Proofreading The Twin Scales

April 20, 2021

(This post was converted from a page and backdated to 2021 when it was first written)

As of writing this, it’s been around 13 years since I started speaking to the author of The Twin Scales: The Quest for Leatrix (Les Écailles Jumelles: La quête de Léatrix  in French). During a large portion of that time, she had been planning and writing the story that eventually became an Amazon published book in August 2020!

Jessica put out a message in our friend group requesting help translating the book from French to English, which she would do as a rough draft then pass on to someone to proof. As story writing is something I have always been very interested in getting involved with, I jumped at the chance.

I quickly found out that proofreading is a lot more time consuming than I thought, because you sometimes get so lost in the story that you have to re-read it a few times to check for any corrections. With each chapter I’d send Jessica my corrections in red and discuss any potential language barrier issues, because similar words can have different meanings when switching between French and English.

It was a really fun experience and something I’d definitely want to do again in the future. You can purchase the book here on Amazon.

Review

This was the first book that I had picked up in a couple of years, I wanted an excuse to start reading again and when I got this book I couldn’t had been happier. Jessica does a great job at building up a very vivid world in my mind early on, it was a great joy to be able to read something which took you on an adventure through a brand new world.

At the beginning of the story, Leatrix and Gaëlle run away from home, it’s something even the happiest of children have considered just for the sake of doing it. When they did this, it became clear that their actions had consequences, and that the forest they entered was just as dangerous as the life they were leaving behind. It’s a great metaphor for real life and how the grass isn’t always greener, however risks can sometimes have rewards and they found that in the care of Shurik, a forest dweller who has a strong connection to one of the sisters.

The story goes from being lighthearted to dark very quickly, you never know what is about to happen on the next page, which kept me very engaged. I’m hoping Jessica makes more of these stories as I’m very much invested now.

Testimonial