Literary Child Stars

"Any sign of him yet?" Mark asked into the intercom.

"No, Mister Flyleaf," Janice's voice buzzed through the electronics. "But I have a couple of walk-ins waiting out here who've finished filling out their applications. Should I send them in?"

According to the wall clock, Mark's ten o'clock appointment was now fifteen minutes late. "Are they here separately or together?"

"Oh, they're definitely together, Mister Flyleaf."

It's All About Me! (An Interview)

I forget things. We all do sometimes. We see something that needs to be done and we tell ourselves, 'Don't forget to do that the next time you get the chance.' And then, the next time we get the chance, we've forgotten about it.

Words and Language, But Not on This Blog

I'd love to say I've been working on something wonderful and important, and that's why I haven't been blogging. But that would be a lie. I've just been working.

Not that I haven't been blogging. Just not here, where I really want to.

So today, in lieu of a fresh helping of logophilic madness, I direct you elsewhere.

First, Kory Stamper's latest at harmless drudgery is not to be missed. Lately, she has been womanning the Merriam-Webster inbox and dealing with questions from the idiot masses. On Friday, she posted answers she wishes she could have sent, and they're hilarious.

And second, some of what I've been doing. I've been writing a brief series about blog editing in my new position at digitalrelevance, and I'm up to 5:

• Are You Really Editing Your Blog? Should You Be?
• Blog Editing Tip #1: Read It Again
• Blog Editing Pro Tip: Get Your Adverbs Here
• Blog Editing Pro Tip: How Do You Handle Too Many Verb Tenses? (Not my original title, which was "The Secret to Too Many Verb Tenses Is Simple")
• And today's post: Blog Editing Pro Tip: Don't Let Cliches and Idioms Get Out of Hand

Watch that blog the next two Mondays for the last posts of the series.