WWW: Make Your (Punctuation) Mark!

It’s National Punctuation Day?
It’s National Punctuation Day.
I mean – it’s NATIONAL PUNCTUATION DAY!

(Of course, only a writer could so enthuse for such a day.)

As writer Russell Baker aptly put it, “When speaking aloud, you punctuate constantly – with body language.  Your listener hears commas, dashes, question marks, exclamation points, quotation marks as you shout, whisper, pause, wave your arms, roll your eyes, wrinkle your brow.  In writing, punctuation plays the role of body language.  It helps readers hear the way you want to be heard.”

“How might I celebrate,”  you ask, “what National Punctuation Day founder Jeff Rubin calls ‘a celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotation marks, and other proper uses of periods, semicolons, and the very-mysterious ellipsis’?”

Well…I recommend the following actions: first visit the website Jeff Rubin created; admire each and every pictured punctuation mark and give it its proper due; next take this test to check your command of commas/apostrophes; laugh heartily while you read Lynne Truss’ EATS, SHOOTS & LEAVES (Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference); and finally, consider completing my Wednesday Writing Workout which offers writers a chance to re-purpose the 14 standard marks of punctuation in English grammar to create original emoticons all their own. [See below.]

Enjoy!

Esther Hershenhorn

P.S.
While doing All Things Punctuation, don’t forget to celebrate your inner exclamation mark! J

P.P.S.
And for sure, don’t forget to enter our Book Giveaway to win a copy of Barbara Krasner’s picture book biography of Golda Meir - GOLDIE TAKES A STAND: GOLDA MEIR’S FIRST CRUSADE.
The deadline is September 26.

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Those Emotive Punctuation Marks!

I M J 2 B writing about emoticons – punctuation marks RE-purposed to instantly connote an emotion when communicating electronically.

Think:  little sideways smiley faces.  :)

I learned all about them when creating my baby board book TXTNG MAMA TXTNG BABY which just celebrated its first anniversary.

[FYI: it’s now available at Joan Cusick’s JUDY MAXWELL HOME and numerous copies will be raffled off at Northwestern University’s November 1 Community Baby Shower.]

The word “emoticon” blends “emotion” and “icon.”  An emoticon allows for a quick expression of feeling when the communication is electronic.

How might YOU (!) combine and re-arrange any and all of the 14 marks of punctuation  below to create an original emoticon?

 ?    !    ’  .   ,   “ ”   -   _  [  ]   ( )  …  /  :   ;

Feel free to use keyboard letters, spacing options and numbers too.  Turn them upside down and sideways!

Think outside the []. J

Play.

Experiment.

In other words, have fun!

Think, too, of any and all emotions/situations – Joy, Distress, Anger, Confusion, e.g.

If you need inspiration, click here to see more examples.
And be sure to share them with our TeachingAuthors readers so we can use them to help them catch on.

Real Life Fiction

     I am a thoroughly unimaginative writer. I had this pointed out to me by a second grader (!!), during the Q & A part of a school visit.

     "Where do you get your ideas?" is always a favorite question.  This particular day I was explaining the origins of My Best Friend and First Grade Stinks (my daughter, Lily), Yankee Girl (my own childhood) and Jimmy's Stars, (my mother's family).  When I finished another little hand waved from the back of the pack,

    "So you just write about your own family?" said the student.

     I had to take a beat before I answered "yes."

     It had never occurred to me before,  All of my stories up to that point did have their origins in family stories.  I come from a family of storytellers, and I grew up always looking for stories of my own to add to the family collection.

     Since then, I have broadened my scope a little.  A Tree for Emmy is based on Lily's best and oldest friend. The Roller Coaster Kid came from the father of my next-door-neighbor.  I am currently working on a short story based on two of Lily's friends,  But try as I may, my stories always seem to begin with a character or situation that I have encountered in my own life.

However, starting off with something that happened in "real life" does not mean that I am merely narrating an actual occurrence.  Life is not so tidy as fiction. Life does not have opening scenes, exposition, a climax and a denouement.  Sometimes life does have those elements, but it also has a lot of extraneous stuff as well.  Fiction has filters.  Fiction has to be shaped.

