Typos, Missed Words, and Other Annoying Things

 by Patricia Bradley

For the past ten days, I’ve been doing the final edits on Fatal Witness, and I want to talk about typos, missed words, and using their instead of they’re, etc. I sometimes get an email from a reader, pointing out those things. I always reply and apologize for whatever they’ve found, pass it on to my publisher who corrects the digital version of the story. The print correction will be made if there’s a second printing. 

But I know you wonder how those mistakes get past the editors and proofreaders…well, so do I, and I’m one of the proofreaders. My books have at least ten pairs of eyes on them, including mine. My only explanation is “it happens.” I read each book at least ten times before it goes to the printer, and I’m sure my eyes automatically supply what I thought I wrote.

Fatal Witness is no exception. Someone, somewhere will probably find at least one error. At least with this one it won’t be the wrong airplane. :-) That happened with Silence in the Dark. All through the book, I referred to the plane in the story as one where Danny and Bailey climbed up on the wing to get into the cockpit. Then, in the very last chapter, I name the plane…and it’s one that has a top wing…no way could they use the wing to enter the cockpit. 

That was very kindly pointed out to me by a very nice gentleman. Somehow I’d typed in the wrong plane…All through the book the plane was a Bonanza in my mind, but at the end, I typed Cessna…

That was the fourth book in the Logan Point series. The very first book, Shadows of the Past, I had a thirty-year nurse write me and tell me I’d written respiratory nurse for respiratory therapist. No way! I was certain I had not done that. I know better than that, but she’d given me the page number and there it was. That one had a silver lining—my next book, A Promise to Protect, was about a doctor…so I asked the nurse if she’d read it for me and catch any errors I might have made. She agreed and did she ever catch a few mistakes. I profusely thanked her!

So, I better get back to proofing Fatal Witness. I loved writing this story and watching Dani grow! And Mark as well…he’s in the first book in the series, Counter Attack as a K9 officer. 

In case you’re wondering what it’s about, here’s the cover and back copy:

As a child, artist and potter Dani Bennett witnessed the brutal murder of her parents. With no memory of the incident or her true identity, she was forced to take on a new name and a new life, hidden away in Montana for the past 25 years.

Mae Richmond has spent the same stretch of time searching for her granddaughter, who went missing the night her daughter and son-in-law were murdered. Convinced the woman she saw in a pottery magazine feature is the woman she's been searching for, she enlists the help of K-9 officer Mark Lassiter of Pearl Springs, Tennessee, who tracks Dani down.

Skeptical but curious, Dani sets out on a journey to uncover the secrets of her past and reclaim her true identity. But someone close to her is determined to keep the truth of what happened all those years ago hidden. 

I loved writing this story and watching Dani grow! And Mark as well…he’s in the first book in the series, Counter Attack as a K9 officer. 

What's your take on errors in books? Do you just skip over them or do they take you out of the story? Leave a comment and I'll enter you in a drawing for Fatal Witness when it comes out February 6th, 2024!

You can find preorder links for Fatal Witness here!

AND of you'd like to listen to my interview with Karla Lewis you can click here! You'll learn a lot about me. :-d