By Sigrun Buckley Sigrun Buckley has revealed the cover of her new memoir. I Once Had a Farm in Ireland tells the story of how a couple from Germany ended up on a farm in Ireland in the early 1990s, and all the work they had to do to transform themselves from professionals to farmers. […]
Businesswoman, author and blogger Rachel Abbott is my latest victim guest contributor. We all know how smart she is: she sold off her business and now lives in bucolic paradise in central Italy. The author of Only the Innocent, which has held #1 spot on Amazon for a well-deserved long time, Rachel has generously agreed […]
David C. Cassidy is a writer, photographer and graphic artist who is earning a reputation as one of the best book cover designers today, and as an author of gripping horror/fantasy books, with The Dark and Velvet Rain. I asked him to tell Written Words readers about how he creates such arresting, beautiful and evocative […]
Last week was the official launch of the new look for The Written Word Communications Company. The new website is based on WordPress and integrates the Written Words blog with the home page of the website and new pages that describe the various services I offer companies—writing, editing, publishing and training—plus samples of the work […]
What is it with CAPITAL LETTERS? One of the most common errors that I have to correct a professional editor is Overuse of Capital Letters. I see a lot of Unnecessary Capitalization. I have to wonder, why? What is it that drives writers—and by that I do not necessarily mean Professional or aspiring Professional Writers, […]
The useless and the pretentious: disposable words What’s the greatest threat to clear communication today? It’s not using “lay” instead of “lie” (“Lay your shield here, Captain America, next to Mjolnir, mine enchanted hammer, as we lie down for a moment’s respite” is correct). And it’s not writing “between you and I.” The biggest problem: […]
There are some errors that drive me crazy, not because they’re so terrible — anything can be corrected — but because they appear so frequently, and they’re really so simple that it’s hard to imagine how people make them. “Lightening” for “lightning.” People who should know better make this mistake all the time. Even some […]