Venom's 1st assignment

[underwhere]

Thank you for your help, nikita! Of course it has to be "glistening" and "leant".
The thing with Misses is a weak point: I found all kinds of versions, from "Misses" to "Missis" and "Mississ"(?). Your "Missus" is new to me. To end this: she's a Mrs, a married woman. I let her "say" the whole word instead of the abridgement to underline her status.

Without the abbreviation, I'm pretty sure that "Misses" would be the most common accepted spelling. Others are, I'm sure, used, but nowhere near as frequently. Use with the abbreviation, Mrs., is also considered proper even in the middle of a sentence, i.e., "I suggest that it was Mrs. White in the study with the lead pipe." (Yes, Clue is one of my favorite board games.)

"I know it wasn't" sounds better than "...it hadn't (been)", but using the first I would loose the ateriority.

This is personal preference, or more likely a specific editor's preference. Both are certainly acceptable. I have certain specific ideosyncracies I speak and write with, one of which was flagged in a previous assignment by Rose as being a bit too "Victorian" sounding. The funny thing is that I speak in almost the same way I write, and people have often commented to me about my wide use of language and distinct ways of expressing myself. Sometimes, though, it really does come down to pleasing the editor. The editor, after all, typically will hopefully have a bit broader understanding of your intended audience than you will. The editor isn't always right, though, so a healthy debate on semantics of a particular passage can sometimes lead to an interesting discussion of grammar or clarity which may, in itself, prove useful.

But I don't understand what's wrong with "storey" and "scrutinised" ( "story" and "scrutinized" in American English).

Probably nothing is "wrong" with them if you are writing for a "Queen's English" audience. An American, however, will look at these two examples and, especially if they are good spellers, will cringe at the perception of a spelling mistake. Often, misspellings and grammatical errors can detract from a reader's ability to read and enjoy a story for the story content. (You can tell I am an American with how I spelled "story" in that sentence.") If you are looking for an international audience, stick with whatever spellings you are most familiar with, and if you get REALLY wide circulation of your writing, many publishing houses have editors working on both sides of the pond to correct for their respective locale.

This, of course, leads to an interesting question: As a writer on an international site like this one, how do you handle the potential for such misperceptions? (Probably want to break off that question into a separate thread if anybody wants to address it as it will likely detract from the purpose of this thread which is, of course, to evaluate the original piece by Venom.)