Common Writing Mistakes

Hollis Ball and Sam Westcott Series, Vol. 2

by Helen Chappell

Hollis Ball is back, this time covering the Decoy Jamboree, still smoldering over the light sentence Judge Fish gave a wife-murderer. Then someone bashes Fish on the head with an antique decoy. Hollis is pretty sure it's not suspect #1, so naturally she decides to solve the murder herself, with the help of her dead ex-husband, of course, the charming ghostly Sam.

Common Writing Mistakes

We all have little things that trip us up, even when we usually know better if we stop to think about it. With me, it's "its and it's". Here are a few of the most common mistakes we see:

1. It’s vs. Its

This is a common mistake. It’s also easily avoided by thinking through what you’re trying to say.
“It’s” is a contraction of “it is” or “it has.” “Its” is a possessive pronoun, (easy to mistake, as most possessives DO get apostrophes -- just not this one. Here’s an easy rule of thumb—repeat your sentence out loud saying “it is” instead. If that sounds goofy, “its” is likely the correct choice.

2. Your vs. You’re

This one drives me nuts, and it’s become extremely common, even among writers with good skills othewise.
“Your” is a possessive pronoun, as in “your car," "your computer” or “your book.” “You’re” is a contraction for “you are,” as in “you’re screwing up your writing by using your when you really mean you are.”

3. There vs. Their vs. They're

Thiese seems to trip up everyone occasionally, often as a pure typo. Make sure to watch for it when you proofread.
“There” is used many ways, including as a reference to a place (“let’s go there”) or as a pronoun (“there is no hope”).

“Their” is a plural possessive pronoun used when something belongs to more than one someone, as in “their bags” or “their opinions.” Always do the “that’s ours!” test—are you talking about more than one person and something that they possess? If so, “their” will get you there.

They're is a contraction for "they are."

4. Affect vs. Effect

To this day I have to pause and mentally sort this one out in order to get it right. As with any of the other common mistakes people make when writing, it’s taking that moment to get it right that makes the difference.
“Affect” is a verb, as in “Your ability to communicate clearly will affect your income immensely.” “Effect” is a noun, as in “The effect of a parent’s low income on a child’s future is well documented.” By thinking in terms of “the cause producing the effect,” you can usually sort out which is which, because you can’t stick a “the” in front of a verb. While some people do use “effect” as a verb (“a strategy to effect a settlement”), they are usually lawyers, and you should therefore ignore them if you want to write like a human.

5. The Dangling Participle

Now I can dangle a participle with the best of them and once had a woman "lying in a barn with a broken hip." My dear hubby (who was proofing for me) saw that, laughed and said, "Must've been the roof!" Cearly it's dangling because the way it's stated the barn has the broken hip.

Nat. Certified Nursing Assistant Week

FREE All Month

by Mary Roberts Rinehart

(Find it on the WriteWordsInc.com web site, order as usual, You Will NOT be charged.)

   Nurse stories from the pen of one of America's most popular writers of all time. This volume tells of all kinds of love—from that of a daughter for a father, to mother for her child, to affairs of the heart.

ISBN 1-59431- 582-5 Young Adult / Romance/ Nurse Stories

NO BAKE NURSING HOME 

OATMEAL PUDDING COOKIES

Ingredients

30 m24 servings184 cals

• 
  2 cups white sugar
• 3/4 cup butter
• 1/2 (12 ounce) can evaporated milk

• 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant butterscotch pudding mix
• 3 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
• Add all ingredients to list

Directions

Print 

• Prep
  20 m
• Cook
  10 m
• Ready In
  30 m

1. In 3 quart microwaveable bowl, combine the sugar, butter and evaporated milk. Cook on high power for 2 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until the mixture comes to a rapid boil. Allow the mixture to boil undisturbed for 20 to 30 seconds. Remove from heat and stir in the instant pudding and oatmeal. Spoon onto waxed paper lined cookie sheets. Allow to sit at least 15 minutes or until firm.

Mysterious Mystery!

by C.M. Albrecht

When Corky Middleton thinks she may have found her birth mother, she hires Foster & Hall to investigate. Wow, does she open a can of worms!

Instead of finding Corky's mother, the shamuses trip over a corpse, and that's just the humble beginning of an escalating case that climbs to the top of society in this twisted tale.

Can Foster & Hall Investigations go back eighteen years to unravel this tangled web of deception and bring a murderer to justice?

