Long before I bought my Chicago Manual of Style (CMS), 17th ed., I’d researched whether I should underline that which I wanted to italicize. I read (I forget where) that although in the past doing so was necessary, nowadays it’s not. However, in my last year of college–recently–two different older professors underlined my italics when…
Month: October 2020
How to Turn a Real Place into a Fictional Setting
Is there a place you frequent that gives you a sense of peace, or whose natural or man-made elements intrigue you, maybe even prompt you to silently describe them was you walk along, taking it all in? If so, consider it a potential setting for your novel. You may have to make adjustments to custom-fit…
My First Novel: How I Wrote It and What I Learned
When I started writing my first novel, I didn’t realize the endeavor would lead to a continual quest for knowledge. Not knowing anything about novel writing, I “pantsed” my story until I hit the proverbial brick wall some call writer’s block. Asking myself questions, researching my story’s subject matter, and researching story structure helped me…
Surviving Survival: My Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Story
As my “Critical Cardiac Considerations” article mentions, a good majority of children diagnosed with cancer will be cured, children including teens and young adults up to age 21. However, because research on adult childhood-cancer survivors, of which I am one, has shown that some cancer-curing treatments can damage the heart and/or cause other problems that…