A presidential retread and those pesky his and hers
Mario here:
Two years ago I had the good fortune of meeting fellow scribe, Jason Heller, who writes for the AV section of the local Onion and was a contributor to Westword. Heller's a long time critic and raconteur of popular music and culture in general and a thoroughly funny guy. So who better to pen the story of former-president William Howard Taft running for the White House (again)? Heller's novel, Taft 2012 is getting excellent notice and his publisher is sparking up the buzz with these super book trailers.
Another FOBE (friend of Biting-Edge), J.A. Kazimer is sponsoring a Goodreads giveaway for an ARC of her newest book, Curses, A F*cked Up Fairy Tale. It's a great parody of the paranormal mystery genre, and here's your chance to score a copy.
Fellow Leagurer Carolyn Crane expounded recently about Some writing/reading things that she thought she'd never do but now does all the time. She discusses how Twitter has forced her to LOL and ROFL. And her beloved Roget's Thesaurus has been displaced by online versions. Like her, my dogeared thesaurus gathers dust next to the recycle box. It's so much easier to google *word* synonym. But progress brought an unexpected treat--the Merriam-Webster online dictionary's videos.
You get to see and hear brainy (and easy-on-the-eyes) librarian types pontificate on topics such as the pronunciation of troublesome words, flat adverbs, and the stinkeye. A favorite video addresses the whole clunky his or her construct. If you've ever had your hand slapped for writing "Everyone must bring their coat" because it's supposedly more grammatically correct to write "Everyone must bring his or her coat" then guess what? Vengeance is yours. Don't let the pinheads bully your use of the indefinite pronoun. And this video tells you why.
Wow, Ellen Archer's ideas are very future-forward and pro-active, but at the same time, kind of chilling to this writer. Print books are going to be only "print companions" in the future?
Oh awesome! I love the idea of those videos, and thanks for clearing that his or her bit up! AND AND AND thanks so much for the pimpage, fellow word nerd!