    Yankee Girl is the book that hews closest to the events of my life.  The first draft was around 400 pages.  I included every detail and incident that happened when I moved to Mississippi as a fifth grader.  While I wrestled to get this sprawling mess into something that resembled a story, I learned a cardinal rule of fiction writing:  Just because something happened, doesn't mean it is important to the story.  For example, your Irish setter may have been in the room when you had a monumental fight with your best friend.  You may have been wearing a pink sweatshirt and matching high tops.  Unless your dog plays an active part in the scene (she jumps on your friend to break up the fight) or what you wear is essential to the character,  these are details that can be cut. They clutter your story.

     Or, as one of my mentors at Vermont College told me over and over, "Because it 'really happened that way' is not a good enough reason to include it in your story."

     She usually followed this admonition with "How does (this detail, character, plot point) move the story along?"  The answer was usually "It doesn't."  And another page of perfectly good but pointless prose would disappear into the "Delete and Save" file.

   I have yet to write a story beginning with a character totally imaginary. I have edged a bit away from the side of the pool, venturing deeper into the wholly fictional end of writing. My current work-in-progress is based on an event that happened to someone my daughter knows.  She doesn't know him well, or any of the details of what "really" happened.  It doesn't matter.  My mind is creating characters, envisioning scenes and hearing conversations. All of this from the offhand remark "Mom, there's this guy at school who..."

    To celebrate the arrival of Esther's new book, TXTNG MAMA TXTNG BABY, in the warehouse, we are extending our giveaway of the book through August 20, 2013. Click here for details.

Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

Babies and Toddlers and Txtng, O My!

              :)  TXTNG  :(

Did you know

that long ago
the Greeks gave us our vowels –
our A and E and I and O
and Y (that sometimes) howls?
Yay! :)

But…

OMG!
How :( I M
2 c what txtng’s wrought!
When now I tweet
words short n sweet
I X the vowels Greeks brought!

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How nice 2 B 2day’s TeachingAuthors contributor  to Poetry Friday.

10 Q April Halprin Wayland and CarmelaMartino and Jill Esbaum, our group blog’s “usual” Poetry Friday posters, for allowing me to take this Friday slot and thus continue the celebration of Sleeping Bear Press’ release of my new baby board book soon to arrive in stores everywhere, TXTNG MAMA TXTNG BABY.

FYI: Our week-long celebration includes a Book Giveaway of TWO signed copies of this perfect baby gift of a book.  Click HERE for the details and be sure to enter by next Tuesday, August 13. To celebrate the arrival of the book in the warehouse, we've extended the giveaway through August 20, 2013! 

I wrote in Monday’s post how my grandson inspired TXTNG MAMA TXTNG BABY whilst he was in utero.  My Baby Antennae had been (understandably) working overtime.  All I saw – everywhere I looked – were Mamas thumbing their hand-held devices and nearby, babies finger-swiping the same.
                                                    

     Texting Mamas…

     Texting Babies…
     What’s up with THAT? I wondered.

To answer the above question, and the millions that followed, I spent a whole lot of time (cer10ly longer than my grandson’s gestation!) researching Texting and Technology as well as their impact on Babies and Toddlers.

I needed to know:  just what is text?”

There were definitions aplenty but linguist David Crystal’s TXTNGThe Gr8 Db8 (Oxford University, 2009) allowed the writer in me to understand this language – and – its features, several of which I shared in my Wednesday Writing Workout.
And is texting really killing writing?
There were opinions aplenty.
Fortunately, I came upon Columbia University linguist Dr. John McWhorter’s TED Talk – “Txtng is killing language. JK!!”
McWhorter considers texting “a whole new way of writing,” fingered speech that allows us to write the way we speak, an expansion of a young person’s linguistic repertoire.
Noting texting’s loose structure, McWhorter remarks, “No one thinks about capital letters or punctuation when one texts, but then again, do you think about those things when you talk?”
Click HERE to listen to Dr. McWhorter's TED Talk. Enjoy and learn!

I needed to explore and experience 2day’s Babies’ and Toddlers’ Techy-Techy World, the Digital World in which these smallest of humans live and breath and laugh and learn, not to mention, swipe and tap and thumb.
Every day brought A New Something with A New Action, A New Opportunity, a New Possibility for digital natives, both parent and child.

Hanna Rosin’s comprehensive article “The Touch-Screen Generation” in the April 2013 issue of THE ATLANTIC magazine grounded, informed and enlightened me. 

Click HERE to check it out for yourself, making sure you leave time for the Readers Comments.

Finally, I needed to read and understand the research.

Dr. Marie Donovan and Dr. Roxanne Owen of DePaul University’s College of Education connected me to the Fred Rogers Center for early learning and media at St. Vincent College.

