Spelling: Rein vs. Reign

(Sorry it has been so long. It has been crazy busy lately.)

Rein and reign and rain all sound the same*, and they all have both noun and verb forms, so it’s easy to mix them up. Misusing rain (as in weather) is very rare, so I’ll focus on the other two.

Reins are what you use to steer horses. It’s also used in metaphorical expressions such as “We’ve got to rein in spending.”

Reign is what a king does. Note how similar it is to sovereign.

Trick to Remember
Reins are long and used for control.
A king may reign long or short.

*This makes them homophones, not homonyms, as I was told in grade school.

Published: Humor Short Story

I have a short story published in a Utah humor anthology. The anthology is titled Heard at a Utah Diner. My story is called The Road from Grief. I set it on a road trip so I could mock Utah drivers. Several of my writing buddies are also in it.

I also have a few hard copies to sell cheaper than online.

Book Lovers’ Memes (Set 11)

Usage: Rifle vs. Riffle

The difference isn’t a firearm vs. looking through stuff. You can actually both rifle and riffle through belongings. The difference is in your method.

To riffle is to flip through something like a book or shuffle a deck of cards. It’s basically a blend of ripple and shuffle.

As a noun, a rifle is a gun with a long barrel with grooves called rifling. As a verb, to rifle is to ransack. You can rifle through a drawer or suitcase, for example.

Tip to Remember
A burglar may bring a rifle to rifle through your stuff.
You may riffle by gently shuffling.

Review: Exit Strategy

Exit Strategy by Charlton Pettus

☆☆☆
Fiction — Thriller

This wasn’t bad but could have been a lot better. My biggest issue was the weak characters. Jordan and Stephanie Parrish are the two heroes of the story yet neither has a personality. They are incredibly generic and therefore impossible to connect with. I don’t know why they care about each other; I don’t get a sense of motivation from them.

The bad guys don’t have much personality, either. Our main villain engages in sexual and animal torture. I guess this is to show how bad he really is, but there’s no point to this behavior other than to compensate for a lack of personality. His motives are never explained.

The plot relies on the bad guys making some big mistakes and the good guys making just a few little ones. I get annoyed when either side is perfect, but it should be more balanced. I really enjoyed the chase/escape scenes.

There is a lot of jumping around. A scene will be a paragraph and then jump to another POV for another paragraph. (There are 88 chapters plus an epilogue and prologue in 406 pages.) Sometimes these are flashbacks, so at times I didn’t know who or when or where I was. And who the heck is Natalie??

Some plot threads didn’t seem to wrap up. What did the end mean, “folding”? Jordan and Stephanie were supposed to have a strained marriage at the beginning. Then they’re perfectly happy together. No talking it out? No counseling? I still have a few questions about Alex and Sam. Maybe I’m just dense.



The writing is fine but utilitarian — no thoughtful prose or literary qualities; just the straight facts. The writer also doesn’t know what bemused means. (Hint: not amused ) But I think any true thriller fan will enjoy this.

Content Warning:
Consistent strong language that just felt gratuitous
Explicit sexual content, including abuse and torture
Some gory medical details and graphic violence
Deliberate harm to animals

Usage: Fortuitous

Fortuitous has come to mean fortunate, lucky, but that is not its actual definition. It actually means random, happened by chance — subject to the whims of fortune. So it could refer to something that happened that was lucky or unlucky.

So if you are a traditionalist — or about to be judged by one — remember that it does not mean by happy chance; it only means by chance.

Book Lovers’ Memes (Set 10)

Spelling: Defuse vs. Diffuse

These words have become popular lately, and they get mixed up frequently.

Defuse is what you do with bombs to stop them exploding. This includes metaphorical bombs, like tense situations and quick tempers.

Diffuse is a chemistry term. It’s what happens when you add dye to water and it spreads out, for example. Metaphorically, it would be used when talking about something just sort of petering out or slowly affecting everything.

Trick to Remember
Defuse is what you do to things with fuses. 

Diffuse –> Diffffffffuse. See the f’s spreading out.

Review: Medusa Uploaded

Medusa Uploaded (The Medusa Cycle #1) by Emily Devenport

I haven’t read many generation-ship books yet, though I like the idea. This book has a lot of interesting ideas, and the writing is solid and shows real talent. But I think it could have used another revision.

I was confused a lot of the time. There are zero descriptions in this book. It’s as if the author was so afraid of info-dumping that she avoided exposition completely. I don’t know what the ship(s) looked like, what they were made of, how big they were, how big the hallways were, what color anything was. I still don’t get how the servants’ clothes worked. I can extrapolate a full visual image from just a little information, but I need that foundation. It’s like I was expected to explore this world blindfolded, but I failed at that.



