Deanna Hoak

Several people have requested that I write about what they can do to make the copyeditor’s job easier. First, I have to say thank you to those people, and to anyone else who’s taking the time to consider that question. Anything an author can do to make the copyeditor’s job easier is likely to result [...]

My daughter’s been writing a song the past week or so, and she finally got it to the point where she was willing to put it on her blog. I know I’m a doting mom, but I think it’s incredibly damn good for a seven-year-old (I even did a Google search of the lyrics to [...]

I’ve always thought it amazing how a copyeditor’s style sheet can give you a feel for the book as a whole, just from the list of words. Here, for instance, are some of the “B” words from my recent copyedit of Josh Conviser’s Echelon: baby-perfect (adj) baby-soft (after n) bad-ass baht (s, pl) balls on [...]

Scientists have discovered a methane gas deposit at the tip of an undersea volcano off of California, and the ecosystem surrounding the deposit has altered due to the methane in the area. The link won’t stay good for long, so click it while you can. The SF lover in me is utterly fascinated by discoveries [...]

I know that a lot of you come here for the copyediting posts, and I’m sure you’re probably growing tired of me blathering on about my kiddos all the time. :-) Truthfully, though, it doesn’t seem to me as though there’s all that much to say about copyediting: Although every project is unique, I can’t [...]

I’ve had some nice copyediting news recently. Scott Lynch told me in an e-mail that he was “delighted” with my copyedit of The Lies of Locke Lamora and continued with all kinds of wonderful-to-hear things about the job I’d done and my reputation as a copyeditor and so on. I particularly liked this line he [...]

Blaine and I spent quite a while clicking through the Batgirl pics this morning. What a fun meme! I can’t draw worth anything, myself, but Blaine (who just turned seven and has “author and illustrator” in her list of what she wants to be when she grows up–currently somewhere after “baker”) was inspired to create [...]

tagged me for this one, and to tell the truth, I don’t feel all that guilty about most of my pleasures. I’ll name a few that perhaps I’m supposed to feel guilty about, though: 1. RPGs 2. real butter and heavy cream 3. rare steak 4. Guinness 5. flirtation :-) And I’m supposed to tag [...]

I don’t actually see why my first “actual problem” is a problem. :-/ I took the free ColorQuiz.com personality test! “Needs recognition. Ambitious, wants to impress and…” Click here to read the rest of the results.

Since I’ve been eating frosting with a spoon for the last several minutes (Blaine iced her own cake, and there was some left over, and it’s so tempting, sitting there in the bowl), I thought I’d share my favorite frosting recipe. Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting 1 8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened 1 stick [...]