All Is Not Good

I would like to ask you all about something I've been wondering over lately.

I sometimes wonder whether I am too uptight with my children about using proper English. My parents were never very strict with me about it when I was young but they both were highly educated and always spoke properly, especially around the dinner table.

My children sometimes say things like "I did really good," or "I don't want to do nothing." I always make sure to correct them politely when they do this. "You did really well?" I ask. You don't want to do anything?" I correct.

In general good is an adjective and well is an adverb so it makes no sense to say "did good", but it is also not quite so simple. See Grammar Girl's excellent post on the subject for more details. Double negatives are much simpler of course, because if you DON'T want to do NOTHING, then logically you WANT to do SOMETHING.

There is nothing wrong with speaking incorrectly on purpose, to be cool, hip, or for humor, but I believe that you ought to know how to speak (and therefore write) correctly first.

I mean I can speak regional slang with the best of them:

In Boston my skills would be wicked pissah, boyo.
In New York they would be game tight, son.
In Los Angeles they would be the shizzle, dog.

Anyway that sure was silly but my point is that to truly understand slang and colloquialisms I believe you must truly appreciate proper English. I'm by no means an expert grammarian, just ask my critique group, but I do have a decent vocabulary and I believe in knowing the meaning of words, both the denotation and the common connotations before you put them to use. I hope to instill a similar love of language in my daughters.

The reason this came up is that last night my fourth grader was talking about her Horizons classes. Here in Georgia that is the accelerated track for reading and writing in elementary school. For some reason the terms B.C. and A.D. came up. She got Before Christ right but when she said that A.D. meant After Death I was surprised. When I asked her where she heard that and she said her Horizons teacher, I got a little upset.

A brief breakdown: A.D. stands for Anno Domini or sometimes Anno Domine which is a Medievil Latin phrase that roughly translated means In the Year of Our Lord. It is sometimes specified more fully as Anno Domini Nostri Iesu (Jesu) Christi (In the Year of Our Lord Jesus Christ). Basically these two terms are used in the Gregorian and Julian Calendars to refer to the era before Christ's birth, and the era after. There is no year zero; 1 A.D. directly follows 1 B.C. It would make no sense for A.D. to stand for After Death (or after his death, or whatever) because then there would be no calendar reference for the 33 years he was alive.

Needless to say I was a little upset that her accelerated teacher didn't know this. This kind of thing seems to be pretty common in public education here in Georgia. Then I calmed down, reminded myself that I am sometimes an uptight and total nerd about stuff, and that this teacher was probably not a history or a latin major, and I calmly explained the correct usage to my daughter, throwing in a little B.C.E. (Before Common Era) for good measure.

She wasn't very interested, but she did listen politely. Hopefully she'll remember it.

Here endeth the lesson.

So what do you all think? Is it important to teach our children proper English? If so how high of a priority should it be? What do you do when you hear of a teacher telling your child something that you know is incorrect?

P.S. Sorry I made it to almost no one's blog yesterday. We have hired new people again and I spent most of the day training one of them. I will probably make it to very few blogs again today. I'm going to need a BA meeting very soon. Where's my sponsor?!? Beth?!?

Step Four

Hi. My name is Matthew and I'm a blogaholic.

I love bloggers. Nothing makes me feel better than introducing a friend to a blog I enjoy reading that they might not have found otherwise.

It's like a big fat crack rock.

Today I am on Step Four.

I'm making a searching and fearless moral inventory of myself.

- At first I thought I was such a great writer I would barely need to revise. I've since learned better.
- At first I thought I was bad ass enough that I could do it alone. I can't.
- At first I though literary agents were legendary creatures of might and hubris, inspiring fear and servitude. I've since learned that some of them are human.
- At first I thought that no one would read my blog, that no one would care. I've now learned that this community of writers is made up of the most amazing people I could ever imagine.
- Getting published is important enough to me spend years working toward it if necessary. I believe in myself and I will not give up.

Soon I may share about Step Five.

Disclaimer: This post is satirical. It is not meant to offend anyone, or to belittle the integrity of 12 Step Programs anywhere, which have saved countless lives since their inception.

The Hunger Games

So I finished reading The Hunger Games this weekend. Wow. What a plot. What a character.

There were several things that struck me about this book. The first and probably the most obvious strength of this book is the pacing. Suzanne Collins has a unique ability to clutch the readers attention with her words and make it nearly impossible to put this book down. One thing she does that is especially compelling is to break her chapters up at a moment when it would normally be least expected. Her cliffhangers are unequaled by anything I've read recently. As a father with a day job I no longer have time to read books in one sitting. But I came closer with this novel than I have with any of late.

