Punctuality Rules!

Out of Line?

You might not know, but I have a site where I review knitting books. So, imagine my surprise when I got this co-written email the other day. As a “LYS owner” we are thrilled to read your messages about upcoming books and your reviews. It helps us to stock our…

Calisthenics for the Brain

I was reading an interview in Time with David McCullough (the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, if the name doesn’t ring a bell), and this question caught my attention: Q: We don’t write letters on paper anymore. How will this affect the study of history? The loss of people writing–writing a composition,…

Tips for People Who Hate to Write

Last time we talked about the reasons people don’t like to write. Today, we’re going to talk about ways to help them. Dictate into a recorder rather than typing. Maybe it’s the physical act of getting words out of your head and onto paper/screen that’s too intimidating. So just try…

The Art and Craft of Fiction

“Those of us who have been writing fiction for a long time know how easy it is to get caught up in the act of writing, in the characterizations, structure, descriptions, dialog, polishing of language, and—that most hair-rending of all issues—whether or not it’s ever okay to use words ending…

WWSD?*

I’ve been watching the BBC series of “Sherlock,” a modern update of the classic Holmes and Watson stories. (It’s fabulous, by the way.) One of the hallmarks of the Sherlock Holmes character has always been his relative arrogance. He has such absolute confidence in his abilities and has such a…

Grammar Day!

It’s National Grammar Day. How are you going to celebrate? Turn all the extra apostrophes you find into little winky emoticons. Parrot back the word “like” whenever it gets misused in sentence (“like, you know, a Valley girl). Carry your blue pencil with you so you can correct incorrect commas.…

And the winner is…

Thanks to the handy-dandy random number generator (known to my friend Jenny as “Randy”) … comment #10 wins! sprite I love reading interviews with people that actually make me feel like they’d be interesting to talk with. Thanks for asking great questions, Deb! So, Sprite, come on down and claim…