Medusa is one of many androids that you wear. Again, without any descriptions, this was difficult to visualize. The Medusa androids can be worn like suits yet they are their own AI persons. I really don’t know how this works.

The society is broken into Executives — an aristocracy — and Worms, the servants. Oichi is a Worm. (I thought this meant she was a non-corporeal AI at first; again, no descriptions or explanations.) This society is waaaaaayy too airlock-happy. The ship appears to have about 200 airlocks. (Why so many??) They are used almost every day for executions, murders, and suicides. They are never monitored, guarded, or locked, apparently.



As a music teacher, I appreciated Oichi’s dedication to music. It WILL make kids’ brains smarter.



But I never knew what her goals were beyond sharing music with everyone else. Social equality? General knowledge? It just felt like she was meandering around, collecting other outcasts and getting tossed out of airlocks repeatedly. Also, the author doesn’t know what reticent and disinterested actually mean. A decent editor should have fixed that.

Nice audio performance.
Reader’s Choice Nominee, Summer 2019

Different From or Different Than?

You can’t go wrong with different from. That’s the standard rule. Different than is used frequently and is becoming more accepted in American usage. (Different to is accepted in Britain, but you rarely hear that in America.)

I want something different from that.
My definition is different from yours.
That’s different from what it was supposed to be.

Different than is more accepted before a clause (a complete sentence) and is interchangeable with other than.

It turned out to be different than I had imagined.
He is a different person than he used to be.

Trick to Remember:
Different from is always accepted. Different and from share the letter f.

However, you can still use different than in most cases, though I’d be wary of English teachers.

New Book by Dragon Authors

My author buddy Erin Michelle Sky is about to release the sequel to her Peter Pan re-telling Tales of the Wendy. The sequel, The Navigator, comes out October 8. Pre-order is available now.

—————————————————————

NOT EVERY ADVENTURE GOES AS PLANNED …

In this eagerly awaited second volume of the acclaimed Tales of the Wendy series, Wendy’s troubles are far from over. Hook wants her in irons, the crew wants to throw her overboard, and Pan’s magical compass is the only thing standing in their way. But Pan himself is nowhere to be found.

When a new everlost captain appears on the horizon, it will take everything Wendy has to survive. 

And a tiny red dragon will set events in motion that could save or doom them all.

—————————————————————

Kindle | Kobo | Nook | iBooks

Book Lovers’ Memes (Set 9)

Fyrecon 3

Fyrecon was in Layton at the Weber State Davis campus, which is two buildings named D2 and D3. This was my first time going, and I went because I was not about to pass up a weekend with Maria Snyder. I went to writing classes, including some of Maria’s, and I was familiar to her, and I got to talk to her because she’ll happily chat with anybody. I ran into her often over the three days. Maria’s master class on writing fight scenes was all afternoon Saturday and was very helpful.

Because the lone elevator in D3 is “highly sensitive” and trapped the event organizers in there for about half an hour, I started avoiding it and went up or down three big flights of stairs almost every hour. (This elevator has a long history of trapping people. It’s needy.)

There was a small vendor hall, and I got a few books and small art prints and visited with people there. Glenn came with me to David Belt’s class on ancient weapons, which was cool. He wore a kilt and spoke in a Scottish accent and happens to be a member of the Tabernacle Choir. We handled swords and weapons (most replicas) dating from thousands of years ago up to the 1700s. I learned a lot. 

I met and hung out with lots of other local writers, including Jana Brown, Melissa McShane, Jay Barnson, Julie Frost, Nathan Shumate, Michael Darling, Johnny Worthen, Bree Moore, and others. They are all great fun.

Me with Maria

Author Erin Hunter

I am behind on my Meeting Authors news.

Erin Hunter came to The King’s English bookshop and Jaelyn, my 16-year-old, also came as she is the big Erin Hunter fan in the house. It turns out Erin Hunter is a team of writers, and the one who came was a Scottish lady named Gillian Philip. She was very entertaining and funny and was great at interacting with the young fans. 

I bought Jaelyn the first Warriors book before her presentation and then the first Bravelands book after, and we got those signed. The great thing about The King’s English is that book signing lines are never long, no matter how famous the author. I was unable to leave the bookstore without buying books for myself.

Fake Grammar

In the 1800s, academics believed Latin was perfect and English needed to be more like Latin, and so some Latin grammar rules were imposed on English. From a linguistic and practical point of view, this was ridiculous. Here are two of those fake rules that must be ignored for English to fully be itself.

