Writing Lesson - The Hyphen

Ok yes, I know, I know... We should have learned this in elementary school. In fact, it's quite possible that I did, and then forgot. But I was having a hard time figuring out if I should hyphenate certain words in my novel, and lucky for me, I came across an article that addressed this specific issue.

So here is the rule: A hyphen is used to join two words that describe an object, when the descriptive words can't be used on their own.

Example: The blood-stained walls
You can't describe the walls as simply blood, or simply stained. Therefore a hyphen is required.

Example #2: The mushy, green peas.
Both words can describe the peas on their own, therefore no hyphen is required.

So for those of you who like little tricks for grammar and punctuation, I hope this comes in handy.

Versatile Blogger Award part Deux

Stories Inc bestowed upon me the wonderful award you see to the right and that award came with some duties. I covered the first two duties in my last post "Versatile Blogger Award". This post is to cover the last two requirements, which are:

- Pass the award to up to 10 other versatile bloggers
- Let those other bloggers know you gave them the award

So the awards go to:
***queue suspenseful music***

Lisa at Doin' It For Me - whose blog is dark and twisty, fun and flirty, and nothing short of inspiring.

Diego at Demolishing the Block whose writing is A+++++

And finally, The unwashedmass at The Intermittent Sprocket - who gives this movie buff the insides and outs of all upcoming movies in an interesting and invigorating way.

Thanks again for the awesome award!
Nina

Versatile Blogger Award

Thanks to the wonderful Stories Inc, I was given the Versatile Blogger Award that you see on the upper right corner there. Thanks Stories!
Now this award comes with a few requirements so let's get at 'em:

#1 - Thank the person who gave you the award (Thank you, Thank you, Thank you)
#2 - Share 7 things about yourself
#3 - Pass the award to up to 10 other versatile bloggers
#4 - Let those other bloggers know you gave them the award

So #1 is covered, though I could have given a thank you speech to Stories for hours, writing about how awesome she is.

#2 is not quite as easy. Let's see what I can come up with...

(a) I live in Ontario Canada, which totally rocks except for the winters. Someday I hope to be rich enough to spend my winters someplace warm, (and don't worry stories, I'll take you with me). This year has been an exceptionally long and gloomy winter and everyone is feeling the effects.

(b) I love my pillows. No really, like I really really love my pillows... and my bed. And the big, fluffy, long-eared, stuffed animal dog I sleep with. I love the weight of the 3 (yes count them, 3) huge comforters I tuck myself under every night. I love the sound of the fan I keep on in my room for white noise while I sleep.... hmmm... I'm tempted to go take a nap.

(c) My vices are cigarettes, chocolate, cookies and tea. I'm not into drinking or street drugs, which makes my career as a novelist somewhat bleak. ;)

(d) I despise insects, pretty much all of them. I'll never understand why Noah allowed mosquitoes on the ark.

(e) Well, I was going to avoid this altogether, but what the heck, it's who I am. I came from a close-knit loving family that was shattered when my nephew murdered my sister. The story is stranger than fiction, and I hope to someday heal enough to write about it.

(f) My apartment is painted completely pink. It's like walking into a comforting and cheery womb.

(g) Powers is not my real last name, but my first name really is Nina.

Ok so that covers the first two requirements. Now onto part 2: Dishing out the awards!