writing

Beware the Zombies

October 29, 2020 by Judy

I’m supposed to be writing a review of Steven Pinker’s Sense and Style, but like the student who waited until the last minute to read the book, I’m not in a position to write a full review—yet. With Halloween on the horizon, and Pinker’s reference to zombie nouns, I thought a blog on those might be more apropos than trying to bluff my way through a full book review. I am not a fan of horror films or literature (with the exception of Stephen King), so my knowledge of zombies is limited. Suffice to say that for our purposes the …

Creativity is Passion–Not Perfection

September 1, 2020 by Judy

Love Letters to Writers: Encouragement, Accountability, and Truth-telling One benefit of being furloughed from my part-time day job in response to CoVID-19 is the time it’s given me to read. When I committed to the Goodreads Challenge at the outset of 2020 after a year’s hiatus, I not only set a goal of reading 50 books this year, but I also committed to finishing all the unfinished books on my Kindle. It’s much easier for me to give up on a book I’m not crazy about if it’s on Kindle because I figure it will always be there if my …

The Secret to Getting Published

August 10, 2020 by Judy

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 …

More Arcane Grammar

July 7, 2020 by Judy

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 …

Book Challenge

October 7, 2019 by jhagey

If you spend any time on Facebook, you've likely seen the Book Challenge. For seven days, participants are invited to post the image of a book they've loved -- one each day without comment -- and then challenge someone else to do the same. The premise behind the challenge is to promote literacy and build a book list. For me the challenge was not commenting because how can you not comment on books you've loved? So, permit me to share those seven books here with comments.

No There, There?

May 24, 2013 by Judy

The English language has more than its share of homophones — words that sound alike, but have different spellings and meanings. It’s not a problem in oral language, but using the wrong word in written communication can be annoying, if not misleading. One set of homophones that is often misused is there, their, and they’re. Let’s review. they’re They’re is a contraction, the joining of two words into one. In this case: they and are. Instead of saying (or writing),”They are going to buy this house,” we combine two words into one and indicate the missing letters with an apostrophe. …