The Book Stacks

Born and educated in Boston, Massachusetts, Pat McDermott grew up in a family full of music and myths that have found their way into her stories. She is a member of The New Hampshire Writers’ Project, Seacoast Writers’ Association, Romance Writers of America, and Celtic Hearts Romance Writers. A frequent visitor to Ireland, she lives in New Hampshire, where she is currently working on her next novel.

To find out more about the author and her work visit http://www.patmcdermott.net/

A Touch of Cleverality
By Pat McDermott

What does a writer do when a story’s dauntless heroes and delicious villains speak with foreign accents? At first, I tried writing dialogue by chopping words and adding apostrophes to simulate the Irish accents that abound in A Band of Roses. That did little to get the wonderfully lilting words I heard in my head onto a page so a reader could hear them the same way I did.

My first trip to Ireland helped solve the dilemma. The tour guide handed out a list of Irish-English vs. American-English words to help us Yanks fit in with the locals. We learned that in Ireland a cookie is a biscuit. French fries are chips, and potato chips are crisps. Interesting, but irrelevant to my story. Still, the idea of using the local vernacular intrigued me. I decided to investigate Irish slang.

Several dictionaries suggest that the word “slang” originated from the Norwegian phrase “slengja kjeften” (literally, to sling the jaw). Whether it did or not, “sling the jaw” is a great phrase—and no one “slings the jaw” better than the Irish.

I read through several volumes on the subject and found drisheens, shinogues, and sheilamaids, but such words were useless if I’d need a glossary at the end of my book. Thankfully, I found a treasure trove of terms that wouldn’t flummox a reader at all. The context in which I used them would easily define them, and a few key phrases would not only help round out my characters, they’d also delight every dog and devil. With more than enough ammunition for several books, I got to work.

Revising A Band of Roses caused no botheration at all. In fact, it was easy cakes. The boat that had simply sunk was now gone for its tea. The fella merely in love developed a soft eye for his lady. And that idiot who’s always foostering about? What an eejit!

At first I felt pig-ignorant exploring such a power of words. Now I think I can pass myself, though I’m only trotting after the true jaw-slingers. Irish slang twisted hay with my imagination, and some of it left me gobsmacked. I decided to buff up the English accents in A Band of Roses with British slang, but that’s a pair of shoes I’ll save for another day.

There. All done and dusted.