Lovely Blogs and Broken Rules

Jo at Jo on Food, My Travels and A Scent of Chocolate awarded me the One Lovely Blog Award which means that I have to a) thank her for the award and then b) follow the rules:

1. Name the blogger who awarded you this fantastic award.
2. List 7 random facts about yourself
3. Award 15 other bloggers this award (Here's the deal, though, rules in my unlimited opinion are general guidelines. In the essence of time, I have awarded it to 5 other bloggers. I may get struck by lightening, but I doubt it will have anything to do with me bending a rule here and there.)
4. Enjoy!

 Seven Random Facts About Me
 1) I have an unfinished novel in my beach bag. I'm carrying it around with me this summer. It's some kind of wishful thinking thing I've got going.
2) I enjoy a light breeze, but I detest wind.
3) Repetitive noises drive me over the wall, into the ditch and out of my mind.
4) Every time I finish writing something I panic that I will never think of anything creative ever again. And then I do.
5) I think I'm having a mid-life crisis. To add to that stress, I'm concerned that the two halves of my life aren't adding up to my ideal life expectancy.
6) A favorite way to treat myself is with smoked salmon, cream cheese and capers on crackers.
7) When I was in second grade, I was running across the playground one day at recess and I ran smack-dab into a bumblebee. It stung me. Maybe that's why I don't like surprises.

Not One, But Five More Lovely Blogs
{just had} A Bright Idea
1 Funky Woman
Daily Dodo
Buttered Toast Rocks
Idea City

Seductive Dance of the Eggplant

They're great in the garden and so easy to grow. What could be more rewarding than a plant that pops up leafy and green as the valley of Paradise? And it's hardy, withstanding drought and beetles and weeds.

The fruit of its stalk beautifies the ordinary garden with a flash of color unlike that of the other ordinary vegetables gathered in the dirt. None compares to the full purple hue of its rounded curves. A painting of temptation in the Garden cannot convince without its inclusion. Aye, it is the essence of temptation itself.

A man, my man, is known to give into it every summer; planting it, harvesting much too much of it, despite my opposition. He is weak to its illusory promises. He thinks he can change it or that it will change of its own voluntary notion. But temptation remains temptation and its richly aubergine skin remains just a pretty cover-up for what lies within.

Bring it into the kitchen light, and it is nothing more than a burden to bear. Beneath that cloak of color is spongy, anemic flesh devoid of flavor. The more determined cook who dares prepare it by battering and dipping and dripping in cheese and sauce only achieves creating a disguise that slides off, revealing its true nature, as fork seeks mouth.

Summer after endless summer, by beloved and I choreograph the seductive dance of the eggplant. He plants and pulls weeds and picks and admires and allows the vile vegetable in its cheap disguise to capture his fascination. I endure the early summer dabbles, flashes in the pan, knowing that he too will eventually recoil from the tasteless fancy.

Everything trickles to an unspoken arrangement of my husband hiding his forbidden fruit in the crisper. Then I, when he is out, transfer the unwanted wages back to the mulch pile, where it has an opportunity to better itself and make a real impact on earth. All things have value - I'm determined to believe that - but not all things feed the summer soul the way a tomato or an ear of corn or a cucumber does.

The tiller feels the same way I do. Either that, or the seductive pull of the eggplants overcame its faculties. Not an hour ago, that tiller suddenly and without warning lit upon the obligatory row of eggplant, cutting it down in a moment of impulsive violent turbulence. When I finally managed to pull the willful tines from the soil, it was too late. The plants had been returned to dust and weeping foliage scraps. Nothing could be saved.

Nothing but me, and my husband, that is. And our summer, of course.

Where's My T-Shirt?

I survived the 2012 April A to Z Blog Challenge. Where's my t-shirt?

Oh, I'm only kidding . . . sort of . . . kind of . . . not really. I think those of us who finished all deserve an

I SURVIVED 

t-shirt. It was a thrilling month of highs and lows and pressure and fear that we might not make it past the elem-n-opey portion of the alphabet (for those whose minds are still addling, that's L, M, N, O, P).

The best part for me was reconnecting with bloggers I met during last year's challenge, such as Brianna and The Golden Eagle. If you didn't visit their blogs during April, you must go there right away.

And meeting new people from around the blogosphere: Jo, Dana, Wendy, and Delores, to name a quick few. Every blog I visited reflected the personality and interests of its host. And I learned, learned, learned without much effort at all. I mean, just think, without Grover, I would have never known what zorbing is or that I might like to do it sometime on a dare.

For me these A to Z challenges are more than just a way to socialize or get more followers. They make me stretch as writer and a reader. They force me to organize my thoughts.

It took me several months, but I worked my posts from the 2011 challenge into a book, ABC Book of Literary Devices, available from Amazon in print and and Kindle versions. If all goes well, the ABC Book of Writing Conventions will be the second in the series and include simple, brief explanations of common grammar, usage, and punctuation errors/misunderstandings.

