Back in 2012, someone put Erin Blakemore’s book, The Heroine’s Bookshelf: Life Lessons, from Jane Austen to Laura Ingalls Wilder, in my hands, and I gobbled it up like a guilty pleasure. When it comes to the classics, we all have our favorites, and many of mine include heroines that simply cannot be forgotten. They are power houses of strength—whether they seem it or not, whether they themselves realize it or not. The Heroine’s Bookshelf analyzed so many characters I knew so well that I could practically call them friends and allowed me to revisit each of them in a new light.
The best books are the ones that stay with you long after you close their pages. Ironically, Erin’s book about so many books had that same effect on me.
When you do something over, you don’t “overdo” it; you “redo” it. When something needs to be returned, it’s “due.” When it’s late, it’s “overdue.” When perhaps the barometric pressure has a weird effect, maybe there’s such a thing as “overdew.” Okay, I might have made up that last one.
Admittedly, this is one that sometimes makes me stop and think. But remember, “overdo” always involves the verb “do” as in “doing” something. “Overdue” always goes back to that “due date.”
Am I overdoing it with these grammar tips? I hope not. Do I have any library books that are overdue? Possible. Did my feet get wet because of some “overdew” when I walked through the grass this morning? I’m going to call artistic license on that one.
You may have noticed that my Wednesday Writing Tips have focused on creative writing for the past few weeks. I’ve been so excited about the upcoming James River Writers Conference that I just couldn’t resist. Yes, we all need to know the differences between less and fewer, who and whom, and historic and historical; indeed, it’s important to know we’re spelling y’all, yeah/yay, and through/threw correctly; however, if our storytelling isn’t working, the entire piece suffers.
And for the storytellers among us, I have a special treat this week. The fabulous Kimiko Nakamura, literary agent at Dee Mura Literary, agreed to do an interview with me. I’ll just dive right in, but for more with Kimiko, she’ll be at the JRW conference this year. I’ll be there. Will you?
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KS: What drove you to become a literary agent?
KN: I grew up in a home overflowing with literature on every bookshelf we owned, real or makeshift.More
No offense to Faulkner, but I think he got one of his most famous titles wrong – then again, “While I Lay Dying” doesn’t really have the same ring to it. The question came up last week: what’s the difference between “while” and “as”? It’s a great query because there is a little-known, subtle change in meaning.
As you know, both words denote simultaneous action, but do you know the difference in the following two sentences?
“As Erin petted her cat, she wondered about word choice.”
“While Erin petted her cat, she wondered about word choice.”
At first glance, they seem to say the same thing; however, one of these is a brief action and one is longer. Erin either patted her cat on the head and walked away, or she cuddled up on her couch with her cat for the evening, continually stroking its fur while reading a good book. Word usage tells us the difference.
To be specific, “as” is used for a short action, and “while” is used for a longer one.
“As Faulkner picked up his pen, he debated his title.”
“While Faulkner wrote his book, he debated a grammatical rebellion.”
It doesn’t take long to pick up a pen. It does, however, take a long time to write a book. See the difference?
In As I Lay Dying, Addie’s death is a slow one, not immediate; therefore, “while” should be the appropriate word choice. But we can chalk this one up to artistic license. We can give Faulkner that.
As a closing note, here, I like to believe that the usage of “Lay” in this title is simply the past tense of “Lie.” If it’s present tense, we have a whole other lay/lie debate. (Oh the dramas of word choice!)
We all have them. They attached themselves to our curious minds and tucked into brain winkles with their slippers and PJs on. For young readers today, maybe they’re wearing Snuggies.
Think back to your childhood, to that moment you marveled, you wondered, your tear ducts opened, or you held your breathe in suspense. We all have that one book that did it for us, that one book that made us view the force of words in an entirely new way.
For me, in 4th grade, Where the Red Fern Grows was the first book to make me cry. I honestly thought something was wrong with me. I was reading in bed, comfortable and warm. I could hear my family talking downstairs. My world was just fine, but I was bawling over my homework reading. This couldn’t be normal.
In 6th grade, Lois Lowry’s The Giver agitated my vision of the world. I closed that book curious, wanting to know more, wanting to figure out all of the ‘what if’s, wanting to know what was possible… Lois Lowry made me want to be an author.
All grown up now, I suppose, I look at myself as a writer. How much did these books affect what I write today? If not in style, how did they affect my purpose? Can books read in adulthood shake you to the core like they could when you were a child?
I’d like to create a list of great titles here. Please help my cause. These are the books that made you want to write, that showed you the power of literature. These are the books that we should share with our children and the ones we should explore further ourselves.
I’ll add two more to my list:
Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind
Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist