It teaches how to improve writing at the sentence level. I based it largely on the writing problems I see in my copy editing work. It talks about upside-down subordination, passives, weak verb choices, weak noun choices, how to pare down flabby prose, how adverbs can backfire on a writer, and more issues that make good writing go bad.
I also use real-life examples of badly written sentences (many of them by professionals) and show how to break them down into parts and rebuild them better.
Here are links on Powell's, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Borders, and IndieBound.
It Was the Best of Sentences scored back-cover endorsements from literary agent and author extraordinaire Donald Maass (author of The Fire in Fiction), Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty (author of Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing), and Elizabeth Little (author of Biting the Wax Tadpole, which, by the way, is a fascinating read for anyone interested in foreign languages).
I really hope It Was the Best of Sentences will help some struggling writers become great writers!
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8 comments:
Congratulations!!!
Thanks, Deb!
And congratulations to you on Barefooted, Bad-tempered Baby Brigade!
http://www.amazon.com/Barefooted-Bad-Tempered-Baby-Brigade/dp/1582462747
well i commented on this yesterday but i don't think it went through? anyway, long story short, I ordered the book... but won't receive it until Nov! it's a free shipping thing. so I look forward to it and many congrats!!
Hmmm. Someone else mentioned recently that comments didn't seem to be going through. Sorry about that!
I can't believe any shipping takes till November!! Wow.
Anyway, thanks for ordering it!
- J
Congratulations.
I've never bought any of your books, as I don't feel I'm really the target audience. However, I would definitely buy an autographed copy from your world tour.
(BTW, have just spent a few minutes convincing myself that "from" is the right preposition above.)
Thank you! I don't think you'd get anything out of my first book. It's targeted toward readers with a lot less language knowledge than you have. (One chapter, for example, discusses its vs. it's.) The second one is more your type of info -- fact-checking supposed language prohibitions -- but I bet it's all stuff you already know. The new one takes a syntactical approach to helping writers who struggle with their prose. I'm hoping it helps a lot of people become better writers. (It's based on some of the problems I fix in my copy editing work.) But you're already a good writer. So just send cash instead.
Well, you never know. If I had a postal address and maybe a birthdate, I might send something...
Not saying I have anything in mind, but I could always go to http://www.createmychocolate.com/ and choose the six ingredients that are most difficult to spell. :-)
I have to say, customizable chocolate is a great idea. What an age we live in. : )
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