Old-Fashioned Fruitcake
Restoration Day can now be found on the Book Depository!
Want to try before you buy? Chapter One can be read for free here – and do feel free to pass the link on and spread it around.
Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed that the answers to the quiz were not in Friday’s post. I decided that perhaps four days wasn’t terribly long for a competition to run, so the giveaway is open for entries for at least another week. Good luck!
Ten questions is all it takes – and if you’re a regular reader, you have the advantage over the people who did the quiz at the launch party, because a lot of the answers are in the archives.
If you were at the launch party and heard the answers, I will trust you not to make a false identity to enter under.
Likewise, I’m trusting all of you not to ask the internet for the answers not available on this site.
1. Approximately how long has Deborah been working on this book?
a) 1 year
b) 3 years
c) 10 years
d) 15 years
2. Roughly how many words was the first draft when Deborah finally finished it?
a) 60,000 words
b) 100,000 words
c) 160,000 words
d) 260,000 words
3. What colour ink did she write most of the first draft in?
a) brown
b) purple
c) black
d) green
4. What was the book’s working title?
a) Crowner’s Quest
b) Tsifira
c) Lily
d) all of the above
5. How many of the 7 most prominent characters still have the names they started out with?
a) none
b) one
c) three
d) seven
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6. How many volumes did the first draft run to?
a) two
b) eight
c) ten
d) twelve
7. What is the ‘seed’ in seed-cake?
a) caraway
b) cardamom
c) cumin
d) trick question; there are no seeds in seed-cake
8. What famous monarch was not permitted to go down stairs unaccompanied as a child?
a) Queen Elizabeth I
b) Queen Elizabeth II
c) William the Conqueror
d) Queen Victoria
9. What time is afternoon tea generally served at Buckingham Palace?
a) three o’clock
b) half past three
c) four o’clock
d) five o’clock
10. Something which happens every 50 years is called
a) bicentennial
b) semicentennial
c) sesquicentennial
d) sesquipedalian
And one more question (not part of your score): which ebook format would you prefer if you win?
a) epub
b) mobi
c) pdf
d) I’m not sure but I read ebooks on a ________
Put your answers in the comments, or, if you prefer not to give away your competitive advantage, put them in the contact form (under Contact in the top menu). One entry per person; answers on Friday.
Good luck!
Are you ready for some good clean proofreading-related fun? I thought as much.
Here are three challenges for you to whet your wits upon. Put your answer in the comments, and I’ll release the correct answers in due course.
Disclaimer: one part of one of these challenges (and no, I’m not telling you which) is something of a trick question. One of the other challenges may not even have a correct answer, but may result in injury, maiming or death. You can’t say I didn’t warn you.
Challenge One: match the characters to the names.
1 guillemet
2 interrobang
3 obelus
4 pilcrow
5 asterism
6 solidus
7 hedera
8 octothorpe
A ÷ B ⁂ C # D « E ‽ F ¶ G / H ❧
Challenge Two: where would you hyphenate the following words?
buried
canopy
guardians
minute (tick tick, not tiny)
sautéed
startling
strength
wheedling
Challenge Three: are you for or against the Oxford comma? «barricades self under desk and refuses to come out»