You can’t put a preposition at the end of a sentence 

Why not? Because it’s impossible in Latin and other Romance languages. In English, it’s a piece of cake.

I want to know which box it’s in.
Where are you from?
Pick the one above.

Just imagine the awkwardness created in trying to avoid ending the sentences with prepositions:
I want to know in which box it is.
From where are you?
Pick the one that is above the others.

You can’t split infinitives

Again, this is impossible to do in Romance languages but easy in English.

I want you to always remember me.
I told you to not do that.
You need to badly see a doctor.
(The infinitives are to remember, to do, to see.)

Languages come with their own laws that native speakers naturally acquire. Stop trying to override nature and shackle our language, 19th-century snobs.

Review: The Knife of Never Letting Go

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

☆☆☆
Science Fiction — Post-Apocalyptic/Dystopian

It’s hard to classify this one. It feels the most like a post-apocalyptic story, but that’s not exactly what it is. It’s Tom Sawyer meets Maze Runner with a dash of Hunger Games, at least in the feel of it.

It is expertly written. The world-building is great with important elements introduced naturally; no info-dumping. The pacing is solid, though the book is non-stop running from bad guys. It’s in first person present tense, which I hate, yet it didn’t bother me at all in this case. The author pulled it off, and it worked.

Our protagonist, Todd, is looking forward to being a Man when he turns 13. He is very pig-headed, which sometimes is a good thing and sometimes works against him. The author was skilled at using this character.

Because Todd is so pig-headed, it takes 80 percent of the book to find out what the Big Secret is. This is partly because he refuses to hear it or refuses to ask, but also because whenever someone starts talking about it, they get shot at or have some other big interruption. Getting information out of this story is like pulling teeth with just your thumbs.

The book includes the trope that religious = crazy/homicidal. It’s not as bad as some other stories, but it’s there, and it’s getting old. The villain is a Crazy Homicidal Religious Nut (TM) who refuses to die. Something kills him …



… again …



… and again …



… until you’re like …



And when you realize that’s the WHOLE PLOT, it starts to drag.

There’s a dog in the story. If you need to know whether the dog survives, I reveal it at the very end here.

I have to confess, I’m really not a dog person. I’m sorry. I only like dogs that have been trained to not bark 24/7, so that’s about 5 percent of all dogs. The dog here is extremely annoying, and I quickly began rooting for his death. Todd should have smacked him a lot more, and harder.



At one point in the story, Todd throws his book away. I was anxiously waiting for him to pick it up again, but he never does, and then it suddenly appears in his pack again. Did I miss something? I was listening very carefully. How did he get his book back?

I never felt emotionally connected to the characters. I sort of related to Todd, and that’s about it. And I hated the dog!

The book ends on a big cliffhanger. No single plotline is resolved here; there is no self-contained story. So you have to commit to the trilogy before beginning.

 

The book is well done on all levels. I liked it despite my issues with it. The audio narration is nicely done and uses audio effects to portray some of the Noise scenes.

Todd uses the word “effing” a lot and will sometimes say he said the actual word, but the actual word is also said plainly several times. Violence is graphic at times.

Spoiler ahead … 




The dog dies.

There’s already a word for that!

Prideful

If you are full of pride, you are proud. This prideful thing is unnecessary and longer to say.

Nauseating

I can understand this one. Nauseous means nauseating (to induce nausea). However, it often gets used to mean nauseated. So when you hear someone say nauseous, you’re unsure whether they really know what they’re talking about. I suggest sticking to nauseous as much as possible.

Reoccur

Yep, the rule is to add re- to a word to mean do it again. However, occur already has a word for “occur again.” Recur. Save a syllable.

Orientated

Whoa, what happened to orient? It’s a great word. Orient is a verb, oriented is the adjective, and that’s all you need here.

*     *     *

Are there any others you can think of? I’ll add them to the list.

Book Lovers’ Memes (Set 8)

Writing Advice: Dialogue

Books are a great medium for dialogue. Deep conversations, arguments, banter, and scheming between characters make books engrossing. Do not fear long conversations. Let’s look at “decorating” the dialogue:

“Hi there,” she said.
“Hello,” he said.
“How’s it going?” she asked.
“Pretty well,” he said. “How about you?”
“Just fine. How is your grandmother doing?” she said.
“Better, I think. Thanks for asking,” he said.

First of all, there’s nothing wrong with said. It’s invisible. It’s neutral. If you go out of your way to avoid it (using instead commented, replied, queried, etc.), you will draw attention to the dialogue tags and away from the dialogue itself.

Second of all, the dialogue runs smoother when the dialogue tag comes after the first sentence of dialogue instead of at the end of several (or many) sentences of speech.

