August 12th, 2009

Language has passed me by.

I used to pride myself on being a language nerd, but that changed this week.

First I discovered coordinate adjectives.  My understanding had been that separating adjectives with commas was always incorrect.  Not so!  “Coordinate adjectives,” that is adjectives that modify a noun in the same way, are properly separated by a comma.  The [...]

August 6th, 2009

This is what really happens when you have a wacky neighbor:

The photo above is the damage to my neighbor’s bedspread after he fell asleep (“passed out” is probably the more accurate term) with a lit cigarette.

I got home from a walk about 11:00 last night to find the entry corridor filled with hazy, foul-smelling smoke.  I called my landlord and tried to rouse my downstairs [...]

August 5th, 2009

Pimp My Novel’s “Terms To Know”

More great stuff from Eric at Pimp My Novel.  Many of us aspiring writers read book after book about the process of getting that first book published, but few of us know anything about the business of selling those books, which is obviously secondary but no less relevant to our interests.  For instance:

Returns—Often expressed as [...]

August 4th, 2009

Twelve steps, sure – but, “easy?”

Eric at Pimp my Novel today posted this handy guide to the birth of a first novel.  The whole post is well worth reading but here’s a little taste:

1. Completion of your novel. Congratulations! You’ve written an entire novel (~60,000 – 100,000 words)! Now go edit it. No, don’t tweet about how awesome your book [...]