A Happy Accident with Auntie Poldi

Yes, I’m still reading light, just as feather-light as I can get. Back in 2014 I pursued a year of reading nonfiction, and it’s looking like 2018 may well be my year of reading light. (Reading lightly? My Year of Indulging in Guilty Pleasures? But that implies … nah....

#WordUse Series:
The Eyes (Don’t) Have It

Kids, we need to talk. You’ve just got to stop with the locking eyes. They locked eyes. Their eyes locked. It’s cliché, it’s overdone, it’s so stinkin’ melodramatic it makes me want to throw a fit in the middle of your manuscript. So I’m doing it here instead. A...

It’s a Literary Device, Dear Reader

I love learning the names for editor-y things. Like parallel construction and hiatus break and inciting incident and rhetorical device. Sometimes I make up names for problems I encounter when I don’t know the Official Editor-y Terminology—like name-calling and...