Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 199

Rant ahead: proceed at your own risk

"How important is grammar and when do you break grammar rules?"

Less important than story, character and pacing but a smidge more important that spelling and punctuation? At a guess. An editor can fix unintended grammar gaffs, but if a story is boring or all the characters are thin, you won't have an editor willing to take you on.

The word I want to home in on in that last paragraph is "unintended". If you're aiming at some particular English dialect - Standard US or 18th century Cockney . . ....

RULES: Follow 'em, break 'em...or make 'em? by Cathy Ace

How important is grammar and when do you break grammar rules?

Oh my goodness me, grammar. Thanks to the Welsh education system, I took years and years of English Language classes, as well as English Literature classes. 
I loved literature classes; we’d read books, plays and...<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>

The sound of commas by RM Greenaway

HOW IMPORTANT IS GRAMMAR TO YOU AND WHEN DO YOU BREAK THE GRAMMAR RULES? 
A few thoughts on punctuation, rather than grammar -- mostly the comma.
To me, writers can punctuate however they want, as long as the story moves along and is clear.
There does seem to be a trend in the books I've been picking up lately, though, where the meaning isn't as clear as it could be, and that's because so many useful commas are being left out. That's the case with the novel I'm reading now, in fact. And it...

All Hail the Oxford Comma

Q: Grammar – everyone’s gotta do it. How important is grammar and what resources do you use to make sure you’re on top of it? When do you break the rules?
 - from Susan
I was in a writing group once in which one writer had a terrific story idea, a historical setting that was engaging, and a cast of characters we loved. But she was afflicted with the worst case of run on sentence structure I’ve ever seen. And worse, she couldn’t see that, seemed not to know what a run on sentence was or why...

Required Reading. Maybe.

How do you pick what book/s you’re going to read? Is it the cover? Awards it’s won. The author. Genre? Word of mouth? Reviews (pro and customer)? Someone you know? Anything else?

My confession on this Friday is I rarely hold books in reverence. Not that I don't love them, and they're not my lifeblood. It's just that I'm not the line-up-outside-my-Barnes & Noble type. I also don't read what everyone else tells me I should read. Case in point: after the umpteenth time Between The World...

To Read or Not to Read

How do you pick what book/s you’re going to read? Is it the cover? Awards it’s won. The author. Genre? Word of mouth? Reviews (pro and customer)? Someone you know? Anything else?


By Jim

The very first thing I look for in a book is my name on the cover. If it’s not there, I can tell you I’m pretty disappointed.


Oh, wait. I think I misunderstood the question.

When there’s time, I like to read all different types of books. Usually it depends on my mood, but I love mysteries, thrillers, historicals,...

What to read next?

by Dietrich Kalteis
READING: How do you pick what book/s you’re going to read? Is it the cover? Awards it’s won. The author. Genre? Word of mouth? Reviews (pro and customer)? Someone you know? Anything else?
When I walk into a bookstore, it’s the book’s cover that first grabs me. I was in the graphics industry for a long time, so I’m a sucker for good cover designs. But what tops the design, is who wrote the book. When the next Carl Hiaasen, James Ellroy or Don Winslow hits the shelves, I’ll be...

The e-book has changed everything

By R.J. Harlick
How do you pick what book/s you’re going to read? Is it the cover? Awards it’s won. The author. Genre? Word of mouth? Reviews (pro and customer)? Someone you know? Anything else?
This has proven to be an interesting question. At first glance I thought it would be easy, but as I started to go over how I select books, I realized my approach had changed over time because of e-books. Yes, I have become primarily an e-book reader. These days I rarely pick up a printed book, unless it...

Choosing What you Read

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Murder X 5 – 5+ Crime Novel Gift Ideas

With Thanksgiving coming up in the USA – please take the chance to give us five titles or criminally good books you think would make great gifts…and tell us for whom they’d be suitable.

by Paul D. Marks

Only five? There’s so damn many good mystery-crime books out there cutting a list down to five is, well, criminal. I also run the risk of being repetitive since I’ve probably mentioned some of these books here in the context of other questions. For this week’s question I’ll stick just to crime/m...