Dear Bitches, Smart Author Podcast, December 4, 2015

 

[music]

Ms. Sarah Wendell:  Hello, and welcome to episode number 170 of the DBSA podcast.  I’m Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, and with me today is bestselling author Sarah Morgan.  We’re going to talk about the unique differences between American English and English English and how those differences affect her writing.  We also discuss what she’s working on and what books she’s reading.

This podcast is brought to you by InterMix, publisher of the Clockwork Samurai, the steamy new Gunpowder Chronicles novel by national bestselling author Jeannie Lin.  Download it today!

And we have a podcast transcript sponsor!  The podcast transcript this month is sponsored by Rene Ahdieh, author of The Wrath and the Dawn, published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers and available in print and eBook.  This sumptuous and enthralling retelling of A Thousand and One Nights will transport you to a land of golden sand and forbidden romance.  She came for revenge, but will she stay for love?

The music you’re listening to was provided by Sassy Outwater, and I will have information at the end of the podcast as to who this is and where you can buy it, though I’m pretty sure you already know, especially if you listened to the podcast between, like, November 15th and now.

I’ll also have links to the books that we discuss and any links to specific videos that I mention, like a comedian reading Fifty Shades in various English regional accents maybe?  Yeah, totally.

But in the meantime, on with the podcast!

[music]

Ms. Wendell:  So don’t worry; you’re coming through just fine.

Ms. Sarah Morgan:  That’s ‘cause I’ve got a loud voice, probably.

Ms. Wendell:  Just a little.

Ms. Morgan:  And a British accent, you know, the British –

Ms. Wendell:  You, and it’s a, it’s a real one!

Ms. Morgan:  It is real!  It is real!

Ms. Wendell:  So would you please introduce yourself for the lovely people who are listening?

Ms. Morgan:  I will:  I’m Sarah Morgan, and I write contemporary romance, and I’m British, just in case you can’t tell from the accent.

Ms. Wendell:  Wait, so you’re, you’re, you’re in England.

Ms. Morgan:  I am in England!  I’m near London, and it’s pouring with rain.

Ms. Wendell:  Isn’t that the law?

Ms. Morgan:  It, it, well, yeah, it is at the moment.  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  Let’s get some –

Ms. Morgan:  Not all the time!  We have been known to have the sun.  That’s that orange, round thing in the sky.

Ms. Wendell:  And sometimes you see it.

Ms. Morgan:  Occasionally.

Ms. Wendell:  [Laughs]

Ms. Morgan:  Today I’m not seeing it.  To-, today we’re all about the stereotype, grey clouds –

Ms. Wendell:  Of course.

Ms. Morgan:  – grey clouds.

Ms. Wendell:  All right, so are you currently drinking tea, or is tea imminent?

Ms. Morgan:  Tea, tea’s just finished, and tea will happen again after you’ve gone.  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  I heard, and I don’t know if this is actually true, but I heard that the power companies in England specifically allot a larger amount of power at teatime because everyone’s turning on the kettle at the same time.

Ms. Morgan:  They do, they certainly do that in, with, with some television programmes when they know there’s going to be a commercial break, because they know everybody’s going to rush out and put a kettle on.

[Laughter]

Ms. Morgan:  So, yeah, that’s true, actually.

Ms. Wendell:  That’s hilarious!

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, we’re a weird country, Sarah.  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  Well, we, we’re a little weird too?  Don’t know if you’ve noticed.

Ms. Morgan:  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  Considering we used to be one of your colonies, we’re extra-large weird.  So, we’re going to talk about the difference between American English and English English.

Ms. Morgan:  We are!

Ms. Wendell:  ‘Cause I don’t want to say British, because Britain includes more than just England, right?

Ms. Morgan:  Yes.

Ms. Wendell:  ‘Cause Britain includes Wales and –

Ms. Morgan:  Yes, and Northern Ireland.

Ms. Wendell:  – sort of Scotland?  And Northern Ireland –

Ms. Morgan:  Yes, Northern –

Ms. Wendell:  – and kind of Scotland, though they got –

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.  I don’t know if anyone in Scotland would want to say that, but yeah!

Ms. Wendell:  Right, but they got, they kind of got close to being, like, yeah, not so much, and then they stayed.  I mean it’s sort of like, eh, sort of?  Sort of?  Someone right now who is Scottish is listening to this, and their head just exploded.

Ms. Morgan:  I mean, we have regional differences.

Ms. Wendell:  Oh, yes.

Ms. Morgan:  Just as you would have regional differences.  I mean, with, in your southern, you know, your southern states you’ve got whole phrases and words that are typically southern that northern, your northern Yankees wouldn’t be –

Ms. Wendell:  Yes.

Ms. Morgan:  – necessarily using, so I guess we’re no different in that sense.

Ms. Wendell:  Oh, no.  The dialectical differences and the pronunciation differences in different parts of the U.S. are huge.  Like, even the Midwest has different vowel patterns, and even within the South, there’s no one southern accent.  There’re, like, twenty or thirty different kinds, and I know I’ve heard people from northern parts of England, and I’m like, what, whoa?  Wow!  That sounds different!  Have you ever seen – ?

Ms. Morgan:  They, they talk – yeah, I mean accents, accents are a whole new thing again, aren’t they?  A whole other thing, and, and they can be really hard to understand, e-, you know, for, for us as well.  A really, really heavy Scottish accent is something that I sometimes struggle to understand.  But there we are.  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  Have you seen the video of this comedian who’s, who’s reading different passages of Fifty Shades of Grey in different English regional accents?

Ms. Morgan:  No!  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  Oh, God!

Ms. Morgan:  Okay, I’ve got to do that.

Ms. Wendell:  I’m going to have to send you a link.

Ms. Morgan:  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  So tell me, when you’re writing a romance, which is what you do –

Ms. Morgan:  It is.

Ms. Wendell:  Yay!

Ms. Morgan:  It is!  When I’m not on the internet, I write romance!  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  So what’s your percentage of writing romance being, versus, you know, being on the internet versus drinking tea?  Is it, like, an even distribution?

Ms. Morgan:  Oh, well.  I, I multitask, so I can drink tea at the same time as both those things.  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  Oh, lucky!  Okay!  So when you’re writing a romance –

Ms. Morgan:  I’m quite talented.

Ms. Wendell:  – and the book is set in – ‘cause a lot of your books are set in London –

Ms. Morgan:  Yes.

Ms. Wendell:  – and the book is set in London but you know it’s going to be read by an American audience, do you have to switch different words?  Are there things that you have to edit and take out once it’s published in the States?  Like, how does that work?  Because the languages are not exactly the same.

Ms. Morgan:  No, they’re not exactly the same.  And, I mean, I, I set my books all over the place, actually.  I mean, I wrote for Harlequin Presents as well, and so those, some of those were Italy, Greece, all over the place, and I think the, the first thing is that the story comes first –

Ms. Wendell:  Of course.

Ms. Morgan:  – so you’re trying to be authentic to the character, and that’s the most important thing.  And I didn’t even really think about language until one day my, my dad said to me, so, if you’ve got a character who has to go up and down a lot of floors, do you put them in the elevator, or do they take a lift?  ‘Cause we, we usually say lift; you say elevator.

Ms. Wendell:  Yes.

Ms. Morgan:  We would, we would know, that’s not one of the words that we wouldn’t know.  I’ll come on to that.  We would know what an elevator is, but we wouldn’t naturally, we’d probably say take the lift.  And –

Ms. Wendell:  Right, of course.

Ms. Morgan:  – and so, I, I looked at my dad and I said, you know, I often just make them take the stairs.  [Laughs] Because then it doesn’t, then it doesn’t matter either way.  I just make them take the stairs, so I’ve got a lot of very fit characters.  So often I avoid, without even thinking about it, I instinctively avoid words that might jar in so-, some readers, ‘cause you don’t want to pull the reader out of the story, and yes –

Ms. Wendell:  Right.

Ms. Morgan:  – you want to be authentic.  Yes, you absolutely want to be authentic, but if it doesn’t matter either way, I might just not mention it.  For example, here’s a big one:  pavement.  We have pavements; you have sidewalks.

Ms. Wendell:  That is not the same word.

Ms. Morgan:  It is not, and it’s, it’s, it’s significantly different, more so that elevator and lift, so quite often I just won’t mention it at all, so I put my characters in mortal peril.

Ms. Wendell:  [Laughs] They’re just walking in the street.

Ms. Morgan:  ‘Cause they’re in the middle of the street, yeah.  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  And you spell curb differently too, right?

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, probably, yeah, we do.  How do you spell it then?

Ms. Wendell:  Like the curb at the end of the sidewalk/pavement would be C-U-R-B, but I’ve seen it with a K sometimes.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, yeah, that’s right.  So I just don’t mention any of that, and you, you don’t have to.  And actually, you know, maybe that’s too much detail.  Really, you want to be getting on with the characters’ journey and their emotional development.  You don’t want to be thinking about sidewalks.  But there are some words that I just, I think I instinctively avoid.  There are some differences that don’t matter, that both countries will have a completely different understanding of, but it doesn’t matter.  For example, football; that’s a good one.  Say I say a character played football in college.  You’re going to be thinking one thing.  Ma-, Britain, British people are going to be thinking soccer –

Ms. Wendell:  Yep!

Ms. Morgan:  – but it doesn’t matter.  It won’t change the meaning of what you’ve written.  It’s not going to have a misunderstanding, whereas if I say the character is pissed, okay –

Ms. Wendell:  I’m going to think he’s angry.

Ms. Morgan:  You think he’s angry; we think he’s drunk, and that is a –

Ms. Wendell:  Which is not always the same thing.

Ms. Morgan:  [Laughs] That, then you’ve completely changed the meaning of the scene, and that’s quite important.

Ms. Wendell:  Yes.

Ms. Morgan:  Now, we do say pissed off, so for us, angry, we can say he’s really pissed off –

Ms. Wendell:  Right.

