diff --git a/ext/journald_native/journald_native.c b/ext/journald_native/journald_native.c
index 635e435..9249d3f 100644
--- a/ext/journald_native/journald_native.c
+++ b/ext/journald_native/journald_native.c
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ static void jdl_init_constants()
 static void jdl_init_methods()
 {
     rb_define_singleton_method(mNative, "print",  jdl_native_print,  2);
-    rb_define_singleton_method(mNative, "send",   jdl_native_send,  -1); // -1 to pass as C array
+    rb_define_singleton_method(mNative, "send",   jdl_native_send,  -1); /* -1 to pass as C array */
     rb_define_singleton_method(mNative, "perror", jdl_native_perror, 1);
 }
 
@@ -72,16 +72,20 @@ static VALUE jdl_native_print(VALUE v_self, VALUE v_priority, VALUE v_message)
 
 static VALUE jdl_native_send(int argc, VALUE* argv, VALUE self)
 {
-    //const char * fmt = "%s";
     struct iovec *msgs;
     size_t i;
     int result;
 
+    /* first check everything is a string / convertable to string */
+    for (i = 0; i < argc; i++) {
+        StringValue(argv[i]); /* you may get a ruby exception here */
+    }
+
+    /* allocate memory after all checks to avoid possible memory leak */
     msgs = calloc(argc, sizeof(struct iovec));
 
     for (i = 0; i < argc; i++) {
         VALUE v = argv[i];
-        StringValue(v);
         msgs[i].iov_base = RSTRING_PTR(v);
         msgs[i].iov_len  = RSTRING_LEN(v);
     }
@@ -119,7 +123,7 @@ static char * jdl_alloc_safe_string(VALUE v_string)
           *ptr;
     size_t i;
 
-    /* convert tos sring */
+    /* convert to string */
     StringValue(v_string);
 
     str = RSTRING_PTR(v_string);