Unless you’re immortal

Then it's wise to do as much as you can

In all the time that is available to you.

Hello everyone

A couple things came up this month that have an interesting bearing on each other. What else do I do other than look at story and other material that is posted in? An inquiry from a particular publisher who thought our website was American rather than British.

Let’s deal with the latter first. In person, I have a broad Somerset accent without falling into local odd jargonise. Inside my county, we all sound pretty much alike as I expect any other regional accent does. It’s only when talking to people outside of the region how apparent the differences are. On paper or screen, accents can’t be seen and it’s a great equaliser. A good written vocabulary and I could come from anywhere.

It’s purely accidental that a lot of the time it appears I have a mid-Atlantic writer’s ‘voice’. Quite how anyone could be born in the middle of the Atlantic other than on a boat beats me. What it really means is that on paper it looks like I combine traits of both British and American. With one very vital exception. I don’t use American spellings. ‘Centre’ not ‘center’. ‘Theatre’ not ‘theater’. ‘Colour’ not ‘color’.

Ad verbatim. It’s a dead giveaway where I come from. I might, if writing a story and dialoguing an American character use ‘apartment’ instead of ‘flat’ as well as other little differences. Sending stories to America, I re-spell check them in American English. However, at the heart of all of this I recognise my own roots and not afraid to use them.

After all, we created the English language in the first place.

The Internet is very much a global village yet it amazes me how regionalised certain companies see it. Some American companies only want to support other American companies or people. Whether other countries play a similar silly game is debatable. It’s also a little odd that some countries are not in favour of free speech and make using the Internet a criminal offence.

They’re afraid their political regimes will be eroded. In that respect, they’re probably right although it’s only delaying the inevitable. The Internet at its best is capable of breaking down a lot of barriers in both ideas and communications.

It’s only by making it forbidden fruit that it will make the interest stronger. Alternatively, a country supporting its usage is far more likely to have any national feel proud of his or her origin than feel like they have to hide it under a barrel in fear of retribution.

There are a lot of things that are also wrong with the Net but that isn’t relevant for this editorial although wait until I let fly on that subject.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter where we come from on the Net other than the right to say what we want providing it doesn’t infringe the rights of others, copyright or libel laws - although the latter isn’t exactly internationally consistent.

As there is no international written language, the use of foreign languages on the Net means a good chunk is unavailable to me unless translated. The same no doubt applies to those from non-English speaking/writing people as well although I suspect the interest in Western culture means they are far more likely to learn our language than we theirs. Quite where this problem will take us in the future is debatable.

In theory, we are far more likely to end up with a single language with a variety of phrases and words from other languages used to embellish it. I speak and write in such a language already. English tends to have that ability to adapt already. We have words from Latin, Greek, French and Scandinavian - all from countries whose people invaded us.

We didn’t just ultimately repel or beat them, we assimilated them into our language in a way no other country has. Add to that all kinds of other words from languages from other countries and it's no wonder why English is regarded as a common ground language. It’s even easier to create new words in English than having to create them from old as some of the more older languages are forced to do.

Like in all things evolutionary, unless language can adapt and change then it’ll stagnate and become a backwater language. With the Internet, the indications are that we’re all going to have to adapt language much faster anyone has ever thought would happen.

So, why British English instead of American English? Just because there are more Americans doesn’t necessarily mean it's the right way to go. It’s a similar problem to the fact that Chinese isn’t likely to be adapted as a common language despite the fact that there are more people speaking Mandarin than English. It’s not a language that is easily mastered as a big vocabulary from the start.

American English is adapting the core language simply because it has problems with certain words and wanting to make its own mark. Whereas we would call ‘soda-pop’ ‘pop’ simply because the word is easily visualised and associated, the Americans call it ‘soda’. We’ve got ‘soda’ over here as well but its seen only as a mixer for alcoholic drinks and we automatically make such a distinction or comparison.

The assimilation of other languages from other nationals is producing a lot more inconsistencies and hasn’t settled down yet. Attempting to simplify the language creates more confusion than remembering the greatest strength of English is to create new words or extend the current uses even if we have several words that are spelt the same way and mean something different.

Then again, we also have several words that are spelt differently but pronounced the same way. I never said English was perfect. The only thing I can say is that I prefer British English cos it's still adapting better than its American counterpart.

It doesn’t lose interest in its words after a decade or less.

Am I side-tracking from the first paragraph? Just a little. Although we’re a British website, we don’t really wave the flag as to what and who we are. Our clientele - ie subscribers - is international.

We just establish our presence as such in the little things like English spelling and as submission writers discover, the British way of speech marks (that’s single not double dittos). If we fool some of the Americans who only think American then perhaps we can remind them that it isn’t where we come from that is so important but on the Internet we can all stand a bit more equal. Now that ain’t a bad thing.

All this leads to what else do I do but look at submission samples. Do editorials that can make you think. Read and review books. The latter is currently being developed especially as we’ve been getting a lot more replies from publishers - shows my editorials are being read!

Occasionally getting the odd article written. Trying to figure out how I can fit in and complete some of my own short stories. Look after my Mum. The odd computer game - it takes me over 10 months to complete a shoot-em up. Haven’t had a chance to complete a model kit in the past 2 years either.

Keeping up with my e-mails. I don’t surf the Net as much as my erstwhile publisher or I’d never get any work done. Spend the time that they deserve over the novel samples that they deserve and give decent replies.

Things that get in the way of this includes health upsets, tiredness - I try to avoid doing anything when I’m absolutely knackered - and sleep. Days off are few and far between, especially as I don’t really care for them. I hate being lazy. Not good for my health. It’s a good thing I love this job. With my computer fully functional now, things, hopefully should move at a better pace now.

Famous last words.

Thank you and good night.

Geoff Willmetts

editor: SFCrowsnest.com

SFCrowsnest e-mail: gfwillmetts@REMOVE.FOR.SPAMhotmail.com
terrestrial address:
74 Gloucester Road,
BRIDGWATER, Somerset TA6 6EA, UK.
SAEs (International Rates: include at least 2 IRCs or enough to cover return of manuscripts if sending in material) will always get replies.

About the H&T (handsome and talented) Geoff Willmetts

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