No, No Double Negatives (But Yes, Yes Literacy!)
We’ve all heard that writers should never use double negatives. I imagine that prohibition came about when the word ain’t became more popular.
For example, if you said, “I ain’t got no toothpaste,” or even “I don’t have no toothpaste,” some wise person would say, “Ah, but that means you do have toothpaste. You do not have no toothpaste, so you must have some toothpaste.”
When researching this subject, I discovered that grammatically suspect double negatives often arise when a writer or speaker is using an incorrect adjective or adverb that contains some variation of no. An easy fix is to use the correct word, which, not ironically, does not contain no and most likely, instead, contains some variation of any. For example,
Incorrect: They didn’t give me no food.
Correct: They didn’t give me any food.
Incorrect: We haven’t gone nowhere.
Correct: We haven’t gone anywhere.
Incorrect: He didn’t do nothing.
Correct: He didn’t do anything.
Warning: Sometimes, a writer uses the incorrect examples above to reveal regionalism or to emphasize the negativity of something. Remember that it’s all about context!
Sometimes, we embrace the double negative to make a point or to skirt a sensitive topic. For example:
I’m not not happy. (This means I happy, or at least as happy as possible at the moment.)
She has no sense of how not to be a braggart. (She definitely is a braggart.)
He is not unlikeable. (He is, indeed, kind of likeable.)
Those double negatives actually mean what they say. Like a double negative in math, they make a positive.
Last Thursday, October 9, I was one of the guest authors invited to take part in a Quizzo table at a fundraiser for the Delco Literacy Council. Check out the right side of the presentation board.
What a great organization and a fun night. Congrats to the champions of adult literacy!
Click the Read More button below left to comment.
Annoyingly Confusing Long Noun Phrases
The topic of long noun phrases is one I’ve wanted to cover since I began focusing these newsletters on grammar.
Say it with me: A noun is a person, place, or thing. Some examples include the word noun itself, boards, Lake Superior, Christian, and leadership.
Words before and after the noun can describe what it is and create noun phrases. Those words can take a variety of forms:
Bulletin boards (bulletin is a noun serving as an adjective)
Clean Lake Superior (clean is an adjective)
Christian with a purpose (with a purpose is a prepositional phrase serving as an adjective)
Leadership deconstructed (deconstructed is an adjective after the noun)
Annoyingly confusing long noun phrases (annoyingly is an adverb describing confusing, which is an adjective kind-of serving as an adverb describing long, which is an adjective describing noun, which is a noun serving as an adjective describing phrases)
As you can see, when a writer provides too many words in a row to describe the noun (creating a long noun phrase), readers may have difficulty interpreting the meaning of the thing being described.
I recently read a long noun phrase that looked a little like this: a Christian leadership pastoring college for you. In this case, the word college is the main noun. The words after the main noun are clear: It’s a college for you. However, several of the words before college are each nouns in themselves, serving here as adjectives, and I don’t know which adjective describes which noun. Is the college a pastoring college, and does Christian leadership describes the kind of pastoring the college teaches? Is Christian describing a college that is for leadership pastoring? (To be fair, I’m not sure what leadership pastoring is.) Is Christian leadership pastoring one concept that the whole college teaches?
One way to help avoid the confusion of long noun phrases is to hyphenate terms: a Christian-leadership pastoring college for you, a Christian leadership-pastoring college for you, or a Christian-leadership-pastoring college for you.
Another, often-more-helpful solution is to rearrange the describing words: your college for leaders in Christian pastoring; a pastoring college that teaches Christian leadership, designed for your needs; a pastoring college for Christian leaders like you; and so on.
Here are some other examples and fixes:
I don’t like annoyingly confusing long noun phrases.
I don’t like long noun phrases because they are confusing and, thus, annoying.
The delayed data management project customers are unhappy.
The customers of the data-management project are unhappy about the delay.
Customers of the delayed data-management project are unhappy.
Those characters are contemporary romance novel relevant.
Those characters are relevant to contemporary romance novels.
She is his whiskey swigging couch potato daughter-in-law.
She is his whiskey-swigging, couch-potato daughter-in-law. (As you can see, sometimes long noun phrases are fun, and all we have to do to fix them is add some commas and hyphens.)
Three shameless plugs:
I want to once again shout out the Delco Literacy Council Champions of Adult Literacy fundraiser.
October 9 through 13, the e-book for Midnight Clear at Christmas will be free. I’m hoping the new literacy champions will download a free book. BTW, please review this book if you’ve read it and liked it.
Book 4, A New Heart, is in the review stage. The goal is to get it out by Christmas. This means I’ve begun writing book 5. More on that next month.
Countable Nouns: When Fewer Is Less
I have a confession to make: Despite my wonderful grade-school experiences of nuns teaching grammar, I did not learn the definition of a countable noun until I started teaching basic writing classes myself at a local community college. Students who were learning English as a second language (ESL) taught me that term because they had to learn it—which is why many ESL students are good at telling us the difference between less and fewer, much and many, and other such pairs to describe countable or noncountable nouns.
Thanks to Rex for giving me this month’s topic.
A countable noun is a person, place, or thing of which there can be more than one: apple and apples, minute and minutes, child and children. A noncountable, or uncountable, noun is something that is, in itself, whole. You can’t have one of them or more than one of them. It is neither singular or plural, cannot be counted with numbers, and is often a concept or idea: information, money, milk, time, desire, sleep, and so on.
Singular countable nouns are preceded with the word one or with an article: a, an, or the. Plural countable nouns take the plural form, which usually means simply adding an “s,” but not always:
Please hand me an apple. I love apples.
That couple has a child. The other couple has two children.
Do not add a number before a noncountable noun, and do not make it plural. Sometimes, you can add the article “the” before a countable noun but never “a” or “an”:
Please provide more information. She did not give me the information I needed.
May I have milk for dinner? Here is the milk.
Knowing what nouns are countable can help with choosing the correct adjective to go with the noun. Here are some examples:
Fewer (countable noun) versus less (noncountable noun): “There are fewer glasses of water on the table than last night, and there is less water in the glasses.” Glass is countable, but water is not.
Many (countable noun) versus much (noncountable noun): “How many snowflakes can you catch on your tongue? We have much snow in our driveway.” Snowflake is countable, but snow is not.
Few (countable noun) versus little (noncountable noun): “I need a few more days because I had little time to complete this assignment.” Days is countable, but time is not.
Although you should never get into a fight at a grocery story with a grammarian about whether there are less bananas (it should be fewer) or much potatoes (it should be many), most adjectives can modify both countable and noncountable nouns: plenty of, any, no, some, and so on:
We have plenty of food and plenty of drinks.
Is there any money in the piggy bank? Are there any silver dollars in the piggy bank?
He has no advice and no ideas to offer.
I’m very excited and honored to be an invited guest author for the Delco Literacy Council fundraiser “The Champions of Literacy.” (Check out my Midnight Clear book cover with the others on the poster.) If you’re local, considering coming or sponsoring. Fundraisers can be on the pricey side, but this is a great cause.
As always, I look forward to your comments on this subject or any other grammar subject. Be sure to sign up for this newsletter on this website’s home page.
