Fun Friday: Hammer That Grammar

Are you a Grammar Hammer? Thanks to Playbuzz for this Fun Friday!

Fun Friday: Word Crimes

It may have come to your attention that I rag on other people's bad grammar. It's the curse of the copy editor and the writer, and sadly, I'm both, so ... guilty.

But at least Weird Al Yankovic is here to justify my behavior. Word Crimes: Who will we arrest next?

November Linklove

All the best stuff I've read around the weboverse in the last month!

WRITING & MARKETING ADVICE

Jonathan Stroud (Lockwood & Co: The Screaming Staircase) offers tips on how to scare the pants off your readers (via Nerdy Book Club)

Author Dee Garretson (Wildfire Run) on filling up your idea box (Project Mayhem)

Kelly Jensen at Book Riot discusses the Myth of Girl Characters in YA Fiction

Writer Angela Ackerman on the difference between conflict and tension (thanks to Cynsations for the link)

Story consultant Lisa Cron talks about 9 Ways to Undermine Your Characters' Best-laid Plans (Writer Unboxed)

Susan Dennard offers Simple Tricks to Unstick Your Story (Pub Crawl)

AGENTS & QUERIES

New agent Maria Vicente of P.S. Literary is looking to build her list (WritersDigest.com)

Literary Rambles shines their spotlight on agent Erica Rand Silverman of Sterling Lord Literistic

Foreword Literary interviews their newest agent, Emily S. Keyes

KIDLIT / PUBLISHING NEWS

Possible theme park based on The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (really? is that a good idea?) (GalleyCat)

PW's year-end lists: Best Children's Fiction 2013 (MG/YA), Best Picture Books 2013, and Best Nonfiction for Children 2013

A gala celebration at--where else?--the Plaza marked the birthday of Kay Thompson's Eloise

Jeff Kinney's latest sales are anything but Wimpy (PW)

Book Riot loves the new film adaptation of Catching Fire (Hunger Games #2)

PW says farewell to legendary kidlit author and editor Charlotte Zolotow

and another sad good-bye to Junie B. Jones creator Barbara Park

INTERVIEWS

The Enchanted Inkpot talks to Matthew J. Kirby (The Lost Kingdom)

Shannon Younger of Chicago Now interviews tween blogger Erik of This Kid Reviews Books

Leah Cypess of the Enchanted Inkpot chats with Erin Bow (Sorrow's Knot)

Pam Witte asks 16 kidlit authors what they're grateful for this year (Ink & Angst)

PW features National Book Award for Young People's Literature winner Cynthia Kadohata (The Thing About Luck)

Pub(lishing) Crawl sits down with YA author Alison Cherry (Red)

BOOK REVIEWS: FABULOUS NOVEMBER RELEASES!

Champion by Marie Lu (finale of the Legends trilogy) (YA sci-fi/dystopia)

The Seventh Pleiade by Andrew J. Peters (YA fantasy)

Extracted by Sherry D. Ficklin & Tyler H. Jolley (YA steampunk/time travel)

BOOK TRAILERS

Picture Day Perfection (picture book by Deborah Diesen, illus. by Dan Santat)

MISCELLANY

Scholastic offers a wonderful video glimpse into what's coming up in spring 2014 (thanks to Watch.Connect.Read for the link)

Brooks Spencer gives you the Top 10 authors for reluctant readers (Nerdy Book Club)

You guys! Get your very own Harry Potter postage stamps! (via Book Riot)

image courtesy of wikimedia commons; available for reuse under this Creative Commons license

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Hyphen Redux

I just found this handy infographic poster for those who are still scratching their heads on the use of the hyphen. It comes courtesy of Grammar.net, which specifically invites folks to embed it on their own sites. So, yeah. I'm not stealing it.


[Infographic provided by Grammar.net]

Pet Peeve: Everyday

For some reason, everybody--or at least, a lot of the bodies--has come to the conclusion that everyday is always one word, no matter what you're doing with it or why.

It isn't.

Everyday is an adjective, meaning it describes a person, place, or thing. It means "ordinary, used routinely," according to Webby. Often, you'll see it used in the phrase everyday life:

For Buffy, killing vampires is just a part of everyday life. That's not the case for most of us.

The peeve comes in when folks use everyday when what they mean is every day--meaning "continually, day after day":

Every day, Buffy finds a demon or vampire who needs vanquishing.
Every day, I find a dirty sock that needs washing.
My everyday life doesn't look much like Buffy's, I guess.

See the difference? If you can't put a noun after your use of everyday/every day, split it into two words.

I knew you'd get it. Now I won't have to come after you with Mr. Pointy.