Changing hats
Although I’ve been a writer and editor for almost 30 years, most of my work has been outside the book publishing world, and I’ve never worked in-house. So when I pitched a children’s book idea to Orca Book Publishers a…
I is for illustrator, A is for alphabet
Recently, my book club read H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald. We discussed the book for the entire evening, a sure indication of a good read. At one point, Margaret, a former English teacher, opened the book at random…
Remembering John
All of us at West Coast Editorial Associates grieve the loss of Victoria editor John Eerkes-Medrano, who died unexpectedly on June 15, 2015. I delivered these remarks at his memorial on June 26. Thank you to his family for including us in the…
See also, indexers
Indexers, like editors, regularly run into people who think human indexers have been replaced by computers. “Doesn’t Word have an indexing function?” they ask. “Can’t it index the book I’ve just written?” Those same people might also ask, “Why do…
Join the exaltation of editors flocking to Toronto
From June 12 to 14, the Editors’ Association of Canada is hosting its annual conference, this year in Toronto (and this year co-presented with the Professional Writers Association of Canada). Dubbed “the first global conference of editors,” the Editing Goes Global…
No foolin’
Posting a blog entry today, I am, of course, tempted to write something farcical, outrageous, or dare I say, even foolish, it being April 1. But humour can be a dangerous thing when shared with readers unknown. Some so-called jokes…
So what do you do?
Imagine being an IMAX screen cleaner: you’d spend hours every day sucking the dust off the giant screens so we in the audience can get the full, vertigo-inducing effects of all the action. As a professional mattress jumper, you would,…
Mastery in action
Every once in a while, a writing or editing project provides an opportunity to work with a person who is a master in his or her field. Most often, it’s someone who works with words—another writer or editor—but not always.…
Correctness versus correctitude
If you are an editor, you likely have an opinion about whether political correctness is a force for good or evil, and will have fought your own anti-bias battles against certain words and phrases. Sociologist BJ Gallagher contends that “While the original…
Happy holidays!
’Tis the season when even hard-working language pros aim to kick back a little. Here are a few suggestions from our partners to help you enjoy this festive month: Merrie-Ellen’s musical offering is The Lamb, John Taverner’s setting of the William…