Who Doesn't Love a Mystery?Guest Blog by Sandra Gardner

When Marabella Vinegar finds her psychotherapist's bloody corpse, she becomes the NYPD's perp of choice. Her recently deceased mother - the bane of her existence in life - comes back to help get her out of trouble and find the real killer. Things get even worse when, thanks to Marabella and her mother's sleuthing, someone tries to kill her. Then another body is found and Marabella is thrown in jail, awaiting trial for two murders. Can she and her mother-the-ghost-detective find the killer before Marabella becomes corpse number three?

WHY DO WE LOVE A MYSTERY?

By Sandra Gardner 

Author of” MOTHER, MURDER AND ME,” winner of Swyers Publishing’s First New Author (fiction) Contest 2011, published by Swyers in 2012.  Available on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com and from the publisher. 

Who doesn’t love a mystery? Whether it’s a James Bond, Hercule Poirot, Inspector Morse, Stephanie Plum, Rizzoli and Isles -- we’ll gladly join the chase and follow along to find out whodunit. 

            Why?  Besides the fact that we’re curious and like answers to puzzles, a big reason is vicarious excitement. We can drop in and out of a mystery novel without putting our lives on hold. But most of us can’t drop our daily lives and follow a trail, sniff out clues, interview suspects, trap them in their own words and deeds. And would most of us want to put their life and maybe that of their loved ones -- in danger? Carry a lethal weapon or hone a deadly skill?  Maybe be at odds with the cops even to being pursued by them as well as a killer?   

             Then there’s our satisfaction at seeing good triumph over evil. Would we find the ending of a mystery as gratifying if the villain got to kill off the investigator and get away? We want our hero, our investigator, our main character, to fight the good fight and be rewarded in the end.

            This is where characterization comes in. If Stephanie Plum weren’t loveably comic, Hercule weren’t eccentrically brilliant, Rizzoli and Isles intrepid, Inspector Morse dogged, or James Bond suave, would we want to tag along in their latest adventure? 

            We want our investigator to be charismatic, intelligent, relentless, resourceful, wily and powerful, in his or her own way. We expect the same for the villain our investigator is pursuing -- along with being menacing.

            We want the chase to be fast-paced, to run into twists and turns along the road, to drop a red herring or two, and even though it’s fiction, to feel real enough for us to suspend belief and hang on for the ride.  Above all, we want to be surprised – by a discovery of an identity, the outcome of the chase, the unraveling of the mystery. In many cases, the surprise is whodunit. In some cases, for example, TV’s Lt. Columbo mysteries, we know who did it from the start.  It’s the lieutenant’s solving of the puzzle that provides the excitement and suspense.

            We want the suspense to start to build from the beginning and keep building.  It might work this way: there’s a murder, someone’s missing, something – such as money or jewels – is missing, there’s a plot against the government.

There’s another murder (or two or more). The missing person is found alive, dead, or not found till the end.  Or another person (or two or more) goes missing.  The plot against the government has a timeline, an assassination is planned, a bomb is set to go off, -- think “The Man Who Knew Too Much” or “The Manchurian Candidate.”    

            Whether it’s a courtroom, small gossipy village, CIA, MI5, big-city police department, coroner’s office, or Hercule Poirot summoning up his little gray cells, we get to be part of the action, enjoy the thrill of the chase, and find the solution. Where else, other than in the pages of a well-written mystery, could we experience all that – and more?

           

Catching UP!

Books Went to Press this week

CEMETERY WALK: A Hannah Griswold Mystery, Vol. 3, by Robert Kanehl

   Walking in a cemetery can be peaceful and reflective, as long as you don’t hear voices. Hannah Griswold, however, does hear voices. Why are they calling to her? Why can’t she have a normal teenage life?

Galleys that went out, or went out again, this week

SECOND GROWTH, by Joan L. Cannon

   Second Growth is about overcoming the past, about learning how to accept as well as how to offer help. A brilliant physician must find a way to heal himself — in spite of himself.

HAIL MARY by C.M. Albrecht.

    When retired cop Harry "Bulldog" Drummond dies, his free-spirited widow Mary, suddenly freed from the Bulldog's strait-laced ideas, recruits a couple of gals from her colorful past and the girls go on a tear. Meaning they create mayhem wherever they show up, much to the consternation of Mary's son, Creighton. Poor Cray just lost his job, he has a wife, two kids, two mortgages, a lazy dog and an old Chevy he was planning to replace with a new Jaguar. But the big raise he expected has vanished and so has his mother…along with his aging Chevy. To make matters worse, she doesn't even have a driver's license! 

