The Ghost of Christmas Australia

A Magic Nation Christmas launched a few days ago. The stories were fun, and writing them was the easiest part of the task. I’m no Charles Dickens, but I feel a kinship to Dickens. We both put together a Christmas book in a very short time. Our friends thought we would never make the deadline. And, like Dickens, I had problems with my illustrations and my cover.

Unlike Mr. Dickens, I had trouble with English. Not American English or British English. My nemesis was Australian English.

In one story, the children are to celebrate New Year’s with a kind donor from Perth, Australia. It would be noon in “Falls City” (actually Oxford, Ohio) when it was Midnight in Perth. I began to feel like the ghost of Christmas Australia was haunting me as I wrote.

Somehow, Microsoft Word decided I was an Australian. The spell check and proofreading program wanted me to use flavouring, join a circle in the centre of the park, and mould my gelatine. It flagged contractions and told me my quotation marks belonged before the periods. Every time I changed the proof specifications and language to American English, that Australian Ghost reappeared to flag my spelling and grammar.

I finally defeated the Australian Spelling and Grammar Ghost. After numerous attempts to change the proofing language, I gave up. I just kept hitting “ignore rule” over and over again.

When I finish a book, and before I upload my document, I double check all my geographical, scientific, and historical facts. All the stories checked out. All, that is, except “Midnight in Perth.” I originally wrote the story back in July. I remember looking up the time in Perth back then. The town was exactly 12 hours ahead of us. “Perth’s Perfect!” I thought.

When I was ready to create my final pdf file in November, it was 9 a.m. in Oxford and 10 p.m. in Perth. How did this happen? How could I have missed the extra hour?

You guessed it—July in Ohio is on Daylight Savings Time. Perth never changes to DST. By November, when the book was ready to complete, Ohio had fallen back to EST. So the entire time sequence of that story needed to be changed. Now it had to be 11 a.m in Falls City, Ohio and Midnight in Perth. I couldn’t change “Perth” and find another city for the donor’s party. He had to live in Australia. “Aussie Bunny” was a major character . Besides Aussie, some bullies had made fun of the name “Perth.”

It was Midnight in Oxfordwhen I finally uploaded that new pdf.

I’m not afraid of ghosts. But, please, let them speak American English.