BOOK CLUB FRIDAY - GUEST AUTHOR ALEXA BOURNE

Today’s Book Club Friday guest is Alexa Bourne, teacher by day and romantic suspense writer by nights, weekends, and all school holidays. When she's not concocting sinister plots and steamy love scenes or traveling and exploring new cultures, Alexa spends her time reading, watching brainless TV and thinking about exercising. Visit her at her website or blog. 

Alexa is offering a copy of Her Highland Champion to one of our readers who posts a comment to the blog. -- AP

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love Great Britain. If I could move tomorrow I'd go without reservations. I love the food, the beer, the culture and especially the accent. Whenever I hear a British man speaking, I get all gooey inside. I swear even hearing a Brit read the phone book would make my knees weak. Of course I don't judge him COMPLETELY on his accent, but that is definitely a starter.

Speaking of accents...can I tell you a secret? Promise you won't tell? When I read a book set in Great Britain, I hear the accent in my head. It makes for a more interesting story for me to “hear” it. I'm also one of those people who loves to have the words and phrases of the culture in the book because it puts me right in the center of the action. It helps to make me feel like I'm there in the story with the characters. Some people, I know, don't like a lot of the “different language” in their reading. Maybe it makes the reading harder when the reader has to stop and figure out what the characters mean by the strange words. With Britain, I’m familiar with deciphering the language since I have relatives there. Huh. Maybe that’s another reason I love to “hear the accent” as I read.

Not only do I hear the accent when I read, I actually hear it when I write, too. Now, many industry professionals will tell writers not to bog down the story with words and phrases of a different culture. They request we put in just enough to give the readers a feel for that setting or that character. As a writer, I follow that bit of advice, but not right away. When I'm writing my rough draft, I usually toss in A LOT more of the British terminology. As I go through each draft, I throw out more of the complicated words and phrases and revise the story for the majority of readers. Hearing the accent in my head even while I’m writing makes me love the process even more.

So, what about you? Do you hear accents in your head when you read a book with a character from a country different than your own? Or am I alone in this? Leave a comment here and be in the running for a copy of my contemporary Scottish romantic suspense, Her Highland Champion. (Then you can “hear” the accent as you read my book!)

Buy link for Her Highland Champion

Thanks for joining us today, Alexa! Readers, let’s hear from you if you want a chance to win a copy of Her Highland Champion. Don't forget to either include your email address in your comment or check back on Sunday to see if you've won. We can't get your books to you if we can't contact you. -- AP