CREST OF LIGHT: A Collection of Poetry by Bobbi Sinha-Morey

   This new collection is the very best of Bobbi Sinha-Morey. It delves deep into the stuff of life as she explores what goes in the lives of others as well as herself, expanding her waters. She writes a bit about birds again, dives into the beauty of life, often touching upon deep inner joy and pleasant idyllic scenes of how she sees the world through her eyes. This time, through her own experiences and research, she writes about Utah where she and her husband pent a total of three weeks. From all her rock hounding and sight-seeing she digs up the beauty of Utah, and the ways of the Native Indians who once lived there. At times she does nature poetry in her delicate hand, and she'll still do her haunting poetry, and diving deep down to what she fears the most.

WENDELL & TYLER:END OF THE ROAD, Open Road Series, Vol. 3, by James R. Kincaid

   The Journey Continues: This all originated with my mom, who had this idea that I should launch a voyage of discovery (my cool way of putting it) and spend the entire summer exploring the world outside me and the world within (whatever that means) by driving a luxury camper from Los Angeles to my Uncle Marshall’s in Atlanta. I am supposed to “court the unpredictable,” she says, “travel into the uncharted, the mysterious, even the frightening.”

Work began or Continued on the following:

A HEART DIVIDED: I Live in Two Worlds Series, Vol. 2, by DJ Swykert

    Maggie is torn between her powerful love for Tommie Stetter, and her deep and affectionate love for the abiding Jeremy Paull. Maggie is faced with a difficult decision, and against her own ideals, the teachings of the church and community, makes an unusual choice.

SCATTERED BRAIN by K. A. Wyant

   Trying to find your place in high school can be a challenging time in a young girl’s life, even more if you have a brain disorder. Being diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, Chloe deals with the difficulties of trying to fit in with the right friends. Wanting to please them she gets into some situations leading to many disappointments. Chloe doesn’t see the destructive path she has made for herself or care about the consequences. With the end of the school year coming to a close can Chloe change things in time to graduate high school with her classmates or has she destroyed any chance of getting her diploma on time?

WANTED: ROYAL PRINCESS SHOCK AND AWE, Royal Hearts of Mondoverde Series, Vol. 4., by Anna Dynowski

   Prince Maximillian, the playboy prince, is having way too much fun with the ladies, young and old and everything in between, to keep his name clean. Incorrigible, he’s been synonymous with scandalous headlines since he turned sixteen. While his laughing eyes, smooth talk, and charming manner make him the darling of Mondoverde, or at least, with the female population, the Graziano royal family despairs of him ever settling down. But can he find a woman who will rein in his wild streak and fix his princely image?

CREST OF LIGHT: A Collection of Poetry by Bobbi Sinha-Morey

   This new collection is the very best of Bobbi Sinha-Morey. It delves deep into the stuff of life as she explores what goes in the lives of others as well as herself, expanding her waters. She writes a bit about birds again, dives into the beauty of life, often touching upon deep inner joy and pleasant idyllic scenes of how she sees the world through her eyes. This time, through her own experiences and research, she writes about Utah where she and her husband pent a total of three weeks. From all her rock hounding and sight-seeing she digs up the beauty of Utah, and the ways of the Native Indians who once lived there. At times she does nature poetry in her delicate hand, and she'll still do her haunting poetry, and diving deep down to what she fears the most.

MINISTER'S CORPORATE ESCAPADES:The Rev. Castle series, Vol. 2, by Celine Rose Mariotti.

   Rev. Castle is back, with another mysterious adventure.

Cover  Subject to Change

NIBBLES by Elanvita Mufti

   A story of high school students facing a complicated future in Djakarta, Indonesia.

 

 Cover Subject to Change 

BLEEDING HEARTS: Killian Kendall Mystery Series, Vol. 1

 Winner of the Stonewall Society's 2002 Pride in the Arts Literary Award in the Whodunit Category! 

 REAP THE WHIRLWIND: Killian Kendall Mystery Series, Vol. 2,  by Josh Aterovis. 

    Suicide, or murder? That's the question in the second Killian Kendall mystery. Will Smith suspects murder when an old childhood pal drowns, and asks his friend Killian for help in solving the mystery.

TRUTH OF YESTERDAY,  by Josh Aterovis

ALL LOST THINGS, by Josh Aterovis

CHANGE  OF WORLDS, by Josh Aterovis

Jack's News!

  by your Official Bookstore Cat, 
and Gossip Columnist.

Hi Everyone,

Heard from the Writers Bloc. They will be meeting again tomorrow, at one p.m. in the Wicomico County Public Library in Meeting Room 3, or thereabouts. Any writer on the Eastern Shore is welcome.  They are working hard on their new collection, too. This time it will feature Noir stories.