Meet Meghann Whistler
Join me in welcoming author Meghann Whistler to the blog/newsletter! We fell upon each other through social media (it’s not always bad!), and I’m sure glad we did. Her new book, Their Unlikely Protector, published by Harlequin Love Inspired, launches July 23. See the synopsis at the end of the interview.
Meghann Whistler writes sweet Christian romance novels that won’t make your grandmother blush. A hopeless romantic who met her husband on a blind date, Meghann has a passion for writing inspirational stories that demonstrate the power of love and grace. Before settling down with her husband and raising three rambunctious boys, she earned an M.F.A. in creative writing from Emerson College. She loves to hear from her readers, who can reach her at www.MeghannWhistler.com.
Q: In one sentence, how would you describe Their Unlikely Protector?
I’m going to quote one of my early reviewers here (thank you, Kay!) and say, “Their Unlikely Protector is a story of family, responsibilities, struggles, forgiveness, second chances, and romance all wrapped in a glorious thread of faith that makes the story shine brightly from the first page to the last.”
The book launches on July 23, but you can preorder a copy now from your favorite online store!
Q: In Their Unlikely Protector, which character are you most like?
I’m definitely most like the heroine, Valerie. She had some personal struggles during her childhood that made her feel like an outsider in high school, and although my story isn’t the same as hers, as an introvert, I can really relate to that feeling.
Q: Your first book, published by Harlequin Love Inspired, was Falling for the Innkeeper. How did you get started with this book? Had you been working on anything else before then?
Falling for the Innkeeper wasn’t the first book I wrote, but it was my first romance novel.
Back in the early 2000s, I wrote a women’s fiction novel while I was in graduate school. I pursued publication, but it didn’t happen. Instead, I became a marketing communications manager at a software company, and for the next fifteen years, I wrote a lot about technology trends and best practices.
After I had my third baby, I decided to stay home with my kids. I’d started reading a lot of Love Inspired novels, which are quick, uplifting, and easy to read even when you spend most of your time running after toddlers and preschoolers. When my middle son started going to preschool, I had a little bit of time in my day, and I decided to try my hand at writing a Christian romance!
I finished the first draft of Falling for the Innkeeper toward the end of 2018 and sold it to Love Inspired at the end of 2019. Getting that phone call was a dream come true!
Q: The Billionaire’s Secret has won several awards, including a Selah award in the Contemporary Romance category. (And we all love a “stranded” story!) What’s it feel like to be an award winner?
It was a big surprise! I was watching the webcast after dinner while my kids were playing in the living room. When the announcer called out the name of my book, I was floored! What a huge honor!
My oldest son came running over and was super excited for me, so getting to share that moment with him was special.
Q: If you can talk about it, what writing are you working on now?
I’m working on the edits for my next book from Love Inspired, The Pastor’s Hope, which will come out at the end of March 2025.
This book is set in the same small town as Their Unlikely Protector, so readers will get a glimpse of what life’s like for Brett and Valerie in the not-so-distant future. 😊
Q: What is the easiest part of writing? The hardest?
I’m one of those weird writers who really enjoys the editing process. I sometimes have a hard time getting the first draft down on paper, but I love going through a completed manuscript with a fine-tooth comb and making sure the story truly shines.
Fun Q: If you had the time and skill to add another totally different occupation to your life, what would you like to do?
I think it would be fun to run a summer camp! I’d love to design the camp curriculum for the kids and share in their joy in trying new things!
Q: Anything else you want to add?
Thank you for hosting me on your blog! It’s been fun!
Q: What is your favorite grammar—or general writing—pet peeve?
Ha ha ha—I love this question! It really, really bothers me when people leave the punctuation for dialogue outside the quotation marks! (For example, “I hate it when people don’t punctuate properly”, she wrote unironically, as her editor clutched her heart in horror.)
Follow Meghann on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20039853.Meghann_Whistler
Follow Meghann on BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/meghann-whistler
To give two little boys a home …
She must take a chance on forgiveness.
The last person Valerie Williams expects to rescue her and her toddler twin brothers from a fiery blaze is Brett Richardson, her high school nemesis. But with her house burned down, Valerie is forced to stay at the same inn as Brett and work together on the town festival. Now Brett has the chance to make things right, but can Valerie let go of the past to make way for a future together?
The Good, the Bad, and the Badly
I feel good today. I also feel well. Sometimes, I feel bad, but I rarely feel badly.
The grammar discussion over when to use the adjectives good and bad versus their adverbial counterparts is a tough one. Thanks, Mom, for this topic.
The word “good” is an adjective meaning “of high quality.” Here are some examples:
Their artwork is good.
He has done a good job.
She is a good preacher.
According to some dictionaries, we can use “good” informally as an adverb, as in “They draw good” or “She preaches good.” Please don’t. To my purist ears (second-grade Catholic-school grammar), those expressions need the adverb “well,” which means “in a positive way”:
They draw well.
He has done his job well.
She preaches well.
Things are going well.
One issue that can stump us is when our bodies or minds feel a certain way, either positive or negative. In addition to being an adverb, the word “well” is also an adjective meaning “in good health.” Thus, when you are feeling healthy, you can say one of these two things:
I feel good, meaning the adjective “good” is describing you.
I feel well, meaning the adjective “well” is describing your health.
It gets even more confusing when you are not feeling healthy. The adjective to use is “bad,” not the adverb “badly.” The word “bad” describes you. You feel yourself to be a good you or a bad you. If you say, “I feel badly,” the adverb “badly” describes the verb “feel,” so you’re actually modifying your ability to feel. So “I feel badly” only works if your sense of touch isn’t working or you have a psychological inability to feel emotions.
On a different front, I think it’s time for a snippet to remind you wonderful loyal readers that this is all about writing. Next month, I’m planning an interview with an award-winning romance writer. Stay tuned.
For book 4, which I hope I can launch by the end of the year, the following scene takes place in the gym, where Sofia (new, more authentic spelling of our heroine’s name) and Nathan have serendipitously ended up working out at stair steppers next to each other:
With a quick sideward glimpse toward Sofia, Nathan saw that she grinned when he made the comment about nice lawyers, so he wasn’t surprised when her response touched on that point.
“Wait,” she said, and he could hear the teasing in her voice. “Lawyer types who are nice? Are you sure you don’t think that because you yourself are a lawyer type?”
“Touché.” He blew a flubbery breath through his lips. “Although after yesterday’s dawn-to-dusk marathon and the promise of several more days like that, I may be painting a different picture by the end of this week.”
Sofia made a little sound of sympathy, and Nathan held back raising a fist in the air. The possibility was growing that this “feisty” woman he talked to his sister about was actually warming up to him.
And that was a good thing. He didn’t know her well, having crossed paths with her only a few times so far, but as his grandpa would say, she seemed like “good people.” She was beautiful but wore that beauty simply, with neither pride nor false modesty. Even with her dark hair pulled back into a high ponytail and no makeup on, she looked comfortable with who she was. She was strong—he peeked at her athletic legs but went right back to his stepping—but not just physically. Although always polite and professional, her banter with him revealed a quick wit and deeper intelligence. And she knew her way around a gym, that was for sure. In addition, he had seen her closeness with Pete, which gave him a glimpse into her—hmmm, what was the word: friendliness? ability to have a relationship? intimacy?