I don't have time to go on about this book forever but one other thing I would like to point out about Suzanne Collins is her writing. It's not simple, exactly, but I think the term direct describes it well. I've gotten some feedback recently about my own writing which basically has clued me in to how much I overwrite when it comes to description and setting a scene. Suzanne Collins does not have that problem. Of course she is writing for a YA audience, so there is that to consider but even as an adult I find her writing to be perfect for her subject matter. She does not use long sentences and tends to get right to the action. She occasionally spends some times describing something like an outfit the characters are wearing but there is a plot related reason for this that I won't go into for spoiler reasons.

Here is one quick example of a sentence from The Hunger Games that I thought said SO much with SO FEW words:

... she gives me a nod, and as she slips a spoon into my hand, I feel the pressure of friendship.

Even though I'm sure most of you have read it I'm not going to ruin it for others by sharing the context in which this occurred, but I will say that it would have most likely taken me several sentences to get that point across. I'm going to try to be more concise as I continue to re-write WARRIOR-MONKS.

In other news my new found friend and blogger buddy Jared Larson has a wonderful plan for an interview with one of my favorite people. He intends to do it soon but not until he has a certain amount of followers. I'm not giving anything else away but I will say please go visit this guy's blog and follow him! I want to read this interview!

Thank you. That is all.

Emily White Interview

Whew. It's been a long week. No I'm not that upset by the Vikings loss last night, just a little worried about some major holes in the offense. We don't appear to have a single viable number one receiver. TE Visanthe Shiancoe is awesome, but a TE getting double covered is pretty much gonna get shut down. At least the Defense looked pretty good, even with several backups starting in the secondary.

Anyway enough about football. I would like to thank Emily very much for letting me feature her here all week. It takes a lot of courage to put your writing out there for others to judge. She deserves all our respect.

Now, let's get to know her a little better, the interview:

When did you first decide you wanted to be a writer?

I think I was born wanting to be a writer. In fact, my mother gave me and my sisters pretty names she could imagine gracing the cover of a book. Writing is just one of those things I can’t honestly remember NOT wanting to do.

How long have you been writing seriously?

I dabbled with writing (and considered myself serious) when I was about thirteen, but I didn’t really get into doing it consistently until a boyfriend in college ticked me off and I decided he’d make a good villain. I actually finished that book, but it’s been permanently shelved.

What is your favorite thing about writing?

Falling in love with my characters. I feel like each new book is the start of a relationship. The moment I earn my characters’ trust and they start sharing all their little secrets I feel like I’m staring into my child’s eyes for the first time. It’s amazing.

What is the most difficult part?

Accepting the fact that the first draft is going to be horrible. I keep wanting to go back and edit while writing. It slows me down considerably and I end up having a hard time finishing.

Did you ever play Dungeons and Dragons, the real pen and paper tabletop game?

Haha! Um…no. I honestly had never even heard of D&D until college and I must admit my friends didn’t look upon it very favorably. I probably would have loved it because I love all that role playing stuff, but alas, I never did get to experience it.

What about computer or video games based on Dungeons and Dragons?

I’m obsessed with Civilization. Does that count? How about CIV III Gold Edition? There are magical lands on that one! No?

My husband and I thought about getting into WoW, but I’m so intimidated by it. It seems like such a close-knit community of people who know exactly what they’re doing. I would feel like a dumb butt.

If you had to meet one of your characters in a dark alley who would you last want to meet, and why?

Ooh! This is a hard one! I’d probably have to go with the Kofra (leader of the evil people) because he’s not necessarily evil even though his society is. He honestly believes in what he’s doing and he’s really convincing. He’s one of those guys you’d hate to have to debate unless you didn’t mind questioning every last thing about yourself.

And which character would you want there with you for protection?

Without question, Malik. He’s probably the only person in the book who wouldn’t fall for the Kofra’s brainwashing. He’s one of those guys who just doesn’t care. He knows who he is, what he wants out of life, and doesn’t let anyone or anything else define him.

Can you tell us a little more about ELEMENTAL than what is revealed in your query? For example, a little about your characters, where the idea of them came from, what sparked your initial idea, and how you decided what genre it would be?

You are probably going to learn more about me than you wanted to if I answer this question, but okay.

