Exerpts

There are a lot of exerpts to read on the Samhain Cafe. Today esp. since tomorrow is release day, but lots in general. I don't read many because I know what I like and if I can tell from the blurb that something's not my bag, I skip it. No harm, no foul. Only there was a title the other week that I thought might be cool and fun, so I started reading one of the two posted exerpts. ... The author lost me with one word. One stinking word. ::sigh:: I hate that. I can't entirely blame them, or anyone else, when something truly tiny just shuts me right out of an otherwise good read. On the other hand, when it's something I consider very basic and simple and easy to get right, I can't help but get a bit pissy about it. Of course that leads me to wondering if or when I might be making the same piddly sort of mistakes. Gods, I hope I don't, but there's the fatalistic part of me that figures it's inevitable. I suppose it's one of the advantages to writing in a fictional universe though; I don't have to know the dialect-specific quirks and turns of phrase of another region than my own because all the regions I write about are inside my wee brain. I'm making them up and they can talk any way I want. They still need to be consistent, but no one else can say, "Hey! No one from CityXYZ would ever say that!" because, hey, my city, my rules. ;)

Am I the only one who goes whacko about tiny shit like this? Seriously. I know I'm a grammar freak and other things where language is concerned, but I can't be the only one. Can I?