writers.com newsletter

a monthly electronic publication from
Writers on the Net
http://www.writers.com
Vol. 7, No. 7
July 2004

IN THIS ISSUE:

INSTRUCTOR UPDATE ~~CLASS SCHEDULE~~
[to current class schedule page]
PUNCTUATION POINTER: the colon
ROOTS: "picnic"
~~NEWSLINKS~~
QUOTATION

INSTRUCTOR UPDATE

We occasionally like to update our readers and students on the most recent achievements of our teaching staff here at Writers on the Net. So, even though we admit to bragging a bit, we think you'll find the information of interest.

SHEILA BENDER's latest book WRITING AND PUBLISHING PERSONAL ESSAYS will be out in fall 2004. She's willing to give Writers.com students an extra month on a one-year's subscription to "Writing It Real," her online magazine for those who write from personal experience. All they have to do is type "writers.com" in where the online form asks for who referred you. Your account will be credited the extra month of articles. See http://writingitreal.com/ for details.

CHARLES DEEMER's written the libretto to an opera by John Nugent, DARK MISSION, scheduled to premier in 2005. His short novel, LOVE AT GROUND ZERO, a tragic multicultural love story set against the events of 9/11, is now available. One reviewer called it "...a shard through the heart. Timely, powerful and sadly resonant.... Overall, this is a smashing piece of work." Deemer's also under contract to write PRACTICAL SCREENWRITING, which should appear in 2005.

You can find out what DENNIS FOLEY is up to, where he's speaking, teaching, lecturing or running a workshop by checking his Web site: http://www.dennisfoley.com.

PAULA GURAN's acquired a bunch of new titles for Writers.com Books and its two new imprints Caelum press and Infrapress. Make sure you check of the new expanded Web sites at http://www.writers.com/publishing. (There's a special offer for you below, too.) She's also attempting to blog at http://www.sparkpod.com/darkecho.

JOHN HIGH now has a tenure-track creative writing professorship at Long Island University in New York City. A large selection of his new poems is in the current "Talisman Review."

GLORIA KEMPTON's new book, DIALOGUE will be published by Writer's Digest Books as the first in their new series, Writing Great Fiction. It covers everything from how to format and punctuate dialogue to how to write specific kinds of dialogue for specific fiction genres. There's a chapter of overcoming fear of writing dialogue and another on making your dialogue authentic for the characters you create. Plus, it's filled with fun exercises.

UMA KRISHNASWAMI's new YA novel, NAMING MAYA, was published in April by Farrar Straus Giroux. Her picture book, CHACHAJI'S CUP (2003, Children's Book Press), won the 2004 Paterson Prize for Books for Young People. The Paterson committee also made special mention of another picture book of Uma's, MONSOON (2003, FSG). In addition, CHACHAJI'S CUP won a Skipping Stones award, and MONSOON won the Marion Vannett Ridgeway Award for its illustrations by artist Jamel Akib. Uma's currently working on two new picture books under contract with Lee & Low and Children's Book Press, and on gutting-and-rewriting another YA novel.

SEARCHING FOR A MUSTARD SEED: ONE YOUNG WIDOW'S STORY, MIRIAM SAGAN's memoir, just won an Independant Publishers award.

SAMSON'S DEAL, the first book in SHELLY SINGER's Jake Samson-Rosie Vicente series is now out as an audiobook from Books in Motion. The five others in the series are due out this year. They can be ordered through www.booksinmotion.com. Shelly's also at work on a new near future science fiction spy novel she hopes to finish this year.

ALLEGRA WONG's first book, THE EAST WINDOW, has been accepted by New York City literary publishing house, Spuyten Duyvil. It is scheduled for publication in the summer of 2005. Tod Thilleman of Spuyten Duyvil describes the book as "...a prose memoir with evocations of the nature and spectacle of past time. It is an exploration of time itself, somewhat in the tentative vein of Proust."

PUNCTUATION POINTERS: the colon

The easiest way to consider the proper use of the colon in prose is to realize it *introduces* something: a list, a word, a phrase, a sentence, or a quotation. Since the reader comes to a mental "stop" with a colon, it tends to give added emphasis to whatever you're introducing. Both of the sentences below are correct, but the second example places more emphasis on the point we are trying to make.

-- The new class is especially helpful in the area of learning basic skills.
-- The new class is especially helpful in one area: learning basic skills.

If you are unsure about using a colon, try this: read the sentence, and when you reach the colon, substitute the word *namely*. If the sentence reads through smoothly, then there's a good chance that you do need a colon.

-- The incumbent has only one thing on his mind [namely] winning.
-- The incumbent has only one thing on his mind [namely] he wants to get re-elected.
-- The incumbent has three things on his mind [namely] votes, issues, and polls.

The "namely test" may not work all of the time, but it is fairly reliable.

Other uses of the colon --

--after the greeting in a business letter
Dear Chairperson:
Dear Sir:
Dear Dr. Jones:

-- between hours and minutes in the time of day
The train is due at 5:14 P.M.

-- between a title and its subtitle
The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality

-- between chapter and verse in biblical references
Today's reading is from Job 13:15.

ROOTS
"picnic"

Our word "picnic" originated with the French "pique-nique." Sometime during the 17th century, the French took the verb "piquer," meaning "to pick or peck" (also the source of English "pick") and added the rhyming but meaningless syllable "nique" (Some think it harkened to the obsolete word "nique," "trifle"). Originally the meaning of "pique-nique" was closer to what we now refer to as a "potluck" meal -- a social gathering to which everyone brings food.

The Germans changed it to "picknick" and the word appeared in English as early as 1748 in reference to "picknicks" in Germany. It was not commonly used in Britain until the 19th century when it also came to mean outdoor eating. Later the meaning expanded to include a pleasant experience or an easy task. According to Countrylife.co.uk, however, there was nothing easy about preparing a Victorian picnic. Picnics were often lavish feasts for large parties. Victorian domestic doyenne Mrs. Beeton recommended that a picnic for forty required "a joint of cold roast beef, a joint of cold boiled beef, 2 ribs of lamb, 2 shoulders of lamb, 4 roast fowls, 2 roast ducks, 1 ham, 1 tongue, 2 veal and ham pies, 2 pigeon pies, 6 medium lobsters, 1 piece of collardcalf's head, 18 lettuces, 6 baskets of salad, 6 cucumbers." Of course, you'd also need dessert, so include; "Stewed fruit well sweetened, and put into glass bottles well corked; 3 or 4 dozen plain pastry biscuits to eat with the stewed fruit, 2 dozen fruit turnovers, 4 dozen cheesecakes, 2 cold cabinet puddings in moulds, 2 blancmanges in moulds, a few jam puffs," and more, including "a tin of mixed biscuits and 1/2 lb. of tea."

Water, she wrote, could "usually be obtained; so it is useless to take it."

QUOTATION: "You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them." -- Ray Bradbury (b.1920)

Copyright (c) 2004 Writers on the Net. This publication may not be reproduced in print or posted on the Web or used in any other fashion, in whole or in part, without written permission from Writers on the Net.

Want to receive "Writers.com" or get rid of it? http://writers.com/maillist.htm or by emailing writers@writers.com

"Writers.com" is produced for Writers on the Net by Paula Guran (paula@writers.com).

home:about:classes:enroll:services:instructors:newsletter:tips:store