Ms. Morgan:  – but if we said, oh, he’s pissed, we would be, that would be slang for he’s drunk.

Ms. Wendell:  Right.

Ms. Morgan:  So, again, I’ve got to be careful with, with things like that.  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  That is a very big difference.  I mean, the only thing that would be different if your player played, if your character played football, I would be worried if he had brain damage, because you don’t have that much of a worry with soccer in college as much as you do –

Ms. Morgan:  Right.

Ms. Wendell:  – with playing American football.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, your American football is much closer to our rugby.

Ms. Wendell:  Right.  Except we wear helmets and pads.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, you do; you’re sensible.  And then they don’t all have cauliflower ears, whereas ours all have cauliflower ears.

Ms. Wendell:  Yeah, but I think you have a lower incidence of traumatic brain injuries.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, maybe.

Ms. Wendell:  Yeah.  So – cauliflower ears:  ugh!

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, I know.  And talking of cauliflowers, that brings me on to food.  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  Oh!  I was –

Ms. Morgan:  There are huge differences in food.

Ms. Wendell:  Oh, I remember when my kids were little, they both adored The Wiggles, so I have seen The Wiggles, like, four or five times live.  I have watched all of the specials.  I saw the original yellow Wiggle, and then the temporary, new Wiggle, and then back to the old – was it the yellow?  Yeah, it was yellow.  It was Greg, then it was Sam, then it was Greg.  Like, I have, I have deep knowledge of Wiggle, Wiggle history, but there’s one scene where they’re going through a, a platter of vegetables, and they go, they said, and there’s red and green and yellow capsicum, and I was like, what?  That’s a pepper!  What, capsicum?

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  Real-, really?  Like, I kept rewinding it because I had, I had never encountered that difference.

Ms. Morgan:  But actually we would call it a pepper.  We would probably in, in everyday speak, we’d call it a pepper, but you have a, is it zucchini?

Ms. Wendell:  Yes.

Ms. Morgan:  And we have courgette.  Eggplants – I mean, we don’t use eggplant.

Ms. Wendell:  What is eggplant?

Ms. Morgan:  Aubergine.

Ms. Wendell:  Aubergine!

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  ‘Cause it’s purple.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, aubergine.

Ms. Wendell:  I like that better!  That’s lovely.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.  So we don’t use eggplant.  I think a lot of people would know what an eggplant was.  Oh, here’s a big one:  rocket.  And I don’t even know how you – is it arugula?

Ms. Wendell:  Arugula, yeah!

Ms. Morgan:  Well, okay, we call that rocket, but that’s just so different, it’s just such a –

Ms. Wendell:  Rocket?

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, so you see, if I put arugula on someone’s plate in the UK –

Ms. Wendell:  It’s rocket.

Ms. Morgan:  – if I said, would you like arugula?  I think they’re going to look at me –

Ms. Wendell:  [Laughs]

Ms. Morgan:  I won’t get an answer.  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  And it’s weird, because so much of our entertainment is exported –

Ms. Morgan:  Yes.

Ms. Wendell:  – that American English is sort of everywhere.  I remember when I was in Australia talking to some Australian parents, and, and they said it’s a really common complaint that when their children start talking, they say a lot of things with American accents because –

Ms. Morgan:  Yes.

Ms. Wendell:  – they listen to so much American children’s programming –

Ms. Morgan:  Yes.

Ms. Wendell:  – and I’m like, I can see that being an anxiety, ‘cause those are two –

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  – very different accents.

Ms. Morgan:  It is, and I think, you know, we think that we speak the same language, and, you know, here in the UK, we’re exposed to so much U.S. culture in terms of TV, books, film –

Ms. Wendell:  Yeah.

Ms. Morgan:  – that, you know, many of your words have become absorbed into our culture, and, to a lesser extent, probably the other way round, but there are still a lot of words that are very different.  Well, it’s interesting you talking about children’s books, because that’s how you and I first got together.

Ms. Wendell:  Yes, that’s true!

Ms. Morgan:  Because you did a post on children’s books, and we both had boys, we’ve both got two boys, different ages, more like mine are ahead of yours, but in a way that was interesting, because we’d been through the stage that you were at, and I was interested to find out whether the books that were really popular here and that my boys really loved would work in the U.S., because also with that younger age group, once you get past the picture book stage, it’s to do with language and rhyme, and, and so therefore, the, the language used is really important.  And one of the books that my son really adored was The Gruffalo, and I think that that then went on to be big in the U.S., but I don’t think it was when you and I originally had the conversation.  Am I right?

Ms. Wendell:  Yeah, not yet.

Ms. Morgan:  So maybe that book was a hit because of me.  Do you think it was?  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  Yes.  No question.

Ms. Morgan:  I am personally responsible.

Ms. Wendell:  All you.  Absolutely.

Ms. Morgan:  I am.  All me.

Ms. Wendell:  Wait, wasn’t the author named the author laureate of the –

Ms. Morgan:  Donaldson, yeah.  Donaldson yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  She was the – I mean, we have author laureate or poet laureates.  She was, like, the –

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  – most awesome author of the kingdom, right, or something?

Ms. Morgan:  She was.  I mean, The Gruffalo was an amazing book, but it was very popular here before it was popular with you, and it was very interesting to see whether a book that would work with small children here who were just being introduced to language and patterns and verse would also work with yours.  But your son loved it to, didn’t he?

Ms. Wendell:  Oh, he, he loved it, and we have on our cable streaming, like, we have all these programs that are preset that we can watch anytime.  There’s an animated version of The Gruffalo narrated – I’m trying to remember if it’s in British English or Am- – I’m pretty sure it’s in British English.  I think it’s an import.  But it’s lovely, and what’s interesting is that The Gruffalo, there’re four or five of them now, right?

Ms. Morgan:  Mm-hmm, yeah, yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  I see them everywhere, but –

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  – that wasn’t true when you first sent me the British copy.

Ms. Morgan:  No.  No.

Ms. Wendell:  So it’s totally you.  It’s all you!

Ms. Morgan:  It’s just me.  I, I, I am personally responsible for –

Ms. Wendell:  Totally get a cut of that!

Ms. Morgan:  Okay.  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  The other book that you recommended to my sons was Horrid Henry.

Ms. Morgan:  Oh, yes, yes.

Ms. Wendell:  Which I have not seen as much of.

Ms. Morgan:  But that’s fascinating, because the author, Francesca Simon, is American.

Ms. Wendell:  Really!

Ms. Morgan:  I think.  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  Huh.

Ms. Morgan:  I think, yes.  I mean, I think she lives in Britain and probably has done for ages, but I’m pretty sure originally she was American.  But Horrid Henry was brilliant.  Did your sons find that funny?

Ms. Wendell:  My older son didn’t love it; my younger son adores it.

Ms. Morgan:  Oh, okay.  Yeah, and that, you know, that’s probably true over here because that, that, again, is good for an older child, so then you’re starting to tap into sense of humor as well, aren’t you?

Ms. Wendell:  Yes.

Ms. Morgan:  Particular sense of humor and whether it works for you or not.

Ms. Wendell:  Now you just said something that was very British; you said something something have done.

Ms. Morgan:  Oh, did I do it again?  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  Yes!  We had this conversation yesterday, ‘cause I was trying to explain –

Ms. Morgan:  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  – there is this thing that I have read and heard, and I know that it is a difference between American and British English, but I have never figured out the rule of when you do it, so I would never have said have done, I would have just said have or has, but you add the extra word, you add the complete verb, not just half of it, and I, and I can’t figure out the rule of when that happens.

Ms. Morgan:  Well, I, I don’t know, because after you said that yesterday, I discussed it with my husband and son, and they both agreed with you that they would have just said, you know – what was the example you used?  I can’t –

Ms. Wendell:  The example was, if someone asks you –

Ms. Morgan:  Would, would you have done that, had you, if you’d gone to that party, would you have done that?  Yes, I would have.

Ms. Wendell:  Right, but it was, yeah, it was – bababababa – if, would you have gone to the party if you knew she was there?  And the, the British construction, according to this website, which, of course, if it’s on the internet, it’s, like, 10,000% true –

Ms. Morgan:  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  – would you have gone to the party if you knew she was there?  Yes, I would have done.

Ms. Morgan:  I would have done.  Yeah, but they also said –

Ms. Wendell:  And I would –

Ms. Morgan:  – they would have said, yes, I would have, so I think either is correct.

Ms. Wendell:  Either is correct, but it’s a uniquely – adding the done?  Is, is, like, a –

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, is, is very British.

Ms. Wendell:  – it’s a, it’s a British thing, and I can never figure out the rule of when you would do that.  But I’m also –

Ms. Morgan:  Well, I’m not big on rules, so don’t ask me!  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  I will not.  I don’t even know the per-, I, I, I should, I should know the names of those verbs, ‘cause I was an English major and had to study parts of speech, but I don’t remember.

Ms. Morgan:  You were asleep in that lecture.

Ms. Wendell:  I don’t remember that.  I remember lots of other things, like the lyrics to lots of Wiggles songs, but –

Ms. Morgan:  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  – but I don’t –

Ms. Morgan:  Those are the, those are the important things.

Ms. Wendell:  Yes, those are the things that I really need to remember.  The other thing that I’ve noticed is that the way that you construct sentences is sometimes different.

Ms. Morgan:  Yes.

Ms. Wendell:  The rhythm of the subordinate clauses in British and, British English and American English is very different, but it’s very subtle –

Ms. Morgan:  Yes.

Ms. Wendell:  – and I’ve noticed, like, for example, over here, we have, we have the, The Great British Baking Show, because bake off is trademarked to Pillsbury, and they, they, they own that term –

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  – but you have The Great British Bake Off –

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  – and we have The Great British Baking Show – which is amazing; thank you for, for that.

Ms. Morgan:  You’re welcome!

Ms. Wendell:  That’s just, wow, okay, we owe you, like, some baked goods, ‘cause that show is so great!

