Monday, 1 June 2009

Monstrous

An interesting article from the Telegraph on an ME urine test being developed by scientists in Belgium.

My friend was telling me her Polish boyfriend has started reading my book. A few pages in, he asked her what monstrous means. There is no 'monstrous', I said. I didn't use it, I would remember.

I was adamant.

She whipped out a copy of the book - she had brought it for me to sign for a medic she works with - and sure enough on page 5: The sofa bed was sticking up in the middle of the floor like a monstrous orange sculpture.

That's me told, I said. I remember now.

We both laughed.

2 comments:

Mim said...

Your monstrous-story reminded me of the time I was given instructions a few days before a radio interview and reading: No profanity. The so-called guardians of the public welfare are zealous in the States. Radio stations that broadcast obscenities are losing their licenses. "But there are no swear words in my poems," I said. I went back to my book to check. One poem contained "fucking"' another, "son of a bitch. What the hell.

nmj said...

How easily we forget our own words when time has lapsed! Ah, my book has a fair few expletives, never gratuitous, I hope. But a recent Goodreads reviewer was a bit outraged and said it was 'littered with the F-word like landmines', and she regretted that she had even read 50 pages. I think she would prefer a child's guide to the illness.