Ode to the comma

There has been many an ode to the comma written. I've even heard people say that a comma can save lives! Consider this simple sentence.

Let's eat Grandma!

Let's eat, Grandma!

It's become really interesting for me, because I am an American living in Ireland and writing for the British market. I try to stay away from colloquialisms. But confounding the issues is the fact that styles can be markedly different for English of different countries. The comma being one of the culprits. 

Grammar tips and tricks

Certain words in the English language are very tricky. Having grown up speaking Ukrainian at home, I found English so much more confusing. So I have to go back and remind myself periodically of the rules to apply when writing in English. Today I tackle some confusing choices of terms.

Major edit completed

Yesterday, I completed a major edit of my first novel, The Naked Truth.  I like to call it a murder mystery set on the high seas. Essentially, I created a fictional story based on our sailing adventures. I didn't want to just write our story which has been done by so many. I wanted to create characters who experience something unusual, while making use of the experience of sailing through the Caribbean and across the Atlantic. I really didn't know where the story was going and how I was going to resolve it until about 3/4 of the way in.

This was my third edit. In the first edit, I caught many mistakes, fixed prose, converted prose to dialogue, and just cleaned up overall. So now I had a second version. Then I gave it to my editor (husband) to read.  He edited and annotated as well as giving me a page of comments in general. I think every sentence had suggested changes.This was version 3. That was a little hard to take, but I bit the bullet and made most, not all, of the edits he suggested. He was absolutely right.

On the speaking circuit

We have been invited on several occasions to deliver lectures based on our books. Our anchoring book was actually born from a lecture. When people came up to us after the talk wanting to buy our book, we said, "What book?" That's when we set out to write Happy Hooking.

Now we have Cruising the Wild Atlantic Way of Ireland, and as it turns out, British yacht clubs need speakers to talk about subjects of interest to their members. Ireland happens to be of great interest, especially since the Troubles are still in the collective 'recent' memory of retirees with the time and resources to go off cruising.

The Power of Punctuation

I loved reading Eats, Shoots & Leaves. To think of writing an entire book about the comma is beyond me, but I had to read it with that enticing title. And then I saw this photo with a notice which no doubt was the result of spacing issues.

I have become really attuned to punctuation. Stray commas get wiped off the face of the earth. Semicolons are used with reserve. Periods are definitive, except in poetry. Colons and ellipses are inserted sparingly. I want my prose to be crisp, but not to a fault.

And then I face "The Frustration of Autocorrect" and the confounding nature of writing in American but living in Ireland. Oh, woe is me.

The business of self-publishing

This past weekend, Alex conducted a seminar on Self-Publishing for Success as part of the Rolling Sun Book Festival. It was a great experience. It was well attended, there were lots of good questions, and lots of good feedback afterwards. His basic tenet is that everyone deserves to be published.

It was an interesting experiment to see if there was a market. Indeed there seems to be. Now he has to write a book based on the seminar. A bit backwards, but effective nonetheless.

Is there a book lurking inside you?

Volunteering

I have been an avid volunteer most of my life. I was a scout leader and scoutmaster in my youth, I joined the Board of Directors of the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association and assumed major leadership roles, and I am a member of the Ocean Cruising Club Committee and serve various communications functions. My husband and I started the Sail4Kids Make a Memory Cruise.

Yet, now I find myself searching for a more meaningful volunteer role to fill.  I have valuable skills that might be put to good use on some Board. My question is where do I apply them to make the biggest difference while fulfilling my own needs, whatever they are?

I find myself wondering what I believe in most strongly. Saving the earth from man ranks up there. Saving the animals from man, especially in the ocean, ranks way up there. Helping people comes into the equation but not quite as strongly. Certainly, I will never get involved in politics. Where will I find fulfillment?  So I thought I might try a few things on for size.

I've just gotten involved with Fighting Words. It's a very interesting initiative that encourages children to write stories. It was very interesting to see what happens when young children are given permission to express themselves freely. It's free for the kids to take part. Check it out. http://www.fightingwords.ie/