Nancy Rudel
Author's posts
Dec 04
Quote of the week: November roundup
Let the human mind loose. It must be loose. It will be loose. Superstition and dogmatism cannot confine it. John Adams 1735-1826 When ideas fail, words come in very handy. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749-1832 Whatever you’re meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always impossible. Doris Lessing 1919-2013 Inspiration is never genuine …
Nov 03
Quote of the week: October roundup
Writing is a socially acceptable form of getting naked in public. Paulo Coelho I can’t write five words but that I change seven. Dorothy Parker, 1893-1967 You expect far too much of a first sentence. Think of it as analogous to a good country breakfast: what we want is something simple, but nourishing to the …
Oct 28
More Halloween costumes for writers and editors
Page Count/Countess: Starting with a standard Count/Countess Dracula look, complete with sash and medals, add pages torn (or lovingly cut) from a secondhand paperback novel to the cape using safety pins. Footnotes: Keep it simple by attaching yellow ‘post-it’ notes to your shoe laces by punching a hole in each sheet and threading them …
Sep 30
Quote of the week: September roundup
All the revision in the world will not save a bad first draft: for the architecture of the thing comes, or fails to come, in the first conception, and revision only affects the detail and ornament, alas! T. E. Lawrence, 1888-1935 The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. …
Sep 07
Ten better ways to say: yummy
Now that the summer heat has faded, I have more energy to concoct things in the kitchen. I hope a few of my efforts will be worthy of these adjectives. 1. scrumptious 2. delectable 3. toothsome 4. ambrosial 5. mouthwatering 6. tantalizing 7. divine 8. fit for a king 9. to die for 10. choice …
Aug 25
Who or whom? A fun lesson
Aug 20
Lost in translation
Usually I don’t judge too harshly when I see translation errors while traveling. I appreciate the effort to provide information in English and can overlook misspelling and other sometimes-cute errors. However this caught my eye and deserves some criticism because it’s an awkward translation that a major international hotel chain is using. They clearly have …
Jun 02