Ms. Morgan:  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  But I’ve, even then I’ve noticed, just the, the, the rhythm of the sentences and the way they talk about things and little tiny words like here we would proof bread, but there it’s proved.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, it is prove.  We prove it, yeah.  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  And we proof, which is a slight, slight difference, but I was like, oh, so when he goes on about how things are underproved, I’m like, did they not suffic-, have not, have they, have sufficient, insufficient evidence?

Ms. Morgan:  Sounds like a crime, doesn’t it?

Ms. Wendell:  Yeah, like, there’s under-, it was underproved, like they, they didn’t mount a good defense.  Poor piece of bread.

Ms. Morgan:  We can’t take that one to court.

Ms. Wendell:  No, I can’t take that one.  I do love that his name is Paul Hollywood?  Like, if ever there was a dude destined to be on television, it is that guy.

Ms. Morgan:  Absolutely, and it’s those blue eyes.

Ms. Wendell:  Oh, Lord.  And Mary Berry!  That’s just –

Ms. Morgan:  Yes.

Ms. Wendell:  Okay, can you imagine growing up with that name?  And then, like, now it’s the perfect name for, for what she does?

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.  She, she’s kind of an icon here, and she wrote every sort of single AGA, AGA cookbook that –

Ms. Wendell:  Oh, is that how you say that?

Ms. Morgan:  Berry!  AGA!  I say AGA.

Ms. Wendell:  No, no, no, no!  AGA!  AGA.

Ms. Morgan:  AGA.  Yeah, why, what do you say?

Ms. Wendell:  I don’t know.  I’ve never said this word; I’ve only read it.

Ms. Morgan:  [Laughs] Well, it’s not in every normal conversation, but yeah, AGA.

Ms. Wendell:  So what is an AGA?

Ms. Morgan:  Well, it’s a range cooker.

Ms. Wendell:  Right, but it, it has a fire in it, right?  It’s always on?

Ms. Morgan:  Yes, yes.

Ms. Wendell:  Because one of the –

Ms. Morgan:  Oh, yeah, yeah, all along, yeah.  Yeah, it is.

Ms. Wendell:  I think it was one of the contestants of the current season – see, here in the U.S., we just finished, I think it was season two that was on PBS, and you guys are already, already on, like, season six, and I’m pretty sure that I was not legally watching parts of season six, because, well…reasons.  And –

[Laughter]

Ms. Wendell:  Reasons.  Sorry, the BBC!  But the, one of the contestants was really young, and I think she was from Scotland, and in an early episode, she forgot to turn the oven on, because she said, we have an AGA, and it’s always on, and I’m like, how do you –

Ms. Morgan:  It’s always on, yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  – how do you always, why is the oven always on?  Isn’t that a bad idea?

Ms. Morgan:  [Laughs] Well, it’s very warm.  Like, my friend’s got one, and it means that her kitchen’s gorgeous all through the winter, but then in the summer, you don’t want your AGA on, so she has to cook on something else.  We have a whole –

Ms. Wendell:  Why do you leave it –

Ms. Morgan:  – we have a whole genre in this country that was called AGA sagas.  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  AGA sagas?  Tell me about this!  So, wait, wait, but why do you have to leave it on?  Is it, is it gas?  Or is it electric?  Or is it wood?

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, I, I think oil.  Do, I think – I don’t have one, so I don’t know much about the technical side of them, but, yes, I think, I think you can get either, but no, no, really, they’re oil.  Generally, they’re oil.

Ms. Wendell:  And you leave them on because they take a long time to heat up?

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, and you just get slow, steady heat, so you can do things like, they have, the ovens are different temperatures, so there’s something like two, three, four ovens at different temperatures, so you’ve, you’ve got one that you would –

Ms. Wendell:  Oh, little compartments and big compartments, and you stick –

Ms. Morgan:  Yes!

Ms. Wendell:  Ohhh!

Ms. Morgan:  And there’s one you warm plates in, and then one that you’d, that would be very hot and one – one year I think my friend cooked her turkey, and you can put it in low really early in the morning, and it smells delicious.  So I don’t know –

Ms. Wendell:  Ohhh!

Ms. Morgan:  – I am no AGA expert, but Mary Berry is the AGA expert.  And there’s this –

Ms. Wendell:  So she knows everything about the AGA!

Ms. Morgan:  She does, and there’s this – well, she knows everything about everything. 

Ms. Wendell:  Well, obviously.  I’ve seen her; she knows everything.

Ms. Morgan:  She is the guru.  But there’s also this image of the AGA as being the cozy, comforting, country, British kitchen, and so these AGA sagas, as they were called – [laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  AGA saga.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, they’re sort of, you know, country, comforting stories.  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  So they’re, they’re the predecessor to small town contemporary is what you’re saying?

Ms. Morgan:  Oh, yes, but you see, in, in the UK, we don’t call them small town contemporary.  That doesn’t exist.

Ms. Wendell:  Well, it isn’t, I mean, aside from a few major cities, most of England is a bunch of small towns really close together, right?

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, yeah.  I mean, we, we certainly have places that perfectly fit small town contemporary, but as a genre, if I tapped somebody on the street and said, do you read small town contemporary –

Ms. Wendell:  They’d be like, what?

Ms. Morgan:  [Laughs] They, they’d look at me very, as strangely as if I went up and offered them a plate of arugula.

Ms. Wendell:  [Laughs] I also know that in, speaking of genres, or talking of genres, there’s no, there’s not as much negative correlation to the term chick lit over there as there is here.

Ms. Morgan:  No.

Ms. Wendell:  Is that true?

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, I think that is –

Ms. Wendell:  I mean, ‘cause things are still marketed and described as chick lit.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, I, I think, I think that is true, and I think we have a particular type of packaging for that here with the kind of –

Ms. Wendell:  Ohhh.

Ms. Morgan:  – cartoony.  I mean, we do, we, we’ve, you and I’ve had this discussion before, but, you know, our, our covers tend to be more illustrative, whereas yours are usually more photographic.  Not always, but we definitely go down the illustrative cover more for the chick lit type of book.

Ms. Wendell:  So your covers in the U.S. are photographs, but your covers in England are drawn illustrations that are sort of cartoony, but they’re not, like –

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  They’re not like the cartoon covers we had; they’re just, they’re just four-color illustrations.

Ms. Morgan:  Yes, they’re artwork – that’s, yeah, they are, they are illustrations.  They use an illustrator, yeah.  Interesting.

Ms. Wendell:  That is interesting.  So, Mary, Mary Berry is the, the AGA saga –

Ms. Morgan:  She is.

Ms. Wendell:  – champion.

Ms. Morgan:  I mean, I think real, real resurgence in cookery, you know, because of, of that program.  Everybody’s baking, but of course, problem is, when you bake, which is all very lovely and comforting, you don’t want to eat it at the end, don’t you?

Ms. Wendell:  No, you’ll gain a lot of weight.

Ms. Morgan:  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  I always love when they’re like, your showstopper needs to be a piece of bread that’s twelve miles wide.

Ms. Morgan:  I know!  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  Giant carbs!

Ms. Morgan:  Shaped as a giraffe.

Ms. Wendell:  Yes.

Ms. Morgan:  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  I, I’ve noticed that a lot of young people here, because we have all the, the cooking competition shows that are – the thing about the Great British Bake Off/Baking Show is that it’s not very cutthroat.  Like, there was one scene in the season I was watching where, where one of the contestants said something that could possibly have been misconstrued as criticizing another person, and the reaction of the woman behind her was [gasps]!  Like, you don’t ever –

Ms. Morgan:  I know.

Ms. Wendell:  You, or you’re all super, super nice and supportive, whereas here, there’s, like, Cutthroat Kitchen.  Like, we’ll kill you when you’re done.

Ms. Morgan:  It’s a very comforting programme.

Ms. Wendell:  Yes.

Ms. Morgan:  It’s as comforting as what they’re making.  It’s all about comfort.

Ms. Wendell:  Yes.  It is very comfort television.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  You know, and here we have, like, okay, so Gordon Ramsay has two shows here:  one is, I think it’s MasterChef?

Ms. Morgan:  Oh, yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  And he’s really cranky.  Like, he describes food as, like, this looks like, this looks like Gandhi’s flip-flop.

Ms. Morgan:  [Laughs] But that’s his USP, isn’t it.  I mean, that’s what he’s –

Ms. Wendell:  That’s his style.

Ms. Morgan:  – that’s just a persona.  I mean, it’s probably him, but it’s certainly the persona that he’s, he presents to the world.

Ms. Wendell:  And then he does –

Ms. Morgan:  That’s his individual –

Ms. Wendell:  But he also does MasterChef Junior, which is all kids –

Ms. Morgan:  Oh, right.

Ms. Wendell:  And when that, I remember when that show was announced, people were like, oh, my God, he’s going to be so mean.

Ms. Morgan:  Is he mean, is he mean to them?

Ms. Wendell:  No, he’s so sweet!  Like –

Ms. Morgan:  Oh, good, ‘cause I’d cry.

Ms. Wendell:  – he gives this really gentle criticism, and when he praises someone, he says, oh, you, this reminds me of something my son made for me.  I feel so warm and happy inside.  And I’m just like, I’m going to cry ‘cause Gordon Ramsay.  [Sniffs] So there’s this sort of, with the kid shows, there’s this –

Ms. Morgan:  Mm-hmm.  He’s gentle.

Ms. Wendell:  – comforting element, and so my, my younger son is like, I want to learn to cook.  I want to learn to bake.  And it’s, it’s one thing to be like, okay, here’s a ten-inch chef knife, let’s cut some meat, whereas with baking it’s not as many sharp implements, so it’s a little easier to teach kids, I think.  So what other differences have you had to manage with your, with your books?  Are there things that you, like, you just, all right, I just have to scrap this scene altogether; there’s no way to make it fully bilingual; or do you just do two editions of different things?

