The polite assassin.

by | Feb 11, 2012 | 2 comments

Two nights ago I had a very vivid – full technicolour – dream. In the true the-next-morning fashion of dreams, some of the details have already left the building. However I can share with you the main gist of the thing. An assassin was stalking my...

Commas: apply with care

by | Feb 4, 2012 | 15 comments

Brace yourselves as we enter the world of the Comma: misunderstood, mistreated and underestimated. The poor sweet baby! (I’m going to stick to the basics here. I suggest that if you don’t know whether to put one in or not, leave it out. Get an editor or...

Tricky little apostrophes

by | Jan 28, 2012 | 9 comments

The following information will benefit everyone who writes anything, not just those who write for publication. It will help you when you write those company reports, memos and presentations. You do want to look as if you know what you’re talking about, right? It...

Self-doubt? Rise above it.

by | Jan 21, 2012 | 8 comments

Is it true that we rarely rise higher than our self-doubt? This week I’ve been pondering a statement I found in the manuscript I’m currently editing. The actual wording is: “Few people rise higher than their self-doubt”. When I first read that...

Keeping it new.

by | Jan 14, 2012 | 2 comments

Week two of January and already the “newness” of the year is fading. That didn’t take long! Perhaps it’s because I’ve begun work again, editting someone else’s book-that-is-about-to-be-published. Once you switch off the Big Fish...