by Sue Horner | Mar 26, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Easter was early that year; March 26. I was awake but still in bed when the doorbell rang. It must have been something like 7 a.m., so my parents and I knew something was wrong; we arrived at the door at the same time, throwing on robes. There was a police officer...
by Sue Horner | Feb 28, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
It looks like it’s not too late to cast your vote for the world’s oddest book title, which will be awarded the Diagram Prize by The Bookseller, a British trade magazine. The winner will be announced March 28, with the spotter of the winning book receiving...
by Sue Horner | Jan 28, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
January 27 was Family Literacy Day, “a national initiative that promotes the importance of reading and learning together as a family.” I celebrated by reading while Son #2 studied for exams today. I’m a big reader so it’s especially important to me that our two sons...
by Sue Horner | Aug 2, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
My dog is known to police. I found this out from a hanging door tag left by the local Humane Society while I was out. “Please call the officer below re: incident involving ‘Jake’,” it said. Uh oh! While I was away one weekend, Jake had stayed...
by Sue Horner | Jul 24, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
The latest Alertbox from Jakob Nielsen refers to Amazon.com’s e-commerce design (more detailed analysis here), saying: “Amazon.com continues with outstanding use of confirmation email to sustain customer relationships and long-term loyalty. A week ago, I...
by Sue Horner | Feb 8, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
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,...
by Sue Horner | Feb 7, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
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...
by Sue Horner | Feb 5, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
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....
by Sue Horner | Jan 29, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
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...