Ms. Morgan:  No, not at all.  No, it’s one edition, and most of the time I don’t even think about it.  I really don’t.  I write the story, and then afterwards I might think – oh, here’s another one:  sick.  Now, this is an interesting one, because some of the, some of the differences are very subtle.  So you’ll say, are you sick?

Ms. Wendell:  Yes.

Ms. Morgan:  Meaning, are you ill?

Ms. Wendell:  My son is, my, my son is home sick today.

Ms. Morgan:  Right.  If you said, my son is sick, here, we’d assume, we’d stand back, because he’s going to vomit.

Ms. Wendell:  [Laughs]

Ms. Morgan:  But – so we would say ill.  So that’s quite, again, a different, but, but my husband pointed out when I was talking to this that we might ring and say, I’m off sick today, so we do use that phrase.  So, again, the differences are quite subtle, and that’s where, really, you have to be a native to know the subtle differences.  And I was thinking about that, too, because, ‘cause I write for Harlequin.  They have all this massive global reach, and I’m, I get letters from Italian readers and French readers, and sometimes all I can do is stick it into Google Translate, and usually I, I’m too scared of using the wrong word, whatever Google Translate says, to risk it, so I usually just reply in English and hope that they don’t mind – [laughs] – because sometimes you can say something that you think is fine, but used in that context, it’s incredibly rude or insulting.  Yeah, anyway.  I, I do remember saying something online once that another blogger said to me was very insulting, and of course it wasn’t in my language, but in their language it was insulting, so I took it, I took it down, and I stopped being so brave.  Never again.  So you do have to be careful.

Ms. Wendell:  [Laughs] I remember, I remember, I think it was last year or the year before, Weird Al Yankovic released a song, and I think it was something about bad grammar, and he used the word spastic, and here that’s, that doesn’t carry any, any negative connotations –

Ms. Morgan:  Okay, here that’s –

Ms. Wendell:  – but here that’s –

Ms. Morgan:  – deeply rude, yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  – deeply, deeply rude.

Ms. Morgan:  Deeply insulting.

Ms. Wendell:  It’s like, for us, the word retarded.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  Deeply rude and insulting and should not be –

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  It’s, it’s one of those words that’s like, all right, a majority of people find it super insulting, and we’re still trying to weed it out of common use among everyone because it’s so hurtful.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  But I, I, there were people who were like, oh, God, I loved that, and then he said spastic, and I just couldn’t listen anymore, and I was like, wait, what?  Why?  Like, I had no idea –

Ms. Morgan:  No.

Ms. Wendell:  – that that word – and, and I can see why that’s an easy thing to trip over, ‘cause you don’t know –

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  – that that, that that one word has so much negativity with it, wherein, whereas, I don’t even think I’ve had any reason to use the word spastic at all.

Ms. Morgan:  Never.

Ms. Wendell:  Like, that’s just not even part of the vocabulary, not even as a pejorative.

Ms. Morgan:  But that’s interesting, you see, because when you’re on, I mean, that’s all right in a book when you’re writing because somebody will pick that up –

Ms. Wendell:  Yes.

Ms. Morgan:  – and, you know, at copyediting stage, someone would say, you can’t do that.  But –

Ms. Wendell:  Right.

Ms. Morgan:  – say you –

Ms. Wendell:  Sometimes copyeditors do really, really good stuff!

Ms. Morgan:  [Laughs] Yes, they do, they do.

Ms. Wendell:  Bless them, every one.

Ms. Morgan:  They do.  Bless every copyeditor.  But you might, for example, if you were very vocal online, you might very easily say something that was offensive to someone else in, in, you know, and you don’t mean to at all, because in your country it’s totally fine.

Ms. Wendell:  Right, it’s like, like cursing in another language.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  It doesn’t, if I, if I start dropping French-Canadian curse words in New Jersey –

Ms. Morgan:  Yes.

Ms. Wendell:  – no one has any idea what I’m saying, but if someone who’s from Quebec overhears me, like, whoa!  You just dropped, like, five F-bombs!  What is your problem?

Ms. Morgan:  [Laughs] I’ll tell you somewhere that language did have an impact, and that’s, I, I started off writing medical romance.

Ms. Wendell:  Right!  Because you’re, you’re –

Ms. Morgan:  Now, obviously –

Ms. Wendell:  – a former, you’re a former nurse.

Ms. Morgan:  I am.  I am.  I worked in the ER for my sins, which means I’m very good at clearing up sick, and I mean the sick, not –

[Laughter]

Ms. Morgan:  – the sick sick ill.  Sick and blood!  My specialties!

Ms. Wendell:  Ugh!  So you had to deal with doctors who knew everything –

Ms. Morgan:  I did.

Ms. Wendell:  – and so you get to write romances where the doctors get their comeuppance.

Ms. Morgan:  I did, and, and, you know, that was one of the reasons that I started it, because I got so fed up with hearing doctors say the wrong thing, I thought, oh, I can write this and put the right words in their mouths!

[Laughter]

Ms. Morgan:  So there was a doctor at one point who said to me that he thought that my books should be mandatory reading for medical students on how to talk to patients, which is –

[Laughter]

Ms. Wendell:  That’s lovely!

Ms. Morgan:  I know!  It was!  It was lovely, but those terms, I mean, those really, that language difference is major, because our entire hospital system is different to yours.

Ms. Wendell:  Oh, just a, just a little bit.

Ms. Morgan:  Exactly.

Ms. Wendell:  Just a little.

Ms. Morgan:  And so that was, I know that, in the beginning, when Harlequin, I mean obviously the medical romances have never been big in the U.S. –

Ms. Wendell:  Which is a shame, because I happen to love them, but anyway.

Ms. Morgan:  I know, but you know what, they really are pop-, I, I get a lot of letters from readers, and actually I get letters from readers who don’t mind at all that the language is different.  It’s almost like they’re stepping into another country, and they’re quite interested, so there is –

Ms. Wendell:  That works!

Ms. Morgan:  – I mean, that’s another interesting topic:  do you mind, is it quite kind of nice to, to see what other people do?  But at one point when Harlequin brought out some digital – it was a few years ago; it’s not now – they actually started the book with a glossary so that readers who were completely stumped by the fact that we don’t have interns, that kind of thing, they, they were able to at least explain the hospital hierarchy so that it made more sense to people.

Ms. Wendell:  So you don’t have the same doctor training levels.  Like, you don’t have interns and residents and –

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, we do.  They’re called different things, actually.  They, they’re, just the, the title’s different, really.

Ms. Wendell:  Oh!  What are the titles?

Ms. Morgan:  Well – [laughs] – and, and that’s all changed now, as well, but we have, we used to have things like house officers.  When I was writing originally, we had things like senior house officers and house officers, which would be newly qualified doctors –

Ms. Wendell:  That sounds like something out of Hogwarts.

Ms. Morgan:  – which would have been your, yeah, it would have been your interns.

Ms. Wendell:  Right.

Ms. Morgan:  And it’s all changed now, and, I mean, I don’t write them anymore, so I’m horribly out of date, but, but definitely our, we have consultants.  What’s your sort of top doctor called, then?

Ms. Wendell:  Oh, I think, chief resident, I think, is the top.

Ms. Morgan:  Right, okay, so we would, we would have a consultant.  You know, our consultant is our kind of top person.

Ms. Wendell:  That makes sense.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, probably.  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  But even, are even the procedure terms different?

Ms. Morgan:  Some of them.  But also, the way in which we consult, we have GPs, so our family doctor is almost always our first port of call, whereas I think if you had a problem with your child, would you take them straight to the pediatrician?

Ms. Wendell:  Yes.

Ms. Morgan:  Okay, well-

Ms. Wendell:  Pediatrician and general practitioner are child – for, for me, my kids have a pediatrician.  I have a GP, but he would not see my kids until they were adults.

Ms. Morgan:  Okay.  So, we cannot go straight to the consultant.  Everything for us goes through the family doctor.

Ms. Wendell:  And then they refer you to someone else.

Ms. Morgan:  And they will, if they can’t handle it, they refer you, so they will try and handle it themselves, manage it themselves.  If it’s outside the scope of their –

Ms. Wendell:  Ability.

Ms. Morgan:  – capability, then they will refer you, yeah, to, to hospital, to a hospital doctor.

Ms. Wendell:  But you, you also don’t say the hospital or a hospital, you just say to hospital.

Ms. Morgan:  To hospital, the hospital.  I might say both.  I might say either.

Ms. Wendell:  Yeah.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  But, but if I, like, if my, one of my relatives is sick and they’re in the hospital, you would say, oh, so-and-so is sick.  He’s in hospital.

Ms. Morgan:  I would say he’s ill, Sarah.  You’re saying he’s sick.  Unless he’s barfing.  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  Oh, sorry!  All right.

Ms. Morgan:  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  So, my, my, my great-uncle – I don’t actually have a living great-uncle, so I won’t virtually sicken him – but you know, my great, my great-uncle is very ill and is in the hospital, but you would not say the “the” all the time, right?  You would say in hospital.

Ms. Morgan:  No, I would say, my, my uncle’s in hospital.  That’s what I would say, yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  Right!  There’s no the.

Ms. Morgan:  He’s in an hospital, yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  You, you’re just all ready to tweet.  You just, you just drop words so everything you say is under 140 characters.  [Laughs]

Ms. Morgan:  That’s right.  I mean – [laughs] – I know.  Except actually I’m quite verbose, so that doesn’t fit, does it?

[Laughter]

Ms. Morgan:  I struggle on Twitter.

Ms. Wendell:  Yeah, the, the, the whole, I don’t have a limit on DMs now, like, direct messaging doesn’t have a character limit?  I’m like, oh, my God, I could write a whole book in here!

Ms. Morgan:  You could write War and Peace!  It’ll be fine!

[Laughter]

Ms. Wendell:  I know!  Whoever gets that message is going to be like, oh, God.  Oh, why did this have to happen?

Ms. Morgan:  But if you’re reading a book set in the UK, does it bother you that the English is different, or are you quite fascinated?

