IWSG - March - Those Dangling Modifiers!

“Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow” ~ Helen Keller

March into Literacy Month presents the perfect opportunity to enter a writing contest, revisit or begin journaling, or write an article on one of our outstanding women in history. You could also sharpen your writing skills with any of the many great resources offered by the Insecure Writers Support Group, founded by Alex Cavanaugh, right here and right now on this first Wednesday of the month, when IWSG members convene through blogging, Facebook, and Twitter to talk about whatever is on our writing minds and agendas. See what we’re all talking about here.

An author’s use of initials, i.e., J.K. Rowling, holds a certain mystique for me. I always wonder why, even as I consider the undeniably compelling impact of doing so. Although initial users aren’t the only ones with surprises; I was astonished to discover that Carolyn Keene of Nancy Drew fame was not a real person at all – but a multitude of writers who sold all rights to their stories for $125 (back in the day)! Incidentally, today begins National Ghostwriters week ;-)

As for what I’m thinking about these days, it’s those pesky misplaced or dangling modifiers that show up whether or not I was in a hurry when I wrote the sentence. Trying to convince my editor that the worldwide “they” will know what I mean was ineffective, as the esteemed wielder of the dreaded red pen only laughed harder. Apparently, not everyone’s refrigerator runs in the kitchen late at night ;-)

I tend to ‘run right out of my shoes’ while on a writing binge, and hope to pick them up later. That is if I can find them. It occurred to me that if only mistakes looked like periwinkle high-tops, I could save my editor a lot of work – and laughter ;-) So I found what I believe to be the next best thing – a grammar app – which applies all the familiar red slashes that won’t go away until the problem does. I can’t wait to see my editor’s reaction the next time I submit!

And now for the optional question of the month:

Have you ever pulled out a really old story and reworked it? Did it work out?

Have I ever? Yes! It’s in the final refining stage. Did it work out? Fingers crossed!

Do your modifiers dangle? Do you use any apps for writers? Any thoughts on an author's use of initials? 

It's beginning to look a lot like Spring around here - Happy March!

A Trail Without A Trace

Toward the end of the 19^th century, Frenchman Louis Le Prince boarded a train in Dijon headed for Paris. A pioneering inventor, he’d taken many trips to America to secure coveted patents on his latest inventions, and planned to return to finalize his patent pending on the first true Moving Picture Camera – before he vanished.

Le Prince was not on the train when it stopped in Paris, nor were any of his belongings. It was as if he’d never boarded in the first place, except that, as a person of notability, people had seen and talked to him. Though the entire train was searched and every passenger questioned, even Scotland Yard was baffled.

There was, however, plenty of speculation. Had Le Prince committed suicide by jumping off the train? Along with all of his belongings? Had his brother murdered him with an elaborate magic trick? Had his family requested his disappearance due to financial difficulties? Those in the industry had different ideas.

The competition was fierce in the cinematography field and none more so than one American trailblazer who actively obstructed every U.S. patent Le Prince ever sought.  In return, Le Prince assisted in the sharing of pertinent information belonging to the trailblazer to a highly interested group of European patent seekers.   

Consequently, with Le Prince out of the picture (no pun intended), the American trailblazer got the pending patent and possibly many more that might have belonged to Le Prince. Nonetheless, the trailblazer undeniably made quite a name for himself with prior and subsequent inventions of his own; which the world still appreciates today, but eventually Le Prince was all but forgotten.

Until 2008, when a graduate student perusing a timeworn book by Thomas Edison on motion picture history in the New York Library archives found this astonishing handwritten note in the pages, dated September 20, 1890:

“Eric called me today from Dijon. It has been done. Prince is no more. This is good news, but I flinched when he told me. Murder is not my thing. I am an inventor and my inventions for moving images can now move forward.” 

What do you think happened to Louis Le Prince? 

"Competition brings out the best in products and the worst in people." - David Sarnoff, Pioneer of American Commercial Radio and TV   

References:

cracked.com

sciencedirect.com

Mystic Synchronicity

“Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.” ~ Albert Einstein

Have you ever thought of someone you haven’t heard from in a while, and then received a letter or phone call from them?  Before caller I.D, did someone in particular ever cross your mind as you picked up the phone and sure enough, it was that person calling?  Is it intuition or coincidence?  If indeed (as some believe) coincidence is a form of metaphysical synchronicity or the concurrence of similar planes in the universe, how does that affect the odds of improbability becoming not just possible, but prophetic?

It’s a question my friend and fellow blogger Shady Dell Knight has been thinking about this week over at Music and Memories. Stop on by for a head-scratching, toe-tapping good time! As you can see, I did and now am stuck on the subject of coincidence :-)

 

Here're a few examples:

American novelist Anne Parrish was delighted to run across a childhood favorite while browsing a London bookstore in 1929. When she showed her husband the book, ‘Jack Frost and Other Stories’, he quickly noticed that the inscription on the flyleaf inside read Anne Parrish, 209 N. Weber Street, Colorado Springs.

Mark Twain happened to have been born on the day of the appearance of Halley’s Comet in 1835. In a quote-turned-prediction in 1909, he said “I came in with Halley’s Comet and, as it is due again next year (1910), I expect to go out with it,” and he did.

Henry Ziegland thought he had truly ‘dodged a bullet’ when, after terminating his relationship with his girlfriend (who then committed suicide), her angry brother shot Ziegland before turning the gun on himself. But Ziegland had not been killed, for the bullet had merely grazed his face and lodged in a tree behind him.  Years later, Ziegland decided to get rid of the tree with a couple sticks of dynamite but alas, the explosion hurled the bullet into his head; and got him that time.

And if you ever visit the Petrified Forest, you might want to heed the warnings not to remove any of the petrified rocks you’ll see lying around everywhere. In the Rainbow Forest Room, located inside the gift shop, you can peruse hundreds of letters; confessions received along with returned artifacts from folks desperately wanting the curse removed!  Many of these letters are heartrending, and a few are downright hilarious.

“You're right. It's a curse to take wood from the forest. My girlfriend of three years finished with me on the drive home. So here's your damn wood back."

Do you believe in intuition or coincidence? Could the Petrified Forest curse be merely coincidence?  Would you take a petrified rock with a curse attached?