This post was originally published on this site.
As the old chewing gum ad said, sometimes two of something is better (Double the pleasure, double the fun!) and sometimes it’s just … more. And then there are the cases where a passage can’t be neatly slotted into a category because it includes more than one error. So today The Snarky Editor celebrate doubles — doubled-up errors, double negatives, and even double entendres.
… to weave quilts … “Here, here…”
The bits of bright fabric that make up a quilt are sewed (or pieced) together, and the resulting patchwork is quilted by sewing it to a backing. Nowhere in that craft is the quilter doing any weaving.
And the chat is “Hear, hear” — meaning, “What was just said is important and valuable enough to be said again, and we should listen.”
…the old croons… weave a love quilt for.
This author doubled down on the quilting, making it clear that it wasn’t a casual error but a misunderstanding of what quilting actually involves.
And the ones who are doing the matchmaking? They might be crooning over their success, or crooning love spells, but the author is calling them old crones — that is, withered old women.
Jonathan became a father and widow in the same afternoon. Absolved in his grief…
Typically, a woman whose husband dies is a widow, while a man whose wife dies is a widower. And poor Jon is absorbed in his grief — that is, wallowing in it. If he was absolved of it, he’d be excused or forgiven or set free from mourning his wife — almost the opposite of what this wounded fellow is suffering.
No cats don’t die, ever…
The double negative here means that all cats DO die, which would be an odd twist for a happy ending.
“Do we doubt the Toll brothers were not involved in murdering Richie?”
It takes quite a little untangling to figure out that what the character meant to say is that he’s pretty sure the Toll brothers murdered Richie. This double negative is twisted enough to give the Snarky Editor a headache.
… eyeing the holstered weapon hanging below Carter’s belt.
The Snarky Editor is the first to admit that she’s always looking for double entendres — instances where the author means one thing but unintentionally says something that sounds a bit naughty. But it would have been so easy for this author to avoid the spicy implication by rephrasing. “Hannah thought, eyeing the pistol holstered on Carter’s belt.”
The Snarky Editor comes out of hiding occasionally to comment on the awkward, silly, and sometimes hilarious editing errors found in published books.
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Leigh Michaels is the award-winning author of more than 100 books, including historical and contemporary romance, non-fiction books about writing, and local history. More than 35 million copies of her books are in print in 27 languages and more than 120 countries. She is also a writing coach and book editor, though she promises to be snarky only in regard to published books.
To find out more, check out https://leighmichaels.com
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