Ms. Wendell:  You know, it’s funny you should mention it, because I am reading a book that comes out at – so we’re recording this on the 17th of November, and I’m pretty sure this book comes out on the 30th, but it is called Act Like It, and it’s by, I want to say Lucy Parker, but I’m not entirely sure exactly who the author is.  I have to go back to the home screen, ‘cause it’s an ARC, so it doesn’t have all the information built in?

Ms. Morgan:  Right.

Ms. Wendell:  Act Like It is covered up by the banner that says personal.  Bugger.

Ms. Morgan:  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  Buggah.

Ms. Morgan:  So we’ll never know.

Ms. Wendell:  Buggah!  All right.

Ms. Morgan:  We’ll never know.

Ms. Wendell:  Although I have to say, saying bugger and, and wanker, (a) it sounds, it sounds weird in an American accent, but it’s also very satisfying.  Bugger!

Ms. Morgan:  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  Wanker.

Ms. Morgan:  It’s not very polite.  You do know that, to be clear?

Ms. Wendell:  No.  I do know that it’s not polite.  Yes, that I knew.  This is Act Like It by Lucy Parker.

Ms. Morgan:  Oh, okay.

Ms. Wendell: So, you know, this, you, you might really like this one?  It takes place in London, and the heroine is a stage actress, and she’s in a play with, with this guy, and he’s – I’m trying to guess if there’s a way to explain quickly who he is or who he’s based on – he’s, like, he’s really grumpy, he doesn’t like publicity, he doesn’t like dealing with fans, he, he’s, he’s very focused on be-, on being a, an, an incredibly famous, good actor.  He looks down on television, and he gets set up for a fake relationship with his co-star because it’s better for the show, and then his, it’ll be better for his goals, which he wants to be president of this, you know, royal dramatic actors’ association or something – I forget the acronym.  So he has to work on his public image by pretending to date this woman, and she gets sort of like a boost in exposure because she’s dating this super-famous guy, but the language is very, very British.  Like, even –

Ms. Morgan:  I love it.

Ms. Wendell:  – even the sentences, the, the way that sentences are constructed is very subtle and very, it, it’s, it’s so interesting.  Let me see, ‘cause the problem when you’re reading a personal file, you have to bookmark where you left off, ‘cause it won’t auto-, automatically remember.

Ms. Morgan:  And does that work globally, do you think?  I mean, does the general U.S. audience – I, I’m trying to work, think about authors who really work globally regardless.  I mean, obviously Nora Roberts comes to mind.

Zev:  Woof.

Ms. Wendell:  My dog disagrees with you.

Ms. Morgan:  Your dog disagrees?  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  Yes, Zev is barking, and he says, there’s no global audience; that’s wrong.  I think he’s incorrect about it.

Ms. Morgan:  That’s no good!  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  He’s wrong about that.  He’s totally wrong.  I’m trying to come up, ‘cause I, I saved a bunch of, I made a bunch of bookmarks so that I could bring up an example –

Ms. Morgan:  Oh, good.

Ms. Wendell:  – so I’m trying to find one.  So here’s an example:  West End ticket prices are daylight robbery.

Ms. Morgan:  Yes.

Ms. Wendell:  Daylight robbery was not a phrase – I mean, I know what it means –

Ms. Morgan:  Okay.

Ms. Wendell:  – but for us, that would be highway robbery.

Ms. Morgan:  Oh, well, you, well, of course, because now we’re back to the differences between roads.  I’ve got that on my list.

Ms. Wendell:  Oh, there’s differences between –

Ms. Morgan:  Like, we have motorways –

Ms. Wendell:  We do not have –

Ms. Morgan:  – you have freeways, and then there’s the interstate and –

Ms. Wendell:  Yes.

Ms. Morgan:  – you don’t have roundabouts.

Ms. Wendell:  We do!  I mean, like, I’ve driven on them, but that’s not what we call them.  They’re, they’re circles.

Ms. Morgan:  Are they?

Ms. Wendell:  Yeah.  So, like, there’s one near me, but I grew up on a street with a circle or a roundabout, and so I knew, you know, I’ve always known how it works.  Like, the person who’s in the roundabout has the right of way, but – okay, I will say that when we were driving in Australia, and if I’ve been in a taxi in, in England, because you drive on the other side of the road and driver’s on the other side of the car, the roundabout just about gave me a coronary.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  I was not prepared, ‘cause you’re going the different way, and the, and I’m just like, this is terrible!  Let’s never drive this!

Ms. Morgan:  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  Let’s just go around it.  Like, even if we have to leave –

Ms. Morgan:  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  – by a mile or more, let’s just not go around the roundabout.  But, like, I have one near my house and I’m, I’m used to it, but it’s not called a roundabout; it’s a circle.

Ms. Morgan:  Huh!  Oh, yeah, I’ll be adding that one.  Write that down.

Ms. Wendell:  But also, I’ve noticed, for example, before everyone had a GPS on their phone, you used to be able to get cars that had onboard GPS that were, you know, in the dashboard, so my husband has a Prius that’s about ten years old –

Ms. Morgan:  Hmm.

Ms. Wendell:  – and the GPS speaks Californian.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, we’ve got the same!

Ms. Wendell:  So, you know, turn onto the freeway.  We don’t have a freeway in New Jersey.  We have Interstate 95, and we have the parkway, and the parkway is a road where there’re tolls every so many miles, so you have to drive through a tollbooth every so many miles, and so we have the parkway, and we have 95, which is an interstate, but we don’t actually use the word freeway.  Freeway is much more used in California.

Ms. Morgan:  Okay, that’s interesting.

Ms. Wendell:  So when I would, at one point I had misset my GPS to avoid toll roads, and I couldn’t figure out how to take it off because everything is a toll road.  Like, the, we all have the little, the little box, the little E-Z Pass.

Ms. Morgan:  Mm-hmm.

Ms. Wendell:  Like, every road that I can drive on that’s through the whole state, that goes north-south, anyway, is a road that you, like, I would pay a toll to get on, get – here’s the, here’s the horrible thing:  when you live in New Jersey, we’re, like, little, and we’re surrounded by other states, and we’re very, very close to Philadelphia and to New York, and so there’s a lot of travel in and out.  You have to pay to get out of Jersey, and it is free to come back in.

Ms. Morgan:  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  So you have to pay a toll, like, fourteen, fifteen, nineteen dollars to go over the bridge to New York, you have to escape, but it’s free –

Ms. Morgan:  Escape.

Ms. Wendell:  – but it’s free to come in, and I’m still a little peeved about that.  [Laughs] But we don’t have a freeway.

Ms. Morgan:  That’s hilarious.

Ms. Wendell:  But your motorways, are they called that because they all have M in the name?

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, well, they, yeah, the M is because they’re a motorway.  Yeah, and then we just have A roads, which are bigger, and B roads, which are tiny, and anything smaller than that, you don’t want to try it.  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  Right.  So here’s another example of British that I thought – this is, this is a, this is a line in the book that I thought, this person, even the description and the dialogue sound very not-American:  “’But I’m also given to understand that you’re aiming to take over the presidency of the RSPA in the December by-elections.  And frankly,’ she said, with a distinct air of a poker player producing an unexpected ace, ‘if you don’t make some small effort to improve your PR profile, “not a chance in hell” would be an equal description of your shot at the chair.’”  Now, I hear that, and rhythmically, and some of the little phrases sound so British to me.  Like, that person is not American.

Ms. Morgan:  No.

Ms. Wendell:  But it’s super subtle.  Like, I’m given to understand, like, that is something that I, that I don’t ever hear anyone say.

Ms. Morgan:  No.  I’m not sure I’d say that either.  That’s quite formal.

Ms. Wendell:  It’s very formal, but –

Ms. Morgan: Yes.

Ms. Wendell:  – I, I also think that because these two characters are stage actors –

Ms. Morgan:  I’d say I believe, I think.

Ms. Wendell:  Yeah.  I think that in turn – so here’s, here’s the next paragraph:  “He, in his turn, was the player who had rested in smug confidence on a hand of two pairs and now found it wasn’t enough to take the round.”  Now, that is so subtly not-American to me.

Ms. Morgan:  Well, I’m not clear what that means, ‘cause I – is that poker?

Ms. Wendell:  Poker language, right.

Ms. Morgan:  Okay.  I’d be hopeless at poker.  I’ve never bothered learning, ‘cause you can read everything on my face.  I am completely transparent.  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  Good to know!  I will keep that in mind.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  But see that some of the little phrases in this book, I’m like, okay, these people are not American, and you asked earlier, you know, do people mind language difference?  I really do not mind.

Ms. Morgan:  No.

Ms. Wendell:  I think, for me as a reader –

Zev:  Bark!  Bark, bark!

Ms. Wendell:  I, I am right!  You’re wrong!

Ms. Morgan:  He doesn’t mind either.

Ms. Wendell:  Come here.  Come here!

Ms. Morgan:  Hello!

Ms. Wendell:  You want to say hi?  Can I pick you up?

Ms. Morgan:  He’s talking to us.  Now there we are; there’s another one.  You’d say, talk with, wouldn’t you, and I’d say talk to.  Can I come and talk to you?  Can I talk to you about something?  You just don’t –

Ms. Wendell:  Oh, no, that’s totally, I would say that.

Ms. Morgan:  Oh, would you?

Ms. Wendell:  Absolutely.  Ab- –

Ms. Morgan:  When do you say with, then?  Talk with?  You say with sometimes when we would say to.  I’m sure you do.

Ms. Wendell:  I would say it about two people who aren’t me.  So Adam’s going to go have a talk with our son about his behavior.  I would say talk with about two people who aren’t me.

Ms. Morgan:  Hmm.  Okay.

Ms. Wendell:  But you would still say talk to.

Ms. Morgan:  Talk to.  Yes, probably.  But obviously you understand the other one.  Here’s the other thing:  I mean, historical romance, you read a lot of British-set historical romance –

Ms. Wendell:  Yes.

