by Penny Freeman | Jun 15, 2013 | Featured Friday, Writing
Language is an amazing thing. So much emotion can be conveyed with a carefully construed statement. Each word is a drop of paint, each phrase a brush stroke, every conversation a canvas, so why would anyone choose to paint by numbers? My opinion—most people don’t...
by Penny Freeman | Jun 15, 2013 | Sound-off Saturday, Writing
For the record, I have nothing against self-publishing, at least in principle. On the other hand, I do have a problem with oh-so-many self-published books. Going by the ones I’ve sampled myself, most of them seem to be pretty awful. I self-published my first...
by Penny Freeman | Jun 8, 2013 | Sound-off Saturday, Writing
So, I’ve been threatening for weeks to write about the forms and procedures that The X editorial staff uses for analyzing incoming manuscripts, and for structuring and strengthening projects they decide to take on. But it’s a good thing I held off until now, because...
by Penny Freeman | Jun 7, 2013 | Featured Friday, Writing
Hi! I’m Alyson. I’m new here. When I say “new,” I mean that I’m new to this mythical place of “Being Published,” not new to writing things. I’ll tell you how I got in, though, if you want. I have always been an avid reader. In preschool, I firmly requested that my...
by Penny Freeman | Jun 6, 2013 | Editor's Notes, Writing
What is it about verbs that make us all squirm? Every author I know (including myself) squirms when it comes to verbs, especially the “to be” verbs. You know, the “is” “was” “were” “be.” They are easy words to slip in and use. Little confusion, no superlatives, no...
by Penny Freeman | Jun 4, 2013 | Publisher's Desk, The Citadel, Writing
Surrendering to the inevitable. No matter how carefully we couch our criticisms and structure our support, sooner or later, we, as editors, hear writers thus opine. We brace ourselves for the inescapable complaint. It feels like a prerequisite of the writing process....
