Today, it’s three, three, three re-posts in one! OK, it sounds like a certain commercial, but it popped out of my brain unbidden.

Friend D.G. Kaye has a FREE promotion of her book, Words We Carry, beginning today on Amazon. Free downloads run through August 15. Get it FREE here.

Editorial Review

“D.G. Kaye offers hope to those of us imprisoned by the negative words and scripts ingrained in our minds. Words We Carry, her own true story, tells us how to re-establish our self-esteem and attract the positive relationships we all deserve!”–Deborah A. Bowman, Author, Publisher, and Advanced Clinical Psychological Hypnotherapist (ACPH)

Using another language in your book? Susan Uttendorfsky of Adirondack Editing has some tips for you. You’ll find these as Editing 101:50 on Chris the Story Reading Ape’s Blog. 

The question comes up: How do you distinguish two different languages being used when you want your readers to understand both?

There are several ways of doing this. The first is to write the foreign language (in italics) for the first one or two sentences, with the translation in parentheses, and then, whenever you switch languages, you add something like, “Sky continued in Spanish.”

This example was translated with Google Translate, so forgive me if it’s not correct! ?

“¿Por qué siempre me molesta cuando estoy trabajando? (Why do you always bother me when I’m working?)” Sky demanded. “Yo le he dicho, déjame en paz! (I have told you, leave me alone!)”

As you can see, if you continued in this manner of word-for-word translation, it is very cumbersome and can be difficult for the reader to follow. For a character who only appears briefly, though, it would be fine. But to avoid having a main or supporting character’s dialogue being difficult to read, additional dialogue spoken by the foreign-language-speaking character could include a word or two within a sentence or paragraph, as long as it’s clear to the reader by the context what you mean.

After all this serious stuff and it being Friday, you are in need of some laughter, right? I know I am. So here’s a grabber graphic from Sally Cronin’s Smorgasbord–Variety is the Spice of Life. Go to this link for more funnies. You’ll be glad you did–perhaps even ROFL. 

AND while you’re at Sally’s site, take notice that she too has a FREE promo this weekend–Today through Sunday. It’s for What’s in a Name–Book 1. This is NOT a Kindle download.  Read a review and learn how to receive a free copy.