Chryse Wymer and Colons

 (Don't miss the giveaway from Chryse Wymer, included below the guestpost.)

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Thank you very much, Alison DeLuca, for the space to guest post my final installment on colons, my favorite punctuation mark.

It might seem strange that I have a favorite punctuation mark. However, colons, along with commas, are one of the most frequently misused punctuation marks. Authors seem to be slightly afraid of colons. One author told me that a high-school teacher advised her to never use colons. Bunk!

This month, I’ll be hopping along from blog to blog to share my knowledge on the nuts and bolts of great writing. I am a copy editor, proofreader, and author—published both traditionally and independently. I’m also raffling off Amazon gift cards to get you started on your editing bookshelves. You can contact me at chrysewymer@yahoo.com, or, for more information, visit: ocdeditor.weebly At the previous site, I’ll also be keeping a list of the blogs I’ve visited and the subject matter I’ve shared. The Amazon giveaway starts December 1st and ends January 1st.

I would strongly urge you to view the first installment  regarding colons on Kriss Morton’s blog, The Cabin Goddess: cabingoddess.com It covers the first (and a frequently misunderstood) usage in detail. It’s also the usage that some fiction authors seem to avoid altogether.

Part two on colons can be found at: aliciadean.com/alicias-blog

 

This is the final installment on colons, so let’s get to it.

COLONS – Part Three

The first three usages can be found in the blogs named above.

Fourth, the colon can appear after the salutation in formal  correspondence: <Dear Ms. Dean:>

Finally, the colon separates elements such as a book’s title and subtitle. <WE ARE NOT ALONE: The Writer’s Guide to Social Media>, chapter and verse in Bible citation <Exodus 7:11>, hour and minute in time <7:22 PM>, and similar uses.

Four common Misuses:

1.     Don’t put a colon between a verb and what the verb refers to (object or complement). <She enjoys going here, there, and everywhere> (no colon after going).

2.     Don’t put a colon between a preposition* and its object <they all went inside for a cup of hot cocoa, their winter coats, and a scarf rare books, bone china, and etched glass> (no colon after for).

3.     Don’t put a colon after the conjunction that <he showed that everyone is beautiful>.

4.     Don’t put a colon after an introductory word or phrase such as for example, moreover, however, that said, including <several friends were there, including Sammy, James, and Ian> (no colon after including). However, a colon is often appropriate after a phrase that more formally announces a list (e.g., as follows, the following, including these)

 

Chryse Wymer

*Prepositions are a word or phrase that shows relationships of location, direction, means, agency, etc. between a noun and other words in the sentence. The prepositions object is usually a noun or pronoun. Often, prepositions show this location in the physical world, e.g.: <We went in the house>, <I went over the hill>, <They sat beside each other>.

Thank you for reading, and I welcome you to join me tomorrow on my blog: http://ocdeditor.weebly.com/blog.html

I’m going to cover the top five mistakes I’ve seen as an editor.

 

BIOGRAPHY

Chryse Wymer is a freelance copy editor and proofreader whose main focus is on indie writers. Her clients have been well reviewed, and one was recently chosen as a top-five finalist in The Kindle Book Review's 2013 Best Indie Book Awards in his category: mystery/thriller. For some years, she has been particularly obsessed with William S. Burroughs’s writing, who happened to coin the term heavy metal ... her favorite music. You can contact her at chrysewymer@yahoo.com, follow her on twitter: @ChryseWymer, or like her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChryseWymer

 

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Cabin Goddess

I've mentioned Kriss Morton's blog, Cabin Goddess, on here before in connection with foodies, and she does serve up a great array of dishes that you can just happen to cook over a campfire or, say, in a dry cabin in the Alaskan wilderness.

There's a lot more to her than that - she's also a book reviewer and a fantastic writer. Take, for example, this post that she wrote to celebrate seeing a moose with twin baby moose in her driveway. (What do you call baby moose? Meeselets?)

She writes amazing poetry too, such as this one titled A Kiss of Sin. 

Besides all that amazing creativity, she creates beautiful photography and graphics. When anyone in my blogger's group needs a banner or a button, Kriss is right there to help. Ditto if anyone is doing a giveaway or a blog hop - she always jumps right in to help.

I've spoken with Kriss on the phone on the transcountry Alaska - New Jersey line, and she's even better on the waves of aether. She is funny and passionate, and she adores good writing. You have to work to chat with her, though - her mind is so full of ideas and concepts that the conversation is a freewheeling Magical Mystery Ride, zooming from zombies to bacon to The Hairy Eyeball.

Kriss is one hell of a good friend. 

My Favorite Foodie Blogs

I love food blogs. I subscribe to most of them by email, so when I come down in the morning and pop open the lap top, BLAM! There are recipes for mojito cupcakes, and chicken fajitas, and Irish Cream Milkshakes right there.

The best food blogs are fun by entertaining people who serve up a bit of chat (what my Irish mother would have called "Grand Crack") along with the goodies. Here are some of my favorites:


1. Confessions of a Cookbook Queen - Last year I made my daughter Butterbeer Cupcakes, right from this site (complete with little Harry Potter brooms. Are you impressed?) But there are tons more yummies, including these mile-high Chocolate Cookie and Cream cupcakes. They're a good contender for this year's birthday. Kristan, the site's author and cook, makes me chuckle every morning and if I don't have a post from her I'm sad.

2. Another cool baker's blog is Brown Eyed Baker. She did the Mojito cupcakes up there.


3. Cabin Goddess - Sure, it's cool that I made Butterbeer cupcakes and all, but I am not baking in a dry cabin in the Alaskan tundra. Kriss, who runs Cabin Goddess, does exactly that, and she achieves a high level of fun and humor and deliciousness at the same time. Who else would feature a Zombie dessert? And obviously, anyone with the first four letters K-R-I-S in their name has to be a great cook; must be some sort of foodie law. Plues, the Cabin Goddess also dishes book reviews and chats about the Manbeast and the Hairy Eyeball. What's not to like?

4. chocolate & carrots - For the healthy cooks out there, and for organic expectant mothers, this site is like a digital Moveable Feast for all senses. Caroline, the blogger-cook, has designed a deceptively simple site loaded with deliciousness. I'll never be pregnant again, but I do want to make this Cauliflower Pizza.

5. I just started following eat real, and all because of these vanilla waffles with lemon cream. Sandy has a nice, long archive of delicious recipes. Some are exotic, but she includes loads of basics along with them.

6. That's What We Said - This isn't strictly a food blog, since they dish about Real Housewives, Whatta Man, and the Batchelorette. I can deal, though, since they have Friday cocktails and weekly meal plans.


There are many, many more food blogs out blogs out there, but I'm picky - I want a fun column as well as  cool recipes to try. These blogs serve all that and more.