Ms. Morgan:  – and then you’re in, I mean you’re, in a, in a way, you’re creating a different world, aren’t you?  So then you expect – and you watch a lot of Downton Abbey, don’t you?  You love Downton Abbey.

Ms. Wendell:  I had to stop because Julian Fellowes kills people.

Ms. Morgan:  Oh, I know.  I had to stop.

Ms. Wendell:  He’s like, he’s like George R. R. Martin!

Ms. Morgan:  It’s mis-, miserable, isn’t it?  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  Are they the same person?

Ms. Morgan:  I think they are.  I think they are.

Ms. Wendell:  I think George R. R. Martin and Julian Fellowes are the same person.

Ms. Morgan:  Well, that’s why he’s taking so long to write the next Game of Thrones, ‘cause he’s –

Ms. Wendell:  That’s right, ‘cause he’s writing Downton Abbey.

Ms. Morgan:  – writing Downton Abbey in the middle.

Ms. Wendell:  [Laughs] Seriously, he just, he just – ah! – he, he, there’s too much killing people –

Ms. Morgan:  It any rate, it went through a very miserable phase, and I gave up on it then.

Ms. Wendell:  Like, I, I had to give up on it, and I mentally gave them all a happy ending.  Everyone is very, very happy.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.  Yeah, they’re all happy.

Ms. Wendell:  Do you remember earlier in the first season, I think it was the housekeeper had a chance to reconnect with someone from her youth, and she didn’t go off with him, and she stayed at Downton.  In my, in my canon, she is the best, happiest person –

Ms. Morgan:  Is happy.

Ms. Wendell – and she is far the hell away from those miserable people.  So yeah, I, I remember watching a lot of Downton Abbey in the first season, and I do read a lot of historical romance, but most of the historical romance I read is, a lot of it is written by Americans, and it does not sound British.

Ms. Morgan:  That’s interesting.

Ms. Wendell:  But when I, when I really want the language of the story to be part of the worldbuilding, like with the book that I’m reading now, which is just, I’m, I am loving how very subtly different the language is, because that, for me, is a form of, of worldbuilding.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.  Course it is.

Ms. Wendell:  Like, I am in London right now with these, with these actors having a hard time.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  Jill Mansell is the –

Ms. Morgan:  Yes.

Ms. Wendell:  – same thing, because she writes very, very British, and she writes, in, in England it’s marketed as chick lit, right?  Is that, that’s, or is it, like, women’s fiction or – ?

Ms. Morgan:  Do you know, I wouldn’t have said – I, I don’t really, I’m not very good at these –

Ms. Wendell:  Marketing terms?

Ms. Morgan:  – at, at categorizing at all.  I would have, I would not have said she was chick lit, and she may now email me and, and ask me what on earth I’m talking about.  I would have said she was –

Ms. Wendell:  [Laughs]

Ms. Morgan:  – she was more con-, I would have said she was contemporary women’s fiction.

Ms. Wendell:  See, that, that fits as well.  But even then, she’s writing in little towns and so when you read a Jill Mansell, you get all of the characters –

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  – it’s very British, someone is always having a cup of tea, lots of tea, and the, the language and, even though the description of what people are wearing, like, people will wear jumpers, and I know that’s a sweater.

Ms. Morgan:  Hmm.  Ah, that’s one: sweater.  Now that’s a good example, because we do say jumper.  We don’t say sweater, but if you said sweater, we’d all know what you meant.

Ms. Wendell:  Of course!  And so, you know, I read a Jill Mansell novel, and all of those little language things are set to British –

Ms. Morgan:  Mm-hmm.

Ms. Wendell:  – not U.S.

Ms. Morgan:  Because it’s taking place there, isn’t it?  In small, in British small towns.  And therefore –

Ms. Wendell:  Even the extra U works on me.  Like, I’m, I’m really easy, apparently, with contemporary worldbuilding, ‘cause when there’s colour with a U and favourite with U, I’m like, oh, well!  I’m not in the U.S. right now.  There’s an extra U.

Ms.  Morgan:  Yes.  If you’re in the UK, and it goes back to the story being first and being authentic to the character, and if that’s where they are and how they would speak, then that’s what you should be putting in there.

Ms. Wendell:  That’s the spelling they would use –

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  – if they were writing what they were saying.

Ms. Morgan:  Absolutely.

Ms. Wendell:  Of course, absolutely.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  So with, like, there’re writers like Jill Mansell, and there’s a, there’s a series that, of self-published books, and I think they’re set in a, in a fake town in, I want to say Cornwall?

Ms. Morgan:  Well, everything’s set in Cornwall, so it probably would be.  Go on.

Ms. Wendell:  Right.  Is, is Cornwall like your – [laughs] – so we have lots of small towns in the South, because Southerners are quirky, and we have lots of small towns in the mountains, ‘cause they’re pretty, so is that your, that’s your stereotypical –

Ms. Morgan:  Probably, yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  – small town setting in, in Cornwall.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  It’s set in this town called –

Ms. Morgan:  Because it’s, because it’s aspirational, isn’t it?  That’s what people, I presume that’s what people are picking up.  You know, they, they’re in their busy lives in the city, and actually, they all dream about moving to the seaside.  They, they, they want to live by the beach.  So –

Ms. Wendell:  And Cornwall is the beach.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, yeah, that’s what –

Ms. Wendell:  Except you can’t swim there, right?  ‘Cause the ocean’ll kill you.  Right?

Ms. Morgan:  No, well, I mean, it depends.  It’s very beautiful there.  North, the north Cornwall coast is very wild, the Atlantic coast.

Ms. Wendell:  Right.

Ms. Morgan:  But you can swim in it.  Well, strong tides, you’d have to be careful, strong currents, just as you would –

Ms. Wendell:  Ah, so it’s –

Ms. Morgan:  – anywhere.

Ms. Wendell:  – so it’s not like the ocean’s going to kill you.

Ms. Morgan:  But south Corn-, southern Cornwall is much more sort of gentle and estuaries and –

Ms. Wendell:  Oh, so it’s, like, actual seaside, where you sit on the beach and go in the water and get out and picnic all day.

Ms. Morgan:  Oh, yeah.  Oh, it’s actual seaside where you sit on the beach north and south.  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  Nice!

Ms. Morgan:  There’s some brilliant swimming.  I mean, absolutely, I, I think that that’s why they’re so popular, because people who can’t actually go and live there for practical reasons like to escape there in their reading.

Ms. Wendell:  Right.  It’s like a mental vacation.

Ms. Morgan:  It is!  It is like a mental vacation without the traffic jams.  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell: Ohhh, yes.  ‘Cause there’s always just one road in and out of those shore towns.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  We have, so Jersey is long and thin, and there’s not a lot of romance set at the Jersey shore, because Jersey shore is polluted in concept by this television show that was full of people –

Ms. Morgan:  Hmmm.

Ms. Wendell:  – who aren’t actually from New Jersey – I feel like I should point that out.  Most of the people on the Jersey Shore are from New York.  Just so y’all know.  But when you, on the weekends in the summer, Friday and Sunday, you stay the hell off the Garden State Parkway, because that runs south down along the coast, and there’s actually an express and a local so that if you need to just go to the shore, you get in the, you get in the express, because everyone knows you’re going to the shore points.  Because it’s every weekend that the traffic is crazy, ‘cause there’s only one road that goes to a shore town.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  Or unless you go by boat.  But even with, I think it was called Chilton Cross, the, the first one that I read, the, the heroine – see, the, the – [laughs] – there’re a lot of books where they heroine has to start her life over for some reason.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, so –

Ms. Wendell:  Either she gets a divorce, or she decides she’s not happy –

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  – or she inherits something from a, from a long-lost relative –

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  – it used to be, back in the ‘80s, there was a will that made you marry someone –

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  – in order to inherit, but that doesn’t happen so much anymore.  Now it’s just you inherit something, and you need to figure out what to do with it, so this young woman –

Ms. Morgan:  Because you just have to have a reason to go down to this Cornish town.

Ms. Wendell:  You have to have a reason.  Exactly.  So she inherits her great-aunt’s house, and it turns out there’s all this art that her great-aunt had painted that no one knew was there, and her great-aunt was a pretty famous artist, so there’s all of this English small town, and then there’s the English art scene, and then there’s going into London and the difference between being in this small town in Cornwall and then going into London and, you know, cars and cabs and traffic and buses and, and, you know, like, oh, my gosh, you have your own parking space, and, and, it just, all of the little subtle differences are all part of the worldbuilding.  And it’s, it’s interesting, because those same, like you said, that same escape is happening in U.S. set contemporary.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  You leave the city to go to the small town by the shore, in the mountains, or whatever.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.  The principle, the appeal of the books is the same –

Ms. Wendell:  Yep.

Ms. Morgan:  – which is, this is what I would like in my fantasy life.  I want to –

Ms. Wendell:  I would like to live as if I were on vacation.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, I, I want to live by the beach.

Ms. Wendell:  Yep.  No, actually –

Ms. Morgan:  Or, like, or I want to live in the mountains.

Ms. Wendell:  [Laughs] And if you live in a rural area, you know, you’re nine, nine, ten, twenty, many, many, many miles?  Miles, right.  You guys use miles, right?

Ms. Morgan:  Ah, yeah, now that, that’s a, that, that’s something else that’s, I thought of that you, you, well, we do say miles, but kilometers as well.

Ms. Wendell:  Right.

Ms. Morgan:  You, you’re mostly miles, aren’t you?

Ms. Wendell:  We do not use kilometers.

Ms. Morgan:  No.

Ms. Wendell:  No.  I actually read this really cool summary of a book after I heard about it on NPR.  It’s called [Whatever Happened to the Metric System?:] How America Kept Its Feet.  And if I remember correctly, and I may be getting my history wrong, when the UK joined the EU, the condition was, okay, either you adopt the Euro and lose the pound, or you go full metric and don’t use pounds and ounces.  You, you, you stop using Imperial and start using metric, but it’s either one.  Either keep the pound or you keep Imperial, but you don’t keep both, and so I think the solution was, obviously, we’re going to keep the pound, ‘cause you guys use the pound, right?