Spunky was a bad girl again this week. I swear, I can't teach her anything. Of course she's still a baby, but you'd think she'd know better by now... She snuck out Tuesday night when Roger went out to lock up his workshop. And she was out All Night!

Oh I tried to tell them. I paced. I howled. I must have gone to the door a hundred times, but they were catching up on Game of Thrones.  (It's not bad, but they could use a nice cat on there. Arya used to chase them, and Tommen had a kitten he named Sir Pounce, but it disappeared after he married Marjorie... Why can't Tyrion have a nice feline companion -- perhaps one that would ride his shoulder...?)

Where was I?  Oh, they didn't even miss her at treat time so she got locked out All Night. Lord only knows what she was up to.  She probably caught and ate one of those poor little mice! Anyway, she must have eaten something nasty, because she's been sick ever since...

Between cleaning up her little messes, Roger and Arline worried about her day and night. Not me! I think it served her right. Even when she felt better and wanted to play, I just smacked her. Both of them have told us time and again that there is nothing outside that isn't bad for us.

Please be sure to send me all your news next week.  

Just send an e-mail to arline@mail.com with 

 "News for Jack" 

in the subject line, and

I'll make sure it shows up right here

for all the world to see!

Who is the character? What does she want?

by Carolyn LeComte

Sara Chandler has come to the big island of Hawaii to escape her troubled past and find peace in this place all the guidebooks call "Paradise." Lucas Henshaw is the first obstacle in her path to happiness. But he's not the last…

Question from the e-mail: What is the difference between as "plot-driven" story and a "character-driven" story, a former student asked. As you may or may not recall, I write mysteries. Yet my writers' group keeps telling me my stories are too "plot-driven." How can a mystery story not be plot-driven?

Answer: There are two kinds of stories and both have to have plot or they don't go anywhere. Character-driven plot, and story-plot, as you said. They are never so apparent as in mystery fiction. Agatha Christie wrote her “little puzzles” and her characters were rather interchangeable. But her plots are always very tricky. Okay, Poirot was a Belgian and fond of his moustache and “little grey cells.” But what do we know about him, really? What does he want? What does he care about?

In every book, somebody dies, Poirot “attempts the puzzle,” follows the clues, and eventually the murderer is caught. But Poirot, himself, never changes. He is always urbane, effective, and -- right! He, himself, is never affected by what happens in the story.

In Dick Francis, the detective character is always a part of the story. The problem, the puzzle, comes partly out of the character’s own vulnerability. I’ll grant you most of his characters are a side of Dick, who was once a world champion jockey, and so he tended to write books that involved horse racing in some way. In Odds Against, Francis’ first Sid Halley book, the hero was an ex-jockey, one whose wife made him choose between racing and her (he chose racing), then after the divorce he had a bad fall and ended his career with a crippled hand. At the beginning of the story, Sid Halley had lost everything, his marriage, his career, and in part his self-respect. There is, of course a murder, and a puzzle to solve, and Sid does it admirably, just as Poirot does, though Francis's characters tend to be in considerably more personal danger than Poirot ever saw. In solving the crime, Halley (about whom the reader cares a lot), gains a bit of his self-respect back. He is changed by what happens in the story.

Now we never care about Poirot’s self-respect. HE is never changed by what happens in the story. He is never in real danger of losing his life through the story's action. We know he was a World War I veteran, had been in the resistance, and had met Capt. Hastings, his British friend (a Dr. Watson substitute), during the war. But Poirot is not vulnerable in the current story, nor is he really part of the story, other than to play his detective game. If he fails to solve the crime, nothing will happen to him. His character will not be affected in any way. Sid Halley has a great deal more at stake. He stands to lose his self-respect and perhaps his life.

Sure these are old books, but I picked exaggerated examples to make it easy. But in Christie’s stories, the plot’s the thing. They are plot-driven, every one. Her characters are only peripherally involved. Francis’ characters always have a lot at stake, one way or another. I firmly believe the best plot comes out of character. But you still have to have a plot. Odds Against had one with a hole you could drive a truck through. I wouldn’t have finished that one, if I hadn’t cared about what might happen to Sid.

