Features

You may well be reading this online, on a group forum. Your forum may be wonderful and friendly. (Almost certainly if I posted it there.) But how about other groups you’re thinking of joining for advice, questions, and for promoting your book or book services? How will you fare? I share here a cautionary tale along with 12 tips for happy surfing as a group member.

When I joined a professional group on Facebook, which shall remain nameless for my genuine concern for my safety, I thought I was joining a group for book professionals from all over the world. […]

Here’s a list of some of the words I see when editing authors’ books that have been written as one compound word and shouldn’t have been, and two words that should have been compounded into one.

Nevermind/Never mind

There’s a whole bunch of people, maybe thousands or even millions, who grew up with Nirvana’s “Nevermind” album, mostly in their late thirties to early fifties, who think this is one word, meaning, “don’t worry about it.” In fact, “nevermind” as one word is actually a noun.

It seems to uniquely feature in the old-fashioned Southern idiom, “don’t pay me […]

What beginnings are done to death? Why are some beginnings actually before the beginning? When is less more, and when is more needed? Let’s look at some of the corniest, dullest, and hackneyed of all beginnings, and why you should avoid using them.

Here’s a definition of a literary trope from Wikipedia:

A literary trope is the use of figurative language – via word, phrase, or even an image – for artistic effect such as using a figure of speech. The word trope has also come to be used for describing commonly recurring literary and rhetorical devices, motifs or clichés