Hot Summer Reading and a Question

In 1983, in war-torn Lebanon, Robert J. Doyle ordered the complete destruction of an unsuspecting village. As he walked through the carnage later, he vowed one day he would somehow pay off the loss of innocent lives.  Later, Doyle decides to become a volunteer firefighter and paramedic. He feels that with each life he helps to save, he makes a payment on his debt.

Question from the e-mail: Got your answer to my submission (No) and the feedback from the Book Committee as to why. Great feedback and very helpful. Truly, it is appreciated and very on target. One comment did puzzle me a bit.  "Too many homonym errors!" What does that mean? I couldn't figure it out as there is no gay content in my book...?

Answer: Nothing gay involved, Joyce. A homonym is a word that sounds the same, but is spelled two different ways and often has two, or even three, different meanings.  The most common ones are to, too, and two. But there are a great many more of them.

Once you know which ones you are most likely to confuse, you can use search to find and fix them just before running spell check for the last time. With me, it was affect and effect. Spell check will Never Find Them, as both versions are true word. 

Below is a list I used to handout to students, when I was still teaching.

1. Homonyms and word confusion

Aisle/isle
Affect/effect
Allude/elude
Alright/all right - all right is always two words, alright is a misspelling
Alter (n)/altar (v)
Ascent (n)/assent (v)
Awhile - never use a while
Bail/bale
Bare/bear
Bazaar (n)/bizarre (adj)
Blonde (n)/blond (adj)
Brake/break
Canvas/canvass
Cite/sight/site
Coarse (adj)/course (n)
Complementary/complimentary
Criteria/criterion - criteria is plural of criterion
Desert/dessert
Discreet (tactful)/discrete (separate)
Emigrate (leave)/immigrate (enter)
Enter/inter
Exit/exist
Farther (distance)/further
Formally (manner)/formerly (previous)
Fried/friend
Guess/guest
Hear/here
Heel/heal
Herd/heard
Imminent (about to happen)/eminent (distinguished)
Mantel/mantle
Massage/message
Naïve (adj)/naivete (n)
New/knew
Pane/pain
Peek/peak
Peel/peal
Present/presence
Quite/quiet
Roll/role
Rouge/rogue
Salvage/savage
Strait/straight
Tale/tail
There/their/they're
Thorn/throne
To/too/two
Trial/trail
Vain/vane/vein
Woman/women
Won't/want
Your/you're