Bedeguar drove me to the dictionary
Now here’s a word you don’t run across very often: bedeguar. I had to search many places to find out it means “a gall produced on rosebushes,” gall being a type of fungus. Looking at that definition, you might be surprised to find out the word was not used in a...
Nora feels bad about her neck
Just had to share another book that recently showed up at my local library (I was 29th on the “hold” list!): Nora Ephron’s I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman. I had read an excerpt in a magazine and found it hugely funny,...
Are dictionaries a writer thing?
An e-mail newsletter to which I subscribe (Writer’s Web Watch, now called Communications Concepts) recently recommended “improving your vocabulary” and using resources such as a thesaurus, grammar book, style guide and dictionary. I do have all these books on a nearby...
‘Cancer Vixen’ an inspirational book about cancer
When I run across a book that’s highly recommended, I check if it’s available at my local library and put a hold on it. Quite often I have a number of books lined up, so when the call comes in that my “hold” is in, it’s always a surprise to see what’s waiting for me....
The Red Jacket Diaries explained
After puzzling over the name of this blog and doing a search that came up with things like the name of a football team, a colleague confessed he didn’t understand where “Red Jacket Diaries” came from. Here’s the short answer: I’m more introverted than extrovert, so if...
Anne Lamott has good advice for writers
Several different sources pointed me to a marvellous book on writing, Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, published in 1994. The title comes from advice her father gave to her (then) 10-year-old brother, who was struggling to start...
Networking tip: Join in to benefit when you join up
In a post on his new blog More with Les (there, you see? I’m not the only one new to blogging), well-known International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) guru Les Potter, ABC talks about the importance of professional association membership to a...
Pay attention to detail to catch spelling errors
I’ll be the first to admit I’m not perfect. But like author Lynne Truss of Eats, Shoots and Leaves fame, I can’t help but notice and be appalled by the punctuation mistakes that regularly get past proofreaders. (Or perhaps nobody hires proofreaders...