One of the things readers may notice in She Answered is that some of the dialogue feels… a little different.
That’s intentional.
The story is set in Quebec’s Laurentians, between Montreal and Ottawa, where French and English influence one another in myriad ways. I grew up in this part of Canada, and I wanted the story to sound like the place where it happens.
In the story, you’ll occasionally encounter Québécois French in conversations or in expressions that don’t have a satisfying English equivalent. Rather than translating everything or stripping away those details, I’ve left them in where they help create a sense of place. Tabernak is a profanity, for example, although literally it's the ceremonial box that holds the communion bread and wine. If you don’t speak French, don’t worry. The meaning is almost always clear from the surrounding context.
More subtly, you may notice that some dialogue doesn’t always follow the rhythm or grammatical structure you’d expect in American or British English.
That’s also intentional.
Many native French speakers carry French sentence structures into English. It’s not “incorrect” English—it’s English shaped by another language. Word order, emphasis, and phrasing can all feel just slightly different. For example, at one point a character says this "The compass, it knows north". If you’ve spent time in Quebec, you’ll recognize these patterns immediately. If you haven’t, they may simply sound a little unfamiliar.
You’ll also notice Canadian spelling throughout the story. You’ll see spellings like colour, centre, and favourite, alongside forms that many American readers will find familiar. There isn’t always complete consistency across Canada, either, which is part of the country’s linguistic character.
Canadian English is a mongrel carrying traces of Britain, America, France, and the countless regional voices that have shaped it over generations. That’s one of the things I love about it. Writing She Answered in any other voice would have felt false, so I chose to retain the dialect.
The Laurentians aren’t just the setting of the story—they’re part of its identity. Language is part of that landscape.
Hope you enjoy the story!
E