Bless you!

Scenario:

I walk down a busy street in London and I happen to sneeze. An older lady in the crowd smiles at me and says bless you. I immediately think ”this would never happen in Sweden”.

A month later I walk down a not-so-busy street in Gothenburg. A man happens to sneeze. Another man says prosit (the Swedish equivalent to bless you). I immediately think ”this could happen in Sweden after all”. But when the man walks past me, I get a whiff of alcohol in my face. I change my mind to ”this only happens in Sweden if you’re drunk”.

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A Hot Water Bottle

Time to start working again after lazing about in the forest and swimming in lakes. The Swedish version of Swenglish just arrived in the post from the proofreader.

One thing I have to consider is the translation of "hot water bottle" as hot water bottles aren't that common in Sweden and people call it different things.

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Reader Reactions to Swenglish

"I have almost finished reading it and wish it was longer - I don't want it to end!"

"I’ve now read Swenglish and was really impressed. Two sentences I loved: ‘The fans seemed quite bored; to win so easily has no meaning. ‘A woman who keeps interior design magazines under her mattress as if they were porno mags.’ I liked the section up near Umeå a lot. You’re less of a naïve writer now, I think, but still an unsentimental one."

"Our mate X stayed over last night, this morning he's flicking through Swenglish and chuckling away! He's thinking of going online and getting his own copy."

Above are some quotes from friends and acquaintances who have read Swenglish - a journey through everyday life.Some writers say they only write for themselves. I don't believe them. If you're the kind of writer who keeps everything in a drawer fair enough, but if you go ahead and publish something, I think you secretly want reactions.

I'm very happy that someone has bothered to write an Amazon review and there's also a short review at Good Reads!

Thanks everyone for spreading the word so far!

You can read the prologue here. (By clicking on "Look inside")

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