Ghost Posts

Apologies for the few ghost-posts which Google Reader insists have been published but which have not actually appeared on the blog: I've been struggling to get things scheduled properly again. I think I've got it sorted out now, and in future reviews should appear every Thursday morning at 10 am, UK time.

Sorry For The Delay....

Due to a few sign-in problems I've been unable to add to this blog for some time. I'm happy to say that those problems now seem to be resolved. New reviews should appear from tomorrow.

Have You Emailed Me Today?

I've received three emails today which have this blog title in the subject-line, and each one has been flagged as suspicious by my anti-virus. None of them were from people I know.

If you have tried to contact me by email today then I'd be grateful if you'd have another try, and this time make sure that there's text in your message, you don't include any attachments, and you make sure that your computer is virus-free. You could also post here, just to let me know to expect something.

Thanks.

Am I Still Here?

Yesterday I heard back from the Post Office about the P O Box number that I've applied for to use for this blog.

They wrote to tell me that my address isn't listed on their database and so, according to them, my house doesn't really exist. The irony of their writing to tell me this seemed to escape them.

I have now spoken with my local Council which has confirmed that my house really is where I thought it was. The Council has promised to tell the Post Office. And after that, I should get my P O Box number.

Until then, keep your fingers crossed.

An Update

I'm still here, and so is my blog. The Post Office, however, seems to have gone missing. Or at least, the application I made to them for a post office box number has.

Until that's sorted out I won't have an address for you to send your books to. I've been promised that it should only take ten days or so for this to all be sorted out, but that's what I was told a fortnight ago--the first time nothing happened.

Sorry for the delay. I'll let you know when I'm finally in posession of that mailing address. I hope it's soon.

Dashes And Ellipses

Somewhere in one of my comments, Sally has asked me for some more information about dashes and ellipses. Do, therefore, please blame her for the following rather boring post.

It's difficult to give exact rules for the correct usage for either the dash or the ellipsis as much depends on house style: the most important rule to remember is to be consistent. Choose one way and stick to it throughout your work. Use a "find and replace" to locate all examples once you've finished, just to ensure your consistency. And once you've done that don't get into a lather about them, as so much depends on the editor or publisher you're working with.

For the ellipsis, the usual convention is that it has a space after, but not before, or between each individual dot; and that if one ends a sentence, then you add a full stop so you get four dots in a row, and that full stop will naturally necessitate that a capital letter follows. So we use ellipses like this in the middle of a sentence... and like this at the end.... Ellipses indicate a trailing off (for example, in speech), rather than an interruption or abrupt halt, for which you use a dash.

Some houses prefer no spaces at all on either side of their ellipses and some (although happily, these are in the minority as I think it looks awful) prefer a space either side. I'm not sure which one I think is worse.

Dashes are more tricky. House style dictates, as usual. First rule is to remember that they are NOT interchangeable with hyphens, and that you need to show the difference between dashes and hyphens, usually by using two hyphens without a space between them to indicate a dash.

Whether or not you use a space either side of your dashes, like this:

text -- text

or don't, like this:

text--text

is up to you and the dictates of your style guide. I usually default to the latter, with no spaces, as it's what is preferred by the Chicago manual, which is what most American publishers default to when they're unsure.

Then you have to consider em- and en-dashes: the en and em refers to how much room they should take up on the line. The choice here is, once again, mostly a matter of house style although years ago there were specific situations when each one was used. If I'm in any doubt I usually default to the em-dash throughout rather than the en, as it's easier to differentiate from hyphens and so leads to a clearer text.

Finally, I'd ask everyone to use as few dashes and ellipses as possible as otherwise your text is going to look like the punctuation-spider has been sick all over it. Not a pretty thing, and very distracting to the reader.

There. I just hope Sally is grateful. After all--she asked.