I explored the website, read the studies and findings
and understood instantly the requisite human touch Touch Technology demands when it comes to babies and toddlers and technology.
Click HERE to read their newest posting on imaginary play with technology.

I M still on the hunt for anything and everything that is remotely related to babies, toddlers, texting and technology.
I clip, I cut-and-paste, I purchase, I stockpile.
Wednesday, the Chicago Tribune brought news of smart watches.
Later that afternoon, I discovered the BabyBook Onesie at Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s Zen and Now Gift Shop.

Who knows WHAT might juice my Writer’s Muse next week, next month, next year?

4 now, I M Byond :) I was able 2 use this newest of languages 2 cr8 TXTNG MAMA TXTNG BABY and bring my grandson’s Digital World to the ultimate hand-held device: the baby board book.

10 Q for letting me share.

 And Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit the round-up today at NoWaterRiver.

 Esther Hershenhorn

A-txtng U Shall Go! - 2Day's Wednesday Writing Workout

Welcome 2 2day’s Wednesday Writing Workout, a Txtng Mini-lesson of sorts– and – our continuing TeachingAuthors celebration of my new baby board book soon to arrive in stores  everywhere, TXTNG MAMA TXTNG BABY.

Remember: our celebration includes a Book Giveaway of TWO signed copies of this perfect baby gift of a book, so click HERE for the details and be sure to enter by next Tuesday, August 13, 2013. To celebrate the arrival of the book in the warehouse, we've extended the giveaway through August 20, 2013! 

As I wrote in Monday’s post, it is a Techy-Techy World for 2day’s Babies.
But while researching Texting’s history and the gazillion pros and cons that surround this newest means of expression, I was surprised to learn from linguist David Crystal, author of TXTNG The gr8 db8  (Oxford University, 2009) that

(1) texting’s been around a mighty long time and

(2) most popular beliefs about texting are incorrect, or at least, debatable.

“Its graphic distinctiveness is not a totally new phenomenon,” Crystal writes.  “Nor is its use restricted to the young generation.  There is increasing evidence that it helps rather than hinders literacy.  And only a very tiny part of the language uses its distinctive orthography.”

Crystal identifies several distinctive features of texting, many of which suggest novelty but children’s literature proves otherwise.

For instance, logograms, which use “single letters, numerals and typographic symbols to represent words, parts of words, or even – as in the case of x and z – noises associated with actions.”

Think b, 2, @, x for kiss.
And William Steig’s C D B, first published by Simon & Schuster in 1968!

And Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s WUMBERS (Chronicle Books, 2012).

I especially heart Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s and illustrator Tom Lichtenheld’s dedication:

“We dedic8 this book 2 William Steig, the cr8or of CDB! (cer10ly the inspiration for this book) and so many other cla6.”

In logograms, the pronunciation is what matters, not the visual shape.

Think  : )    (smile)
Think : (     (frown)

An initialism is “the reduction of words to their initial letters."

Think NATO and BBC.  (They are often called acronyms.)
But also think BFF, OMG, GF.
And Lauren Myracle’s ttfn.

Other features include omitted letters (bunsn brnr, txtng, msg), nonstandard spellings (cuz, thanx, ya), shortenings (doc, gov, mob) and genuine novelties (IMHO/in my humble opinion).

What gr8 fn I had imagining Mama’s n Baby’s conversation, using a variety of text features 2 cr8 a book which seems to have some very nice (language) company.  

The teacher in me also liked learning the names of Texting's features. 

I hope you did too!

Esther Hershenhorn

              A-txtng U shall go!

Choose any 2 characters – real, imagined, animal, human, and get them talking, or rather, TXTNG (!) on their smart phones and/or tablets.

What’s the situation?

What’s the problem?

What’s the setting?
                                                  What’s the time?

Are your 2 characters Happy? Sad? Confused? Angry? Hopeful?  Plotting? Nasty? Kind?

In other words, know thy characters.

Think about each character's VOICE.
When considering the messages being thumbed on the keyboard, don't forget word choice, expressions, details, imagery, syntax and tone.

Think about your conversation's beginning – the inciting incident of sorts that gets the messages flowing, the middle, the end. 

Remember what dialogue does for a story: i.e.

(1)   informs the reader
(2)  advances the story
(3)  reveals character

And don’t forget to use a variety of available text features!

