Terri Reed here and in a short time my November book Chasing Shadows will hit the shelves. Well, the Harlequin book club members have already recieved their copies and I have recieved my first reader mail on this book with a complaint, albeit the reader was very nice about her objection to my use of the word elderly in relation to a fifty-eight year old woman. I know, I know, my bad. So sorry!
However, I went to dictionary.com to look up the definition of elderly as an adjective:
1.Being past middle age and approaching old age per the American Heritage Dictionary 2. somewhat old; near old age per the Random House Dictionary
Okay, so then I looked up when does middle age begin and end? I couldn't find a definitive timeline. The US Census says 35-55. Some websites say anywhere from 25-75. Whoa! That's a big span. Then I looked up the old-age and according to the Random House Dictionary old-age is considered the last period of human life, now often considered to be the years after 65 or the age of retirement which currently is 66. So after looking at all of this I have come to the realization that in our American society we associate the word elderly to persons beyond old-age when in fact it doesn't have to mean that at all. I think our culture has an interesting habit of using words to label things that aren't necessarily correct.
Also, today chapter six of Yuletide Peril posts. Stop on by to see how the story is progressing. http://www.eharlequin.com/article.html?articleId=1437
