Polishing Your Prose

05/25/2025

Opinion: The Man of the Moment Is 3,000 Years Old: Even my father came to admit that ’s raises questions about who we are and how we can be known, questions that are at once profound and startlingly modern.

We could never really be sure who he was. Maybe that was the point.

05/20/2025

Coming soon from an author I work with . . .

Book 5 of 5: A.J. Hawke Legal Thriller
Blood in the Water: An A. J. Hawke Legal Thriller
by Donald E. McInnis
Release date: June 1 2025

The two children of a ruthless Mexican drug lord have been kidnapped and are being secretly held by the FBI. . . .

The two children of a ruthless Mexican drug lord have been kidnapped and are being secretly held by the FBI. Has the President of the United States of America ordered a brazen illegal kidnapping? Or is it the action of a rogue FBI agent? Either way, attorney A.J. Hawke, under the threat of death,...

05/18/2025

The Hidden Costs of AI Copyediting Tools: An Editor’s Review
https://janefriedman.com/the-hidden-costs-of-ai-copyediting-tools-an-editors-review/

I found this review of AI tools illuminating and it saved me a lot of time to confirm what I suspected. Thank you, Ariane Peveto and Jane Friedman.

I recommend reading the entire piece, not only by writers and editors, but purchasers and consumers of written material edited by AI, and, in particular, produced by AI.

Conclusion: AI copyediting tools, like their counterparts created for line and developmental editing, are a mixed bag. They perform some mechanical tasks well but have a tendency to introduce errors.
They can identify repetition and awkward phrasing but frequently give suggestions that erode author voice or cannot be used at all.

These tools can handle basic copyediting capabilities like correcting clear-cut errors, catching omissions, and finding weak words and phrasing. However, in their current forms, AI copyediting tools are not a fine-tooth comb and should not be treated as such.

If you are a creative writer and a native speaker of English, these tools are more likely to damage rather than polish your prose.

AI copyediting tools are a mixed bag, performing some mechanical tasks well but with a tendency to introduce errors and flatten author voice.

12/06/2024

Taylor Swift’s ‘Eras Tour Book’ Sold 814,000 Copies in One Week.

Some Swift fans who rushed to purchase the book said on social media that they were underwhelmed, and panned the project as slapdash. Readers pointed out grammatical and spelling errors, blurry images and botched picture spreads, and some complained that they wished the book had been more thoroughly edited.

A fan who had lined up at Target at 5 a.m. to buy the book said in a video on TikTok that she was blown away — by the number of grammatical mistakes. She noted that some disappointed fans are calling it “The Errors Tour Book.”

The first week print sales nearly matched Barack Obama’s “A Promised Land,” and put her well ahead of Prince Harry’s “Spare.” And she did it while selling only at Target, avoiding Amazon and bookstores.

11/26/2024

Book review in East County Magazine. Rather pedestrian and a few errors but at least it spreads the word about the book.

Printer-friendly version November 2024 ArticlesChariot CanyonLarry EdwardsLarry M. EdwardsmysteriesSan Diego authors Reviewed by Pennell Paugh November 25, 2024 (San Diego) -- Award-winning San Diego author Larry M. Edwards involves investigative journalist Rent Beacham in another mystery. In Chario...

11/25/2024

Speaking generally . . .

The adverb “generally” used to have three meanings: (1) broadly speaking, (2) usually, and (3) universally, but the third sense is now considered archaic.

10/20/2024

Finally, the books have arrived.

10/11/2024

It's live! Yay!
Chariot Canyon: A Rent Beacham Mystery
October 11, 2024
by Larry M. Edwards (Author)

When investigative journalist Rent Beacham looks into reports of welfare fraud, he has no clue his investigation not only will take him into a remote, semi-lawless area of San Diego County, but that a twist of fate will give his probe a more personal—and deadly—nature than he ever imagined. As R...

09/28/2024

Autumn, shorter days, longer nights, calls for a good read . . .
Coming soon . . . from one of the authors I work with . . .

Experience a trip to a quirky beachfront surfer camp and its unusual cast of aging ex-pat characters and animals in Baja California, Mexico . . . in cartel country.

Camp Salvador

09/28/2024

Autumn, shorter days, longer nights, calls for a good read . . .

Coming soon . . . from one of the authors I work with . . .

Book 4 of 4: A.J. Hawke Legal Thriller
Release date: September 29 2024
Cops Gone Bad: An A.J. Hawke Legal Thriller
by Donald McInnis
In Cops Gone Bad by Donald E. McInnis, the young lawyer Andrew Jackson Hawke finds himself deeply embroiled in another aspect of the legal system. This time he faces something few people talk about: The police brotherhood and its Blue Code of Silence.

Cops Gone Bad: An A.J. Hawke Legal Thriller