Recovery

After two chiropractor appointments yesterday and a massage (thank goodness my hubby is a Nationally certified massage therapist), I can at least move today. The pain is not gone, but is greatly abated.

My son came through his surgery well and is at home recuperating.

So, though filled with pain, yesterday wasn't all bad. I actually managed to get some writing done while grandson was napping. Today we return to their home to help with babysitting duties.

As I was leaving the chiropractor, he handed me a book about living a healthy life. Okay, so I'm not the healthiest person around, but I'm not the worst either. But this book - well, let's just say I'm not going to promote it. It is interesting and puts forth some good theories in living well - cut out sugar, trans fats, exercise - all stuff we've heard before. And I would appreciate it more IF the author and publisher had bothered to read a grammar book or done any editing. It is not self-edited - the publisher is a small press called Foghorn Publishers in Connecticut that specializes in Christian and self-help books. They may be a nice little publisher, but they are desperately in need of an editor. I found eight grammar errors on the first page alone - and it was only a half page! The worst one was in the chapter heading - there in big bold print, glaring out at you. So, while I might find the tips in the book worthwhile, the book itself is not. I can turn off my "edit mode" for a lot of books - some I get into so deeply, I don't see any errors, glaring or otherwise, but this one is so poorly done that I cannot get past the mistakes. What I find incredible is that after all the conferences I attend, all the workshops, all the articles I read that say your work should be its very best before sending it out, something like this gets published. It really does make one wonder how bad it was originally.

So today's teaser is not really a teaser, but a tip: Have someone else go over your manuscript for you - a critique partner, a relative, a friend - but make sure that person knows something about grammar and spelling. Take a look at my web site under "editing" and check out the 100 questions to self-edit your work.