VERBAL GERBIL

I am a logophile, lexophile, linguaphile, logomaniac, a word nerd.

I love witty banter and clever dialogue. I just finished reading People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry.

While Emily Henry's novels are light, frothy, and some might even say - somewhat saccharine literary Rom-coms, the reason I enjoy her books is because she is really good at is writing fun dialogue. It demonstrates that her characters are smart.

I love smart people. It's fun to converse with them because their intellect makes it possible for them to demonstrate humor. However, my experience has revealed that not all smart people are funny, but all funny people are smart. It requires a high level of intellect to provide the ability to possess keen observational skills, which enables them to demonstrate and participate in verbal jousting and lively repartee. (See what I did there?)

A couple of years ago when we were recording my first audiobook for HIGH WATER, I chose not to narrate it myself because I was afraid I would get way too caught up with how my voice sounded and it would take forever to record because I would have to keep doing it over and over again to get it just right. So, that's where Sarah came in. She was already experienced in the whole audiobook recording world, in possession of all the professional equipment, and when she read a portion of my book out loud to me, sounded like the voice in my brain while I wrote it, so I said, "You're hired!" while I coached her in the pronunciation of all the Italian and Spanish words as well as the accents, provided direction when it came to intention and meaning, and selected the music for underscoring.

She often teased me when it came to what a mouthful some of the sentences were that she had to get through. But she got the last laugh when I decided to narrate JOURNEYS because I definitely got a taste of my own medicine. "Good grief! Who wrote this?!" I would exclaim. But I can't help it. Cuz. . .

I like. Big. Words. And I cannot lie.

(By the way, Emily Henry also writes long, super wordy, run-on sentences.)