I recently did an interview after my book, To Enchant a Lady’s Heart, won the Heart Award in the novella category.
The interviewer asked me to share my funniest typo. Sometimes I’m asked questions that leave me scratching my head for a while. It can take time to dredge up an answer. But I had a fast reply for that question. I thought I would share that story with you plus one other, the second one making it into print.
1) Funniest typo. Caught in time.
In my manuscript for the book, How Sweet It Is, I meant to type, “Releasing another sigh, she …” But what my fingers typed was, “Releasing another thigh, she …”
Thanks to my line editor, that typo didn’t make it into my sweet Christian romance. Funny how one word can paint a completely different picture in the mind than what I intended.
2) Major error. Made it into book.
About thirty years ago, I wrote a series set in a small town. The hero and heroine of Book #1 were secondary characters in Book #2. Not an unusual choice. Hero #1 appeared in quite a few scenes.
After Book #2 was published, I got a letter (this was before emails were a common thing), and the reader mentioned the scene after Hero #2 and Heroine #2 were married. Turns out my couple went to bed at the end of that chapter, just as they should have, but the first scene the next morning had Hero #1 in bed with Heroine #2.
Out loud, I said, “No way!!” I rushed up the stairs to the library where the copies of the new book were kept. I opened the book and flipped through the pages until I found the scene. Sure enough. I had used the name of Hero #1 in place of the name of Hero #2. Of course, it was a silly error, and most readers knew it wasn’t really Hero #1 where he shouldn’t be. It was a typographical error. But oh my goodness. The mortification!! So awful, I just have to laugh or else I would cry.
Sometimes I think my fingers are totally disconnected from my brain. They can type the weirdest things. Thankfully, most of them never make it into print. But when they do, I try to find the humor. I hope readers do too.
Have you found a funny typo in a book lately?
~robin
Robin Lee Hatcher
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I am an ARC reader for several authors. I have noticed several typos that made me laugh. Wish I could remember them. I chuckled at your name switch. God bless,.Kim in NC
I am so grateful when an ARC reader lets me know of mistakes that made it through the various editing processes. Maybe you should start keeping a list of the ones that make you laugh.
While I’m sure it was mortifying to see that mistake in print, it makes for a great story! 🙂 I’ve read a couple lately that made me pause, but I can’t remember which books, so I guess that’s good!
It does make for a great story. And I sent little prizes to anybody who wrote to me about it.
It was in a romance novel that took place on a ranch. The author kept mentioning this prized steer that they built the ranch around that when bred with the cows gave wonderful calves. Ummmm author lady, maybe you should have researched and used the word bull instead of steer because a steer is a castrated male. lol! Maybe it’s an error only a farm girl would have recognized but every time I read it I had to giggle.
Oh, ouch. I know the difference, but I can see how easily it could sneak into the story. A “prized steer” just sounds so masculine. LOL!!
“Sometimes I think my fingers are totally disconnected from my brain.” THIS! I frequently see errors in what I’ve typed and I’m befuddled thinking, “I typed that when I meant this??”
Exactly!!
I love this, Robin. I once had a reader inform me that my hero’s dog changed from a boy to a girl halfway through the novel. That has been changed now and I won’t tell which book it was 😉 but given that I can never get the sex of my kids animals right, I’m not surprised I did that! (I tend to think all dogs are boys and all cats are girls, despite the fact that most of the cats we’ve owned were tom cats!)
Deb, love that about the dog in your book.