en-US Mon, 30 Nov 2009 07:02:03 -0800 60 144 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo_144.jpg /author/show/2632999.Laura_Fabiani/blog/234463-craziness-of-english-language-and-other-verbal-insanities Mon, 30 Nov 2009 07:02:03 -0800 /author/show/2632999.Laura_Fabiani/blog/234463-craziness-of-english-language-and-other-verbal-insanities
I got this cool email message form a friend the other day, and I got a real kick out of reading it so and I thought I would share it with friends who are lovers of the English language.

Read all the way to the end. This took a lot of work to put together!

You think English is easy???
...here's a new twist...

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce .

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5...

posted by Laura Fabiani on November, 30 ]]> /author/show/2632999.Laura_Fabiani/blog/225572-turning-dvd-movies-into-novels Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:15:55 -0800 /author/show/2632999.Laura_Fabiani/blog/225572-turning-dvd-movies-into-novels
Watching a movie is an interactive...

posted by Laura Fabiani on November, 24 ]]> /author/show/2632999.Laura_Fabiani/blog/217770-len-richman-author-of-raindrops-glimpses-moments-an-unconventional-m Mon, 30 Nov 2009 06:44:45 -0800 /author/show/2632999.Laura_Fabiani/blog/217770-len-richman-author-of-raindrops-glimpses-moments-an-unconventional-m
Len Richman is an educator, actor, playwright and loving grandfather who has taught and been associated with the West Island College in Quebec, several universities and middle schools in China, and is currently at the Thomas More Institute for Research in Adult Liberal Studies in Montreal. He has recently worked on the set of Barney's Version with Dustin Hoffman, Mini Driver and Paul Giamatti.

If any of you live in Montreal, I encourage you to see the theatre performance of Raisin in The Sun ...

posted by Laura Fabiani on November, 30 ]]> /author/show/2632999.Laura_Fabiani/blog/213471-15-places-to-find-writing-prompts-online Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:07:27 -0800 /author/show/2632999.Laura_Fabiani/blog/213471-15-places-to-find-writing-prompts-online
Writer's Digest - The Writer's Digest, an online writing information warehouse, provides 96 different writing prompts. The prompts cover a wide variety of subjects and will work for almost any writer.

WritingFix - WritingFix offers a random w...

posted by Laura Fabiani on November, 02 ]]> /author/show/2632999.Laura_Fabiani/blog/203667-the-writing-room Sat, 31 Oct 2009 06:29:59 -0700 /author/show/2632999.Laura_Fabiani/blog/203667-the-writing-room The Quebec Writer's Federation asked me if they could feature me in their Love Ms Julie's Blog—a blog about new Quebec English-language writing. They have a feature called The Writing Room, where QWF members talk about their writing space and writing process.

I'm very excited to share this with my family and friends. Please feel free to visit the post and leave a comment!
 http://lovemsjulie.blogspot.com/2009/10/writing-room.html

Thanks for your support, as usual.
Laura Fab...

posted by Laura Fabiani on October, 31 ]]> /author/show/2632999.Laura_Fabiani/blog/200764-the-common-comma Sun, 18 Oct 2009 08:08:15 -0700 /author/show/2632999.Laura_Fabiani/blog/200764-the-common-comma
I told my mother I was famished and she proceeded to make me my favourite peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

The teacher repeated the rules but the students continued to ignore them.

We could barely make out the road ahead for the storm...

posted by Laura Fabiani on October, 18 ]]> /author/show/2632999.Laura_Fabiani/blog/200765-the-common-comma-part-ii Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:17:27 -0700 /author/show/2632999.Laura_Fabiani/blog/200765-the-common-comma-part-ii
Let's look at how we use the comma for non-restrictive relative clauses and restrictive clauses. Are there commas missing in the following sentences?

The crowd which initially consisted of a few hundred people became a swarming horde of thousands.

In the winter...

posted by Laura Fabiani on October, 19 ]]> /author/show/2632999.Laura_Fabiani/blog/194205-the-origin-of-words Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:09:23 -0700 /author/show/2632999.Laura_Fabiani/blog/194205-the-origin-of-words
An often-overlooked way to build one's vocabulary is to learn the origin of words. This study is called etymology.

If you are not familiar with the meaning of certain words and you take the time to look them up in the dictionary, most of the time you will find its origin. Take, for example, the word fiancé. When I looked it up on

posted by Laura Fabiani on October, 09 ]]> /author/show/2632999.Laura_Fabiani/blog/190252-the-home-inspiration-center-of-music Sat, 10 Oct 2009 23:19:39 -0700 /author/show/2632999.Laura_Fabiani/blog/190252-the-home-inspiration-center-of-music
Each of us has a music collection as unique as our writing style. This selection of music offers a glimpse into your psyche. By your taking that same glimpse, you can rediscover aspects of yourself from where ideas will emer...

posted by Laura Fabiani on October, 10 ]]> /author/show/2632999.Laura_Fabiani/blog/185568-the-act-of-altruism-and-state-of-intimacy Fri, 09 Oct 2009 09:09:15 -0700 /author/show/2632999.Laura_Fabiani/blog/185568-the-act-of-altruism-and-state-of-intimacy
posted by Laura Fabiani on October, 09 ]]>