With all the questions swirling around us, one that doesn’t get enough attention is the role of the comma. Yet ask almost anyone about the placement of a comma, and you’ll get a passionate reaction. I told a well-read, non-author friend
Annoyances
Superbloke: Publishers’ Summaries and the National Library Service
1 Publishers’ summaries are promotions for readers looking for something new. You find them on Amazon, Audible, Goodreads and most other bookseller websites. Their most notable characteristics are cliches, exaggeration and urgency—altogether,
Gender Tags
In the past few decades my name, Adrian, has become androgynous. The distinction used to be between my spelling, which was for boys and men, and “Adrienne” for girls and women. Often this distinction is maintained today, but often not. Combine the
If You Are Having Thoughts of Murder…
We live under such a barrage of public service announcements that they have become white noise. When a train comes to a grinding halt or my plane stands idly by the runway, I'm likely to hear the standard line, “We apologize for any
Call for Appointment at a Doctor’s Office: A Story
Automated response system: If this is an emergency, hang up immediately and dial 911. If you are a hospital or doctor, press 1 because your call is important to us. If you are calling to make your first appointment with this office, press 2. If you
The Pain Game
How do you rate your pain on a scale of one to ten? The question is such a commonplace that when I complain about it to friends, they shrug and say, “They all ask that.” Why did this seemingly innocuous question annoy me? One hurdle I had to