Paula Coomer's Blog, page 4

Dove Creek/Author Interview

Many thanks to Canadian author A.F. Stewart:

http://afstewartblog.blogspot.com/201...

Dove Creek Events

Aug. 4:
Booksigning as part of Alive After Five, downtown Clarkston, Washington, 5-8:30 p.m. at And BOOKS, Too!, Clarkston's indie bookstore. All of Sixth St. will be blocked off. And BOOKS, Too! is in the block between Sycamore and Chestnut.

Aug. 16
Reading and booksigning at St. Helens Bookshop in St. Helens, Oregon. 7 p.m.

A Lesson in Punctuation

As a university English instructor I am used to cringing over public errors in punctuation and grammar. We are a nation of relative illiterates when compared with our grandmothers and grandfathers, who took pride in such things. I cannot pick up a magazine or newspaper without having to endure a handful of mistakes mechanical and typographical.

What is more disturbing is seeing this trend in books. Absent traditional editors, book publication is now reliant on the author's proofreading skills, and, as we all know, a person cannot adequately proofread his or her own work. It is a glitch in our make-up and a fallacy to believe otherwise. And I couldn't be more weary of finding them on bookclub sites--which I now, as a 21st century author, am expected to frequent--and on literary journal sites, although some are admittedly more exacting about these details than others (Bookslut comes to mind.)

What is most worrisome, however, is the world of e-books, which apparently has no editing oversight at all. I will spare authors the embarrassment by not naming names, but I would humbly offer the following:

1. Quotation marks: except in certain situations involving question marks, colons, and semi-colons, ALL punctuation occurs INSIDE the quotation marks. Look it up.
2. Fewer than/less than: if you can count it, use fewer than; if you can measure it, use less than. Example: those signs in the grocery store should say, "15 items or fewer." If your local store doesn't have it right, complain. Enough folks complained that the Albertson's chain out west finally got it right.
3. Apostrophes: it's is a contraction of it is; its is the possessive form of it meaning "belonging to it." They are not interchangeable

A good online resource is The Purdue Owl (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/sec...).
A good book is: CORRECTING COMMON ERRORS IN ENGLISH by George Kennedy and Nancy McKee.

And, in keeping with my classroom policy, if you find errors in my work, please let me know.

NW Book Lovers Essay

Please check out my essay, "A Room Unfinished" on the NW Book Lovers website:

http://www.nwbooklovers.org/2011/06/2...

Abandoned Interview

Here is an interview with a blogger from whom I never heard again:

http://www.paulamariecoomer.com.php5-...

Summer Luxury

I'm writing from the breakfast table in a corner of the kitchen some folks might call a nook. The morning sky is pale, but the clouds don't look too threatening. The pond is the same foamy-white--from the clarifier I used on it yesterday. The grass needs mowing, dandelions doing their best to make the scene their own. We have given up on them this year, didn't yank a one. Someone told us they are like bees--they smell the death of their fellow dandelions and replicate just that much more ferociously. Combine that with the recent herb class we took where we learned of the many medicinal properties of the lowly dandelion and the terrible effects of Weed and Feed on run-off, and, well, we simply decided to let them be this year and see how it goes. My argument is that if you mow often enough, they won't have a chance to go to seed and won't spread. Of course, the endless rains we've had means days and days of grass too wet to mow, and more dandelions than you could imagine, but we've decided we just don't care. What is a weed anyway but just a matter of perspective and opinion.

On the other hand, perspective and opinion is sometimes what a writer craves, and so I am here this morning to say thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read my books and to comment. Between Good Reads, Amazon, Sheila Bender's magazine (www.writingitreal.com), Facebook fans, bloggers, and the occasional personal note, hardly a day goes by where a bonafide human doesn't let me know how much he or she appreciates my writing efforts. I dedicate this sweet moment in my morning to all the kind people who have spend part of the precious moments of their lives doing so.

Dove Creek article

Check out my article on the writing of Dove Creek in Sheila Bender's online writing magazine, Writing it Real.

http://www.writingitreal.com/cgi-bin/...

Moving On

This is the season
of moving on. For several
years, transition has beset
my family: graduations,
marriages, children born,
careers re-oriented, illness,
death. The quiet speaks
in a whisper. Nothing
is wrong right now. Nothing
is in the process
of becoming. I can sit
at my computer
with a cup of coffee
without one single
worry. A moment so rare
I just had to share it.

Fishtrap Reading

Anyone who happens to be in Enterprise, Oregon, on May 19 at 7:30 p.m. should find their way to the Coffin House at the corner of Grant and ?. I'll be there discussing all things Dove Creek until 9-ish. Fishtrap is Oregon's much-loved literary arts organization and home to Summer Fishtrap. If you don't know about Summer Fishtrap at Wallowa Lake State Park you owe it to yourself to check it out. www.fishtrap.org

website update and new book release

Anyone interested in reading more about Dove Creek and its history, please visit my updated website.

Also, my collection of short stories, Summer of Government Cheese, orginially released in 2007 by Sandhills/Lewis-Clark, has been re-released with a new cover by Booktrope.

www.paulamariecoomer.com