"Why Do We Write" Published

Page and Spine Showcase published my essay about why authors write.  As Anne Lemott explains, good writing is "telling the truth in an interesting way" which is hard, hard, hard to do "like bathing cats."  Yet still we persist.

https://pagespineficshowcase.com/the-writers-table/why-do-we-write-p-s-nolf

A treatise of Stops, Points, or Pauses--Parentheses as Adornment or Distraction

Faced with another heated, online discussion about grammar--on whether or not the use of parentheses and/or brackets add value to written discourse (and to avoid cleaning the cat litter boxes), I went off to do some research. Thereby, I encountered the 1680 book A treatis [sic] of stops, points, or pauses: and of notes which are used in writing and in print; both very necessary to be well known and the use of each to be carefully taught. Composed for the authors [sic] use, who is a hearty wel-willer [sic] to (and accordingly hath endeavoured the promoting of) the attainments of children, and others, in the tru [sic] spelling, and exact reading of English. I suspect all members of this group could use this title by itself as support for their arguments--regardless of which side they support.

The University of Queensland maintains an ebook version in their library but but it is only accessible to their students. So I had to search for other online references to this treatise.

Bryan Garner in his "Parenthetical Habits: On the use and overuse of parentheses and brackets" (1) provides the only only quotes I can find from A Treatise of Stops, Points, or Pauses. "The parenthesis, he says, is “a Note made of two great Semi-circls, or half Moons; thus, ( ),” adding: “These do, and always must include, or inclose one, or more words of a perfect sense in a Sentence, which may be used, or omitted, and yet the Sense remain intire.” The related marks we call brackets he termed “crotchets,” or “Two Semi-quadrats thus, [ ].” He had little to say about brackets except urging the reader to go find examples in the margins of books, so that “you will thereby be the better enabled to understand their use, wherever else you meet with any.”

Point 1: The discussion of parentheses and brackets can make grammarians crotchety.

Second reference to The Treatise of Stops, Points, or Pauses appears in Alberto Manguel's "Best Punctuation: Point of Order." (2) Here's a lengthy quote illustrating how some writers can make poetry even out of a discussion of grammar.

"Diminutive as a mote of dust, a mere peck of the pen, a crumb on the keyboard, the full stop -- the period -- is the unsung legislator of our writing systems. Without it, there would be no end to the sorrows of young Werther, and the travels of the Hobbit would have never been completed. Its absence allowed James Joyce to weave ''Finnegans Wake'' into a perfect circle, and its presence made Henri Michaux compare our essential being to this dot, ''a dot that death devours.'' It crowns the fulfillment of thought, gives the illusion of conclusiveness, possesses a certain haughtiness that stems, like Napoleon's, from its minuscule size. Anxious to get going, we require nothing to signal our beginnings, but we need to know when to stop: this tiny memento mori reminds us that everything, ourselves included, must one day come to a halt. As an anonymous English teacher suggested in the 1680 ''Treatise of Stops, Points or Pauses,'' a full stop is ''a Note of perfect Sense, and of a perfect Sentence.''"

Manguel concludes his essay with "'No iron,' Isaac Babel wrote, 'can stab the heart with such force as a full stop put just at the right place.'"

Point 2: Discussions about grammar can lead to murder.

Most grammar searches usually end up reductio ad absurdum. So let's conclude with Megan Garber's "Screamer, Slammer, Bang...and 15 Other Ways to Say Exclamation Point." (3) Many authors, instructors, and advisors on the craft of writing deplore its use. Garber writes that "The exclamation mark, I am trying to say, is the cockroach of the punctuation world. And that's particularly so in the digital space, which so infamously encourages its proliferation (!!!!). The exclamation will, despite and because of all the things that make it terrible, survive us all." Here are the various synonyms used for the exclamation point through the centuries : admiration mark, bang, Christer, control, dembanger, dog's cock, dog's dick, gasper, pling, screamer, shriekmark, shout pole, slammer, smash, soldier, spark-spot, startler, wonderer.

Point 3: Discussion of proper use of grammar can be an extreme waster of time leading to infinite delay in putting off cleaning cat litter boxes.

Sources:
(1) http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/garner_parenthetical_habits
(2) https://www.nytimes.com/1999/04/18/magazine/best-punctuation-point-of-order.html
(3) https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/04/screamer-slammer-bang-and-15-other-ways-to-say-exclamation-point/274687/

"Why Do We Write" to be published In Page and Spine Oct 11, 2019

Page and Spine will publish my essay called

"Why Do We Write" on October 11, 2019.  This is the second piece of mine that the site has selected.  Here's the first sentence: 

"Bruce  Chatwin in The Songlines visualizes that primordial moment when the First Man on the African Savannah shouts out his first words “‘I AM!” to defy the terrors of the African Savannah, which is the beginning of all songs and all stories.  "

"Hark, Hark the Dogs of War Do Bark" to be published in January

I am currently working on a narrative non-fiction book titled Raising Rough Riders in the White House: Theodore Roosevelt and His Sons Archie and Quentin and Their Pony Algonquin. 

While researching the death of Quentin during WW I, I discovered serio-comic maps as both art form and propaganda devices.  I wondered what would happen if the characters could talk. 


"Hark, Hark the Dogs of War Do Bark" is the result.  Scarlet Leaf is publishing this satire in January 2020.

"If a Pony Penned a Poem" to be published

The online literary journal Crepe & Penn is going to publish my poem "If a Pony Penned a Poem" at the end of October.  Of course, the poem was inspired by Blessi.  Many thanks to friends who persuaded me to attempt to write poetry and submit it for possible publication.  

Blessi is getting treats today for being my muse.

IFCE and Le Cadre Noir added citation to my "Riding with Theodore Roosevelt" article

The IFCE (Institut francais du cheval et de l'equitation), Les Haras nationaux, and Le Cadre Noir sponsor a library of equine references.  "A unique, scientific, technical and patrimonial documentary collection dedicated to equine industry of more than 50,000 references, in constant evolution. "  

My article on "Riding with Theodore Roosevelt" was added to this site.  Unfortunately, the organization used "Ridding" rather than "Riding."  Regardless, I am honored to be associated in any way with these organizations.

"Showdown at the Strand" to be published

Tall Tale TV is going to publish my "Showdown on the Strand" as a podcast in mid-November. Per their website, "Tall Tale TV ranked in the final five for its category in the Parsec Awards, a prestigious award given only to the best story podcasts." 

Axe versus whale rib. Sword versus blubber. 'Showdown at the Strand' is a retelling of one of the Icelandic sagas using American Western motifs.  I wrote this story in honor of the heritage of my Icelandic horse Blessi.  I planned to re-enact hunting stranded (dead) whales in Iceland by horseback around 1020 AD. But something happened so I wrote this story instead.