Recently, I took a big chance with the protagonist of my Tracking Jane series. I gave Jane McMurtry a strong, regional voice. Though she has an English degree, part of her character rebels against correctness of many sorts, including the sort imparted to her inside a classroom. And she talks as she wills. That’s part of her charm. It also seems for some a turn-off.

In the past few weeks I’ve received a few comments saying something to the effect of “Hey, great story, but I couldn’t keep reading it because of her grammar.” I’m not going to judge. This really comes down to a matter of taste and perhaps a bit of bias–the sort that supposes an intelligent person won’t talk like that. Instead of arguing in vain, I will pose the following question.

Would you give up on Mark Twain because of bad grammar? Here’s how he starts Huckleberry Finn:

You don’t know about me, without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but that ain’t no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things, which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth. That is nothing. I never seen anybody but lied, one time or another, without it was Aunt Polly, or the widow, or maybe Mary.

Not quite the start of A Tale of Two Cities, but far out there with a roundhouse strong voice.