He felt his face warming at that thought and determined to cover it by saying something. But before he could, she took a breath, indicating she was about to speak.
There, There (Their?): Soothing Homonym Angst
Homonyms are words that have the same spelling but different meanings or have the same pronunciation but different meanings and often different spellings. We’re going to focus on the latter.
There are scores of homonyms, and the best way to learn which spelling is correct is to memorize them. However, there are tricks to help you remember some. I learned most of these from teachers. To teachers who are reading this, please share your own tips. And thanks to Jennifer K. for this topic.
Here are some biggies:
Your/you’re: Your is a possessive pronoun, and you’re is a conjunction meaning “you are.” Refer to my blog on apostrophes in which I offer this unusually superlative guideline: Never use an apostrophe with possessive pronouns. Just as with its (possessive pronoun) and it’s (conjunction), think about what you are trying to convey before you spell the word.
Their/they’re/there: Similar to your/you’re, the these homonyms include a possessive pronoun—their—and a conjunction—they’re. What messes us up is the third word: there. A professor once told me that there is the opposite of here, so just add “t.” However, there has multiple meanings, including the ever-favorite start of a passive-voice sentence: “There are three books on the table.” In this use, there serves as pronoun for the noun that comes after the verb. (I just learned that myself!) Anyway, my advice is to ask yourself if you’re talking about something “they” own, about something “they” are, or about something generic.
Hear/here: The word hear has the word ear in it. If you’re talking about listening to something, remember your “ear.” For here, you could remember the there/here tip above, but that’s only if you remember how to spell there.
No/know: For this pair, most people can spell no. If the word you’re about to write does not mean something negative, remember that you need more letters for the thinking part of things, and a silent K is smart. That may be a lame tip, but it’s better than nothing.
New/knew: See above. Thinking involves more letters, and the silent K is smart.
Brake/break: This is a remember-the-order tip. Brake has an “a” after “br,” and break has an “e” after “br”: Brake your car to take a break.
Two/too/to: The word two refers to the number. It has a “w” in its spelling. Turn it on its side, and it looks a little like a 2. The word too means “also.” So it’s the spelling that gets the extra “o.” To is a proposition. If it’s not the number or the extra, it’s probably simply to.
Principal/principle: Repeat after me: Your principal is your pal. But principal is also an adjective meaning “most important.” And principles are fundamental or personal doctrines. I’m not sure how to help when we get into those weeds!
Conscious/conscience: These aren’t really homonyms because they are both spelled and pronounced differently, but I see them often misused. If you’re conscious, you’re awake. The word conscience, which means a moral compass, has the word science in it. Think of your morality as a science, well-thought-out and tested.
Lama/llama: I’ll never forget my folks reciting this one every time we went to a zoo: “The one-L lama, / He’s a priest. / The two-L llama, / He’s a beast. / I will bet / A silk pajama / There isn’t any / Three-L llama” (Ogden Nash).
I could go on. But please share your mnemonics, poems, or phrases to help with homonyms.
On the writing front, I’m still editing—and still hoping for some additional legalese advice, for the story, related to workplace harassment.
Let’s Eat Grandma!
I had planned to title this blog and newsletter “The Comma of Direct Address.” But “Let’s Eat Grandma!” is so much more inviting. Thanks to both Jeff and Eric for this topic – and the frighteningly identical example.
Note that almost every online source about the comma of direct address uses this example. I wonder why it’s always poor Grandma …
(By the way, this is a stock photo, so no grandmas have been harmed in the writing of this blog and newsletter.)
Once again, the rule about the comma of direct address is basic: If you are writing or speaking to someone or a group of someones by name, add a comma before or after the name, depending on how you are addressing that person or persons. For example:
Grandma, please come to the store with me.
Let’s eat, Grandma!
I’m not sure, Grandma and Grandpa, if you really want to do that.
As the words in this blog title versus those in the second example show, omitting the comma could be deadly.
The late Peter Schickele (aka P.D.Q. Bach) embraced the comical nature of a misused comma of direct address in his lovely four-part choir piece for Christmas titled “Throw the Yule Log On, Uncle John.” The first line clearly delineates the meaning of the words: It is asking Uncle John to throw the yule log on (presumably, the fire). The melody of the second line, however, makes a musical break after the word “log.” Thus, the listeners hear this: “Throw the Yule log / On Uncle John.” Like Grandma, Uncle John may not survive the missing comma. Find a YouTube video of a choir singing this piece; it really is fun.
One more example: “Here’s the gift I bought Sandra.” Or, “Here’s the gift I bought, Sandra.” They mean very different things.
Along similar lines, what about greetings? In dialogue in a manuscript, you may write or read a character saying these things, with the comma of direct address:
Hi, Tomas.
Hello, Dad.
Hey, Buddy.
However, in casual e-mails, the latest common consensus is to omit the comma. Grammar purists may argue, but I think omitting the comma is clear enough:
Hi Tomas:
Hello Dad:
Hey Buddy:
Friends, just don’t ever add a comma after “Dear” in an e-mail greeting. The word “dear” serves as an adjective in this case. Thanks, Fran, for the “hi” question. And, readers, do you realize that the first, third, and fourth sentences in this paragraph use the comma of direct address?
On the writing front, the editing of Nathan and Sophia’s story is moving along. If you know any lawyers who might like to check my content on Nathan’s paralegal work, please let me know.
I do love to edit, but I’m also totally enjoying writing these blogs. Please share this with any of your grammar-nerd friends, like me, who might be interested. And sign up at the bottom of my home page to get this blog as a monthly newsletter.
Is That a Real Word?
Most of us remember the old adage “Ain’t ain’t in the dictionary.” Because of that expression, we knew we were not supposed to use that nonstandard term.
However, today, and probably even when we were children, ain’t is in the dictionary. It is listed as a nonstandard contraction for “am not, are not, is not, have not, and has not.” Many dictionaries also note that the contraction is used in popular culture and for emphasis. My musical-loving friends will cite it in songs like “Ain’t Misbehaving” or “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother.”
You see, dictionaries are descriptive, not prescriptive, meaning that they list words that have become common in everyday language. Some of us purists balk at that, but there’s history to it.
For one of my master’s classes, I wrote a paper analyzing the book The Story of English by Robert McCrum, Robert MacNeil, and William Cran, which is now in its third edition. Two facts stood out:
William Shakespeare invented as many as 1,700 words, some of which were in common use during his time but not yet considered “words.”
According to estimates from my 1986 version of the book, English has 500,000 words compared to 185,000 German words and fewer than 100,00 for the French. Nearly 30 years later, the numbers are probably larger, but I’m betting the percentages are the same.
The conclusion is that we English speakers like to mess with words. Here are some examples of said messing and my biased opinions on each:
Making up a word that is similar to and means the same thing as another word: irregardless, which means the same thing as “regardless” – for example, “Irregardless of how you acted last night, I still love you.” Yes, it’s a word that has been around since the early 20th century, maybe even the late 18th century as a combination of irrespective and regardless. Roseann’s take: Despite its presence in dictionaries, irregardless is still almost universally considered “wrong.” I wouldn’t use it.
