Author: Deanna Hoak

The finalists for the 2009 Endeavour Award have been announced:

Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Ill Met in the Arena by Dave Duncan
Long Walks, Last Flights and Other Stories by Ken Scholes
Space Magic by David D. Levine
A World Too Near: Book Two of the Entire and the Rose by Kay Kenyon

David Levine’s a friend, I’ve copyedited another book by Ken Scholes, and I got to copyedit Kay Kenyon’s A World Too Near, which is up, so I have many congratulations to spread around! Grats, of course, to those I don’t know, as well.

With thanks to Cheryl Morgan for the reminder, I see that the deadline to nominate for the World Fantasy Awards is today! If you are eligible to vote and haven’t done so, you should take a few minutes to get it done. Being the first copyeditor ever nominated in the professional category will always mean an enormous amount to me, and I can assure you that the people you nominate will appreciate your vote. Information on the WF Awards is at this link.

Also, the deadline to vote for the Hugos is Friday. Get those votes in!

Some feeds were showing up a hack in my website, so I’m testing here to see if the problem is fixed. If your feed is filled with spam, I’d love for you to let me know!

I haven’t had a copyediting post in a while, so let’s talk about “a” and “an.” We pretty much all know that “a” is to be used before a consonant sound and “an” used before a vowel sound, right? That seems fairly straightforward, but in reality it gets a bit dicey because of the way people actually pronounce words. Many Americans use the combination “an historical” with the thought that it’s actually more correct, because that’s how many folks from the UK say it. However, Brits don’t pronounce the “h” the way that Americans do. For an American, “a historical” is actually the correct usage.

Similarly, many people look down on American dialects that use “a” before words like “apple.” However, in those dialects, the “apple” is actually pronounced with a consonant sound. Hear that glottal stop way down in your throat that starts the “uh” in “uh-oh”? That’s a consonant (regardless of whether English has a letter for it) that starts words like “apple” in some American dialects, and the “a” that those speakers use in front of the word is completely natural, if not grammatical.

So if you’re speaking American and are using “an historical” as a matter of course, you’re actually doing a bit of societal hypercorrection. And copyeditors need to realize that “a apple” might actually most closely resemble a character’s native speech.

So, guys, I haven’t been around a lot the last year or so because of various RL unpleasantness that I haven’t felt like blogging about. I’m somewhat regretting that decision, as I’ve missed your support, but I still haven’t decided to blog about it. :-) Perhaps in the future…

However! I have decided that I will go ahead and attend a con this year, even though I was thinking I wouldn’t. So of WFC or WorldCon, which should I go to? Where will you guys be?

Lucienne Diver has posted some excellent, commonsense blogging advice for those in the industry. You should all check it out.

And what she’s saying goes a long way toward explaining why I don’t have very many specific copyediting posts. My job entails fixing errors, and I won’t discuss specific projects unless I have an author’s permission, because it seems impolite to me to do so. As Lucienne notes, “You wouldn’t like your editor to blog all over the Internet about your inability to properly place your commas or the plot holes present in your first draft, patched only because of their eagle editorial eye.” While I’m sure it might be entertaining reading sometimes, there are limits to professional behavior. If you don’t follow those limits and decide to rant on about the terrible job some person has done, people are unlikely to want to work with you, even if they know they could do the job well.

Author Peter V. Brett just sent me the following question he asked China Miéville during China’s live chat at Suvudu.com a few minutes ago. Since I’m directly mentioned, I thought I would post it. :-)

Live chat with China Mieville

2:31
[Comment From Peter V. Brett]
China, is it true that you will only work with one copyeditor, and do you feel that copyeditors have a strong influence on a book? Should there be direct communication between author and copyeditor, or should all of that go through the editor?

2:31
Chris the Editor: Appropriate, given China’s mis-spelling…

2:34
China: Peter V. Brett: I can’t speak for other authors, only for myself. I’ve had a long working relationship with Deanna Hoak, an outstanding copyeditor, and find it enormously helpful – indeed, invaluable, indespensable – being able to communicate with her directly. My feeling is the more intervening steps in that process, the more chance of miscommunication or error. I know some authors have a conflictual relationship with copy-editors, and I’ve seen one or two have even posted rather pissy ‘open-letters to copy-editors’ on their websites. By contrast, I think copyeditors are too often totally unsung heroes to whom we should be fawningly grateful.

Grateful of any kind is always nice, and it’s wonderful to be recognized as the professionals we are. Thanks, China!

Hi, all! With many thanks to Chris Billett, I have my blog and cross-poster working well again, just in time to let you know my schedule at this weekend’s OASIS con in Orlando.

Friday 8:00 PM: Future of Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing–Hear about the new trends from the people who make it happen. Finkelstein, Hoak, O’Shea-David, Ringo, Weisskopf

Saturday 2:00 PM: How to Work with Your Editor–What does it take to get a book published? Perspectives from editors and published writers. Byers, Hoak, O’Shea-David, Ringo, Weisskopf

Sunday 10:00 AM: The Science of Collaborations–How do two writers work together? How do you get two writers to work together? Castro, Hoak, Ringo, Weisskopf

I hope to see some of you there!

Wow. My post “Understanding Your Copyedited Manuscript” is ranked second in Google for the search “manuscript marks.” No wonder I get so many hits for it. :-) Thanks, all.

Southerners say “sweet tea” like it ought to be one word, with the emphasis on the first syllable.