For anyone who hasn't picked up on this already, I am Canadian. Why this is relevant is that despite the fact I chose a Midwestern American town for the location for my debut series, you'll find that I used the British spelling on a lot of words. I say a lot and not all because there are certain words which I make the deliberate choice not to.
So while you'll find that I write words like colour or cheque a little fancier, if you have a keen eye you will also notice that I absolutely refuse to spell center as centre.
This generally results in some debate between myself, my editor, and my proofreaders, as every known style guide will have you defer entirely to one or the other.
Being born and raised in Canada tends to set you with one foot in each world when it comes to spelling. You take in just enough media from both sides of the border that you find yourself double checking some of them. For an added layer of challenge, I learned how to read and write in French before I did English, so I sometimes have to look up a rule I'd otherwise know.
What I've settled on for my own personal style guide is that I will generally default to the standard of my home country, except where it hurts my brain to do so.
There will be no use of the word centre in any of my novels. Americans write blond in all instances, the British say blonde in all instances, so I split the difference, rolled with my French immersion schooling and use the masculine and feminine for both.
It will not match up to any known style guide, and I have decided that is okay with me. But I will promise you that I'll keep it uniform across all of my work. The Carson style guide if you will.
Personally I don't think it distracts from the story in any meaningful way.
In conclusion, thank you for tolerating my whims, and for being on this ride with me. I could not possibly spell the sentence 'Charlie readers are my favourite.' without u.
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