Using an existing word in a way it was not originally intended: impact as a verb meaning “to have an effect (impact) on” – for example, “That fact impacts the way I see the world.” According to the Merriam-Webster’s grammar site, we began arguing against the figurative use of impact as an intransitive verb in the early 20th century. By the late 20th century, we had embraced it. Ah, but we hate to be told not to do something! Roseann’s take: I’m fuzzy on this one. Since impact originally related to a collision, the verb has moved us away from that. I’m not opposed to it, but I tend to use affect or influence more often.
Changing the spelling of an existing word: the adverb underway as one word, as opposed to the two words of under way, meaning “in motion” – for example, “After piling into the car, we were underway.” The original one-word spelling was for use only as an adjective – for example, “Our underway trip is going to take eight hours.” Most dictionaries list underway, one word, as an adjective first and then an adverb, saying “also, under way.” Roseann’s take: I bow to peer pressure on this one and go with one word as the adverb.
Overuse of curse words: I’m not one who curses; I just never picked up the habit. However, curse words have their place, especially in times of deep distress. When a person overuses a word such as the F word or the S word, then when he or she really needs to let loose, those words no longer have their power. Similar to times that a speaker overuses a standard phrase, such as “actually” or “you know,” overcursing simply sounds as if the speaker needs to improve his or her vocabulary. Roseann’s take: Ask yourself, “Would I say this to my kindergarten teacher?” And if you have time to ask yourself that, then it’s not a time of distress, and you don’t need to curse. Just between us, I’m often more offended by taking the Lord’s name in vain, such as the use of JC as a curse. (Check out Beem Weeks’s blog “To Cuss or Not to Cuss: Swear Words in Fiction.”)
If you haven’t read my books yet, I can tell you that they feature no cursing, as well as no use of irregardless. And April 3 through 7, the e-book version of All for Good is free on Amazon.
Oh, I finished the first draft of Nathan and Sophia’s story, tentatively titled A New Heart. On to the editing!
Please sign up for my monthly newsletter for grammar tips and the occasional romance-author interview. And let me know what you think about the words from this blog or any other words or grammar pet peeves you have.
Me, Myself, and I: Reflexive Pronouns
I love having my friends share their language pet peeves with me. The struggle with pronouns is a big one. Thanks for this one, Evelyn.
We touched on figuring out how to use certain pronouns when we talked about hypercorrectness. When there are multiple pronouns at the end of a sentence, the tip is to take out the others to determine which pronoun you need. You wouldn’t say, “She gave it to he and I” because you wouldn’t say, “She gave it to he” or “She gave it to I.”
Another tough area is reflexive pronouns. Pronouns ending in “-self” or “-selves” are called reflexive. There are nine of them: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, oneself, ourselves, yourselves, and themselves. As you can see, the singular pronouns end in “-self,” and the plural pronouns end in “-selves.”*
Use reflexive pronouns to communicate the following information:
Indicate that the object of the sentence is the same person or thing as the subject of the sentence. That is, the persons or things having something done to them are the same persons or things doing that action:
She looked at herself the mirror.
They did this to themselves.
The dog scratched itself.
Emphasize something about the subject of the sentence; in this usage, the reflexive pronoun usually immediately follows the subject but not always:
I myself don’t like spicy food.
Children, you yourselves are responsible for this mess.
He can do this himself.
Do not use reflexive pronouns in these ways:
Don’t use them when the subject is different than the object:
Incorrect: He gave that book to myself. <Correct: He gave that book to me.>
Incorrect: I did that for herself. <Correct: I did that for her.>
Don’t use them as a hypercorrect subject, usually accidentally done in situations of a compound subject:
Incorrect: She and myself will head up the lesson for today. <Correct: She and I will head up the lesson for the day.>
Don’t make up reflexive pronouns that are not true pronouns; one hint is that reflexive pronouns are never possessive:
Incorrect: He did it hisself.
Incorrect: They made it theirselves.
*Exception: You can use the word “themself” when the singular subject of the sentence is gender neutral or when you don’t know the gender: “The leader might think themself a fool.” However, many writers still use the plural “themselves.”
On the writing front, I’m about 2,000 words away from finishing book 4, Nathan and Sophia’s story. Then the rewrites begin, which is truly my favorite part of writing.
I will leave you with one of my beloved reflexive-pronoun examples, from Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas: “And he, he himself ... the Grinch … carved the roast-beast.”
Please tell me your grammar pet peeves. I’m making a list for future newsletter/blog topics.
That Versus Which
My critique group suggested this month’s topic. Although I love them, they made it tough on me. To determine when to use “that” and when to use “which” is difficult. When I’m finished my attempt at explanation, please comment below to let me know if I cleared things up or made them muddier.
Use the relative pronoun “that” with a restrictive clause and the relative pronoun “which” with a nonrestrictive clause. Don’t use a comma before “that,” and almost always use a comma before “which.”
I’m done.
Okay, here are the details: A restrictive clause is text that is essential to the sentence. In fact, some people call restrictive clauses “essential clauses.” This means that if you remove the clause, the rest of the sentence won’t make any sense or at least it won’t carry the meaning you intended. The word “that” introduces something specific. Here are examples of “that” used in restrictive clauses, with the restrictive clause highlighted in bold:
The pen that is on the right side of the table is out of ink. [This means that, of all the pens on the table, the specific pen that is on the right side is out of ink.]
Blankets that collect dust are not allowed in the laboratory. [The specific type of blankets that collect dust are not allowed; other types of blankets may be permitted.]
Here is a funny proverb that changed my life. [This specific proverb changed my life.]
The socks that my mother gave me have Christmas wreaths on them. [Of all the socks I own, the ones that my mother gave me have wreaths on them.]
A nonrestrictive clause is text that you as a writer want to include, but it’s not necessary to the main meaning of the sentence. It may be valuable information, but the sentence will still make sense without it. The pronoun “which” introduces that added information. For example:
The pen, which is on the right side of the table, is out of ink. [The main sentence is “The pen is out of ink.” However, as a writer, I’m supplying more information to help the reader locate the pen: on the right side of the table.]
Blankets, which collect dust, are not allowed in the laboratory. [The main sentence is “Blankets are not allowed in the laboratory.” However, I’m adding information to explain why all blankets are not allowed: because they collect dust.]
Here is a funny proverb, which changed my life. [This proverb is funny, and by the way, it changed my life.]
The socks, which my mother gave me, have Christmas wreaths on them. [The main sentence is “The socks have Christmas wreaths on them.” I just want you to know that my mother gave them to me.]
Sometimes, it’s clear that you must use “that”:
My favorite earrings are the ones that have my book cover on them. [You couldn’t stop the sentence at “ones.”]
Where are the things that I left in your car? [“Where are the things?” could not stand by itself.
Other times, as in the two socks examples above, it’s up to the writer to decide which meaning is desired.
