See You Later, Alligator; After Awhile/A While, Crocodile

I was recently a showcase author at Mountain of Authors, an event put on by our local library district. Mountain of Authors was my very first writing event years ago, before I got involved with Pikes Peak Writers. It's a great event for unpublished writers, newly published authors, and indie authors. The event is held in one room, with some combination of panels and single speaker workshops, and goes from 12 to 5, with a keynote speaker at the end of the day.

Aside from educating writers, they provide opportunities for authors to sell their books and for writing groups of various types to give out information. All of this, and it's completely free! Just one more wonderful element of support in Colorado Springs for local authors.

It was good to get out and see members of the writing community, especially as we lost two local authors in the last month or so, a painful hit to a close-knit community. I met a lot of people, many of whom stopped by to chat, and I hope I helped a couple burgeoning writers who had questions about submitting short stories and that sort of thing. Selling some books was a wonderful bonus!

As an amusing aside, I had to put Chucky away, because people kept asking if it meant I wrote horror for children. No, I absolutely do not! I know better than to take him with me to events now, at least. He'll stay in my office where he belongs.

Okay, words, words, words.  If you missed the previous posts on this topic, they were Already vs. All Ready and Alright vs. All Right.

On to today's words. What's correct, awhile or a while?

This one's tricky, because they are both correct descriptions of a passage of time. However, their usage varies a bit. This is one I really have to think through when using the words.

Technically speaking, awhile is used as an adverb and a while is used as a noun. But technical speaking doesn't help me in this case, because I haven't diagrammed sentences since eighth grade.

There are other technicalities we'll get to, but the way I find it easiest to suss out the difference is to place the "what word could you replace it with" game.

When "a" and "while" are separated, while is a noun, so the sentence is using while as a noun. If that's so, you could then keep the "a" and replace "while" with a word like bit, hour, week, year, spell. In other words, another passage of time.

Example: 

I want to sit down for a while.
I want to sit down for a bit. (abit isn't a word)

I haven't seen him in a while.
I haven't seen him in an hour. (anhour isn't a word)

Another way to look at is if you can qualify it as a three-word phrase, like for a while, in a while, after a while (crocodile), it should be two words, not one. As in, it is part of a prepositional phrase, a preposition being for, in, after, etc.

When awhile is one word, there should be a different noun in the sentence already and it should not be part of a prepositional phrase. It would be replaceable by another adverb, not a noun. Adverbs are words like quickly, quietly, patiently or anywhere, there (adverbs of place) or always, sometimes (frequency adverbs), etc.

Example:

He watched awhile.
He watched silently.

I want to dance awhile.
I want to dance sometimes.

Note that you can change a sentence slightly and have to change the word. Let's switch up example sentences:

Example: 

He watched for a while.
He watched awhile.

Notice that when a while is used, there is a third word directly involved in the phrase: for. When awhile is used, it follows a verb: watched.

Clear as mud?

Before I jump into this week's links, I wanted to let you know about C. Lee McKenzie's new book!

SOME VERY MESSY MEDIEVAL MAGIC

By C. Lee McKenzie

Pete’s stuck in medieval England!

Pete and his friend Weasel thought they’d closed the Time Lock. But a young page from medieval times, Peter of Bramwell, goes missing. His absence during a critical moment will forever alter history unless he’s found.

There’s only one solution - fledgling wizard Pete must take the page’s place. Accompanied by Weasel and Fanon, Pete’s alligator familiar, they travel to 1173 England.

But what if the page remains lost - will Pete know what to do when the critical moment arrives? Toss in a grumpy Fanon, the duke’s curious niece, a talking horse, and the Circle of Stones and Pete realizes he’s in over his young wizard head yet again...

Release date – May 15, 2018

Juvenile Fiction - Fantasy & Magic/Boys & Men

$13.95 Print ISBN 9781939844460

$3.99 EBook ISBN 9781939844477

C. Lee McKenzie has a background in Linguistics and Inter-Cultural Communication, but these days her greatest passion is writing for young readers. When she’s not writing she’s hiking or traveling or practicing yoga or asking a lot questions about things she still doesn’t understand. http://cleemckenziebooks.com

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

iTunes

Amazon

Kindle

Foyles

Time for links. Bear in mind I'm not endorsing these, merely passing them along. Always do your own due diligence before submitting.

