Author: Deanna Hoak

Knowing when to leave an author’s writing alone, even if it makes it look as though you haven’t done much, is a vital skill.

We had to put our sweet ridgeback, Cecil, down last month. He was eaten up with cancer, and we couldn’t cure him or alleviate his pain any further. He was the best dog I could honestly ever hope for, though, and I miss him terribly.

We’d gotten him as a puppy when my eldest, Blaine, was three months old. They grew up together and loved each other like crazy:

More baby pics of the two of them can be found at this album.

Blaine is taking his loss particularly hard. We’re researching new ridgeback pups to bring into our lives, though, and will keep you updated.

So, I know I’ve been gone forever. Sorry about that!

But I have some nice words from authors to share and thought I’d post. Ken Scholes, whose debut novel Lamentation comes out today, sent me a note about the copyediting on his second novel, Canticle, that reads thus: “Your copyedits are exceptional. I really want you on the rest of my series.” He also said that I “caught a lot of good stuff.”

Ken is edited by the lovely Beth Meacham at Tor.

And Daryl Gregory posted about me in his blog, noting that, “She’s stellar, and stopped me from looking stupid throughout Pandemonium.”

Daryl is edited by Chris Schluep at Del Rey.

Nice words are always lovely, so I thought I would share. :)

Rachel Maddow has a wonderful piece on the issue Florida is having with voting lines.

I voted for Obama and against Florida’s prejudicial Proposition 2, which would deny same-sex partners any rights, in the first hour of the first day of early voting–my wait was only half an hour, so I was lucky. Right now I am off to give out water at the polls, to those who may not be so lucky.

Get out and vote, folks. Take snacks, maybe a lawn chair. If the line is long, please commit to staying in it. Let’s make a difference.

So I do occasionally search for myself on Google, because I’m always interested in the links I might have missed. This last time, a nifty page from Amazon popped up, showing some of the books in which I know I’m mentioned.

I knew about most of them, but I have to ask: Do any of you know how I’m mentioned in the 2009 Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market? There’s no “Search Inside” feature, and I am of course curious. :)

ETA: Ah. John Joseph Adams was kind enough to include me in his “Blogs Writers Should Be Reading” article for that book. Thanks, John!

You know, my first WoW character was a Hordie, and I always have preferred that faction (though admittedly, the draenei are pretty cool). Now I see reason behind my preference–the Horde prefer Obama:

My daughter, who has a 70 Tauren druid, gasped at about the 2:18 mark: “That pally is saying Obama is a Tauren druid like it’s a bad thing? What an idiot!”

Long-time readers already know that my son has a wild imagination. But today he told me that when he grows up, he’s going to have a sun for a pet–that he’ll become an astronaut, fly up, and steal the sun’s baby.

It’s just…I don’t know. I know we’re all enamored of our kids, but it’s such an enchanting story idea, isn’t it?

Since this is a copyediting subject, I may as well join in the fray.

Andrew Wheeler takes exception to Matt Cheney’s post claiming that “their” is fine as a singular.

I’m firmly with Matt on this one. This usage has gained popularity due to the need to eliminate the utterly silly and sexist use of “his” as a gender-neutral pronoun. Yes, you can usually rewrite sentences to get around the use of a singular “their” (the easiest way to do so is to pluralize the subject, but you can’t always do that), but the sentences often end up sounding stilted and unnatural. Using “their” to refer to a singular subject frequently results in the most natural sentence structure, which is especially important for fiction.

For whomever hit my site searching for “make six figures proofreading books”…

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

Stop it. You’re killing me.