Authors who don't do their homework

Or maybe they just don't care? This bugs me. I just finished a book by a favorite author of mine. The novel happened to be about an american who moves to London because of a broken heart. She just hops on a flight, and lands and looks for a job, basically. HAH! If only it were that easy. Made me wonder, did she (the author) not care that this is not realistic? Another favorite author of mine, happens to be british, but lives in America. He writes his novels about one character, who also lives in America. But he interchanges 'british' words with 'american' throughout his books. For instance, he will say 'pants' instead of trousers, but uses 'kerb' instead of curb. As in the car parked at the kerb. (curb) I find that weird. Why not just stick with one way or the other. In america, as far as I always knew a curb was spelled curb. Do any of you all have 'issues' with authors in this way?

Oh, yeah. Unexplained factual errors drive me crazy in books, they really do. The worst one of the type you're talking about, with the American/Brit thing, was in a Marian Keyes book. She has this loud, irritating American guy say that he's from "HisTown, Tucson, Arizona."

I wanted to write to her publisher and yell at them for that. American addresses aren't written or spoken that way, and at a major publishing company you'd expect just one person at least to know that.

That is what good editors are for. The British guy writing American stuff should have an editor who catches that if he doesn't. You'll notice (sometimes) differences in UK/US versions of the same book that will address things like kerb/curb, the US version will have curb and vice versa. This is down to on the ball editors. Or so I think, I could be wrong!

This is down to on the ball editors. Or so I think, I could be wrong!

Absolutely. It's the editor who's to blame for *bleep*-ups like that.

Absolutely. It's the editor who's to blame for *bleep*-ups like that.

It is, but it's also the author's reponsibility to get it right to start with. How US addresses are written or spoken is pretty basic. It would have taken her ten minutes to find out. Instead she just put it in there wrong and hoped somebody else would catch it or that nobody would notice.

I must be really dopey lately. I honestly don't get the address thing. Somebody explain please! His Town, Tucson, Arizona.........doesn't make sense to me, but I'm not sure what should have been said instead.....?

"His town, Tucson, Arizona" is a problem because His Town isn't Tucson.  I lived in a city called Tamarac in FL, right outside Ft. Lauderdale. I told people I lived in Ft. Laud or Tamarac, not "Tamarac, Ft. Lauderdale, FL".  That's how UK addresses are written down (town/village/larger town whose post office they use/County).

I've never heard an American give their hometown or home address that way.

Ahhhhhhhhh..........right. Got it now. That's what I thought. But people here don't give their address that way do they? I mean if they are speaking it, not writing it.

I've never heard an American give their hometown or home address that way.

Small, rural New England villages sometimes do, but I agree that it's definitely not the typical American way of doing things. And most likely not in Arizona! She should have looked into that.

But people here don't give their address that way do they? I mean if they are speaking it, not writing it.

I do sometimes! If I'm far enough away that nobody would have heard of my village, but still close enough so that they would have heard of the town we're officially a part of.

I swear the past three years it's annoyed me to no end how in certain books and films the UK-US thing is portrayed totally inaccurately!  That must be part of the reason people get the totally wrong idea about how supposedly easy it is to move to another country.  It only takes a plane ticket, right?  Ugh!

I swear the past three years it's annoyed me to no end how in certain books and films the UK-US thing is portrayed totally inaccurately!  That must be part of the reason people get the totally wrong idea about how supposedly easy it is to move to another country.  It only takes a plane ticket, right?  Ugh!

Exactly!! That's why I got so annoyed with the book! But someone who didn't know better might assume. The author should have known better.

I noticed several times in We Need To Talk About Kevin that someone was not paying terribly close attention. The author lives in London (but I think is American?), and the book is set in the US. And the translations are weird and inconsistent. For instance, since the book is epistolatory, it seems to me that to refer to a "mobile" is wrong - I should think that an American would have written "cell phone".... I'd be curious to see an American edition to see what, if anything, was translated or if the author is just confused being an American living in England! LOL.

I think authors are allowed some creative license to bend reality to make the story more enjoyable sometimes. It is fiction after all, you have to let it go and just enjoy the story and forget about reality a little bit. I like picking out the unrealistic bits of books or movies just for fun but I wouldn't complain about it.

Exactly!! That's why I got so annoyed with the book! But someone who didn't know better might assume. The author should have known better.

Anyone who doesn't know that a fiction book is fiction and therefore you can't rely on it to make factual assumptions is simply a fool and personal I don't believe authors should be held responsible for that.

A friend of mine is currently working on a novel. He's got some of it based in America. His editor knows America, but he will call me anytime he is stuck on a point that he thinks mightn't be right. "Would they say this in America?", he'll ask, checking on some slang. At one point in the novel, he has the characters doing something a wee bit complicated that involves the government. He called to check some of the details with me. I said to him the same thing - this is fiction, you have some creative license. But rather than get details wrong, which would and does annoy readers who are in the know, I suggested that he doesn't have to explain every minute aspect of how a particular thing happened (in this case it wasn't totally relevant to know). That's where he was getting hung up on. I said, you're the author - you can give them whatever you want! But we researched the aspect he was looking the details on anyway, to be sure. In the end, he found a way around it, but I do think it's worthwhile taking the time - if your novel is reality based - to do some fact checking. It helps keep the story believable, which is, afterall, what you want.

This annoys me all the time.  I can never figure out if it's a British edition and thus they've changed words deliberately for a British audience or if the author just didn't check it out.  Especially when it's a British writer who sets the story in the US or a story set in Britain with an American character - a lot of these chick lit books are like this.  The main characters are in the US or American and yet they say all these non-American things, like calling an apron 'a pinny'.  I mean come on!  I know Americans who have been here a long time pick up the British way of saying things but when I run across stuff like that it just puts me off.  I know, I'm picky.