Accepting submissions:

Existere is seeking prose, poems, graphic art, photos, and postcard stories. All genres and forms of art/literature welcome. Up to 3500 words. Pays a small honorarium.

The Arcanist is seeking fantasy and science fiction flash fiction. Up to 1000 words. Pays $50.

Zealot Script is seeking short stories and poetry that introduce a new world. Submissions of any length. Pays $10.

Factor Four Magazine is seeking flash fiction and art. Up to 1500 words. Pays $.08/word.

Mystery Weekly is seeking mystery short stories. 2500 to 7500 words. Pays $.01/word.

Do you have trouble with awhile vs. a while or do you find it simple? If you have trouble, did this make it any clearer? Any of these links of interest? Anything to share?

May you find your Muse.

*Image Alligator Clip Art, OCAL, clker.com

Are You Already All Ready?

This is Part II of the "A" word blog series. Today's words are Already vs. All Ready.

The first part of this series was Alright vs. All Right.

Before we jump into the post, a quick announcement! The Necro-Om-Nom-Nom-Icon is now available at Amazon, and features not one, but TWO of my short stories: The Dating Game and Message of the Night-Gaunts!

Here are a couple pictures from the release party:

Tentacled Pants

Our editor, Jason Dias

Okay, now for this week's words:

Unlike last week's words, both of of today's words are real words/terms in use. They just have different meanings.

Already is an adverb. According to dictionary.com, it means "by this or that time; previously; prior to or at some specified or implied time" and "now; so soon; so early."

Examples: 

I already did that.

Is it time to go already?

Bonus use--exasperated exclamations: All right, already!

All Ready means something is finished or prepared. It basically means the same as ready, but the all clarifies it, like the word completely or entirely would. If you could leave off the all or replace it with completely/entirely without changing the meaning of the sentence, you're using it correctly.

Example:

Did you get that all ready for your presentation?


Now for some links. Bear in mind I'm not endorsing these, merely passing them along. Always do your own due diligence when submitting.

Accepting Submissions:

Sincyr Publishing is seeking love stories between men, where pregnancy is involved, for Loving Them. 3000 to 6000 words. Pays in royalties. Deadline May 30.

AGNI is seeking poetry, short fiction, and essays. Pays up to $150. Deadline May 31.

One Story is seeking literary fiction. 3000 to 8000 words. Pays $500. Deadline May 31.

Grain is seeking eclectic literary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Up to 3500 words. Pays up to $250.

Nashville Review is seeking literary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Up to 8000 words. Pays between $25 and $100. Deadline May 31.

Black Coffee & Vinyl is seeking fiction, nonfiction, poetry, artwork, photography, and music in the theme Ice Culture. Up to 2000 words. Pays $50. Deadline May 31.

Check out my horror short story collection, available from Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, Nook, and Apple. More information on the Publications tab.

Is this information you already knew? Have you been using these words/terms right? Any of these links of interest? Anything to share? Have you been submitting or querying?

May you find your Muse.

Alright, All Right, Alrite...

It feels like forever since I did a regular blog post, so it's time to post something with some sort of value, eh?

Before jumping into the post, Beneath the Waves is now available for purchase at Amazon, and includes my short story A Cold and Carnal Hunger.

When I was editing the WIP I currently have on submission to agents, I found I had some confusion about a lot of "A" words. For example alright vs. all right. I ended up jotting down the words that were giving me issues, so that I could do a pass through during editing specifically to ensure I was using the right words.

It seems we've smooshed some words together that shouldn't actually be one word, and in other cases, whether it's one word or two depends upon the usage, so I figured I'd compile what I learned into a series of posts, partially for me to reference in the future.

I'm starting with alright vs. all right. In case that wasn't clear from the title. (I was channeling Matthew McConaughey, what can I say? And in order to fully channel him, I threw in a truly fake version of the word: alrite.)