You might call me obsessive when I tell you that I've already planned out the next four years' worth of themes and posts. But really it's because I want my t-shirt, dog-gone-it.

Zero Article

Zero Article

Zero article refers to when a noun is NOT preceded by a, an or the (which are all three known as articles). This, however, is not a random omission. Like everything else in grammar, the zero article, or absence of one of the three articles before a noun, is governed by rules:

1) Use a zero article when the exact one or ones is not known.
     For example: People should understand how their government functions. (We do not know which people should understand. Which is not specified. If we did know, we might write, The people of France should understand how their government functions.)
     Lodeche's economy is in trouble. Monies are needed for the survival of the republic. (We do not know the exact monies, but we do know the exact republic.)

2) Use a zero article (no article at all) with proper nouns.
     For example: Sally Jane skips down Langston Street, turns the corner at Hughes Department Store, and spits into Calloway Creek. (Without proper nouns, we would use articles and the sentence would read, A girl skips down the street, turns the corner at the department store, and spits into the creek.)


Tomorrow: We breathe a sigh of relief and rest.

This post is brought to you by the April A to Z Blog Challenge. Check back all through April for daily discussions of writing conventions.

Your v. You're

Your v. You're

They certainly sound the same, but they are worlds apart in meaning. Nonetheless, many people tend to use them interchangeably. But we can do our small part to right this problem.

Your is a possessive pronoun. It denotes ownership of something.
     For example: Go get your shoes. If you don't see them in the hall, look under your jacket. I'm really tired of you leaving your stuff in the floor.

You're is a contraction of the pronoun you and the verb are.
     For example: You're failing to take responsibility for your belongings. Someday, you're sure to appreciate how I've cleaned up behind you.

Tip: If you are uncertain about which word to use in a sentence, insert the words you are. If the sentence makes sense, then you're is the word you're looking for. If you are does not make sense in the sentence, then your should be used.

Now that we've settled that, I feel a calm settling on us all.

Tomorrow: Zero Article

This post is brought to you by the April A to Z Blog Challenge. Check back all through April for daily discussions of writing conventions.

Overcoming the Red X

X

Who has not been the victim of the big, red X, scritch-scratched across a school paper by a teacher or marked on a manuscript at the hand of an editor? It's shocking when we see it. I dare say, it hurts, physically and psychologically. And almost always, it is associated with a violation of standard writing conventions.

Our primary goal, other than to compose a unique piece of writing that others cannot bear to put down, is to avoid the X. The best way to do that is to proofread with writing conventions in mind. And if we have violated any of them, to either correct them or to compose a suitable defense for them.

In that vein, I offer some tried and true proofreading strategies:

1) Put the piece down and walk away. After some time has passed, read through it again with a critical eye.


2) Read the piece out loud, preferably not in public.

3) Alert! Alert! Don't get cornered by a deadline or due date. Allow enough time for proofreading once the piece is complete.


4) Become mindful of your typical mistakes (maybe even keep a list of them handy) and actively look for those in the paper.

5) Ask someone else - someone who is familiar with grammar, punctuation, capitalization and usage - to read the piece.


6) Be a stranger to your own work. Put yourself in the place of your unknown reader and look at it through his or her eyes.

 7) Read one sentence at a time, paying attention to each word, each punctuation mark, etc. Reading from the end to the beginning makes this process easier.

Proofreading, like anything, takes practice. It can be very frustrating. The story is complete. There's nothing more to say. Yet, here we are still rehashing it, again and again. When we start to feel bogged down in the process and ready to call it quits, we must remember that we are giving our reader a gift: A beautiful, well-written gift.

Tomorrow: Your v. You're

This post is brought to you by the April A to Z Blog Challenge. Check back all through April for daily discussions of writing conventions.

Who v. Whom

Who v. Whom

Hold on to your hat. The use is both complicated and simple.

Who and whom are both pronouns, which we all know are words that take the place of nouns, which we all know are people, places, things or ideas. The decision about whether to use who or to use whom depends on the role it plays in the sentence. Who is always the subject of a sentence, which we all know is the person, place, thing or idea doing the action. Whom is always the object in a sentence, which we all know is the person, place, thing or idea receiving the action of the verb.

     For example: Who plans to give the bad news to the people? When we arrive, we give the news to whom?
     To whom much is given, much is expected. Who, though, grants these gifts? I am the one who imparts them to my children.

Hint: Still having trouble deciding when to use who and when to use whom? Try inserting he and him into the sentence. If he works, then who is the pronoun you seek. If him works, then whom is what you want.

Tomorrow: X

This post is brought to you by the April A to Z Blog Challenge. Check back all through April for daily discussions of writing conventions.