“Pretty well,” he said. “How about you?”  Better!
“Just fine. How is your grandmother doing?” she said.  Meh

You don’t need a dialogue tag every time, of course, if just two people are talking:

“Hi there.”
“Hello.”
“How’s it going?”
“Pretty well. How about you?”
“Just fine. How is your grandmother doing?”
“Better, I think. Thanks for asking.”

After a few lines, though, the reader loses track of who’s talking when. You can solve this problem and the problem of too many dialogue tags by interspersing some simple action.

“Hi there.” She paused in her walk.
“Hello,” he said.
“How’s it going?” She began tapping her foot nervously.
“Pretty well.” He glanced up from his feet. “How about you?” 
“Just fine,” she nodded. There was an awkward pause. “How is your grandmother doing?”
“Better, I think. Thanks for asking.” He gave a small smile.

That’s rather overkill, but it gives you the general idea. Note how just a bit of action made the boring dialogue more interesting.

Any questions or comments so far?

Review: Eats, Shoots, & Leaves

Eats, Shoots, & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss

☆☆☆☆
Nonfiction

If you lament the illiteracy of the world, you can commiserate with this book. Here you will find sympathy for the pain of abused punctuation.

For any true stickler, you see, the sight of the plural word “Book’s” with an apostrophe in it will trigger a ghastly private emotional process similar to the stages of bereavement, though greatly accelerated. First there is shock. Within seconds, shock gives way to disbelief, disbelief to pain, and pain to anger. Finally (and this is where the analogy breaks down), anger gives way to a righteous urge to perpetrate an act of criminal damage with the aid of a permanent marker.

It’s short book written by a Briton, filled with humor but also concise rules of punctuation. She also addresses American punctuation, which is slightly different. I knew about these rules but hadn’t known some marks have different names. Highly recommended for any writer, editor, or grammar nazi.

We read privately, mentally listening to the writer’s voice and translating the writer’s thoughts. The book remains static and fixed; the reader journeys through it. Picking up the book in the first place entails an active pursuit of understanding. Holding the book, we are aware of posterity and continuity. Knowing that the printed word is always edited, typeset and proof-read before it reaches us, we appreciate its literary authority. Having paid money for it (often), we have a sense of investment and a pride of ownership, not to mention a feeling of general virtue.

Top 5 Usage Errors

This is compiled from previous posts, but it’s important information.

1) Uninterested or Disinterested?

This is an issue I’m seeing a lot in published books, which have presumably passed by editors. Disinterested has become a trendy word in books the last few years. However, it does not mean the same as uninterested.

Uninterested means one is not interested in something; indifferent.

Disinterested means one is impartial and unbiased; lacking a conflict of interest.

You want a judge to be disinterested but not necessarily uninterested. You will rarely, if ever, see disinterested outside of legal contexts.

Trick to Remember

If something is uninteresting, you are uninterested in it. If you are disinterested, you are distancing yourself from the interested parties in a conflict.

* * *

2) Comprise or Compose?

Comprise is 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.

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.

* * *

3) Amused or Bemused?

Note the meanings of these two different words (Merriam-Webster):

amused: pleasantly entertained or diverted

bemused: marked by confusion or bewilderment, lost in thought or reverie

Too many writers are using bemused to mean amused. They are not interchangeable!

Trick to Remember

Bemused is similar to bewildered.

Amused makes you say ah! ooh!

* * *

4) Entitled or Titled?

This poor word (entitled) has been abused so often, I think the dictionaries are caving and allowing it to be synonymous with titled.

Entitled means to have permission; entitle is to give permission

Titled means to have a title; title is to give a title.

Right: The book is titled War and Peace.

Wrong: The book is entitled War and Peace.

Right: You are entitled to a heated work environment.

Wrong: You are titled to a heated work environment. (Nobody makes this error.)

Trick to Remember

Title is only for titles, names of things.

The book has a title, and it has been titled War and Peace.

* * *

5) Farther or Further?

Guess what? These two words are not interchangeable. 

Farther is for distance: The store is farther than the school. You have to run farther than that.

Further is for degree: We need more money to further the cause. I will look into the matter further.

Trick to Remember

Farther is for things that are far. 

Further is related to furthermore and metaphorical distances.

Book Lovers’ Memes (Set 8)

Punctuation with Dialogue #2

Question marks and exclamation points are inside quote marks if they are part of the dialogue. If they are not part of the dialogue, they go outside. Simple enough, right?
“Are you coming tonight?”
“Get that straw out of my ear!”