As it turns out, McConaughey must be saying, "All right, all right, all right." While in usage, all right is often used to mean all of something are correct, and alright has been used to mean it's okay, it turns out alright is NOT a word at all. Not in American English. Apparently, it's more questionable on whether it is accepted in British English, though it's considered to not be a word in both.

So whether you're saying something is okay or something is correct, all right is the way to go in formal writing. Of course, you can choose to do it the wrong way, and most people probably won't blink.

But...the more you know, right?

Okay, link time. Bear in mind I'm not endorsing any of these, merely passing them along. Always do your own due diligence before submitting.

Accepting Submissions:

Bennington Review is seeking fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and more. Pays $20 to $200. Deadline May 15.

Gehenna and Hinnom is seeking dark short fiction that falls under weird fiction and cosmic horror. Up to 5000 words. Pays $30 to $55. Deadline May 15.

Spider is seeking children's stories with the theme Inventions for ages 6-9. Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, crafts, etc. 300 to 1000 words. Pays up to $.25/word. Deadline May 15.

Wizards in Space is seeking speculative fiction with serious themes close to the heart. Up to 5000 words. Pays $30. Deadline May 26.

The Weekly Humorist is seeking comedy writers to do pieces up to 1500 words. Pays $20.

Don't forget to email me your publication news and announcements for the IWSG newsletter! You can use the Contact Me form here on the main page.

My horror short story collection, Blue Sludge Blues & Other Abominations is available in print and e-book. Check it out on the Publications tab!

Have you been using "all right" all right? If not, will you still use alright? Any of these links of interest? Anything to share? Have you been submitting or querying?

May you find your Muse.

Wanna' Go Further or Farther?

I have this ongoing problem with two words: further and farther. 

For the most part, they can be self-explanatory. But in some instances I over-think it all. And now that I've become aware of my little issue, I've noticed it in tons of books, by writers who are NYT bestselling authors with decades of writing experience under their belts. Every misuse of these words blazes out to me from the pages now, as I've noticed with other things that I recognize as issues in my own writing. I find it causing a hiccup in my reading, because I have to analyze whether they used it correctly or not so I can push the lesson more deeply into my brain. 

Courtesy of OCAL, clker.com

Here's how they're defined by dictionary.com:

Farther:

adverb

1. At or to a greater distance: He went farther down the road.

2. At or to a more advanced point: They are going no farther in their studies.

3. At or to a greater degree or extent: The application of the law was extended farther.

adjective

1. More distant or remote than something or some place nearer: The farther side of the mountain.

2. Extending or tending to a greater distance: He made a still farther trip.

Further:

adverb

1. At or to a greater distance; farther: I'm too tired to go further.

2. At or to a more advanced point; to a greater extent: Let's not discuss it further.

3. In addition; moreover: Further, he should be here any minute.

adjective

1. More distant or remote; farther: The map shows it to be further than I thought.

2. More extended: Does this mean a further delay?

3. Additional; more: Further meetings seem pointless.

verb

1. To help forward; promote; advance: You can always count on him to further his own interests.

Reading those definitions, can you see where the confusion comes in? Even dictionary.com has included the mixed up meanings. Given, they also have this little note/disclaimer:

Usage note

Although some usage guides insist that only farther should be used for physical distance ( We walked farther than we planned ), farther and further have been used interchangeably throughout much of their histories. However, only further is used in the adverbial sense “moreover” ( Further, you hurt my feelings ) and in the adjectival senses “more extended” ( no further comment ) and “additional” ( Further bulletins came in ).

What it boils down to is that FARther really should refer to physical distance, while FURther should be referring to the non-physical. But because the words have been used incorrectly through history, we should just keep right on doing so. No wonder I've had such trouble figuring out the correct word at times!

Everyone else can do what they want--I'll be using farther to refer to the physical, not further. And furthermore, I shall continue to be confused by the use of farther when it isn't of physical distance (see definition number 2 under farther, adverb above).

Do you have further vs. farther down pat? Do you care? Does it matter? Do you use them interchangeably? What is your big grammar issue in your writing?

May you find your Muse.