A Prone Position

It’s hard to believe one can reach a fairly advanced age and not know the meaning of a commonly used word. My tenth book was in the editing process when I made this discovery. My editor gently informed me that the intimate act I was describing would be rather difficult and uncomfortable for both participants with the one on the bottom lying prone on the bed. What was the problem with that, I wondered.

The answer was that a person is prone when they are lying face down. The correct word for someone lying on their back is ‘supine’. I don’t believe I’ve ever used that word either in writing or speaking. I do know now that I’ve used ‘prone’ incorrectly on a few occasions up until book ten (Country Living).

I have also, since then, become aware of misuse of ‘prone’ by other authors. One fairly common usage is when someone ‘looks up’ from a prone position. Not possible unless you actually do have eyes in the back of your head.

Anyway, the reason I’m mentioning this now is that I was listening to the audio version of Country Living and it came to mind. I haven’t listened to the audio book since it was released in November 2023. Usually the case after the time spent working with the narrator to check each chapter file by file. But I’m enjoying it now and thinking, ‘hey, this is actually quite good.’ Unfortunately it hasn’t garnered much interest online and I know I’m biased, but I do think it’s worth a listen (very wonderfully narrated by Nicola Victoria Vincent). Here are some links: Audible UK / Audible US / Audible DE / Audible CA / Audible AU / Amazon UK / Amazon US / Apple Books