Some Possessive Apostrophes’ Problems!

Most writers are quite clear about how to use apostrophes with possessives:

Singular nouns— for most nouns, the possessive is simply made by adding an apostrophe followed by an s:

The mustachioed man’s chickens have laid their eggs.

Plural nouns — except for a few irregular plurals* that don’t end in s, the possessive is made by adding an apostrophe after the s:

Many of his chickens’ eggs are ready to hatch.

* For example: Many mustachioed men’s favorite egg-dish is the humble omelet.

But in my experience, there is a great deal of confusion when it comes to proper nouns, particularly names ending with s, and since many writers—particular those who write fantasy!—tend to choose names that end in s, x, or z, this issue arises frequently when I am editing.

The general rule** is that for (most) proper nouns, and this includes nouns that end in s, z, and x, the possessive still takes an apostrophe followed by an s.

Singular:                                        

Thomas’s toenails

Cortez’s gold fillings

Jimi Hendrix’s hairy knuckles

Karl Marx’s moustache

Robbie Burns’s sideburns

Plural:

The Williamses’ washboard abs (Everyone in that family is an exercise nut!)

The Higganbothams’ horrible halitosis (Mr and Mrs Higganbotham are, sadly, both sufferers. Probably just as well).

Of course with every rule in the English language, there are exceptions happy to confound the unsure. The Chicago Manual of Style (7.18 – 7.22 15^th Edition) gives lots of lovely examples including:

For Jesus’ sake but Jesus’s contemporaries

Also: Euripides’ tragedies (“a name of two or more syllables that ends in the eez sound”)

Decartes’ three dreams (“singular words and names ending in an unpronounced s”)

Confused? I suggest you follow the general rule… or you could just use of, such as the dandruff of Dickens and the sneezes of Strauss.

** According The Chicago Manual of Style, the fiction editing standard. 

Kidlit 4 Japan

We have all seen the terrible footage coming out of Japan since their devastating 9.0 earthquake and massive tsunami on March 11th. The kidlit community is coming together to auction off donated items to raise funds for UNICEF, providing basic needs and services for children in affected areas (very kindly set up by author Greg Fishbone).


If you are a kids' book creator, writer, illustrator, editor, etc. please consider donating items or services to this very worthy cause. Here's the link: http://bit.ly/japanform


I am donating two sets of my Ginny Giles series (chapter books for eight to twelve-year-olds) and either a picture book editing and critique package OR copyediting up to 15,000 words. I will post auction details and where to place your bids for theses and many other items as soon as I have them.


Please spread the word. Twitter hashtag: #kidlit4japan

The Future of Publishing by DK

Happy National Grammar Day!

To celebrate, I'm posting two letters* that celebrate the importance of proper punctuation.

Dear John:
I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we're apart. I can be forever happy--will you let me be yours?

Jane

Dear John:
I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men, I yearn. For you, I have no feelings whatsoever. When we're apart, I can be forever happy. Will you let me be?
Yours,
Jane

* Created by Gloria Rosenthal for Games Magazine, 1984

It's that time of year...

...and I couldn't be more excited! Tonight I start back at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD CE) teaching ‘Writing for Children’s Books,’ which is part of CE’s Certificate of Children’s Book Illustration, but works as a standalone class for those who write only.

This is an eight week course designed to cover all basic aspects of writing a picture book. Through lectures, discussions, book-shares, workshop-ing, writing exercises, and other hands-on activities, students learn about:

• Children’s book sub-genres and markets
• What the market will tolerate, and what publishers don’t want
• How to get writing and stay writing
• The importance of strong narrative structure
• The relationship between image and word
• Picture book structure, storyboarding, and pagination
• Character development
• Common language devices
• Pacing
• Point of View
• How to show, not tell
• Writing dialogue
• Grammar tips
• Revision and self-editing
• Writing killer cover letters
• Submission do’s and don’ts

My goal is that each student will finish the course with a submission-ready and publishable picture book text and a great cover letter. Students can expect to work hard to achieve this. :)

RISD and I will be designing a Part 2 advanced course, hopefully coming this fall, so stay tuned.

If you’re joining us tonight, I look forward to meeting you!  

*(Please note this semester’s class is full and always fills rapidly.)

Green

New Zealand's flightless, nocturnal Kakapo parrot.
Critically endangered.

A couple of weeks ago I attended a public lecture at the University of Rhode Island called Should We Engineer the Climate, as part of the lecture series The State of Our Oceans, which you can view online here. This really was an eye-opener, and I feel I’ve experienced a fundamental shift in my consciousness over the days since.

Funnily enough, as during most fundamental shifts in consciousness, I suddenly find my days peppered liberally—and seemingly coincidentally—with strong messages and occurrences of the same kind from multiple directions: I happen to be listening to Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom on audio book, which I chose completely unaware of its green messages; Nestmate’s older gas guzzler had a major mechanical issue last week causing a significant rethinking of our relationship with vehicles in general; and other things like that too numerous to mention here.

Of course we are surrounded by environmental news and messages, suggestions that we make better choices (as simple as the ready availability of cheap green bags in many stores these days), and warning sirens. The alarm bells are ringing everywhere. It’s a matter of whether we choose to be aware of those messages, choose to hear, choose to wake up and make better choices as consumers (therefore applying pressure on corporations and governments), or continue blindly down a path of destruction, not only for ourselves, but for the other species who inhabit our planet. It’s easy to block out these messages and think, “My little bit of consumption doesn’t make a difference. My contribution to the damage won’t hurt a bit.”

But if one is actually informed about the effects of their behavior—and this really goes for any area of life—one has to ask oneself: “Will I give myself the permission to willingly and carelessly and selfishly add to the destruction when simple changes in behavior would lessen my impact? Is that who I really am?”   

I have always been fairly green. I use green bags when I do my shopping, I recycle, I am diligent about turning off the lights/heating/appliances when they don’t absolutely need to be on. But now I feel a need to do a whole lot more. So, I’ve decided to include a green component to my blog, for starters. (I'll also be walking and riding my bike much more often). Being informed is the first step, and then it becomes a matter of personal responsibility and choice. I hope you will take the time to read, watch, and think about the things I’ll be posting here from time to time.


And don't worry, it's not all going to be didacticism and doom. I fully believe humans have the ability to innovate and solve these issues, so I'll be sharing information and ideas along those lines.

Here’s an intriguing starter:

Too Quiet

No the title of this post does not refer to the fact that I've not been blogging much lately! It's in response to a question posted on my local SCBWI listserv about what 'too quiet' means in a rejection letter for a picture book. Since I'm often asked this question, I thought I'd share my response here. 


To understand what `too quiet' means, consider your story in terms of narrative structure and character arc. Does your story introduce a protagonist with a problem right at the beginning? Does the protagonist's problem and ensuing tension increase until the climax? Does the protagonist solve their own problem? Does the climax come right before the end, at which point there is resolution for all?

If you answer no to any of these questions, that's very likely the reason for the `too quiet' comment. I have often made that comment myself on manuscripts, which might strong in other ways and beautifully written, but in which nothing much actually happens, there is no tension, nothing driving the protagonist's growth forward. Often such manuscripts are journeys through an environment, explorations of a moment, vignettes.


Now, on the subject of my own sluggishness in blogging, I'd like to say that, after a little much-needed respite, I'm back and ready to take your editing questions, edit your paragraphs and sentences, and discuss all things kids' bookish and writerly and grammar related.