I worked for two years to complete First Degree Innocence and since it's more a woman's fiction with a romantic element, I was saddened to see that genre losing ground as I worked to completion. I don't know why, because it seems my life is always about fiction. :)
BWLPP had faith enough in my writing to accept and publish the book in download. I found Rebecca by accident, and the woman is a miracle worker. I also need to acknowledge Laura Shinn, who took Dawne Dominique's awesome cover and made it work for print copies. Rather than post an excerpt, I'm going to share my video with you. Enjoy...and buy!
Ginger,
ReplyDeleteAs an anonymous editor from one of your publishers, I read your post at Margaret West's blog on "are we going overboard on editing rules?"
Yes.
Though I have held forth on our own company forums on this very subject, citing authorities on English grammar from the Anglo-Saxons to the Chicago Manual of Style (over one hundred), it seems that grammar rules and common usage are to be thrown to the wind. I was told to "Be quiet and edit."
So such things as "never start a sentence with a conjunction, or end with a preposition" superstitions are to be imposed on yet another generation of readers, authors, and editors. Spock will not be allowed "to boldly go" anymore in the Federation.
But these (at least in my case) are not rules imposed by the editors; they are by the publishers. I know better. And I learned the real truth of the history of English grammar in high school.
There is more to English literature than inculcated rules which are nothing more than the blind leading the blind, though it seems that there are those who think otherwise.
And I am very glad you brought up this sore point for me: I can argue until I am blue in the face -for- an author's work but it does no good if the publisher has "their own ideas" about English grammar and usage.
And it is a shame I have to post anonymously, but there are job questions involved.
Also, I used as many conjunctions to start sentences, prepositions to end sentences, long sentences, passive voice, single sentence paragraphs and other such "superstitions" as possible in the composition of this note. Even so, it does not seem to me as if it was written poorly, or rendered unreadable, by such usage.
A sympathetic editor.