Deanna Hoak

I often become enamored of certain words I see while copyediting, and the latest comes from China Miéville’s novel Embassytown, which I’m working on now: panjandrum. I love it when the sound of a word and its meaning match up so well. Panjandrum was coined by the dramatist Samuel Foote, which is undoubtedly how it [...]

I spent a glorious afternoon yesterday hiking in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and took photos until my camera ran out of battery power. I’m unfortunately not the best photographer in the world, but I did get a few good shots, like the ones below, and the refuge itself is a gorgeous place. You [...]

So I know it’s early for the question I’m about to ask, but I’m turning a significant number of years old next year (45, as a matter of fact) and would like to celebrate the occasion with my friends in the genre. To that end, I’m thinking of planning a birthday party at next year’s [...]

Would you like to see a picture of the gator that was sunning at the pond near my house today? I often see gators and a variety of birds when I’m out unicycling. (I’ve been riding about three miles a day lately!) He was about five feet, I think–not the biggest I’ve seen, but not [...]

I’ve been thinking about losses today–mine and those of other families. My dad, whom I miss so much, died at 56 from cancer caused by the Agent Orange he was exposed to in Vietnam–he worked on planes that sprayed it. Several of my uncles also served in that war. My mom’s dad fought in WWII [...]

Hi, all. I wanted to let you know that I just last night discovered the existence of a web-based spam filter on my email. Because I never use web-based email, I had no idea that my ISP had it in place. The filter was deleting mail every month, and when I discovered it yesterday, there [...]