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.

Home to River’s Edge

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.

If you’re not on the newsletter mailing list, please sign up now at the top of this page or on the home page.

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!).

Happy Day-After Valentine’s Day

This is the season of love, and what better way to celebrate it than to read a romance novel. Okay, there are other ways, but you see where I’m headed.

When I was doing a radio interview after the launch of Midnight Clear at Christmas, the DJ asked if I wrote romance novels because my husband was particularly romantic. After a pause, I was inspired to quip, “I write romance both because of my husband and in spite of him!” 😉

Life isn’t always a fairy tale, but we can thank God that we are blessed with people who love us now and have loved us in the past, as well as people we have had the privilege to love.

I continue to write Nathan and Sophia’s romance, the next book in the Vacation Friends Romance series, and I’ve included a little snippet below. If you have read any or all three of the previous books in the series, and if you liked the story and haven’t yet posted a review, please do so on Amazon or Goodreads or both. It helps other readers and looks good when I’m doing marketing. Even just doing stars ratings helps.

So, continue to love and to read about love. I believe doing those things helps us be kinder—and more loving.

If your’re not subscribed to the newsletter, please do. Until next month …

From book 4:

Sophia glanced toward the locker-room door again.

On cue, the door slowly opened, and Nathan entered the gym area. His shorts were not brand name. In fact, they had no name: just generic, baggy black gym shorts beneath a rather ugly lime-green T-shirt. Maybe he wasn’t as pretentious as she thought he was. She narrowed her eyes to focus on the writing on his shirt. It simply said, “Love one another.” Under that was “John 13:34.”

Oh, great. He was some righteous holy roller who thought he knew what God wanted for the world. Yeah, she had him pegged right to begin with. Of course, there was a slim possibility that he was simply a nice Christian guy. She shook her head. Nah.

And too bad. He was handsome. His neck was bent as he concentrated on untangling his earphones. Although his hair was relatively short, he had evidently spent good money on the cut, and the front was thick. So, with his head down, his dark bangs, which had been styled back off his face, tumbled down over his forehead. He seemed younger and a little more vulnerable than before.

Suddenly, he looked up and caught her eye—“caught” being the operative word because she had been gawking. But instead of gloating, his honey-brown cheeks turned pink, and he bit his lower lip and hiked his shoulders. Then he held out his tangled earphones and stepped toward the desk where she sat. She stood again.

“There has to be a better way to store these things in my gym bag,” he said.

She couldn’t help but smile. “Uh, there is, you know. Chuck them and buy wireless earbuds.”

“Ha. Ha. I’ll have you know I use wireless headphones every day in my job. But I like these wired ones for working out. I can easily plug them into your very state- of-the-art bikes or treadmills or EFX machines and choose whatever channel I’d like to watch on the mounted TVs.” He leaned toward her, conspiratorially. “Pete told me all that.” Then he straightened and cleared his throat. “The thing is, I use wireless at work. Tangled wires are for play. You must know we rich lawyers don’t like to mix work and play.”

She recognized that he was babbling, and it was cute. She tried to scowl at his long-windedness, but she was pretty sure the result made her look slightly demented. “I thought you were a paralegal.”

He gave one quick nod and then put an earpiece in one ear, despite the still tangled mess below. As he turned to head toward the EFX machines, he shot back, “Aha. So, you were paying attention.”

He was already halfway to the back of the gym before she mumbled, “Well played.”

Marketing: The Bane of a Writer’s Existence

View fullsize

I give credit to author Michael Barrington for the idea of marketing with your clothes, as per the photo to the right. After his wife gave him a shirt similar to the one I’m sporting, he wrote about the attention it gets. I immediately bought one for myself.

We writers would rather write than market, but marketing is like proofreading: It must be done!

Thus, I’ve decided to start sending an e-mail newsletter monthly, instead of a quarterly, hoping it’s not too onerous for readers. If you haven’t signed up yet, please do so on my home page. My goal is to make them short but interesting, including sprinkling interviews with other writers so that you don’t get tired of my voice.

I hope you all got to enjoy Midnight Clear at Christmas. Although each book in the series is “my favorite,” this one was special to me—maybe simply because I love Christmas.

I’m working on book 4 now, Nathan’s romance, and I admit it’s slow-going. Nathan has such a kind heart, and I want to be true to his story. His heroine, Sophia, is strong, sassy, and independent in a way I aspire to be someday. I’ll promise to keep at it if you promise to keep reading!

Free E-Book Until Dec. 12: Wonderfully Made

Get the e-book version of Wonderfully Made at no cost until Monday, December 12. If you’ve already read it and liked it, please review it on Amazon and Goodreads. And don’t forget to check out Midnight Clear at Christmas.

Check Out West Chester, PA, Authors

Just a reminder to visit the Helen Kate Furness Free Library this Saturday to meet some authors and enjoy some snacks. If you're in the West Chester, PA, area, stop by!

