On March 11, 2026, I received an email from a Shannon Kelly, Executive Editor at Running Press, an imprint of Hachette Book Group. She stated that she had recently come across a book I had written, The Complete Guide to Interpreting Your Own Dreams, and she wondered if I had a literary agent and if I owned the rights. I explained that this book, published in 2012, was a “work for hire” and that the…
Ah, the tricky semicolon, that little comma with the dot on top that many–including newspaper reporters, editors and columnists–are never sure when to use and when to not. I’m always amazed whenever I see a semicolon improperly placed in a sentence when a comma, period or colon will do. The rules are easy, really: a semicolon is used to join two thoughts together that are independent but dependent on each other. One could use a…
The Internet has definitely made it easier for writers. A wealth of information is at a writer’s fingertips and it has provided a way to work from home from anyplace in the country — or even the world! But the Internet has also produced many armchair writers who either think that they understand grammar or believe that grammar rules don’t apply in cyberspace. One grammatical mistake seen in the real world as well as online…