by Sue Horner | Oct 6, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
As my friend Sue once said, “Every time I start to lose a little faith in my fellow human beings, along come the Bulwer-Lytton awards.” This annual celebration of the best of the worst is the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. Writers apply their talents to...
by Sue Horner | Apr 1, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
At a time when attention spans are shorter than ever, a long-running quirky contest fits right in. Yes, I’m talking about The Bookseller’s Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title. “We don’t judge books on the contents within or even by their covers, but by their purest,...
by Sue Horner | Mar 4, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
It’s National Grammar Day! I know, exciting, isn’t it? 🙂 The big day goes back to 2008, when Martha Brockenbrough and the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (SPOGG) founded it. SPOGG is “for people appalled by bad grammar in public spaces.” Yup,...
by Sue Horner | Dec 16, 2015 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Are you still Christmas shopping? As the big day hurtles closer, those ads warning of “last minute” are starting to hit home. If you have avid readers/writers/word-and-punctuation nerds on your list, you might be interested in these dozen ideas, inspired...
by Sue Horner | Apr 29, 2015 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
The clever folks at The Bookseller, a British trade magazine, have a way with words and a good sense of humour. Exhibit A: The Oddest Book Title contest. I’ve written before about this funny contest, conceived in 1978 by The Diagram Group’s Bruce Robertson as a...
by Sue Horner | Dec 18, 2013 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Here it is, almost Christmas, and you’re trying to get work done? Take a minute for a laugh or two: Five days of Christmas sweaters, with Jimmy Fallon. In the original video I linked to (sorry, no longer available), he gives away one with a roaring fire scene he...
by Sue Horner | Dec 5, 2013 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Author Helen Fielding didn’t get the prize because her Mad About the Boy wasn’t deemed “cringeworthy” enough. The Fifty Shades books didn’t qualify either, because the prize doesn’t go to porn or erotic literature. The prize in...
by Sue Horner | Dec 4, 2012 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
In absolutely shocking news, E.L. James and her Fifty Shades books did not even make the shortlist for the annual Bad Sex in Fiction award. Nor did J.K. Rowling for her adult novel, The Casual Vacancy. According to the Guardian’s Maev Kennedy, the Fifty Shades...
by Sue Horner | Sep 23, 2012 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Oh, if only those spammers would just apply their endless energy to good! But no, they are spending time posting spam. At least it is often flattering and cheery, if many times incoherent: This is definitely the thing I’ve been looking for! Wonderful and...
by Sue Horner | Sep 11, 2012 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
National Punctuation Day is fast approaching; do you have your assignment yet? What, you haven’t been eagerly awaiting Sept. 24? That is the day when Jeff Rubin reminds us that “a semicolon is not a surgical procedure,” and urges us to freely toss...
