Contrary to popular belief, a dangling participle is not a euphemism for a male body part

Anna Haining Swan was born in 1846, weighing in at a whopping 18 pounds. Her parents, oddly enough, were of average height and weight, and I’m certain that as soon as little Anna’s mother recovered, she decked her husband.

Which is probably how my copy editor feels about yours truly. I write like I speak––still dangling my participles, and ending my sentences with prepositions and all that stuff we’re basically told not to do in high school.

Plus I had a ton of historical details that required fact checking. (The bus to Lake View Cemetery in 1942 was the #10, by the way).

Kinda makes you wonder how that process would work for a science fiction manuscript. “Let’s see, the ansible, which is a means of superluminal telephony, doesn’t work as well when communicating past a binary star system.”

Must be nice.

Honestly, I just finished going through the latest edits for HOTEL (two weeks of intense editing) and I’m ready to nominate my copy editor for sainthood. She did an amazing and exhaustive job.

Comments

[Sandra Cormier]

I write the way I talk, too. It drives my husband crazy when he tries to read my emails.

My first round of edits are due any day for my modest second novel. I haven't touched it for six months and it should be interesting to see what the editor says.

Grammar class gave me stomach aches. I sooo hated it!

[jamie]

Best of luck on the edits!