Local Author Event

I'll be one of the authors at a local author event at Helen Kate Furness Free Library on September 10. If you're in the West Chester, PA, area, stop by!

Free E-Book Promotion: 5 Days

Amazon is offering the Kindle version of Wonderfully Made for free from June 24 through June 28. If you haven’t read it yet, then get it free now. If you have read it or plan to, and you like it, please leave a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads. It all helps!

Wonderfully Made is book 2 in the Vacation Friends Romance series. In my next quarterly newsletter, I plan to announce book 3 in this series, a Christmas novella tentatively titled Midnight Clear at Christmas.

Below is a snippet from the “meet cute” of Wonderfully Made. While running on the beach, Abby has run into Cayden and knocked him over. After he gets up, unscathed and maybe a little smitten, he wants to keep the conversation going:

“So who gets you stoked to run?” Cayden asked, lifting his chin to point at her hand on her headphones. “I’m a sixties rock freak, I’m ashamed to admit. They have the right beats for a reasonably steady run.”

Abby looked back at him and then looked down toward the hand that was still resting on her headphones. “Oh, this is Carmen.”

“I don’t know them.”

Abby laughed. It was a robust but high and sweet laugh.

“This is Carmen, the opera.” She wasn’t talking down to him, and she actually looked more embarrassed that she was listening to opera than concerned that he didn’t know what she meant. “Don’t get me wrong; I let my students perform sixties songs for concerts. But this is what geeky music teachers listen to for fun.”

Author, Author (Platform)

Thank you to readers who have agreed to be my guinea pigs for my first trial e-mail blast. An e-mail blast is part of one’s “author platform” (read: self-marketing). I’m writing this blog now so that I can share it with you all. Then, when that works out, I’ll announce signup subscriptions to the blog. (You guys are already signed up voluntarily—or through blood relations.) Because June 24 starts a five-day promotion offering free Kindle versions of Wonderfully Made, I figured this is as good a time as any to start working on my author platform. I’ll send an official blast next week to announce the free promotion. After that, I think I’ll do quarterly e-mails until I know what I’m doing!

You guys are the best! Feel free to comment below, too. I’d love to see how that works.

Newsletter Coming!

I’m entering the world of newsletter writing, part of what those “in the biz” call an author platform. I’ve opened up my blogging to comments (gulp) on this site, and my home page has a space to subscribe to the newsletter. In two weeks, Amazon will be offering the Kindle version of Wonderfully Made for free for five days, so I figure that will be a great time to launch my newsletter. Please subscribe on my home page. Thanks!

99-Cent E-Book

The e-book of of Wonderfully Made is on sale for 99 cents until April 13! If you like it, please leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads.

Reviewing Wonderfully Made

If you've read Wonderfully Made and liked it, please consider reviewing it on Amazon. I'm planning a $0.99 Kindle promotion next month, and the promotional sites like more reviews. Thanks!

If you haven’t read it yet, the $0.99 seven-day deal is coming. I’ll post the info here.

Of course, if you would like to review All for Good as well, I’d greatly appreciate that, too!

Guest Blog and Offer

Check out author Nan Reinhardt’s page, where Nan hosts me in a guest blog. Reply to the question for a chance to win an Amazon gift card.

Radio Interview

On Tuesday, October 12, our local radio station, WCHE, interviewed me about All for Good and Wonderfully Made. I was nervous, but the hosts made me feel right at ease, and I truly enjoyed myself. Here’s the attachment to the 20-minute recording.

Get Free Kindle Book 1

October 8 through 12, Amazon is offering the Kindle version of All for Good for free. Get a copy and share it! Then check out book 2, Wonderfully Made. And if you like them, please write a review on Amazon or Goodreads.

Also, I have to say that it’s very cool to see both books together on Amazon!

Book Club Fun

I got to speak to a book group last night, called Books Between Friends, and even signed some books! It was a blast to be able to talk about the writing process and A Vacation Friends Romance series, as well as to catch up with some people I haven’t seen in 17 years! Fellowship, friendship, and books—what could be more fun?

Reading aloud a few pages from the manuscript to book 2 got me excited for the launch of Wonderfully Made. My fantastic cover designer, Joe McGinty, is working on a cover that I know will draw you in. Look for it soon!

Kindle Countdown: 99 cents!

The Kindle version of All for Good is 99 cents until May 7. I’m hoping to get buzz as I prepare for the launch of book 2 in this series in mid- to late summer.

Valentine’s Week Kindle Countdown Deal

February 3 through 10, Amazon will be offering a Kindle Countdown deal for All for Good. That means that, for only seven days, the Kindle version of this romance novel will cost $1.99 instead of the usual $3.99. The goal is entice new readers to the series. With book two in the review stage, I hope to encourage greater readership.

I’m watching and learning …