Typos

This Saturday I attended my regular bi-monthly writer’s group meeting at a local Christian bookstore. We always begin by going over the book we have been reading about writing. Then, we break up into smaller groups to hash out ideas and things. My small group has decided to pass around our work, read it and critique it. Well, as the group on Saturday was rather small we decided not to break up in small groups which means those of us who brought something to pass around got our work read aloud to the entire group. Talk about feeling a little nervous…

Of course, whenever anyone reads aloud without having looked over the manuscript first, you are guaranteed some slips of the tongue that can be quite funny. But even funnier can be the typos. And mine was the funniest:

“Only on this Friday, they all have to go straight home because some old pastor friend is visiting for dinner. They ate that. Old pastors are dull, but so is the fate of pastor’s kids.”

Suddenly my story on suffragists, and kids, and contentment turned into a story on cannibalism. Everyone was getting eaten. The population of the town depleted, and the mysterious aunt was returning in order to uncover the terrors of this nineteenth century village. Lynda remarked with a laugh, “This is beginning to sound like Hansel and Gretel!”

There was plenty of laughter to be had by all – laughter until our sides hurt. And I’m sure the customers wondered what in the world was going on. It also tied right into the chapter we had just read in our writing book. The chapter pertained to genres and Darren, the leader of the group, asked if we ever had a little fun and tried to mix up all kinds of crazy genres in our writing. I thought I hadn’t, but I guess I have: my juvenile fiction book is now historical, horror and mystery.

Yes, I know. Writers are crazy.