Editor = crazy. Though it is a colloquialism, so maybe it doesn't belong in narration unless it's a tight POV?

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Well Donna had never heard of it either. LOL Since I'm from New England and Donna's from the South, we often come across phrases one of us thinks is normal and the other has never heard of.

Though it is tight POV, and our editor always lets us keep colloquialisms if they make sense. BUT... honestly I don't know if it does for a person from the Midwest, because I can't even figure out where I picked it up.

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Midwestern here (Michigan to be exact) and I've used it. Not super often, but it doesn't look strange or out of place.

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Heroine grew up in Montanna so that is helpful. Though most of my Midwesternisms come from Minnesota. LOL And because of these characters I had to introduce Donna to the fabulous food item known as the hotdish.

The most awesome thing is that wikipedia has a picture of a hotdish... and it's GLOWING. Radioactive tatertot hotdish. Mmmm.

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I understand what it means, but I don't think that I would use it, or have seen it used much.

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I'm really wondering where I got it from now. Because it just seems like such a NORMAL thing to me. I was completely confused that Donna wasn't familiar with it.

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I know I've seen it before, but just not often enough to intuitively get it. I could tell what it meant, but I had to think about it for a second, you know?

I'm from the Midwest, if it matters.

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It seems pretty old-fashioned to me? I knwo what it means but - yeah.

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That is actually what Donna seems to be finding in Google now. That it is a phrase that is not as popular as it used to be.

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It's totally normal! EVERYONE ELSE IS WRONG.

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They hate us. :( THEY ALL HATE US.

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I've seen it in many books. It may not be used that much in some areas of the country, but that's true of a lot of phrases that are otherwise easy to figure out. It's completely clear from the wording what it means, even if you've never encountered it before, so if it's regional that hardly matters, does it?

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Well, the question with it being regional would be if it would make sense for that character to say it. I think in this case we can get away with it though because I can't pin down a region and the character has spent enough time with people from various parts of the country to have picked up things up.

If it were, say, a southern regional saying, I would not let my backwoods hero from New England say it, because even if it would make sense to the reader, that would be out of character for the character.

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I use it in a routine fashion but, then again, I use a lot of outdated phrases.

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I have no idea what that means. :(

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LOL! Donna will be pleased to not be alone.

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The scary part is I'm from the North and I've never heard it!

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I am baffled by this phrase and the way it defies both generational and regional lines, according to my HIGHLY SCIENTIFIC JF poll.

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Scientifically, you should probably change it to "The human male was 1.5 times her size, but only relatively speaking."

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I think the heroine should just develop the ability to judge people's muscle mass and weight by sight. "He was 200 pounds, but with a low BMI that indicated muscle mass making him a formidable opponent."

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"But on the moon, she could snap his neck like a twig."

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Hey! I know what it MEANS. LOL I've just never heard it before. >:(

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It seems a normal enough phrase to me. It's a little colloquial, sure, but you're not writing a science textbook. (I'm in and grew up in California, if that makes any difference.)

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...but I just quizzed my kids on it and they were clueless.

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LOL! It is the PHRASE OF MYSTERY!

Since people seem to be able to understand it, I think I'm gonna let it lie. The context helps too, since the heroine is considering the fact that the guy who just backed down is half again her size and that it's ODD that he backed down... if he was half her size she probably wouldn't be quite as impressed. LOL

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Seconding the normality, but then I'm from New England.

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Most of the New England people seem to be all, "What, that makes perfect sense!!" I think that even though I left Maine when I was 11, most of my odd regional speech patterns are still from there because my parents still have their Maine accents even though we left in almost 20 years ago.

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I'll just be adding to the I'm from New England and this makes complete sense pile. It seems like the most apt phrase to me.

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Seems normal to me, if a little awkward/archaic.

(... has awkward always been spelt like that? -.-;;)

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And I'm from Ye Olde England. LOL :D

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LOL! I am always like "Who decided to put this many w's in awkward!?!?"

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It's a very awkward word.

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I know what it means, but only from logical deduction and not because I remember ever running across it in my ESL life before :-p

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LOL! Logical deduction is good! I think our editor had no problem deducing, but it is her job to point out things people will misunderstand if they're not deducing. :D

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I'm exclusively from western states. I've heard it.

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Hmmm. We have a good regional spread. Of course, my inner scientist says: "Duh, you do, all these people are on the internet talking to each other you big dumb moron" but you know, I'm ignoring it. LOL

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Not that it couldn't be used for other things, but I think I've normally seen and heard it used in reference to *money.*

(Half again as much, half again the cost, etc.)

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Maybe not the demographic that the publisher's looking for, but as an Australian I would consider the phrase normal, but not with that word order: I would always put again at the end of phrase. Mind you, last time I was back in Oz, I used the expression "Sunday week," meaning a week from Sunday, and was met with a blank look, so who knows?

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Now THAT is kind of cool.

As for the demographic... people who want to buy romance novels about werewolves who take time out from being in love to blow things up, stab bad guys with makeshift weapons and occasionally shoot things.

...to be honest I am not sure what that demographic is, either. LOL

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For what it's worth, I knew what it meant and had heard (and I think even used) it before, and I'm a Belgian living in bonny Scotland, so. Then again, I learned most of my English from the internet, so this may skew somewhat.

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I do think that any results I get are pre-skewed by the fact that we are all internet users who probably pick up odd speech patterns from each other all the time. LOL Am still resisting the urge to make LOLCat jokes in every manuscript, but when we get to the book about the computer dork, it is probably inevitable.

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