Below is an excerpt of my next book in which I chose to make a clause restrictive by using “that,” even though I could have made it nonrestrictive and used “which.” This character is Bruce, the boss of the heroine Sophia. Bruce is sexist, verbally abusive, and just generally icky. He has told Sophia that their fitness center is being sued, and when she responds with shock, this is what he says (restrictive clause in bold; Robbins is the name of a law firm):
When Bruce shook his head, his jowls wagged. “Don’t get your pretty little self in a tizzy. It’s a simple workplace harassment suit that will go away because there’s no proof for stuff like that. They’ll probably settle.” He pointed a big finger at Sophia. “But you can help by prancing around for that Robbins guy who just came in. Nothing huge; just bat your eyes. Take him out to dinner. Find out what their lawyers know. Who are they talking to? What could they possibly use against us? Get him to make it easier for our side.” He waved the back of his hand toward her. “Go. Now.”
With “that,” the clause defines the simple harassment suit. According to Bruce, it’s the kind that will go away.
Note that the hardest part of doing these blogs is coming up with unique examples. Feel free to share your own, especially ones that reveal the different meanings when using “that” or “which.”
And yes, sometimes you can eliminate “that” in a restrictive clause and sometimes you must use “who”—these are topics for another month.
Happy new year!
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
On December 17, please, please check out this blog site (two days from the date of this newsletter for those of us weaker in math skills!). Fellow author Liz Flaherty (see the October blog interview) asked me to write an essay for her series of holiday blogs. I’ve written about the first Christmas with our children, and I’m very happy with the final story. I loved sharing a special time and an indelible memory.
Here in my own blog this month, I want to cover a cornucopia of holiday-related topics.
First, let’s talk about language. When I mentioned to coworker editors that I would be covering some holiday grammar issues, they jumped on it right away. Here are some language pet peeves at this time of year:
Signing your Christmas cards as The Walkers’ or The Walker’s: Your family is not possessive in and of itself. (See the August blog.) You are the Walkers, plural.
Writing “Merry Xmas”: It’s okay to abbreviate Christmas as Xmas. The X stands for the Greek letter chi, which is the first letter in the word Christ. Therefore, “Xmas” is “Christmas.” It is not “taking the Christ out of Christmas.” In fact, it’s keeping “Christ” in.
Capitalizing “Eve”: Use initial capitalization for the word “Eve” if it is officially part of the holiday name: Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve, and even All Hallows Eve. Lowercase it if it’s the night before a holiday but not part of the official holiday name: Thanksgiving eve, Valentine’s eve, and so on.
·Spelling the holiday Hanukkah or Chanukah: Spell it the way your audience prefers you to spell it. A Google search will give you some great explanations about different ways to spell the holiday and, more important, why.
Sparing the exclamation points: In your holiday letters, and all your writing, reduce the number of exclamation points. My father noted recently that people have gone exclamation-point happy. Not only does it take away from the times you really should be using that punctuation, but also it can be difficult to read. (A publisher once told me her press allows only six exclamation points per romantic novel.)
Second, there are a boatload of Christmas romance novels out there, so check them out. There’s mine, of course, but don’t miss this one by my college friend and more-recent critique partner Laura Nelson Selinsky: Season of Hope. There are also several by Nan Reinhardt, including her latest Christmas in River’s Edge, and Liz Flaherty, including her novella in Lights, Camera, Christmas Town, each of whom have been interviewed in this newsletter and blog.
Finally, what is a holiday blog without holiday movies? Please tell me your favorite. Here are some of mine, in no particular order:
A Charlie Brown Christmas
The Man Who Invented Christmas
It’s a Wonderful Life
A Christmas Movie Christmas
A Christmas Carol (the black-and-white one with Alistair Sims), although my hubby is a big fan of Scrooged
Hallmark romances: not all, but most!
To my friends who celebrate, Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas!
Forgive my typo last month in the first sentence of the newsletter. It should have been “messing up,” not “missing up.”
And please read my guest blog on Liz’s blogspace.
Sign up for my newsletter at the bottom of my home page.
Hypercorrectness
In last month’s newsletter, Liz mentioned that one of her grammar-related pet peeves was people messing up their, they’re, and there. I agree. Similarly, I get bugged when people confuse your and you’re, as well as too, to, and two.
That got me thinking about the times I myself mess up those common homophones when I’m typing quickly. I usually type you’re when I mean your because I’m being “hypercorrect,” which is a fancy grammar term that means “wrong.” 😊
Merriam-Webster.com defines “hypercorrect” as “of, relating to, or characterized by the production of a nonstandard linguistic form or construction on the basis of a false analogy (such as ‘badly’ in ‘my eyes have gone badly’).”
I love the example Webster’s gives. People who know their grammar know that “badly” is an adverb. They think that’s how their eyes are “going.” However, in this case, we really want the word “bad,” the adjective to describe the eyes.
The most common hypercorrect activity I see in students’ or even professional writers’ work is the use of the subjective pronoun when the objective pronoun is needed. Subjective pronouns are subjects of the sentence, the ones doing the action: I, you, he, she, it, we, and they. For example: He and I like cats and dogs. Objective pronouns are the ones having things come to them: me, you, him, her, it, us, and them. For example: Cats and dogs like him and me.
However, I’ve often heard speakers say, “Cats and dogs like he and I” or “She gave that to the girls and I.” Those examples are wrong. The pronouns at the end of the sentence should be the objective case: me.
Use “me” or any of the other objective pronouns either after a verb or after a preposition. For example:
That book is about her and me.
She likes Valerie and me. She likes us.
Let the people and me go to the store.*
The one preposition for which many forget the objective case is the word between. This is hypercorrect: “That is between you and I.” It should be “That is between you and me.” And we should also say this: “Between you and me, I like grammar nerds.”
*We are willing to forgive T. S. Eliot on that last one in his poem “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock,” which starts off with “Let us go then, you and I. …” It really should be “you and me” because it’s “let us.”
So, between you and me, if you liked any of the books in the Vacation Friends Series and haven’t yet written a review, please do so on Amazon or Goodreads. It actually does help with sales. And the e-book of Midnight Clear at Christmas will free from November 25 through 27, so if potential readers see a free book, they’ll be more inclined to snatch it if Amazon or Goodreads has reviews. Even just doing the stars helps. And sign up for the newsletter on my home page.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Meet Author Liz Flaherty
I’m excited to introduce you this month to author Liz Flaherty. I haven’t read all her romance novels yet, but I’ve read enough to know I love her writing style.
Retired from the post office, Liz spends nonwriting time sewing, quilting, and wanting to travel. The author of 20-some books and her husband Duane share an old farmhouse in North Central Indiana.
Liz thinks one of the things that keeps you young when you quite obviously aren’t anymore is the constant chances you have to reinvent yourself. Her latest professional incarnation is as a fledgling women’s fiction author, and she is enjoying every minute that she’s not scared to death.
She can be reached at lizkflaherty@gmail.com, or please find her at any of the places listed in Linktree at https://linktr.ee/LizFlaherty?subscribe.
Q. When did you start writing, and what title was your first published book?
A. I started writing when I was nine, when my aunt let me practice on her Royal portable typewriter to get me out of her hair. I wrote a very dramatic story a half-page long, single-spaced, in which I made countless errors and used the word conscientiousness when I meant consciousness.