Happy Flag Day

Product Description

by Steven Clark Bradley

Today, America faces enemies that make the world of the Cold War seem like much brighter times. Islamic forces have declared Jihad on America causing the greatest threat to the life of the United States since World War II. In Patriot Acts, America finds itself under covert nuclear attack from the Islamic Republic of Iran which has linked up with radical American Militia groups. They have set aside their political and religious differences to carry out the widest attack to America in the nation 's history. Colonel Fisher Harrison, the best trained Special Ops killer the military has, is the only one person who can effectively retaliate against their aggression. The only problem is that Colonel Fisher is in a federal prison, framed for a murder he did not commit by his former boss who is now the President of the United States of America. Take an amazing journey from Alaska to the Midwest and to the center of the Islamic Republic of Iran as two enemies unite to save the nation from two adversaries in league to bring the country to its knees. You will be amazed how close to home and to reality Patriot Acts could be!

American Flag Cake

Ingredients

3 h16 servings1110 cals

• Giant Food
• 11740 Rousby Hall Rd
• LUSBY, MD 20657

• 3 (10.25 ounce) packages white cake mix
• 9 egg whites
• 1 cup vegetable oil
  
  
  
  
• 3 3/4 cups whole milk
• 2 tablespoons clear vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons red food coloring

• 1 tablespoon blue food coloring
• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 10 cups fluffy white frosting
• 1 tablespoon white chocolate chips, or as needed
• 2 tablespoons white sugar, or as needed
• 1 4-inch round paper or cardboard stencil
• Add all ingredients to list

Directions

Print 

• Prep
  1 h 30 m
• Cook
  30 m
• Ready In
  3 h

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and line 4 8-inch round cake pans with parchment paper.
2. Combine white cake mix, egg whites, vegetable oil, milk, and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl. Beat for 30 seconds using an electric mixer on low speed. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat for 2 more minutes. The batter will still be slightly lumpy.
3. To make the red cakes, measure half the batter into a separate bowl and whisk in red food coloring. Evenly transfer the red batter into 2 of the 8-inch prepared cake pans; smooth tops of batter with a spatula. Transfer half of the remaining uncolored batter into a 3rd prepared cake pan; smooth top as before. This will be the white cake portion.
4. Add blue food coloring to the remaining uncolored batter in the large mixing bowl; fold 1 cup white chocolate chips into blue batter until combined. Transfer batter to remaining prepared 8-inch cake pan; smooth top of batter with a spatula.
5. Bake all 4 cakes in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Remove the cakes from oven and place onto cooling racks until cooled completely.
6. Run a knife around edge of each cooled cake. Invert cakes, remove pans, and peel off parchment paper. Use a sharp knife to trim tops of cakes flat and even.
7. Using a Thread of Cotton stretched beteen your fingeers, Cut both of the red cake layers and the white cake layer in half horizontally. You will have 4 thin red cake layers and 2 thin white cake layers.
8. Place a 4-inch round stencil on top of 1 thin red cake layer; cut out a 4-inch red cake round. Repeat, placing stencil on 1 thin white cake layer to make 1 4-inch white cake round. Center the 4-inch round stencil on the blue cake; cut out and remove center portion covered by the stencil to make a blue cake ring.
9. To assemble the cake, you will need 2 thin 8-inch red cake layers, 1 thin 8-inch white cake layer, 1 4-inch thin red cake circle, 1 4-inch thin white cake circle, and 1 blue 8-inch cake ring. Reserve the leftover thin red cake layer and other cake pieces for making crumbs for decorating.
10. To assemble cake, place 1 8-inch thin red cake layer on a cake pan and frost the top generously with white frosting. Place the thin 8-inch white cake layer on top of the red one, and frost the top. Place remaining 8-inch thin red cake layer atop the white one. Frost the red layer.
11. Place the blue ring cake on top of the 2nd red cake layer and carefully frost the inside of the blue cake ring. Gently fit the 4-inch white cake layer into the blue cake ring. Frost the top of the 4-inch white center. Place the 4-inch red cake layer on top of the white one. Gently press small cake circles flush with the top of the blue ring.
12. Frost the entire outside of the cake generously with the remaining frosting.
13. Crumble red and blue pieces of leftover cake into 2 separate bowls. Score lines into the top of the cake's frosting with a kitchen knife to make a flag design on top of the cake. It should have a 2-inch square at the upper left for blue field and white stars, and 7 thick horizontal stripes about 1 inch wide.
14. Fill the square field at the upper left with blue crumbs and press 1 tablespoon white chocolate chips upside-down into the blue crumbs to make 'stars.' Fill the bottom stripe and every other stripe with red crumbs to make red stripes. Sprinkle white sugar generously into the white stripes to make them stand out.
15. To serve, cut cake into wedges. The inside of the cake will reveal its layers of red and white stripes and blue field with white chocolate chip stars in every slice.