SPELLING WOES

Today I typed the word NICKLE into my manuscript.
What? say you. Nickle isn't a word.
Sadly, I know this.

It's NICKEL.
 

I learned this in 4th or 5th grade at the Hill Demonstration School where I spent my earliest elementary years. Considering myself a stand-out speller, I won the class spelling bee and moved on to the school bee. Where the word NICKEL tripped me up. I remember it like it was yesterday and it was a zillion yesterdays ago.

(And yes, as my friend Sylvia pointed out on Facebook, a nickel isn't all that important these days. That's what I love about writing historical fiction. Nickels still count. And Tangee lipstick. And bobby-sox. And 45 records. See I could go on and on. But this blog is about SPELLING. Kind of.)

Spelling.
Maybe that's why one of my absolute-favorite-of-all-times books is

FAME AND GLORY IN FREEDOM, GEORGIA, 
by Barbara O'Connor.

CLICK HERE for a very early review I wrote, before I really realized what a storyteller Barbara O'Connor is. It may have been the first book I read of hers. I love the southerness of the story and the characters. I love the twist near the end. I love how everything doesn't always end with Happily Ever After in Barbara's books.

And I love the Spelling Bee parts. How hard poor Bird works to get to Disney!
To make a friend our of Harlem.
Sigh. I think I need to read that book again right now.

If you've missed it, here are links to buy your own copy:

http://www.indiebound.org/search/apachesolr_search?family_id_filter=0818904

http://www.amazon.com/Glory-Freedom-Georgia-Barbara-OConnor/dp/0374400180


I thought I'd never forget how to spell Nickel.
I won't ever forget the day I misspelled it.


You might also be interested in these posts.
The Page 69 Test.
Writing Tip Tuesdays

The Page 69 Test

Wow. Thanks to a link on Marjorie Kehe's blog, I can now figure out if I'm going to like a book just by looking at page 69. I like this idea. She got it from another blog about books, a new one for me. And that's what I love about bloggers. You can't read one and be done. One thing leads to another, and you're reading all night.

Here are a few page 69s:

Louisiana's Song- "Love and air may come cheap, but nothing else does." And at the bottom of the page: "No way am I going to let Gentle leave us, I don't care what Grandma Horace has up her sleeve." I'd read that for sure (and I did).

Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia- "Mama said she thinks Ray must've give him some kind of deal on that room over the tattoo parlor... or else how could he pay for it, since all he's got is can money?"

Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You (paperback edition)- "I heard it's some girl who's pissed because she got the understudy role of Cinderella. She's threatening to kill anyone with a better part."

I know, I know, all kids' books. But the test worked for me, this time. Maybe I just picked books that don't have a single bad page in the whole book.