Found in today's Los Angeles Times. Who knew? Certainly not I. Apparently there is something called the Plain Writing Act and it requires government agencies to assure government-bureaucrat-ese is converted into a form understandable by mere mortals. The campaign for…
The Los Angeles Times published a story on February 11, 2021, focusing on the tale of novelist Sheri Holman. She's the successful author of A Stolen Tongue, The Dress Lodger and The Mammoth Cheese. She took a break…
Think about the politics of the moment. There's a divisive president whose management skills are in serious question. A raging pandemic with thousands dying daily. The president loses his bid for reelection, is doing his best to subvert the guy…
"Red Dennis," Eric Shapiro's new novel, is out. I haven't read it yet but the reviews are excellent, which isn't news to me. Eric and I co-founded Ghostwriters Central in 2002. We were partners for some 15 years. While we…
Is the customer always right? Of course not. This is not 1950. Are we word slaves at the service of tyrannical bosses? Nope. If somebody calls and wants us to essentially take dictation, I’ll refer them to a typist.…
For years, (Patton's daughters) had been made to memorize a poem each week -- Patton called it a "brain exercise" -- and this new effort proved relatively simple. Later he paid them 10 cents a page to read items…
Here is an example of wonderfully descriptive writing. This is part of an article about the gigantic port explosion in Lebanon, written by the Washington Post's correspondent Sarah Dadouch that appeared on August 5, 2020. ‘I have no…
I do love great writing. I found this today in the New York Times, written by Dan Berry. I thought I'd share a few paragraphs: POTTSTOWN, Pa. — An essential worker drove his cluttered Toyota Corolla through the early spring…
When was the first time you wrote something that absorbed you so completely that you lost track of time because you were super focused on the story you were writing? For me, it was around 1963, as a junior, in…
This notice noisily arrived on my iPhone today: Public Safety Alert The County of LA is ordering another curfew from 6pm tonight to 6am tomorrow for all Los Angeles County including all cities in the county. Traveling to and from…