Horrible & horrid, Down Under, merchandise, pronounciation, beta readers

[find_sam at hotmail.com]

Hi all :)

On the subject of my Pet Hate, the use of the word 'horrid' *mild 
shudder*, I didn't realise it was so popular! <g> Perhaps, depending 
on your accent, it doesn't sound so bad... I don't much mind when 
it's used in a more English etc context. Here in Oz, though, where 
our accent is *much* more broad, 'horrid' seems a little out of 
place... but that's just me ;)

Speaking of Oz, I don't mind the term Down Under as much as I make 
out. So if I go off on a rant about it, I'm not really serious ;) 
However, I do get annoyed by extremely poor Australian accents that I 
often see on American sitcoms. The Australian accent is *not* a 
Cockney accent! This is another of my Pet Hates (I seem to be 
building quite a large collection ;)

For my birthday, a friend gave me a cute little Hedwig stuffed toy, 
and was telling me about when she went out to buy it. Apparently, the 
Scabbers toys have a full set of front fingers! I was mildly appaled 
(sp?) to hear about this. This is an integral plot bit we're talking 
about here!

Speaking of people mispronouncing words, today in my Professional 
Writing class a girl pronounced 'librarian' as 'lie-bear-ian'.

On a final note, I've written an e-fic that I plan on posting online 
soon, but I'd like some beta readers to look over it before I do so. 
Is anyone interested? The first chapter is only about 9,000 words; 
it's about a young man with a mysterious past who arrives in a 
peculiar small town which is equally mysterious. If anyone is 
interested, email me at find_sam at hotmail.com.

--> Sam of Australia (I like that nickname... very Crocodile Dundee, 
Survivor II <g>)