Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Pardon me, but your modifier is dangling ...

Update! All of the names have been put into a hat and ... Laurann Dohner is the lucky winner of my book giveaway! Thanks so much to all of you who played along. Look for another giveaway coming soon!

Hello everyone! My name is Stephanie Adkins, and I’m the newest kid on the block here at Naughty Author Chicks. I love writing contemporary erotic romance stories, but I’ve also dabbled in suspense and the paranormal world. My first book, Breathing Shallow, debuted in December 2008 from Liquid Silver Books. Since then, I’ve been published with Ellora’s Cave, Loose Id, Phaze Books, and Cobblestone Press. I have three new stories debuting this spring, and I can’t wait to tell you all about them! But first, I need to make a confession. (Now go ahead and get your minds out of the gutter. It's not that kind of confession. Those will come later. * wink*)

You know, I used to think I was really good at grammar and punctuation. English was my favorite subject in high school and college. Nouns and verbs made me drool. Book reports and essays? Oh yeah, I was all over that. So, when I wrote Breathing Shallow, I thought it was polished and the epitome of perfection. (Yeah right!) But when Liquid Silver Books accepted it, and I received my first round of edits, I was SO embarrassed. My poor editor, Lynne, had her work cut out for her when she got me. Thank goodness the woman has the patience of Job. We've since worked together a second time, and hopefully she'll be working with me on my third upcoming release from LSB because I don't think I could break in another editor. They might run from me screaming and never return. *grin*

I'm very proud to say that I've improved a ton over the past thirteen months. The editors, publishers, and numerous author friends I've come in contact with have been such an enormous help to me. It's all a learning experience, but there are still things that trip me up every now and then no matter how many stories I write. I've just come to accept the fact that comma's are evil little trolls. LOL

If you’ve never read one of my stories, I hope you’ll consider diving in to one of them, and if you'd like the chance to win a PDF copy of my book, Breathing Shallow, then leave a comment to this post. I'll be drawing a name at the end of the day, and it will be posted here by 8 AM (CST) tomorrow morning. Good luck!

Come visit me at http://www.stephanieadkins.com/.

12 comments:

Wynter said...

Welcome to the Naughty side! I think we all have our foibles when it comes to writing! I used to think em dashes were evil, but I've come to embrace them;-)

Stephanie Adkins said...

Thanks Wynter! Oh yes, the EM dashes. Gotta love them. LOL *Hugs*

Terry Odell said...

I'm the dangling modified Queen, I think. I created, without conscious effort, an answering machine that gave neck massages.

Sherry said...

I could never be a writer or an editor because I haven't got a clue about punctuation and my thoughts jump from one thing to another. I think that authors are not appreciated enough for the wonderful job that they do.

Sarah said...

I'm useless when it comes to punctuation so I really feel for you on that LOL. I'm looking forward to reading your future posts & getting my hands on some of your books :o)

Savannah Stuart said...

Lol, Stephanie! You're not alone. I'm still embarrassed by some of the dumb mistakes I've turned into my editors. Thank God for awesome editors!

Laurann Dohner said...

I'm a newbie author and my editors are saints! LOL. I winced when I got my first set of edits and wanted to send thank you letters to them sending my edits and not hate mail for all the work they had to do. LOL. I made notes, pages of them, and I'm learning. I've spent the past week, am still doing it now, going over my recent submissions to 'fix' them. I'm the 'like' eyes shut' - redundancy Queen so it's so nice to meet you! LOL. Hopefully soon I'll be the 'as if' eyes closed - not over stating to the point of redundancy Queen! LOL

Stephanie Adkins said...

Thanks for commenting everyone! Now I don't feel so bad about my comma problem. LOL

Only a few more hours, and I'll be drawing a name. Stay tuned! :)

Naima Simone said...

Hi, Stephanie!
Yeah!! Welcome to Naughty Author Chicks! I feel so close to everyone now! *sigh* *sniff* I thought I was the Queen of the Dangling Modifier! LOL! When I received my first round of edits I realized I have a love affair with the comma and my modifiers were past dangling! They were freakin' bungee jumping!! LOL!!! I love my editor! She's the best! I thought to myself, she must love my voice because my grammar sucks!! Hee-hee-hee!

So good to know I'm not alone...Group hug...

Stephanie Adkins said...

Congratulations Laurann! You were the lucky winner of my contest!

Thank you all SO much for playing along. :)

Laurann Dohner said...

Stephanie,

THANK YOU!!!! Doing Happy Dance!!!

Michelle Polaris said...

Welcome, welcome, Stephanie.I'll chime in with everyone else admitting to my slaughter of punctuation and grammar. But I like to think of it as an employment opportunity for editors out there. Without our screw ups, there would be fewer jobs for them. I figure by my 20th manuscript submission I might get some of them correct. At least the dangling modifiers are hilarious when you catch them.:) Glad you're here.