Ms. Morgan:  Yep.

Ms. Wendell:  So you use the pound, but then you’re going to use metric.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  And it’s interesting, when I speak to Canadians, they’re like, oh, no, we’ve been metric since the ‘70s, but baby weights are almost always in pounds and ounces, and I’ve heard that in, in England, in places that aren’t quite near cities, the butcher will list both pounds and ounces and grams and kilograms –

Ms. Morgan:  Yes.

Ms. Wendell:  – for, for meat cuts.  You’ll see little pieces of it, but it’s generally metric.  But yeah, we are all Imperial, basically because we’re loud and enormous and, and there’s a lot of us, and we have a lot of money, and nobody can tell us what to do, so we’re going to keep Imperial, which I think is really stupid and we should totally be metric, but I’m not in charge, so –

Ms. Morgan:  You don’t do twenty-four-hour clock, either, do you?

Ms. Wendell:  No!  No, but I – [laughs] – I bought a watch, when I was traveling in Australia I needed a cheap watch, so I went to the, to the Australian Target, and I bought this, like, five-dollar watch, and I, I had to teach myself twenty-four-hour time, because it was –

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  – only twenty-four hours, and I’m like, what the hell is 14:25 – oh!  2:25!

Ms. Morgan:  I know.  I always forget, I forget, and then I was doing something for Fa-, I was making a time thing for Facebook, trying to translate the time, and I did 14:30, and then I thought, no, no, no, no, no, you don’t do the twenty-four-hour clock.

Ms. Wendell:  No, it’s 2:30 p.m.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, exactly.

Ms. Wendell:  So I had to teach myself twenty-four-hour time because this watch was in twenty-four-hour time –

Ms. Morgan:  Mm-hmm.

Ms. Wendell:  – and it was such an inexpensive watch, that’s the only mode that it had.  [Laughs]

Ms. Morgan:  And it do-, oh, it doesn’t let you change it!

Ms. Wendell:  No, I can’t change it!

Ms. Morgan:  Oh, no!  ‘Cause normally, you can choose.

Ms. Wendell:  No, it’s, it’s, it was twenty-four-hour time, and so the kids would be like, what time is it?  I’m like, 15:30?

Ms. Morgan:  You got one.

Ms. Wendell:  And they’re like, what?

Ms. Morgan:  Haven’t got a clue.  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  So, no, we don’t use twenty-four-hour time at all.  We don’t use metric.  We don’t use, we, we use, we use your old system.  Thanks.  We use Imperial.

Ms. Morgan:  Well, you’re welcome!  [Laughs] We still use that quite often as well, even though it’s not official.

Ms. Wendell:  Right.  So tell me, tell me, tell me, what are you working on right now?

Ms. Morgan:  What am I working on?  I’m working on the second book in my New York series, which will be out next summer.

Ms. Wendell:  So when is book one coming out?

Ms. Morgan:  So book one is out in March in the UK and end of May in the U.S.  It’s a June book, so something like the 29th of May.  It’s a June book.

Ms. Wendell:  So, so, so, wait, you get it first?

Ms. Morgan:  Actually, we do this time.  Yeah, we do.

Ms. Wendell:  That is so not fair!  You, you get the bake-off, like, four years ahead of us, and then you get books, like – okay, seriously – no, seriously, I can’t complain.  We always get everything first.

Ms. Morgan:  Actually, it’s much easier for the author if they do it simultaneously.  Much easier.

Ms. Wendell:  Although sometimes I can buy things from the Mills & Boon website, and it doesn’t stop me from purchasing them –

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  – which is nice.

Ms. Morgan:  These probably, yeah, these probably won’t be, but you can them from Book Depository.  I mean, gosh, that’s the great thing.  Book Depository do free international delivery, and I –

Ms. Wendell:  How?

Ms. Morgan:  – was all over the world using them.  They’re brilliant!

Ms. Wendell:  How?  How?  How are they –

Ms. Morgan:  I don’t know!  I don’t know!  I mean, imagine, I imagine them, personally, in the middle of a desert island, and suddenly Book Depository rocks up with their free international delivery.  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  I think Book Depository is sitting on, like, literally built on a gold mine, so in the top you have book shipping, and then someone underneath is digging the gold out of the earth to pay for it.

Ms. Morgan:  It’s weird, isn’t it?  But it’s amazing!  It’s fantastic way for them to get hold of it, you know, ‘cause when I’ve had books that have been delayed and U.S. readers just haven’t wanted to wait, they just get the UK one.

Ms. Wendell:  Right, and I mean, we can, we can read British.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, you can!  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  We, we know how that works.  So book one, what’s it called?

Ms. Morgan:  Book one is Sleepless in Manhattan, although there is a novella, and that will be out before.

Ms. Wendell:  Ooh, what’s the novella?

Ms. Morgan:  The novella is Midnight at Tiffany’s.  That’s going to be out in April in the U.S.  In fact, it’s out in a couple of weeks in the UK.

Ms. Wendell:  Ooohhh!

Ms. Morgan:  I know.  We’ll have it first, but yeah, but basically the U.S. is coming out two months apart.

Ms. Wendell: You suck, just so you know.

[Laughter]

Ms. Morgan:  I love you too!

Ms. Wendell:  [Raspberry] Oh, wait, look, I’m bilingual!

Ms. Morgan:  That’s a very American word, just so that you know.

Ms. Wendell:  What, you suck?

Ms. Morgan:  You suck, yeah.  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  Well, also you, you do the two fingers, and we do the one.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  So I can flip you off and use two fingers, be like, hey, look, I’m bilingual!  Look, I’ve got all the language.  So there’s Midnight at Tiffany’s, then there’s Sleepless in Manhattan.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, that’s a novella.  Then there’s Sleepless in Manhattan, and then there’s Sunset in Central Park, that’ll be September, and then Miracle on Fifth Avenue, that’s December, well, end of November.  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  But you do really well with Christmas books in the UK, right?  Like, you –

Ms. Morgan:  Yep.

Ms. Wendell:  – you sort of have a reputation as a Christmas holiday book author.

Ms. Morgan:  Well, I, I do a lot of Christmas books, and actually they sell really well in Europe, in Germany and Italy and France.  Yeah, I do.

Ms. Wendell:  Yay!

Ms. Morgan:  I, I, I like the whole snowy – they’re not necessarily, I mean, I do include Christmas, but a lot of readers who don’t celebrate Christmas tell me that they still enjoy them.  I think it’s that festive, snowy, cozy, comforting, it’s back to the comfort read again.

Ms. Wendell:  Yes.  It’s all about gathering rather than religious.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, it’s about atmosphere and family and friendship.  You know, I like writing about friendship.

Ms. Wendell:  Well, in the, the two novellas that you did for the Cosmo Red-Hot Reads series –

Ms. Morgan:  Yes.

Ms. Wendell:  – with, was it Wrapped and then –

Ms. Morgan:  It’s, it was Ripped, but then just to totally confuse me, they retitled it Unexpected, so now it’s up on – it’s, it’s very confusing when they have different titles, and even more confusing when they change the title.

Ms. Wendell:  So wait.  It was Ripped –

Ms. Morgan:  It was Ripped.

Ms. Wendell:  – and now it’s Unexpected –

Ms. Morgan:  That’s right.  They retitled it.

Ms. Wendell:  – and then the, the sisters’ book was –

Ms. Morgan:  Burned.

Ms. Wendell:  – Burned, and what is that one?  AGA?  AGA?

Ms. Morgan:  No, that’s still Burned.  That’s still Burned.  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  That’s still Burned?  It’s still –

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.  Yeah, something went wrong with the AGA.  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  Yeah, something went wrong with the AGA, and it’s all burned.  Ah, bugger.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, Ripped was the Cosmo.  The Cosmo, they were such fun.  Those were such fun.  That’s the only time I’ve written first person, actually.  I really enjoyed it.  That was a funny story with that one, because I, I was having a bad writing day, and I just decided that I was going to abandon what I was writing –

Ms. Wendell:  Uh-huh?

Ms. Morgan:  – and I had this really strong picture in my head about this wedding scene, so I thought, well, I’m just going to take the day off, and I’m just going to write this, and I wrote it in first person, and I made myself laugh the whole day.  I had a really, really fun day.  And I –

Ms. Wendell:  Isn’t that the best?

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, it was really great, actually.  And sometimes that’s just what you need when you’re writing.  You, you just need a, you just need to take a bit of time off and breathe and look, look at things a different way, so I wrote this couple of chapters, and then I just ignored it, and I didn’t delete it, and I just knew, this is why you should never ever delete anything you ever write.

Ms. Wendell:  Yes.

Ms. Morgan:  And I, it must have been sitting on my machine for two years, and then one day my editor rang, and she said, oh, we’re, we’re doing this new, this collaboration with Cosmo.  What do you think?  And I said, well, it’s funny you should say that.

Ms. Wendell:  [Laughs]

Ms. Morgan:  Take a look at this couple of chapters, and of course it was first person, it was completely different, and she got back to me five minutes later, and she said, I absolutely love it.  Write it.  So there it was.  So, you see, it got used, and I loved it.  I enjoyed it so much.

Ms. Wendell:  Who, your editor is Flo, right?

Ms. Morgan:  Oh, she is!  I love –

Ms. Wendell:  Flo Nicholl.

Ms. Morgan:  Flo is wonderful.

Ms. Wendell:  She is lovely.

Ms. Morgan:  Very clever, very smart.  Now here we are; there’s another word.  You’d say smart, wouldn’t you?

Ms. Wendell:  Yeah!

Ms. Morgan:  Smart, smart to us is you, you’re wearing your Armani and you’re looking really good.

Ms. Wendell:  Oh, so smart is well-dressed, not –

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, it’s –

Ms. Wendell:  – not intelligent.

