Co-authors Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger are friends of mine from our local Sisters in Crime chapter. (Sisters in Crime is a national organization supporting women who write mysteries, which means we also include misters). They’re a married couple who wrote separately, but now, together, they write the Skylar Drake mysteries, set in the 1950s. You can find out more about the books and Janet’s other books here. Janet has offered us a short glossary of slang from the 1950s.
My husband and I write The Skylark Drake Murder Mysteries, a hard boiled 1950s series. To make this as authentic as we can, we include the language used during that time period. Yeah, some people actually feel the 1950s is considered historical (Umm!)
It is fun looking up some of the slang that was used by the “younger generation” and for me, remembering some as well.
Burn Rubber-when a car accelerates quickly
Shocker-a liar or cheat
Knuckle sandwich- a punch in the face
Get on the horn-to use a phone
Dullsville-a boring or dull person
Wig out-get agitated
So to make our characters real, not only do we dress them in period clothes (i.e. gloves and hats) and include current events of the time we also include some of the slang.
Our third book in the series, Desert Ice was released in January and…yes we are still married!
Thanks, Janet. You can pick up copies of Desert Ice at Barnes and Noble or Amazon.