Books may well be the only true magic.
—Alice Hoffman, American novelist (b. 1952)
Blog
Be Careful, Little Mouse, What You Copy and Paste
A few months ago I was hired to provide content for a kids’ activity book that would have a focus on values, virtues, character building … and so on. I’m a parent, but that alone doesn’t make me an expert, so I did a little research—and in every single article,...
Short Saturday: The Paradox of Voice
I’ve written some about finding your voice (there are links below). Many people have. And you’ll hear lots of different opinions … which makes it difficult for young or inexperienced writers to figure out. What is voice in writing? And how do you identify yours? It’s...
Editors as Readers
You will continually be taking chances. There will be readers who want you to kill that ape with the oboe, get the diamonds out of the roast beef, cut ‘myrmecoid’ and ‘sharded.’ (“Don’t say ‘myrmecoid,’ say what it means: ‘antlike.’” I’m not interested in...
And Don’t Criticize What You Can’t Understand*
I’ve always prided myself on being reasonably up to date (though not, perhaps, on the cutting edge), particularly for a gal who didn’t grow up with technology. I got a computer pretty early on for a nongeek (back in the days when an app was called software, y’all),...
Short Saturday: Track Changes From A to Z
Yes, a while back, I wrote an article with some basics about track changes. We’ve also talked about why you need to use MS Word when you’re working with an editor, not Apple Pages. (Calm down, Mac users; I’ll establish my bona fides. To wit: I bought my first Mac in...