Crap, where did June and July go? It’s time for the August edition of Insecure Writers Support Group where we share our fears and successes.
Thanks to Alex Cavanaugh and this month’s co-hosts!
Co-Hosts:
IWSG Question: What are your pet peeves when reading / writing / editing?
After working with professional editors for seven novels, I’ve become a stickler for grammar and spelling. One word I see consistently misspelled (even in traditionally published novels) is BLOND.
My editor taught me that the only time to use the spelling BLONDE is describing a female as a noun.
The sassy blonde approached me.
When using blond as an adjective (or as a noun for a blond man), THERE IS NO E!!!
The sassy, blond woman approached me.
I fell for the blond dude in a heartbeat.
Holy Leo DeCaprio, he’s hot! I fell for that blond in a heartbeat.
Speaking of pet peeves, do you ever read an early work of yours and cringe? Adverb abuse was rampant in my debut novel, romantic suspense With Good Behavior. So I edited the hell out of it and we re-launch it on 8/14/17.
If you have a moment to share my re-release the week of 8/14, signups are HERE. Thanks!
Jennifer Lane Books 
Note to self – no e.I have no idea where those months went!
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It occurs to me that I only ever have brunette characters so I'm not sure I've ever come up against the blond/blonde mistake. Good to know if I ever branch out hair-wise!
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I remember questioning my publisher when I noticed they changed blonde to blond. I bet our editors were from the same publishing house. 🙂
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I just learned that rule from my proofreader. When I checked online I was told it could go either way, now it's tied to gender. Amazing!!!
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My old works make me cringe too. Yikes! I'm thankful for a fantastic editor. She keeps the blonds in check.
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I have a three novel trilogy (women's fiction) that I've been editing for about six years. The first couple years I thought the first book was original, and cleverly written. Then I put it down for a couple years, read some books on writing, got involved with the blogs, and took a couple classes.When I picked up that first novel again I cringed so hard I nearly dragged the entire trilogy into the recycle bin. Its much much better now. Still needs a first chapter rewrite though. I just can't seem to get it spiffy.Misspelled words and wrong word usage is one of my pet peeves too.
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