MONDAY MADNESS

How’s your Monday going? Mine has already been busy. Since we retired, and probably before, we’ve grown extra vegetables in our garden to give away. We think about the widows and those who don’t have a lot. Some we sell at a very low price, and others we give away. That was our morning today. I enjoy helping my husband put the vegetables in bags and distribute them in our church community. Our garden has been pretty bad this year. So far the only thing we’ve gathered is corn and tomatoes. It has rained in the first part of the season and turned dry in the last part. My husband had a knee replacement and wasn’t able to tend the garden as he usually does.

Today I’m finishing up an edit for a book to release in September. I’m the last one to go through this until it’s formatted. We ask each author to read the manuscript aloud or use a program that will read it back to you. This is a must for all authors. You’ll be surprised what you find when you do this.

One thing that I’m always amazed at is the misspelled words in a manuscript. If the author will correct them we will be able to edit it quicker. Not just the one I’m on now, but all manuscripts. When you correct a misspelled word, one with a red squiggly line under it, it helps the editors work faster.

Each author should pay attention to their writing. Editors are much more happier with a clean manuscript than one with a lot of red and blue lines. Learn what they mean. Highlight them to use Spell Check to correct as many as you can. Grammar is changing faster than the computer. That is why we have someone who is very good with grammar to edit our books before they come to me. If she didn’t put a comma there, it doesn’t need to be there. Word has not caught up with the changes of several years ago.

Correcting misspelled words is very important. When you see the red squiggly line, it means something is not spelled correctly. Take care of it before your editor has to.