Mark Twain's Advice

I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English--it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them--then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice.
- Letter to D. W. Bowser, 3/20/1880

Twainquotes.com

I'm Eligible to be Nominated! Who knew?

Ah, there are such interesting things to be learned by Googling oneself. I admit it. I did it and guess what I learned?
I'm in my second year of eligibility to be nominated for a John W. Campbell Best New Writer Award!
I honestly have to say I have no idea how this happened, since I've never heard of this award before today. The fact that my story "Before Paphos", published in 2007 at Strange Horizons, is even eligible has to mean that someone had to notice it and like it enough to make sure it made it into the pool of eligible nominees. I think.
Being on the list of eligible nominees is a long way from being nominated and even further away from winning, but it's nice to be noticed.
Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately for them, I don't know anyone who is a voting member or they'd be getting a few dozen pleading emails from me over the next few weeks. Do you know anyone??? :-)

Who's Looking For Love?

Years ago, I entered a contest where the object was to create, using seventy words or fewer, a personal ad for a literary character. This was my entry:


About me:
I am no beauty. In truth, I am plain. However, I am clever, kind, loving, staunchly moral and upright. Perhaps I am more forgiving than I should be.

I am looking for:
A relationship with no secrets!

Note: To be considered, any swarthy gentleman in possession of a shadowy manse must agree to a thorough inspection of all buildings—attics included.

Contact me at jneyre1847@email.com

I didn't win, or even place, but I thought it was cute enough.

Okay, technically, Mrs. Rochester wasn't in the attic, but I was nipping at the word limit.

More fun with Gimp 2

I used another photograph of mine to create this. I don't even know what to call these things. Maybe a digital postcard? A web-poster? Who knows.

I'm having fun with Gimp 2 though, which is free for download, by the way. Go here: Gimp.org.

Blushing

One of these days I'm going to learn my lesson about poking fun at other peoples' writing, grammar or spelling errors.

A few days ago, I posted a blog entry ridiculing those who confuse these words: to, two and too.

Thinking myself clever, I used an online tool to create a book cover and called it "Using Homonyms for Idiots." Imagine my embarrassment upon discovering today that to, two and too are not homonyms; they are homophones.

I discovered this quite by accident while reading an article called "Fastidious spelling snobs pushed over the edge: Books, blogs and obsessiveness mark a brand-new war of the words" on MSNBC's website.

Just to make sure, off I went to the dictionary and wouldn't you know it, I got the two terms mixed up.

According to Dictionary.com "two words are homophones if they are pronounced the same way but differ in meaning or spelling or both (e.g. bare and bear)." Of course, the words to, too and two fall into this category.

According to the same source, a homonym is "a word having the same sound as another, but differing from it in meaning; as the noun bear and the verb bear." So, homonyms are spelled and sound the same but have different meanings, like fair (as in, "That's not fair!") and fair (as in, "Let's go to the fair.").

Yipes, I feel like the idiot now. I've learned my lesson. No more throwing stones at glass houses, while I'm obviously living in one.

By the way, I found the link to the MSNC article through my favorite news-aggregate website Fark.com. The link was accompanied by this hilarious headline, "Failing economy may be brining out more Grammer Nazi's."
Gotta love those Farkers!

Then I'm Pretty Productive.....

I made this! Last Spring I took a digital picture of some flowers in my front yard. Then I used Gimp 2 to modify the picture and add the quote. I thought the quote appropriate considering....

Marion Zimmer Bradley Advice

Though it was many years ago, I enjoyed reading Marion Zimmer Bradley's Avalon books. She died in 1999, but a website is still maintained by The Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust. Along with promoting reprints of her books, the site also features several articles about writing, written, of course, by Bradley.
The articles are all over ten years old, naturally, but still offer sound advice about how to get published, grammar, and a few other topics. There are only nine articles in all, but I found each one very informative.
Check it out if you're interested:
Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust