!

I’m super excited to welcome Clare Lydon today. Clare is a writing buddy and she’s always willing to help me out behind the scenes. Not only is she a successful lesfic author, she’s a wonderful person.

Please welcome Clare.

Talking Like An American

Today sees the launch of my latest lesbian romance, Twice In A Lifetime, which is set in Chicago and New York. This is a little different for me, because I’m known as a British lesbian romance author and with good reason: both my London Romance series and my All I Want series are set in the UK capital.

However, for my latest book I’ve flown across the Atlantic and stepped into the minds of some American lesbians. Why did I do this? Mainly because I visited Chicago this year and fell in love with the city. On top of that, I’ve been wanting to set a book in a US city for a while now. I was going to do New York, but then, Chicago stole my heart.

But relocating threw up a whole number of issues. First, US phrasing. Would I be able to talk like an American? I wasn’t so worried about this because I’ve grown up watching US TV and movies, as well as reading US books. Plus, I know quite a lot of Americans! So, I was hoping I could nail this one well enough.

The second question was spelling: should I change it to American? My first response was no – but that was mainly because it sounded like a mammoth task. But then, when I started to think about it, I realised I needed to. Because if someone picked up my book and had never read anything by me before, and then read this book set completely in America with American characters, they’d expect US spelling. Of course they would. Plus, to make it authentic, it needed it.

And so, I hired a US copy editor and set about changing my lifts to elevators, my trousers to pants, my biscuits to cookies. And yes, I was right the first time: it was a huge task! I hope I’ve managed to delete the letter ‘u’, to be friends with the letter ‘z’, to kill my love for a double ‘l’. And I certainly hope that with two American editors and a bunch of US friends having read it, it passes the US test!

But beyond spelling changes, I hope the book tells a great story, and the fact that the characters are American is incidental. I hope what comes across most is that the leads and supporting cast are three-dimensional, fully formed people with flaws and foibles, and most importantly, they’re women you want to cheer for and see succeed. This, beyond everything else, is what I hope will make it a compelling, must-read romance.

What’s the book about? Well, as the title suggests, it’s a second-chance romance about two women who find love when they least expect it, with the person they least expect it with. And yes, they fight against it, but does love win the day? I’d say as it’s a romance, there’s a fighting chance!

TWICE IN A LIFETIME

Once bitten, twice shy?

When her first love walks back into her life, Harriet Locke is thrown – because Sally McCall still looks as gorgeous as ever.

The trouble is, Sally doesn’t trust Harriet, and with good reason: she hasn’t forgotten the past.

Sally loved her once, but 17 years later, is that still the case? And if it is, there’s just the small matter of living in different states, as well as convincing Sally she’s worth taking a chance on again.

Will Harriet and Sally be lucky enough to find love twice in a lifetime?

From the best-selling author of London Calling and Nothing To Lose comes a witty & wondrous story of second-chance romance!

MEET THE AUTHOR

Clare Lydon is a writer of contemporary lesbian romance. She’s a No.1 best-seller on lesbian fiction charts around the globe and if you’re a sucker for romantic comedies, prepare to fall head over heels in love. Clare’s books deal with the lives & loves of modern lesbians in the real world, and her characters live life in 3D: they laugh, cry, trip over their words, crash into love, say the wrong thing and drink too much. Her books are packed with wit and bursting at the seams with lesbians, so why not give them a try?