Doggone Right!

My little poodle, Ginger, is great therapy. How can I be discouraged or down when this adorable little creature wags her tail excitedly when I come into view?

Ginger is the smartest dog I've ever known. It's scary sometimes! Lately, poodles have made their way into many of my works-in-progress.

Well, we writers are told to write what we know, right?

Cheryl

Rejection Blues

Today I received another rejection letter. :(

The editor made the effort to give me detailed feedback, for which I'm grateful. I can use it to revise the story and make it better. But not yet.

I have to set aside that manuscript and work on something else. Rejections are a part of the writing business but still manage to give me a 24-hour case of the blues. Ordinarily I'd drown my sorrow in a big Hershey bar, but I'm on Week 3 of the South Beach Diet. :

So today I'm celebrating the 5 pounds I lost in 2 weeks instead of the disappointment of yet another of my "children" being turned down for publication.

My critique partners have been wonderful to commiserate with me. However, there's no benefit to prolonged pity-parties, hence the 24-hour limit. Tomorrow I'll begin again with another project and renewed passion. Tonight I'm drinking hot tea and wishing it were a Pecan Cluster Blizzard from Dairy Queen. :)

Cheryl

Welcome to my blog!

Howdy!
I write a grammar column and often get questions, so I decided to open a blog. I'm open to all kinds of discussions here, except politics and religion! We aren't limited to writing mechanics, but that's where I'll start.

My website has many of my columns; but loading files to a website is time consuming and labor intensive, especially since I have only dial-up.

I also love to talk cooking, especially healthy cooking, which has little to do with writing other than I've written a cookbook. Really, almost anything goes on this blog.

So here is my grammar rant of the day: Near miss. Literally, this translates to almost missed the target. Excuse me, but isn't that a hit? Today I worked the Sunday crossword puzzle and one clue was A close call. The answer? You guessed it. Eight letters: N E A R M I S S. I grumbled as I filled in the spaces, "A near miss is not a close call. The answer should be miss."

I'll try not to let it ruin my day! After all, Hurricane Dennis missed us, although it brought us a lot of rain and wind. It came near but missed us. Hmm. Could I have at last found the origin of this strange expression?

Cheryl