Hstrychsr

Genres: Paranormal, Gay, Romance. Adventure, Mystery Author: Jordan L. Hawk Series: Whyborne & Griffen (10 so far) A victorian couple battle to save the world from ...well, just about anything you can imagine, including family members.

This is why I enjoy grammar. Technically, you may be correct, although I suspect the vast majority of Americans would not know it. There is also room for debate. How technically correct does it need to be in order to make the meaning clear? How technically correctly does an author need to write? How many of us actually speak the way words are written? I wrote a piece that confused people because it was grammatically correct but not very much like the normal way the target readers spoke. Most Americans are woefully educated regarding grammar and punctuation so I lean toward clarity rather than technicallities. Even among my own grammar and punctuation police, I have heard some interesting and rather inane debate regarding who is MORE correct... In my mind, there is very little ambiguity. Raven and John have been best friends since third grade. (I'm sorry. I changed to 'have' since I know the rest of the story. I should have added that the two remained best friends throughout the story - which the author was trying to tell in real time.)

“The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.” —African Proverb

Thorn Wilde - I agree that punctuation can be tricky. And at times, so can grammar! As for the 'hads', I would have simplified the sentence to: Since meeting Raven in third grade, she and John have been besties. Clear, quick, easy.

droughtquake - I hear you. There can be valid reasons for many types of mistakes - even in our writing! However, I have paid good money for too many books from well established authors only to find the book peppered with problems. When a friend of mine asked me to do some editing and beta reading, I returned to him with a single sentence - his, from his own book. John had had a friendship since he had met Raven in the third grade, and the two of them had become instant besties. Seriously?! All those hads...! Over the years, I have come to view that word as measuring tool. The more often it shows up, the newer the writer. It's difficult to believe that an experienced writer would EVER leave that sentence alone. After putting out money, a person should not have to deal with those types of errors, even if the writing obviously comes from an inexperienced author. Editing and beta readers are important. ...or maybe I'm just a grumpy ol' snob..?

droughtquake - I'm glad that you had people around to whom you felt connected. That's important! Because I was gay kid and because I was immersed in a strange school environment, I did not feel connections to many people. Being gay, I was always on guard, staying hidden, and constantly looking over my shoulder for the person(s) who would 'do the right thing' and kill me. I spent my life trying to be good *enough* that people might be willing to forgive me for being alive. While I watched others around me doing immoral, or unethical things, I was feeling ever more disconnected. The school situation, although altruistic, failed to give me a sense of belonging even there, at school. We were just a bunch of people working individually on our homework. So much time was spent alone that the 'team-building' exercises were usually just odd moments of confused attempts at collaboration. As an adult, I have found that I am almost constantly at odds with the world in general. Everything is about winning or being 'better-than.' Competition is often so subtle and inherent in nearly every situation that many people don't even realize it. Biggest Loser, Survivor, The Bachelor, any sport, cooking shows, Ru's Drag Race, - almost any TV show in the top ratings will be about deleting someone for not being good enough. Social media, today, is a vast landscape of minefields. People are isolated from reality and other human beings while trying to navigate a labyrinth, or worse, a maze of information. Every dead-end or wall may have a scrap of truth or a flat out lie. There is no one to whom one can connect anymore to feel safe or secure about much of anything. Our world has gotten much, much safer for gay people - not anywhere near what it should be, but much better than it was when I was a kid! However, the world at large has become dramatically darker and less safe for everyone! And yet, or perhaps because, of this loss of safety and an easily recognized reality, people are isolating more and cooperating less. It seems to me that we, humans, never seem to learn from our history or mistakes. We should be cooperating more and could be collaborating much more. I bring this belief regarding collaboration into the writing world. I have tons of ideas and desires about creating stories but almost never find another writer interested in collaboration. Everyone has their own story, their own goals, their own take on something - I get it. And we all need a paycheck. But I have been surprised at how rare the true collaborative efforts seem to be. Even the act of writing is a solitary task. We *have* to be in our head, listening to and watching our characters so that we can transcribe events for readers. Perhaps, I'm just griping about my own lost opportunities. I'm not a kid anymore and I see the windows and doors slowly squeaking shut.

I'm well past the halfway point of my life. Nevertheless, even at this point, I'm still slamming into reminders of just how odd my upbringing was - how my life set me up to be completely at odds with the rest of the world. Left-handed among right-handed people, multi-generational household, gay back when people openly discussed using fags for target shooting. Each of these subjects have impacts and depths that many people may not realize. But none of those are the main focus of this. I attended an experimental school. There were no walls, no class hours, no assigned homerooms or teachers, no letter grades or even grade levels. Everything was based on mastery of information. I may be 13 years-old and reading a college textbook but doing remedial math. There was a very careful, deliberate elimination of all forms of competition. No sports. No pitting one student against the other. No comparisons. Competition was viewed as the root of all evil. Any instructor could help any student with any subject. There were a set number of hours to each school-day but how those hours were used was completely up to me. I have found, for my entire life, I stood out - for so many reasons! Aside from the usual things that a gay kid would be forced to deal with in the sixties, my brain was shaped by a counterculture philosophy. That, in turn, has been a mixed blessing. My personal happiness is inextricably linked to and indistinguishable from your own happiness. My goals and success depend, indeed, require your cooperation. How does one make their way through a world that is completely opposite to the way they were taught was morally righteous and ethically correct? There's volumes of details I could go into, but for a conversation starter, I hope this will inspire some comments.

Long, detailed descriptions will instantly put me in a coma. The over-use of the word 'had' will have me throwing a book away or hitting the delete button on my Kindle. Too many editing errors will ensure I never finish reading the story.

I was sick to my stomach with worries when I told my family as we sat around the dinner table. My older sister snorted; "Ya think?!" My older brother; "You finally figured that out? Pass the potatoes." My dad; "Same rules apply. No closed bedroom doors if you have company." My mom; "Oh! A friend of mine at work has the cutest son!" Sort of anticlimactic.

Treat the Earth, self, and others with he kind of tender care that ensures wellbeing, and everything else is detail to customize for your comfort.