Ms. Morgan:  No, but I, I’ve learnt to use smart as intelligent, because that, that does seem to jar with readers if you get that wrong.

Ms. Wendell:  Yes, we, we don’t say learnt with a T.

Ms. Morgan:  [Laughs] Okay.

Ms. Wendell:  Learned.  Yes, learnt.

Ms. Morgan:  LearneD.  LearneD.  No, we say learnt.  Yeah, so –

Ms. Wendell:  Learned.  There’s another one that ends in T, and I couldn’t, I figured out that the reason I was –

Ms. Morgan:  But we say learned, too.  That’s just me, that’s my diction.

Ms. Wendell:  Well, it’s very proper.

Ms. Morgan:  But, yeah, Flo, Flo is smart, she’s very smart, and she’s excellent.  She’s really good at looking at the book and knowing we needs to be done, apart from the fact she’s very lovely.  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  Nice!

Ms. Morgan:  And if this is airing in December, it’s her birthday in December, but there we are, she may not want to – I won’t sing.  I won’t sing.

Ms. Wendell:  Okay.

Ms. Morgan:  [Laughs]

Ms. Wendell:  But, you know, we could always get her on the phone and, if you want to sing to her –

Ms. Morgan:  We could, we could.

Ms. Wendell:  – we could do that.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.  [Laughs] Yes.

Ms. Wendell:  So tell me about the New York series.

Ms. Morgan:  So the New York series is three friends whose, they’re, they’re working in Manhattan, they’ve got jobs for an events company, and then it all goes wrong right at the beginning, and they lose their jobs, they’re laid off, and so they decide to set up on their own.  So it’s, it’s fun.  It’s, it’s about female empowerment, really.  [Laughs] No, each story, each girl is different, very different, and their goals – each heroine, I should say, not girl – their goals are different.  They each want different things.  Their personalities are really different.  So each book is very different, but underpinning it all is their friendship, and I really like that.  I love writing about female friendship, actually.  I do.  I like working, talking about –

Ms. Wendell:  Do they all, do they all share the same flat/apartment?

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, they live in a brownstone.  I mean, I do like my nice real estate.

Ms. Wendell:  What the hell kind of unemployment are they getting where they live in a brownstone?

Ms. Morgan:  They live in, no, listen,  I mean – [laughs] – it’s owned by her brother.  It’s owned by her brother.

Ms. Wendell:  I was going to say, dude!

Ms. Morgan:  It’s owned by her brother, and they’ve each got, well, they share.  They share their apartment!

Ms. Wendell:  Of course.

Ms. Morgan:  And Frankie has the sort of garden, the garden level, because she is a horticulturist, a gardener, and then Paige is the organization, and Eva is the sweet, romantic one.

Ms. Wendell:  Aw!

Ms. Morgan:  So I’ve still got that one to write, but that’s going to be such fun, I can’t wait for that.  That’s my Christmas book; that’s the next one.  I’m nearly there.

Ms. Wendell:  And you have to write those during the summer, right?

Ms. Morgan:  No, well, I will start the Christmas one at Christmas, and it helps, but yes –

Ms. Wendell:  Yeah.

Ms. Morgan:  – I am still writing it long after –

Ms. Wendell:  So it’s really, really, really sweltering.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  It’s, you know –

Ms. Morgan:  But I have my tree.  I have a little fake silver Christmas tree, and Flo has the same, so –

Ms. Wendell:  So you have a fake tree that you keep out year-round, ‘cause you’re writing Christmas books in, like –

Ms. Morgan:  Well, when we, no, only when we’re doing the Christmas book, to keep our minds focused.

Ms. Wendell:  That’s really cute!

Ms. Morgan:  And also writing – [laughs] – when I was writing my Vermont series, yeah, I sent her this grotto, so, in a cardboard box.  I packed up this little silver tree, a moose, also sorts of little pinecones and Vermont-y things, and I sent it to her, so she set it up on her desk, complete with fairy lights, so I have it on my desk, so we were both seeing the same thing while we were writing and editing this book.

Ms. Wendell:  Aw!

Ms. Morgan:  So she gets it out whenever we do a Christmas book.

Ms. Wendell:  Aw!  So cute.  So the novella comes out –

Ms. Morgan:  April.

Ms. Wendell:  – in April for us –

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

Ms. Wendell:  And, like, tomorrow for you, ‘cause it’s not fair.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, no, two weeks.  December the, December the 4th here.

Ms. Wendell:  Okay, so one last question that’s really, really difficult.

Ms. Morgan:  Oh, no.

Ms. Wendell:  What have you read recently that you would recommend?

Ms. Morgan:  Oh, what have I read recently?  I love Lisa Kleypas, so I caught up with her Brown-Eyed Girl.

Ms. Wendell:  Did you like it?

Ms. Morgan:  I loved it.  I love it.  I love, I love the way she writes, yeah, I do.  I love her books.

Ms. Wendell:  She’s a really lyrical writer.

Ms. Morgan:  Oh, beautiful.  Beautiful.  And a fabulous person.

Ms. Wendell:  Yes.  That is also true.

Ms. Morgan:  Just really so warm and lovely.  But I think that warmth comes through in all her books, but yeah, she, and she writes the most fantastic heroes, doesn’t she?  I mean, I’d run off with every one of them.

Ms. Wendell:  Gosh.

Ms. Morgan:  There isn’t a single one of her heroes I wouldn’t run off with.

Ms. Wendell:  [Laughs] So you liked Brown-Eyed Girl?

Ms. Morgan:  I did like Brown-Eyed Girl, and then the most recent thing I read was a timeslip historical, Nicola Cornick, and she’s a friend of mine, and this book was very special to me because we’d been talking about, we, I would like to say that we plot together, but I’m not a plot-, plotter, so I don’t quite know what it is we do together.

[Laughter]

Ms. Morgan:  She, she listens to me rambling and panicking, and I listen to her plotting.

Ms. Wendell:  [Laughs]

Ms. Morgan:  She’s been talking about this book for years –

Ms. Wendell:  Ooh.

Ms. Morgan:  – this is her book of the heart, I guess, and, and it’s House of Shadows, so that’s just come out here, and it’s a timeslip, because she is a historian as well –

Ms. Wendell:  Oohhh!

Ms. Morgan:  – and so it’s, it’s across three different time periods, and it’s really, it’s really interesting, and I loved it.  The writing’s lovely.  It’s beautiful.  So that’s what I’ve read, and what else did I read?  Sarah Addison Allen.  I love Sarah Addison Allen.  See, and I read quite a few American authors.

Ms. Wendell:  You do.

Ms. Morgan:  I do.

Ms. Wendell:  I’m, I’m trying to look up when House of Shadows will come out.  Oh!  Oh, it’s not currently available for purchase.  Pfeh!

Ms. Morgan:  Not even, not even in Kindle?

Ms. Wendell:  No, it says, it says not so much.  Oh, so it’s 1600s, nineteenth century –

Ms. Morgan:  Yes.

Ms. Wendell:  – and present day.

Ms. Morgan:  Yes.

Ms. Wendell:  Oohhh!

Ms. Morgan:  It’s really fascinating.

Ms. Wendell:  So have you read it?

Ms. Morgan:  Yes!  Absolutely.

Ms. Wendell:  Did you like it?

Ms. Morgan:  It’s beautiful.

Ms. Wendell:  Yay!

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah, and it’s set in a house, a National Trust property that’s fairly near here, and Nicola’s a guide there, so it’s, it’s very interest-, yeah, it’s fascinating, so I was really absorbed.

Ms. Wendell:  Oh, cool!

Ms. Morgan:  It’s nice to read thing, you know, when you’re working on something all day, I don’t, I’m not one of these writers that has a rule that I have to read something different, but it is quite nice to read something different, and with Nicola, I mean, we’re great friends, but with our brainstorming, because we work on completely different things, I think that actually helps –

Ms. Wendell:  Oh, yeah.

Ms. Morgan:  – ‘cause it’s really fun for me to brainstorm historical stuff, ‘cause I don’t normally do that –

Ms. Wendell:  Right.

Ms. Morgan:  – so it’s fun, and equally, you know, she’s great at, at, at contemporary, so I think it’s nice when you’ve got that, that balance, right?

Ms. Wendell:  Plus when you’re set apart from something it’s, it’s a little easier to be creative –

Ms. Morgan:  Yes, definitely.

Ms. Wendell:  – about it because it’s the, there’s not as much pressure on you, because it’s not what you do.

Ms. Morgan:  No, it’s not what you do, and I think sometimes you see things more clearly when it’s not what you do.

Ms. Wendell:  Yeah, exactly, absolutely.  You can see sort of the larger patterns.

Ms. Morgan:  Yeah.

[music]

Ms. Wendell:  And that is all for this week’s episode.  I want to thank Sarah Morgan for taking the time to hang out with me on Skype.  The books that we discussed, along with links and fine, fine YouTube videos, will be in the podcast entry on smartbitchestrashybooks.com.

This podcast was brought to you by InterMix, publisher of The Clockwork Samurai, the steamy new Gunpowder Chronicles novel by national bestselling author Jeannie Lin.  Download it today!

The podcast transcript this month is being sponsored by Rene Ahdieh, author of The Wrath & the Dawn, published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers and available in print and eBook.  This sumptuous and enthralling retelling of A Thousand and One Nights will transport you to a land of golden sand and forbidden romance.  She came for revenge, but will she stay for love?

This podcast features “The Holly and the Ivy” by Deviations Project, which is producer Dave Williams and violinist Oliver Lewis.  Their holiday album is Adeste Fiddles, and I’m not even celebrating Christmas and I dig this album.  You can find it on Amazon, iTunes, and wherever music is sold.

If you have questions or suggestions or you have an idea you’d like to share with us, email!  [email protected]  Your email is all most excellent.

Future podcasts will include discussions about romance novels, because that’s what we do here.  But in the meantime, on behalf of Sarah Morgan and Jane and myself, we wish you the very best of reading.  Have a great weekend.

[pretty music]