Gen X vs Gen Z

Make sure your train cars are connected with commas!

Now we’ve come to a little discussed comma usage that I bet you’ve rarely, if ever, thought about: using a comma to separate two coordinating adjectives that modify the same noun.

Now without using industry jargon, that simply means you use a comma to separate two descriptive words that are referring to the same thing. Think of it as train cars. All of the cars in the middle of the train –…

What to do now that CreateSpace is no longer providing editing services

Did you know that CreateSpace, Amazon’s self-publishing service, is no longer offering editing as an option for authors?

If you’re an author, especially if you’ve used CreateSpace before to self-publish, it may surprise you to know they’ve decided editing is no longer necessary. Editing was once one of the many services they offered their authors. That was one big reason so many authors chose…

When editing any document for my clients, the one comma-usage error that I encounter more than any other is the lack of a serial comma. While saying serial comma makes me hungry because I always think of Cornflakes when I say it, I still say it – all…the…time. Nothing drives me crazier as an editor and writer than a document, however big or small, that does not use the serial comma, also known as…

In the beginning…

I remember when my first piece was published. I was nine years old and from then on I felt like I could be a great writer. I even thought I knew the rules, better than others. Boy was I in for a surprise much later in life.

As a child I wrote stories every day. If I wasn’t writing stories I was reading stories. Then in high school I worked on the school newspaper. Wherever life…

3 Reasons You Just Can’t Seem to Finish Writing that Book: Part 1

Let’s face it. We’ve all said we have a book in us, and we’ve all said we’re going to write it and get it published before we die.

The question is: are we all writers?

Um…nope.

So how do we bring our desire to write a book to fruition, and most of all, how do we actually finish it? Starting is one thing, but finishing? Well that’s a whole other creature.

For those that aren’t writers – and that’s…

The closing line of a plea for help written in 2002:

All I want is my family back together …

A Grieving Lonely Father

The Children’s Aid Society (CAS) in Belleville, Ontario, stole his four children from him in 2001. A father of four children left motherless who had finally found happiness with his new wife, making the broken unit whole. As with any combined family, there were ups and downs,…

Old Expectations in a New World

Plans. What is it they say about the best-laid plans? We plan our day, our week, our weekend. We plan for today and for the future. We plan our futures and we plan our children’s futures.

And yet how many of those plans come to fruition? There are those who thrive on planning and meeting personal objectives, but truly, how many of us really achieve what we plan? Sure, we go to the movies like we…

A Place of Passion

No, not that kind of passion. What were you thinking? Ha, no, today is epiphany day. No, there won’t be any preaching or proselytizing. Nothing bothers me more than people trying to push their beliefs on others, regardless of the intention or platform or subject. This won’t even be self-hyping, motivating, or uplifting. This one is just real.

I wake up every day and go to bed every evening and…

Have you ever wondered if everyone else, or anyone else, spends as much time as you do contemplating and questioning? Is it just me that spends more time watching and wondering than talking and sharing? Every morning I wake up asking questions and I’m still asking questions when I go to bed every night. Even in the middle of the night I find myself asking questions; the difference is, in the…

Pokémon Go or Pokémon No?

Our Gen X vs. Gen Z blog discusses topics from both perspectives. This month we start with the Gen z viewpoint:

Pokémon Go, hands down, is the biggest thing since phones themselves. I’ve seen children, teenagers, and even grown adults, who probably have children themselves, playing this game. At first I didn’t really understand the whole point. I basically just thought, “Whoopdeedoo, a new…

The Key to Writing More and Often

Have you ever noticed that you write best when you’re under pressure? As a writer you write every day, or at least you know you should write every day. Even just a little. But do you? Do you write on those days where you really have nothing to write about or no reason to do so? Do you write on a busy day? Do you write when you’re tired or sick or cranky? Probably not.

Unless you have to. There is…

What Makes A Writer?

So what makes a writer really? Better yet, what does a successful writer look like? Every second person you talk to has always wanted to write a book or their life story or is in the process of doing just that. Does that make them a writer?

Are you a writer because you have a degree in English? Or because you have a diploma in creative writing or professional writing? Maybe you’re a writer…

Pokémon Go or Pokémon No?

Pokémon Go, hands down, is the biggest thing since phones themselves. I’ve seen children, teenagers, and even grown adults, who probably have children themselves, playing this game. At first I didn’t really understand the whole point. I basically just thought, “Whoopdeedoo, a new Pokémon game!” The whole Pokémon thing was what my brothers always did; I never got into it. I was the typical…

Why I Do Not Talk More

Have you ever wondered if everyone else, or anyone else, spends as much time as you do contemplating and questioning? Is it just me that spends more time watching and wondering than talking and sharing? Every morning I wake up asking questions and I’m still asking questions when I go to bed every night. Even in the middle of the night I find myself asking questions; the difference is, in the…

Branding? For people not cattle or corporations? Huh?

Branding. Doesn’t that sound like cruel and unusual punishment? Like something you do to cattle? Believe me, that’s even rather what it feels like as you’re trying to build and create your company’s identity and network. And it’s a vague concept, which doesn’t make understanding it or dealing with it any easier.

So here’s my take on it. While one definition is “a kind, grade, or make, as…