I’ve been a fan of Kathy Ide ever since I learned about the Christian Editor Network and The Christian PEN: Proofreaders and Editors Network, two organizations that were a tremendous help to me when I began editing from home in 2006. Kathy was especially gracious in helping a newbie like me learn the ropes in the scary world of editing books from home. She even referred some projects to me, which helped me earn income to support my family. I’m saying all this in the interest of full disclosure before I talk about her new book, Proofreading Secrets of Best-Selling Authors. What Is This Book About? What a treasure this book is, especially for book editors like me. I refer to the online version of The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) almost every day. If asked, my book editing buddies would probably agree with me that sometimes putting our fingers on…
I was recently editing a novel and came across a recurring problem I thought would make a good, informative post about fiction writing. Here’s an example of what I want to address. John yelped as Mitch smacked him hard across the jaw while he was watching his baby sister. This sentence poses several problems for the fiction editor and the reader. Do you see what’s wrong with it? First, way too much is going on in this sentence. 1. John yelps. 2. Mitch smacks John hard across the jaw. 3. And one of the guys is watching his baby sister, but we don’t know which one because “he” is unclear. Who’s the babysitter—John or Mitch? A lot of beginning writers think they can join all sorts of details using the word and as if the word were Scotch tape. Technically, this is true—the sentence may make fine grammatical sense. But if…
In lieu of a Friday post (since I will be out of town for the holidays and unable to respond), I’m posting a book review of my author friend Deb Brammer’s newest book, Edges of Truth: The Mary Weaver Story. Presumed Guilty: The Child Care Nightmare That Could Happen to You By Adam Blumer Edges of Truth: The Mary Weaver Story by Deb Brammer with Steve Brennecke, CreateSpace, November 2013, 350 pages, $13.95. Novelist Deb Brammer and former attorney on the case Steve Brennecke retell the inspiring true story of Mary Weaver in Edges of Truth. Mary, an Iowa babysitter, was accused and convicted of first-degree murder in the mysterious death of eleven-month-old Melissa Mathes on January 22, 1993. Written with effective fiction technique and based on meticulous research of court records, the book traces the story of Melissa’s mysterious death and Mary’s journey to prove her innocence through the legal system—first…
