Usage: Comprise Vs. Compose

I see comprise used in place of compose all the time now. Writers use it to sound distinguished and educated. The actual effect is the opposite.

Compose means to form something by putting things together. It’s often used in passive voice (... is composed of ...).

Comprise means includes, is made up of. It is NEVER used in passive voice (... is comprised of ...) because that would be illogical.

Fifty states comprise the United States.
The United States is composed of fifty states.
Bacon, eggs, and juice comprise my breakfast.
My breakfast is composed of bacon, eggs, and juice.

The non-passive use of compose is not as common now:
We will compose a committee. The committee will be composed of five members. Five members will comprise the committee.

Trick to Remember
Compose is rarely used wrong, but comprise is misused all the time. So, if you’re writing comprise, replace it with is made up of and see if it still makes sense. You can also just avoid comprise altogether; you can live without it easily enough.

Grammar: None

None is a contraction of no one. This means it’s singular and follows the same grammar pattern as he, she, it.

Wrong: None are perfect. None of us are perfect. (It’s ironic how often you hear this.)
Right: None is perfect. None of us is perfect.

Trick to Remember
Replace none with no one, and that should make it clear.

Commas: Addressing

This is a very simple comma rule that gets missed a lot. It’s just this:

When you talk to someone, as is common in novels, their name gets a pair of commas surrounding it. It doesn’t have to be a proper (capitalized) name.

Yes, sir, right away.
Dad, can I have some money?
Stop it, Jim.
Hey, bro, help me out here.

This rule is only for direct addresses, as shown above, not for the following examples.

I asked Dad for some money.
I told Jim to stop it.

These are a different type of sentence.

Trick to Remember
If you’re talking to someone, their name gets two commas around it.
Is that helpful? That’s all I got.

Lilli De Jong by Janet Benton

Lillie De Jong by Janet Benton

Historical Fiction
☆☆☆☆

Even though this is outside my normal genre, this book sucked me in and refused to let go. While reading, I was living Lilli’s life and agonizing over how things would turn out for her.

It was impossible to be an independent woman back then (1883). So many people get hurt over trivial injustices they don’t see the real ones or remember how good they have it. Reading this book will make you very indignant over the injustice and double standards of the time and very grateful for the time you live in.

The depictions of caring for a newborn are spot on. Reading about cracked nipples, I thought, praise to God for lanolin, and then I read that they had lanolin and was like, Use it, Sister! And that stupid advice about forcing a baby to wait four hours between feedings is still going on today! I had a baby or two who were fine eating every three to four hours. But I had two (boys) who needed it at least every hour, and to deny them that would not only have increased both of our discomfort, it would have been a betrayal to the baby who was just learning to trust. The author also captures that sense of touching the divine you get from feeling a baby kick and when nursing to seeing your child create something of her own.

“Live up the light thou hast; and more will be granted thee.”

“I was stunned at being the basis of a newborn’s survival and awed by how my body and heart changed in service of her. Becoming a mother was no small shift in identity. I would never see any aspect of living in the same way again.”

“Do not be surprised, when thee has children, to find what I have found: of all the kinds of love that bind, a mother’s love for her offspring is the strongest imperative on earth. It is as common as sunlight, as all-penetrating, as necessary to life.”

“If our principles are right, why should we be cowards?”

It is beautifully written, hands down. It ended kind of abruptly. I would have liked to have seen what happened to all the secondary characters or a glimpse into the future.

Spelling: Stationery Vs Stationary

I’ve been seeing this in published material, so it’s still a common mixup. Note that the spellings are identical except for one letter.

Trick to Remember
Stationery is what you write on, and it goes in an envelope.

Stationary is staying in one place. If you’re stationary, you’re stuck at point a and will never get to b or c or z.

Quills Conference

The Quills writing conference, sponsored by the League of Utah Writers (of which Glenn and I are members), was August 24 and 25. Glenn and I volunteered but were only able to go on Friday as we had a wedding on Saturday.

Friday we got up really, really early to go to the U of U Marriott, where it was freezing in the building! As it was in the upper 90s outside, it didn’t occur to me to bring a jacket. I spent the morning in one of the conference rooms on the fourth floor. I had two mugs of hot chocolate. First was a “kaffeeklatsch” with an agent, where people came and asked her questions. I kept time for that.

Next was a session of manuscript evaluations, where people have their first page read by a volunteer (to remain anonymous) and then receive feedback from an agent, an editor, and an author. This session only had one submission, so it wasn’t exactly anonymous. My volunteer partner, who did the reading (I kept time), agreed to cover one of my volunteer shifts so I could go to Maria Snyder’s kaffeeklatsch because that was going to be EPIC. 

At lunch I saw Maria for the first time entering the lunch tent. I brought my own lunch; Glenn went ahead and paid for his. It was nice to experience some heat for a little while. After eating I sat in a chair near the elevators and read a little but ended up talking. Then Maria came by and said hello, and I said I was going to her kaffeeklatsch that was starting in a few minutes, so she invited me to ride the elevator with her. I RODE AN ELEVATOR WITH MARIA V. SNYDER, and we were talking like normal friends. 

The kaffeeklatsch was really fun. About seven of us fans were there and just talked about books and Harry Potter and writing and stuff. For the rest of the afternoon, I was assigned to timekeep for agent pitches. That left a lot of open time to chat with people around the registration desk (and Maria again!).

Glenn and I originally weren’t going to the dinner, but Maria was giving her keynote address there, and I didn’t want to miss that. We figured it could count as our anniversary dinner. 

The presenters were assigned seats throughout the banquet hall so the conference-goers could all mingle with them. Food was good. Glenn and I sat with LUW friends John and Kelly Olsen and writers James A. Hunter, Aaron Michael Ritchey, and Spanky Ward. Maria’s keynote was great fun.

The Brand Demand

The Brand Demand by Johnny Worthen
☆☆☆
Thriller — Mystery — Political

Overall, it’s an interesting story: A blackmailer starts a blackmail job that doesn’t go quite as planned and ends up running from dangerous dudes while also trying to solve the mystery of what just went wrong.

My big issue is that the MC, Galen, is such an insufferable prat. He is close-minded, intolerant, and judgmental—everything he claims he hates about everyone else. If I didn’t personally know Johnny, I’d have been very offended by Galen. I kept hoping there would be a twist at the end where he ends up in prison forever or something, but he just keeps on being the hero of the story.

CW: moderate strong language and sexual content.
It also needs some serious copy editing!!