by Sue Horner | Nov 9, 2022 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
All the Halloween decorations are stashed for the season. American Thanksgiving is on the doorstep. Warm weather on the weekend had neighbours putting up their Christmas lights. Someone I know (not naming names) had a Christmas tree up on November 3. So, it’s time for...
by Sue Horner | Aug 22, 2022 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
As I note every year around this time, it takes real creativity to come up with truly awful writing. Yes, I’m talking about the winners of the over-the-top Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. This contest challenges entrants to come up with the opening sentence to the...
by Sue Horner | Mar 3, 2022 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
During such a troubling time in the world, it may seem wrong to be talking about grammar. Yet the pandemic, the anti-vaccine protestors and now Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have clearly showed the importance of words and how they are presented. Also, maybe you...
by Sue Horner | Dec 3, 2021 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Any contest (1) dealing with books and (2) awarding a prize to The Oddest Book Title of the Year is a winner. So if you’re a book lover too, you’ll be eager to find out the winner of the quirky Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title for 2021. Drumroll…. Is Superman...
by Sue Horner | Nov 19, 2021 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Festive lights and Christmas trees are already popping up in my neighbourhood. American Thanksgiving is fast approaching. The news is full of dire predictions for the availability of whatever it was you hoped to buy for Christmas gifts. Let’s get cracking, then,...
by Sue Horner | Aug 13, 2021 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
If you like the idea of spinning a wordy, over-the-top sentence that would be proud to launch a bad novel, you must know about the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. I first found and wrote about this amusing contest in 2009, although it began in 1982. As the site says,...
by Sue Horner | Mar 4, 2021 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Hold onto your dictionaries; it’s National Grammar Day! You can thank Martha Brockenbrough and the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (SPOGG) for this “glorious” day (haha). She founded SPOGG in 2008 “for people appalled by bad grammar in public...
by Sue Horner | Nov 12, 2020 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Festive decorations filled store flyers and shelves even before Halloween was over. A local radio station started playing Christmas music ALL THE TIME on November 1. A spell of summery weather shortly afterwards had some of my neighbours putting up Christmas lights....
by Sue Horner | Apr 9, 2020 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Music is keeping a lot of us going during these days of social isolation and physical distancing. Without live music performances possible, I’m grateful to #CanadaPerforms, an online program and relief fund by Canada’s National Arts Centre. Through the NAC and...
by Sue Horner | Apr 2, 2020 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Having been in a home office for years, I thought this WFH (work from home) thing would be a piece of cake. Turns out, I’m as likely to be stress-eating cake as much as the next person. Projects I had on the go are on the back burner. I’m spending far too...
