The proofs have arrived! It’s pretty exciting to see what The Medal will look like in book form. I’ve spent the last couple of days going over each page to check for errors or changes. My husband saw me moving my pencil from word to word and asked why I was counting them. I wasn’t. I was just trying to be sure that I consciously read each one. It’s hard – because my mind wants to anticipate what’s there.
Most books I’ve read have at least one typo. In fact, one of the authors who read from her latest book at Kingston Writersfest last weekend, read a passage with a grammar error. I can’t remember the exact words, but it was something like: “…asked Tim and I to go to…” The word, I, jumped out at me when I heard it. I was so surprised that it pulled me right out of the story. My grade 10 English teacher would have been horrified to see ‘I’ used instead of ‘me’ as the object of ‘asked’. The confusion between ‘I’ and ‘me’ seems to be ubiquitous. I realize that language is a living thing and constantly changing. But I wonder if the frequency of such incorrect use will result in these grammar errors being considered acceptable. If so, somebody better let me know!