My first published book was Always Annie, a Precious Gems release from Kensington Publishing.
Q. How many books have you written? How has your writing changed along the way?
A. About 20, I think, and several novellas. I think my writing has matured, but it’s still flawed. I’ve learned—I think—to let go of the last story before starting the next one.
Q. Tell us about your Second Chances series books, which are being rereleased under the new series name of A New Season through Singing Tree Publishing. What is Singing Tree Publishing?
A. Singing Tree was meant to be Singing Trees, which is what I called the farm where my dad grew up and where my brother and sister-in-law still live. The creek was bordered with cottonwoods, and they sing as the wind rushes through them. I’m not sure how I dropped the S from Trees, but I most certainly did.
Q. You have been married to the same man for many years, so where does the second chances concept come from?
A. A few rough times in those many years, when the “same man,” who isn’t the same at all, and I, who am not the same, either, have had to fall in love again. But that’s just the start of my reasoning. I think second chances are very important to any relationship that matters.
Q. Harlequin Heartwarming just released Lights, Camera, Christmas Town, a collection of stories, one of which is yours. What was the process for working on this anthology?
A. We’ve been writing Christmas Town stories ever since Melinda Curtis, Anna J. Stewart, and Anna Adams released Christmas, Actually in—I think—2014. We’ve celebrated all kinds of things—Valentine’s Day, class reunion, bake-offs—but the Christmas stories are always my favorites.
This year, a movie’s being made of a previous Christmas Town romance, and the entire cast and crew seems to be finding love, whether they’re looking for it or not! 😊
Q. Fun question: If you had the time and skill to add another totally different occupation in your life, what would you like to do?
A. Totally different? There are two. I’d like to have a user-friendly quilt shop OR a writer-friendly coffee shop. So, since I’ve written quilt shops more than once and coffee shops … yeah … more than once, maybe not too different.
Q. Anything else you’d like to add?
A. I’m at the winding-things-down stage in my career, and it makes everything sort of bittersweet, with me thinking This may be the last time I do this … about different things. I’m always so happy to talk to other writers, though, so no matter where I’m at, thanks for inviting me to your place!
Q. What is your favorite grammar—or general writing—pet peeve?
A. How long do you have? One, which I think is fairly regional, is “I seen …” Another is the constant mix-up of their, they’re, and there. Yet another—and I’ll stop now—is the attempted hijacking of the Oxford comma.
Please comment below! We love conversation. And sign up for Roseann’s monthly newsletter on my home page.
The Apostrophe’s Other Life
Last month, we looked at the bond between possessives and apostrophes. But the possessive case and the apostrophe each work second jobs. The former goes its own way in the world of pronouns; the latter fills in for letters in contractions.
With possessive nouns, you must use the apostrophe correctly, as we discussed last month, depending on whether the noun is singular or plural. With pronouns, never use an apostrophe to indicate possession. Lots of grammar rules have exceptions or times when you can be free with the rule. Not this one: Never use an apostrophe with possessive pronouns.
That’s no problem with these pronouns: my, mine, your, her, our, and their. It gets muddier with pronouns that end in “s”: his, yours, hers, theirs, and the really tough one its.
Examples:
The desk chair is hers.
The earnings are theirs.
The dog ate its bone.
If the singular thing you are writing about owns something, it’s “its.” Period.
The it with an apostrophe, it’s, has a different meaning all together. It’s means “it is.” The word is a contraction, with the apostrophe filling in for the letter “i” in “is.” Contractions can be made up of the following words:
Pronouns + verbs: I’m, they’re, he’ll, she’s, and the dreaded you’re (not the same as the possessive “your”) and they’re (not the same as the possessive “their” or the directional “there”)
Nouns + verbs: Azalea’s going to the store. That dog’ll hunt.
Verbs + “not”: isn’t, aren’t, and won’t (which is really “will not.”)
I think this blog has exhausted its apostrophe (apostrophic?) topics. Tune in next month for another author interview. Whoo hoo!
And, friends, it’s football season. Why not pick up a copy of Wonderfully Made, whose hero plays for the Philadelphia Eagles. Get a copy for your football-fan friends, especially if they are New York Jets fans. (You know who you are!) For five days, starting September 28, the book will be free on Kindle!
One more thing: I switched up the formatting for the newsletter and blog for better reading and printing accessibility. Let me know if you like it.
Possessives, or Life with Apostrophes
None of us wants a romantic hero or heroine who is too possessive, but possessives in language are important. They show that a person, persons, a thing, or things own whatever follows. It is Gretchen’s cats or writers’ messages or the book’s meaning.
And apostrophes help tell readers about that ownership. My late Aunt Janee, who taught high school English for decades, liked to explain that apostrophes for possessives are like the word “of.” It is the cats of Gretchen, the messages of writers, or the meaning of the book.
Americans have a love-hate relationship with apostrophes. They either don’t want to use them when they should or do use them when they shouldn’t.
Here are the basics of apostrophe use: If a singular thing owns the thing after it, use apostrophe + s. If a plural thing owns the thing that follows, make the first word plural by adding an s and then add just add an apostrophe. Here are some examples:
· The kitten’s nook (one kitten with one nook)
· The kittens’ nook (more than one kitten with one nook)
Of course, it’s never that clear cut. What if your first person or thing ends in an s, such as Charles? Some style books tell you to just add the apostrophe without the s: Charles’ hat. However, for consistency, other style books do the whole apostrophe + s thing: Charles’s hat. I fall into the latter camp as I’m a glutton for consistency (and mixed metaphors!). 😊
And what happens when you have a plural word that does not end in s, such as children? Eschewing consistency (but making sense from a possessive point of view), it gets the apostrophe + s: children’s books.
Pet peeve warning (pun intended with all the kitten imagery): Do not use an apostrophe to mean a plural, and do not use an apostrophe to show ownership of a pronoun. For example, these are incorrect:
· Sunday’s are my favorite days.
· The Brooks’ (or the Brooks’s) like to travel.
· She got four A’s when she counted by 5’s.
· The dog chased it’s tail.
· That story is her’s to tell.
If your ownership noun isn’t followed by another noun, it probably isn’t possessive and probably doesn’t need an apostrophe. See that second bullet above? The members of my family are the Brookses. The house that we own is the Brookses’ house.
Of course, there are exceptions, such as “do’s and don’ts” and “yesses and no’s.” That’s when clarity trumps consistency.
Apostrophes in contractions are a different story all together. We’ll cover that another time. For now, please tell me in my blog what you think about apostrophes and possessives. And, if you’ve read and liked any of my books and haven’t yet written a review on Amazon or Goodreads, please, please, please do so. Have fun and feel free to use a possessive: “Brooks’s book does ABC.” If you’re reading this blog and haven’t signed up for my newsletter, please do so on the home page of this Web site.
Free E-Book, Plus Commas After Intro Clauses
It’s Christmas in July! From July 17 through July 21, you can get a free Kindle copy of Midnight Clear at Christmas from Amazon. If you already have it, tell your friends, but remember that the promotion does not start until Monday.
