Steve Laube

Fun Fridays – September 24, 2021

By Steve Laubeon September 24, 2021

Today is National Punctuation Day!

Established by Jeff Rubin in 2004, it is a “celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotation marks, and other proper uses of periods, semicolons, and the ever mysterious ellipsis.”

Please visit the official site: www.nationalpunctuationday.com.

Recently, I walked into a church classroom to find a list of the 10 Commandments on the board. The first line read “No other God’s.”
Sigh.

So while you take a moment to appreciate the need for precise punctuation, enjoy this delightful five-minute repartee between Dean Martin and Victor Borge singing with Phonetic Punctuation. The video is a bit blurry as it must have been clipped from an old video tape or similar. But hilarious nonetheless!

(If you cannot see the embedded video in your newsletter email, please click the headline and go directly to our site to view it. Or go to it’s native address: https://youtu.be/ecOGlZ-XAs4.)

When Editorial Errors Matter

By Steve Laubeon September 20, 2021

by Steve Laube

Writers make mistakes. It happens. Often an editor’s job is to be the safety net and catch those tidbits that find their way into an early draft of a manuscript for any number of reasons.

The simplicity of “cut & paste” has created more opportunity for error than ever before. I've seen half sentences left in their original place because the writer failed to cut and …

Category: Book Business, Craft, E-Books, Editing, Grammar, Steve, Writing CraftTag: Editing, Errors, Writing Craft

Fun Fridays – September 17, 2021

By Steve Laubeon September 17, 2021

TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY is September 19. In preparation for this upcoming day, I’ve provided some completely unoriginal pirate jokes for your fun and enjoyment. Convert your own book into pirate-speak at this translator site: Pirate Monkeyness. Please do not tell your pastor or priest to give their Sunday sermon like a pirate. There is all sorts of wrong in that. For “the wages o’ …

Category: Fun Fridays

Supply Chain Blues

By Steve Laubeon September 13, 2021

Two weeks ago I wrote of the Slushpile Blues. Today is another scintillating topic. Supply chain blues. By “supply chain” I mean the various steps along the way for a vendor to have a final product to sell to a consumer. For electronics, like your phone, it means collecting various pieces before assembly: the battery, the camera lens, the transistors, the memory chip, the glass, and more. If any …

Category: Book Business

Never Forget

By Steve Laubeon September 11, 2021

Category: Personal

Fun Fridays – September 10, 2021

By Steve Laubeon September 10, 2021

Enjoy the delightful storytelling of Andy Andrews. Afterward? Impress your friends with your own versions. The lesson here? There are many ways to sing a tale, but only one is the way the author intended. But it’s still okay to laugh. (If you cannot see the embedded video in your newsletter email, please click the headline and go directly to our site to view it.)

Category: Fun Fridays

Fun Fridays – September 3, 2021

By Steve Laubeon September 3, 2021

Todays’ video is both hilarious and sad because it pokes at the “look at me” nature of social media! I laughed so hard the first time I watched it. (Which does suggest multiple viewings.) Enjoy! Oh, and try not to make a similar connection to your writing life.. . . . ahem. (If you cannot see the embedded video in your newsletter email, please click the headline and go directly …

Category: Fun Fridays

Singing the Slushpile Blues

By Steve Laubeon August 30, 2021

by Steve Laube

The unsolicited pile of proposals in my office (aka "the slushpile) taunts me every day.

"Come over here!" it says, tantalizing me with immanent possibilities. I say to myself, "Maybe it will be the next one I look at. That will be 'The One.'"

I've been told that many of you enjoy hearing some of the offbeat letters or intriguing proposals I see. Here is a sampling from …

Category: Book Proposals, Creativity, HumorTag: Humor, slushpile

Fun Fridays – August 27, 2021

By Steve Laubeon August 27, 2021

Today is a 10-minute video talking (rather rapidly) about a number of strange borders in the United States and how they came to be. Do any of you live near places like these? Is it a big deal in your community or only a conversation piece?I read of a library that is split with one half in Canada and the other in the United States (article click here). Do you need a passport to go over to the …

Category: Fun Fridays

Need Help Writing Your Pitch?

By Steve Laubeon August 23, 2021

Today’s post is a bit of silly fun. Why not? We are nearing the end of summer and your kids may already be back in school. Need help creating the pitch for your book? It is a common thought that there is a formula for the pitch of a new book. (It’s sort of true.) I’ve been inspired by the article found on the Electric Lit website from March 28, 2019. Visit their page and website. …

Category: The Writing Life