:) A New Baby Board Book - and Giveaway! :)

OMG!                              
I M Byond :)
2day’s the day I shout to the World:
this week Sleeping Bear Press
releases my baby board book
Txtng Mama Txtng Baby!

You read that title right:

Txtng Mama Txtng Baby.

Thanks to their parents’ hand-held devices, tablets and computers, Babies everywhere are tapping or thumbing keyboards and finger-swiping screens, honing digital skills while living their Baby lives.

What fun I had bringing this newest of worlds to the sturdy pages of the ultimate hand-held device: the baby board book.
What fun it was adding that human touch to Touch Technology.

Be sure to read to the end of this post to learn how two TeachingAuthor readers can win a free copy of Txtng Mama Txtng Baby.

I love so many things about this 4” x 6 ½” book, starting with the cheery cover and the ♥ key on the keyboard.

I love the story- a playful through-the-day conversation between Mama and Baby that invites interaction.
I love the telling – tunefully-ordered familiar text phrases, such as I C U and xxooo, that beg to be repeated.
I love the illustrations – baby-friendly emoticons that instantly bring smiles.
I love the smart-phone-look-alike design, so readers and listeners can turn (or swipe) the pages.

Most of all, I love the book’s dedication:  “2 n 4 Gabriel.”   

In truth, my grandson gifted me with this book before he was born.

Awaiting his arrival, my Baby Antennae rose far and wide. Everywhere I looked I saw Mamas thumbing their hand-held devices and nearby, Babies finger-swiping the same.
Texting Mamas, I said to myself.
Texting Babies.
What was up with THAT?

In time I read the handwriting on the wall and it was written in text!

Cartoon ©2013 Harry Bliss; Used with permission.

Fortunately by then, the four words texting Mamas texting Babies had become a refrain that book-ended a dialogue that eventually gave birth to a baby board book.
The vision and efforts of my Sleeping Bear Press publisher Heather Hughes, editor Amy Lennex and art director Jennifer Bacheller contributed immeasurably to the book’s singular look and telling, not to mention its caring delivery.

Of course, anyone who knows me, and not even well, knows I am The Least Likely Person to Have Created This Book.

(I texted my very first message January 18, 2013, at 2:13 pm, three years after entertaining the idea behind this book.)
Research uncovered my Techy ID - “digital immigrant.”
I have the heart of a Luddite. 
Technology and I don’t play well together.

Ironically, my very first foray into children’s book writing was another baby board book, inspired by my grandson’s Poppy, my then one-year-old son, in 1976: THE A TO Z OF ME.

I’d created a personalized ABC book, with plastic inserts for renewable photos, to capture a baby’s loves and life.
Publishers and toy companies embraced the abecedarian story but regrettably turned it down due to my telling’s exorbitant manufacturing costs.
“The technology simply isn’t available,” one company executive told me, “to produce this book and make a profit.”
Who knew what was coming down the pike?!
By the early part of this 21^st century, the Internet offered any parent free software and POD opportunities to help create and publish a personalized ABC book for his or her child.

So here’s one more thing I love about Txtng Mama Txtng Baby: 2day’s Techy-Techy World is my story!
And my message remains the same: Mama ♥ Baby.

Be sure to return Wednesday, for a Writing Workout that utilizes this newest of languages - text, then again on Friday when I share not only a text-written poem to honor Poetry Friday, but truths I gleaned from my research on Babies, Toddlers, Texting and Technology.

10 Q 4 letting me share my Good News.

Feel free to tweet it 2 and add it to your Facebook page. J

C U Wednesday 4 a WWW!

Esther Hershenhorn

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And now, for the Book Giveaway Details!

Once again we’re using Rafflecopter to give away two signed copies of Txtng Mama Txtng Baby (Sleeping Bear Press)! 

If you've never entered a Rafflecopter giveaway, you may want to read HERE about how it words.  And click HERE to learn the difference between signing in with Facebook vs. signing in with your email address.

You’ll see you have three different options for entering the giveaway: you can pick one or up to all three.  The more options you choose, the greater your chances of winning. (If you received this post via email, you can click on the Rafflecopter link at the end of this message to enter.) 

If you enter via a comment to this blog post, please tell us your favorite emoticon--think the : and ) that create a smiling face, or an initialism, such as OMG.

The giveaway will run from today, August 5, through August 13, 2013. To celebrate the arrival of the book in the warehouse, we've extended the giveaway through August 20, 2013! Winners will now be notified August 21, 2013.

Good Luck!

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