ELEMENTAL lived as a pretty little fantasy for about 12 years in my head. I always loved fairies and imagined what it would be like if I actually was one. Even in my imaginings, fairies came from some far off planet, so I think it always wanted to be a sci-fi. I loved everything having to do with science, so I tried to think of how fairies COULD exist without all the magic and what they would be like. Even the ability to control the elements is explained scientifically. Actually, when I came up with that concept, it created a whole slew of problems that I think added a few nice plot twists. And yes, I’m being secretive.

When I decided to turn it into a book, the MC was still a lot like me. Now, though, the only thing we have in common is the blonde hair and blue eyes. Ella is a lot cooler than I could ever be. She’s also a little crazier than I would prefer to admit I am.

In fact, the whole idea around ELEMENTAL is completely different compared to how it started out in my head. The only things that stayed the same are the races of Auri (alien fairy race). They had always been split up into the Windbringers, Watergatherers, and Firestarters. Now, though, the story has been influenced by my time in the military and been morphed essentially into a military sci-fi with elements of magical realism.

Wow. That was a long answer. :o Sorry.

Are you working on any other projects right now? If so, could you tell us a little about them? If not, have you got any ideas marinating?

I’m working on two projects right now:

Hansel and Gretel is about a company (Gretel) that creates a community in Hansel Valley, Utah for its workers and their families. When the children start going missing, Sebastian is the only one who remembers they existed at all. There are zombies, dinosaurs, self-aware computer programs, and even some mention of Roswell.

Army Strong is a book I’m toying around with about my career in the Army. At this point I’m writing it as an autobiographical novel, but I’ve heard those aren’t entirely popular, so I may just write it for my family.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I just wanted to thank everyone again for all their help with my query. There’s no way I could have gotten it as good as I did without such great feedback.

Fun Random Questions for The End (I stole this interview idea from Jen at Unedited, though I made my own questions up). Which would you rather be?

Wielding a Lightsaber or a Katana? Lightsaber! I’d take that mind control gift, too. ;)

On a Freighter running from a Fallen Angel or stuck in a prison ship? On the Freighter, definitely. There are horrors in that prison ship I would never want to come across.

In the middle of a desert or the middle of the ocean? Desert. The whole vastness of the ocean has always terrified me.

Reading The Hunger Games trilogy or Writing The Lord of the Rings trilogy? Oh boy, can’t I have both? Actually, if I had written LOTR, I would have butchered it and that’s just not a nice thing to do. So I will happily take reading The Hunger Games.

An Elf or a Dragon? Hmm…a dragon. I’ve always wanted to be able to fly!

A Dwarf or a Hobbit? Hobbit! I used to have a crush on Frodo Baggins. :D Me too ... well, more of a brush (that's a bro crush)!

Thanks so much Emily, this has been great fun. Any other questions readers? Thoughts? Don't forget to visit Emily's blog and become a follower!

Emily White's New Query

Here is Emily's new query, which she has updated based on our advice, yay!

Dear Super Agent:

Personal stuff.

Emily has a great point about this. She wanted to make sure to let me know that she puts this here because her dream agent prefers it there. The best advice for this is to find out what each agent wants, but if they don't say I would still advise jumping right into the story.

Seventeen year old Ella thinks it just sucks that life gets worse after escaping an interstellar prison ship. For one, in prison no one expected her to do anything except sit around all day in a dark, dank, dirty, depressing…well, you get it. But now, everyone she meets—though as nice as they may be—seems to think she’s supposed to save the galaxy from a war-happy fallen angel with a god complex—or die trying.

I mean, have they seen her? Years of solitary confinement haven’t exactly prepared her for fighting, or walking—or any semblance of balance on two feet for that matter.

But after being nearly ripped to pieces by some all-too-hungry giant bugs, Ella discovers a latent ability she never knew she had. Anybody order crispy critters? With fire now at her tenuous disposal, Ella’s forced to admit she might be different and come to terms with the monster raging inside her—the monster that would like nothing more than to watch the universe burn. Unfortunately, the god she’s supposed to fight’s not sitting around waiting for her to figure everything out. He knows the prophecy claiming she’s the one meant to kill him. But he also knows he’s got a better chance of winning and plunging the galaxy into a veritable hell if he takes her before she learns the scope of her power. If Ella doesn’t embrace the monster and stand up to this god, she won’t be the only one to end up dead.

ELEMENTAL, a 66,000 word YA Science Fiction set in a galaxy in desperate need of change, is rife with teleporting fairies, interstellar battleships, and things that go boom.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Emily White

This is so much better Emily! Great work. Just remember a query is never really done and if it's not getting the request rate you'd hoped for you can always come ask the community for more help. It's what we're here for.

So that's it for today. Thanks for visiting!