Judy Hagey Editor

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The Secret to Getting Published

When Diane Holmes’s grandmother divulged the untold story of her mother—a secret she’d kept from adolescence to her death bed—Diane took on the mantel of family historian and storyteller. While her grandmother’s story caused a sensation within the family, Diane saw more in her grandmother’s life—courage and resilience in the face of difficulty and loss. It has taken nearly 75 years for Grandma Bernadine’s story to reach the written page, and that is a narrative in itself. While Diane mulled the account of her grandmother’s life from her own adolescence, a 2014 New Years resolution propelled her to finally put …

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More Arcane Grammar

Fused Participles Participle fusion, much like thermonuclear fusion, is a subject too widely dreaded to be approached lightly. ~ William Safire If you don’t know what a fused participle is, you can chalk it up to one of those grammar “rules” that really isn’t. Like: Never split an infinitive. Never end a sentence with a preposition. Never start a sentence with a conjunction. Back in the day, 1906 to be exact, Henry Fowler decided that sentences like the following are grammatically incorrect.               He approved of Robert taking the job.               Do you mind me asking a question?               The neighbors hated …

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Grammar Arcana–Part 2

  Hortatory Subjunctive If you’ve never heard the term and, therefore, think you have no idea what hortatory subjunctive refers to, you’re not alone. If, however, you’re of the generation that took Latin in high school (I’m of the generation, but not the course), you may at least recognize hortatory as Latin. And though the grammatical term may not be familiar, you’ll recognize its application. Hortatory is one of three Latin words that means encourage or incite. Subjunctive refers to the mood, which is not unique to Latin grammar. In addition to tense, verbs also indicate mood — “the manner …

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Grammar Aracana – Part 1

Or Grammar Tips You’ve Never Heard of But Use Anyway… One benefit of the global pandemic and shelter-in-place directives is greater access to online content. Before Zoom fatigue set in (about a month ago), I took advantage of several sessions that the Association of Copy Editors (ACES) offered in lieu of their annual conference. I couldn’t resist signing up for Grammar Arcana for its promise to cover Reduced Relative Clauses, Hortatory Subjunctives, Fused Participles, Double Genitives, Ditransitive Verbs, Nominative Absolutes, and Ablaut Reduplication. WHAT? I call myself an editor and I’ve never heard of these terms. What kind of imposter …

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Try Something New

What new or old-new thing have you tried during your quarantine? Seems many are discovering baking—especially bread. I’m struggling to find the appeal in that—other than the smell and taste of fresh-baked bread, with plenty of butter. I only resort to baking these days when the supply of over-ripe bananas exceeds our capacity for smoothies. Then I turn to, or rather the cookbook absent its yellow cover, falls opens to the oft-used page. My go-to recipe makes two loaves of banana bread–one to eat fresh, one to freeze or pass along to a neighbor.  No yeast or hours of waiting …

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