This month, in addition to discussing the e-book, let’s talk about using commas after introductory clauses. In the previous sentence, both “this month” and “in addition to discussing the e-book” are introductory clauses. The introductory clauses are introducing the main clause, which starts with “let’s talk about.” Introductory clauses are sometimes called dependent clauses because they depend on the clause that follows to be independent. An independent clause can stand on its own and has a subject, a verb, and a complete thought. For example, “When I read your book last month” is dependent on the next clause that follows it. Even though “When I read your book” has a subject and a verb, the word “when” makes it dependent on whatever may follow.
Of course, I hope that whatever follows that introductory clause is a positive review of my book, but either way, what follows should stand on its own: When I read your book, I remembered why I liked Christmas so much.
That’s enough clause-speak for the day; now, let’s get to the commas. You often need a comma after an introductory clause, but most modern style guides say that if the clause is short (less than five words), and especially if it is a prepositional phrase, you don’t have to add the comma. This is helpful in long sentences where too many commas get confusing. Here are some examples of okay places not to use commas after the introductions:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1, NIV).
After the reading I was hungry.
Tomorrow he will join me, and if he’s willing we’ll go swimming.
In the last example, we’re already using a comma to separate the two full clauses before the “and,” so eliminating the commas after each of the introductions is allowed: “tomorrow” and “if he’s willing.”
To be honest, I tend to use commas after introductory clauses more often than not. I tutor writing at a local college, and we advise students to always use a comma after an introductory clause to avoid confusion. Here are examples where you must use the comma for clarity:
When it’s raining cats and dogs like to hide. (Add the comma after “raining” because one could first read it as “raining cats and dogs.”)
Although he is smiling like a baby he is crying. (Is he smiling like a baby or crying like a baby? A comma after “baby” would be the former meaning, and a comma after “smiling” would be the latter.)
Please comment below to let me know what you think about commas and intros.
And if you’ve read Midnight Clear and liked it, please leave an Amazon and/or Goodreads review. Or get the e-book for free July 17 through 21!
Art: ©123RF
Of Adjectives, Anniversaries, and Amphitheaters
A good teacher will advise that you limit using adjectives in creative writing: Tell your story with verbs. Don’t say, “Her footsteps were soft”; say, “She tiptoed.”
However, sometimes, you just need adjectives, especially in romance novels. How else do you know what the hero and heroine look like? What their food tastes like? What their town activities sound like? One book I read recently described the heroine’s eyes as lavender. Although I thought it was a brilliant switch from the standard blue, brown, and green—and variations thereof—I believed the writer had gone too far with that purple-related adjective. A week later, I was dining with a friend and suddenly noticed her lovely lavender eyes. Not only does that color of eye exist, but I’m glad the writer pointed it out.
When using adjectives, whether to describe that wavy, surfer-dude hair or that grapefruit-scented perfume, be sure to use hyphens, when appropriate, for clarity. Two- or three-word adjectival phrases before a noun often need hyphens. As an example, here’s an excerpt from A Midnight Clear at Christmas, when the heroine, Bailey, first meets the hero, Tanner:
Opening one eye but making no other move from her near-flat-on-her-back position in a lounge chair by the pool, Bailey tried to focus. Because the head of the man standing above her directly covered the sun, his face was hidden in shadow, but she was pretty sure she recognized the untamed, blond-brown hair fluttering in the breeze. She didn’t know him, but she had seen him around the cruise ship these past few days, chatting with the staff and the other guests.
She closed her eye. “You’re blocking the sun.”
Without the first set of hyphens, the phrase “her near flat on her back position” would have been difficult to read. Her near flat? Was that a reference to a British apartment? Was the apartment on her back position? What’s a back position? And “blond-brown” describes Tanner’s hair as a combination of the two colors. “Blond brown hair” would have made the reader ask, “Is it blond, or is it brown?”
My editing team at “my real job” likes to hyphenate compound phrases before a noun when the first word of the phrase is the adverb “more”: for example, more-efficient workers and more-expensive technology. I like that guideline. Otherwise, instead of the former meaning workers who are more efficient, “more efficient workers” (without the hyphen) might mean that you have increased the number of efficient workers.
Unlike the serial comma I covered last month, which I believe should be applied consistently, the hyphenation of “compound prenomial adjectives” is up to the writer’s discretion. For example, I do not hyphenate “high school student” because I’m pretty sure readers aren’t assuming I am talking about school students who have smoked too much weed. 😊
On another linguistic note, Hubby and I just returned from a trip-of-a-lifetime vacation (see what I did there!) to Greece to celebrate our fortieth wedding anniversary. In addition to feeding my love for Biblical history and mythology, our tour guides taught us a little linguistics lesson: Did you know that “amphi” in Greek means “around”? Thus, an amphitheater must be a complete circle. All those half-circle theaters that I’ve always called “amphitheaters” are really, well, “theaters.”
Speaking of A Midnight Clear at Christmas (see above), I plan to do a five-day free-e-book promotion for the book in July. I’ll write about it in the next blog.
Be sure comment below to let me know what you think about adjectives, hyphens, or amphitheaters! And sign up for my newsletter at the bottom of my home page.
Eye photo © 123RF Free Images
The Serial-Harvard-Oxford Comma
As many of you know, I’m a grammar nerd. I’m a lot less right brained (creative) than I’d like to be, and grammar rules excite me. My idea of a wild night on the town is to write a sentence fragment—as long as there is good reason for it.
So, as I wait for my characters in book 4 to tell me how they are going to resolve their first conflict, I figured I’d wax poetic about my favorite contentious grammar point: whether or not to use the serial comma, also called the Harvard comma or the Oxford comma. This is the comma that many style guides advise using before the conjunction (usually “and” or “but”) when you have a series of more than two items: apples, pears, and bananas; running, walking, or jogging; and singing, dancing, and acting. The last comma in each of these series is the serial comma.
Most newspapers and magazines do not use the serial comma; they write apples, pears and bananas. The original reason for that was to save space and reduce the effort—and risk of error—for typesetters. But today, a little less than half of U.S.-English writers and editors choose not to use the serial comma on principal (based on a 2014 Internet poll). Some go so far as to say it interrupts the flow of a sentence, although how one little comma can do that is beyond me.
For me, using the serial comma gives two wonderful gifts to readers: avoidance of confusion and maintenance of consistency. Obviously, in the example of “apples, pears and bananas,” readers know what I mean. But what if I write these phrases without the serial comma:
This is dedicated to my parents, Ayn Rand and God (not an original example, by the way): Is the dedication to three entities: my parents (1), Rand (2), and God (3)? Or is the dedication to my two parents, whose names are Ayn Rand and God? Of course, the argument can be made to flop the order (God, Ayn Rand and my parents), but maybe “my parents” are more important in this instance.
The vet held a party for the girls, Rover and Duke: Again, are there three groups of partiers: the girls (1), Rover (2), and Duke (3). Or did the vet’s party involve two girls named Rover and Duke?
For dinner, they like tuna, ham or peanut butter and jelly: What are the individual items? Tuna is the first, but is the second item ham or peanut butter, in which case, they like three things all at once, with the third being jelly? Or is this a choice of three items: tuna, ham, or peanut butter and jelly, the last being a combo?