Did she just say, “Go ahead”?
Then he rolled his eyes and said, “Whatever”!
Note how these two are sentences that are only partially made up of dialogue.

The same rule applies to commas and periods only if you are British. In American writing, commas and periods always always always go inside quote marks because it looks rather lame to leave a comma or period hanging outside like that:
The policy is “no exceptions”, which is fine with me. (British)
The police is “no exceptions,” which is fine with me. (American)

Review: The Finger Trap

The Finger Trap by Johnny Worthen
Mystery, Thriller
☆☆☆☆

This was a lot of fun to read; I loved it. It’s part snarky conversation, part mystery/thriller. It takes the classic noir mystery and places it in the modern day.



Tony Flaner drifts from hobby to hobby and job to job. Now he’s a ticket counter agent at the airport.

I sympathize with modern travelers. People like me vex them, frustrate them, and humiliate them. We search them, screen them, rob them, and then, if they didn’t complain, we’ll identify them as suspicious and bring out the guys with the big fingers and blue rubber gloves just to see how far we can take it. There is a good reason weapons aren’t allowed in airports; any sane person would use them after going through the post-9/11 hell of American air travel.

When Tony gets charged with murder, it’s up to him to solve it and prove his innocence. It’s dangerous and suspenseful yet still plenty snarky. I think Johnny really enjoys showing jerks getting their comeuppance. It’s a wish-fulfillment thing we can all enjoy.

There are some typos. Moderate amount of strong language. Sexual content is mostly innuendo.

Punctuation with Dialogue #1

● The simplest rule is to separate the dialogue tag (“he said”) from the dialogue with a comma:
Joe said, “Let me in.”
“Let me in,” said Joe.

● Complete sentences that go before or after dialogue get a period as normal:
She nodded. “I know.”
“I almost killed you.” Her voice was sharp.
These sentences are not actual dialogue tags but function like them.

● You can combine these types:
“I’m hungry,” I said. “I’d like some more.”

● If you want to interrupt a sentence of dialogue with a sentence of prose, use em-dashes outside the quotes:
“I would like you to know”—he stood up—“that I am not left-handed.”
Even though the action is a complete sentence by itself, it is part of a sentence that includes dialogue, so it isn’t capitalized.

Usage: Decimated

Decimated

“Personally, I think some early-years, respected television personality got decimated and devastated confused at some point, and no one wanted to point it out to him, so everyone started using them interchangeably. But dammit, words mean what they mean, even if everyone thinks they ought to mean something else.” – Jim Butcher

The word decimated goes back to Roman times when the army would kill off every tenth soldier to improve morale. Sharing the same root as decimal, the word literally means to reduce by a tenth. But when English took over the word, it was used to mean demolished, destroyed, or devastated.

Recommendation
I would hesitate using the word in formal writing to mean mostly destroyed. Enough people still hold to the literal meaning, so be cautious. Feel free to use it if it comes naturally to you.

Book Lovers’ Memes (Set 7)

Usage: Enormity Vs. Enormousness

Enormity Vs. Enormousness

Who knew this was an issue? I don’t think it is so much anymore, though.

Originally, officially, enormity refers to figurative bigness and implies a moral defect. You can talk about the enormity of a crime or a sin, for instance.

Using enormity to mean literal bigness — the enormity of a building or explosion — is frowned upon. You’re supposed to use enormousness instead. However, enormousness was never a popular word, and the condemnation of enormity as meaning large appears to be arbitrary.

Bottom line — use it however you want. I won’t correct it.

Brandon Sanderson Signing

Brandon Sanderson was coming to Costco in Orem. Since the last signing, I had acquired eight more of his books, so I was very interested in this event. I was going to be in American Fork in the morning anyway. The event description declared it was for Costco members only. This felt really unfair; I’d gone to author signings there before with no problem.

I borrowed a neighbor’s card just in case but ended up not needing it. I was in line for roughly an hour and couldn’t help talking about Sanderson books with the other people in line. That was great. The line passed through an aisle of appliances, so everyone opened all the fridges and ovens as we were just standing there in front of them.

“Skyward” was the featured book of the signing, but I had already bought a signed copy (and read it). There were Doomslug stickers! Doomslug! I asked if the M in M-bot stood for anything. He said Spensa is convinced it stands for Massacre, and M-bot is convinced it stands for Mushroom. Of course.

Brandon Sanderson and Doomslug -- photo not by me

The books I had signed were the Era 1 Mistborn trilogy, UK edition; Oathbringer; Legion, the 3-in-1 volume; and three Alcatraz books. Six of them I got for Christmas. I’ve read (or listened to) more than I own, but I’ll get them all.