spill (for clarification)

[digitalusrex.livejournal.com]

in incubus dreams, i got about halfway through before i began unofficially counting the number of times miss laurell used the world "spill" (or "spilled," "spilling," etc). unofficially, i counted maybe 8 or 9 "spills" before i started officially counting. 32 after that.

having started re-reading danse macabre, in the first 160 pages or so: 11. [EDIT: 16 at 314 pages. EDIT EDIT: 21 at 383 pages (also, 4 times on one page!)]

i know i have favorite words that i like to use, but this goes above and beyond. now, while reading danse macabre, i've tried to decide if other words could have been substituted and stayed true to the original meaning of the passage. yep.

a LOT of things annoy me about the series, especially the last 4 books, but this "spill" nonsense is what is bugging me this week. if miss laurell had an editor with ballz, perhaps it would have made a difference?

have you all noticed this overusage of the word "spill"?

Comments

[frabjously.livejournal.com]

In short: HELL YES.

That woman uses the word spill for everything and anything. Hair, power, clothing, and God knows what else. She's ruined the word so much that I can't even write the word spill in a perfectly ordinary context like "I spilled my drink" without going cross-eyed and banging my head against the wall.

The moral is that LKH ruins English vocabulary.

[frabjously.livejournal.com]

Just to add: I don't think we should blame an editor for an author's own lack of creativity.

[digitalusrex.livejournal.com]

i just went back and read some past lashouts and came across the convo with the publisher so i guess we can't really blame her editor.

i'm starting to feel that way too.

[tsubaki-ny.livejournal.com]

Can you direct me to this publisher conversation?

[digitalusrex.livejournal.com]

http://community.livejournal.com/lkh_lashouts/263700.html

[tsubaki-ny.livejournal.com]

Oh,THAT one! Thanks!

dead link?

[graesea.livejournal.com]

hi there - I was looking through the archives and can't find the link - has it been deleted?

I am dying to know what her publishers think of her work.

Re: dead link?

[digitalusrex.livejournal.com]

i just clicked the link and it works. its friends-only so that might be why you can't see it.