I’ve heard the argument that writers should use the serial comma only when it can avoid confusion. That just hurts my consistency funny bone.
In my work-in-progress, tentatively named A New Heart, my hero and heroine use the serial comma, as does the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, from where I take my verses. Here’s a quick snippet of when Nathan and Sophia first meet (bold for the example of the serial comma):
He watched her do a quick once-over to check him out, and her originally open expression morphed into a practiced all-business look—pleasant but not especially pleased.
As he felt his brows knit, he looked down at himself. He was wearing his favorite three-piece charcoal-gray suit, a black shirt, and a fuchsia tie. It was his power suit, and he always thought he presented a fairly impressive picture in it.
Please be sure to sign up for my newsletter on my home page. And check out All for Good, Wonderfully Made, and Midnight Clear at Christmas. If you liked them already, please leave a review.
Let me know what you think? And what kind of comma do you call it?
Meet Author Nan Reinhardt
This month, I am thrilled to introduce you to a wonderful romance writer whom I’ve been following for more than ten years. Nan Reinhardt writes romantic fiction for women in their prime. As she observes, “Yeah, women still fall in love and have sex, even after they turn forty-five! Imagine!” Nan is also a freelance copyeditor and proofreader, a wife, a mom, a mother-in-law, and a grandmother. She can’t remember a time in her life when she wasn’t writing—she wrote her first romance novel at the age of ten, a love story between the most sophisticated person she knew at the time, her older sister (who was in high school and had a driver’s license!), and a member of Herman’s Hermits.
Note that there are no grammar tidbits this month because I don’t want to lose a word of Nan’s interview!
She and I talked about her new book for Tule Publishing (see the summary at the end of the newsletter), her writing process, and other fun stuff.
Q: In one sentence, how would you describe Home to River’s Edge? And when does it launch?
A: Home to River’s Edge is a story about having the rug pulled out from under what you believed was your perfect life and having to figure it out all over again. The book launches April 18, and I’m so excited!
Q: Tell us about the River’s Edge series: Where did the idea come from to set the first series, Four Irish Brothers Winery, in this town, and how has it grown into three more series?
A: Right off, I’ve always been crazy about Madison, Indiana—the little town that inspired River’s Edge. It’s so friendly and the Ohio River just teems with life and stories. So when Tule Publishing asked me if I wanted to write a brothers series for them, I immediately imagined my brothers there. Thankfully, Tule had no issue with setting a winery in southern Indiana instead of California. River’s Edge, my Flaherty brothers, and their winery were born. After the four brothers’ stories were told, readers sort of clamored for more stories from River’s Edge, so some of the secondary characters from the Flaherty brothers books came to life … and so it goes. ;-) I’ll stay in River’s Edge as long as readers and Tule want me to. I love it there!
Q: You had mentioned in your blog that you were surprised that writing about the Weaver sisters was more difficult than writing earlier books with brothers as the main characters. Why do you think that is, and what did you to do get past that?
A: I’m not sure why it was harder … maybe because I’d imagined that writing the sisters would be cake since I have sisters, but my own relationship with my sisters, although helpful, wasn’t the same as for the Weaver triplets. They had a unique bond because they shared a womb, and that was a trickier connection to create than I’d thought it would be. I read a lot about triplets and multiples and what makes their relationships different from other sibling relationships. I think finally by book 3, I figured out that it was okay for the connection between them to be a little mystical and that was an okay element to add to this series. Make sense?
Q: When was your first romance novel published, and how has your writing changed since then?
A: My first novel, Rule Number One, was published in 2012, and wow, I really hope my writing has matured and my storytelling has become tighter and more creative. I’ve learned so much as both a writer and editor in the ensuing years from simple things like point-of view (POV) switches to more involved concepts like conflict and character arcs. I learn every day and if I ever stop learning, that might mean I’m done writing.
Q: Because you have “another life” as an editor, does that affect your writing? Do you find yourself editing as you write?
A: Editor Nan and Author Nan are inextricably linked—I don’t know how to keep them from crossing paths, so I quit trying several years ago. I’m harder on myself as an editor than I am on any of the authors I work with. I do edit as I go, although the last couple of books, I’ve tried not to do that so much and just write the first draft straight through and then worry about editing. I do find that I have to read what I wrote the day before in order to get into the day’s writing, and yeah, I edit some when I do that. It’s inevitable, don’t you think?
Fun Q: If you had the time and skill to add another totally different occupation to your life, what would you like to do?
A: I wish I had the skill to sketch and do water colors so I could illustrate children’s books—sadly, I do not. I’d love to be a travel writer, but I’m not enough of a traveler to do that either. And I’ve always thought it would be fun to be a bartender in a fun bar someplace warm.
Q: Anything else you want to add?
A: I’d sure love it if folks stopped by my blog—Sundays I write the Sunday Snippet, which is usually just life stuff—what I’ve been up to, random thoughts about life and its many mysteries, sometimes book promotion, always some fun pictures from the week. Wednesdays and Thursdays, I get to highlight other authors with my Author Spotlight blogs. That’s such a treat! I’ve found so many great books that way. All that fun and frivolity is at www.nanreinhardt.com.
When Jasmine Weaver, the chief of staff to a powerful D.C. congresswoman, chose integrity, she didn’t anticipate ringing in the New Year disgraced, unemployed, and sleeping in her childhood bedroom. Now back in River’s Edge, Indiana, identical triplet Jazz has her sisters’ support while she plans her next steps. She agrees to lead the committee for their high school’s fifteenth reunion, never dreaming that her co-chair is the man who broke her teenage heart.
As the new CEO of Walker Construction, Elias Walker has taken the family business to new levels of success. He’s buried himself in work to ease the grief of losing his fiancé several years earlier and wants nothing more than to be a carpenter again. Elias grudgingly agrees to co-chair the high school’s reunion committee, but when Jazz Weaver blows into town, suddenly anything seems possible.
These high school sweethearts have lived half their lives apart. Can they reinvent themselves back in the town where it all began?
Get a Free E-Book of All for Good
You can get your own free Kindle copy of All for Good, available March 17 through March 21. If you already have a electronic copy or even a hard copy, tell a friend about it. Hey, it’s free!
All for Good is the first of the Vacation Friends Romance series, the story of friends Emily and Daniel reconnecting and exploring what life might be like if they choose to take their friendship to the next level. Plus, the setting is the Pocono mountains, so there’s that.
Things are fairly quiet in my world these days as I continue writing book 4, Nathan’s story. He and Sophia are at a turning point in their relationship. I’m not worried that they they won’t get together; I just want to make sure that they know what the stakes are.
I’m very excited about next month’s newsletter. One of my romance-writer idols, Nan Reinhardt, is going to join me in an interview, and we’ll talk about the book she has launching right around the time the April newsletter goes out. Like me, Nan’s an editor in her “other life,” and I’ve somewhat modeled my romance writing experience after her journey.
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Sentence skills snippet: I love words, so because there is an apostrophe in “St. Patrick’s Day,” I’m sharing this apostrophe joke:
Q: Why should you never date an apostrophe?
A: They’re too possessive.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day (with an apostrophe!).