The NFL football season has begun, and I'm not sure my heart can take another Broncos game like the one last Sunday.
QUIBBLES & BITS
Emails are never having to say you're sorry. Not!
I've noticed a trend lately on my many (way too many) listservs.
A poster will send a private, personal email meant for someone on the list to the whole list, then follow it up with an apology...to the list. Both emails will have a siggy line that's bigger than Poland.
Before email, it would take me two days to write and edit a letter. To my mother!
Today, 99% of the time I'll put an email in my Draft folder, especially when I'm pissed off. The original email might look like this:
To the obnoxious poster who chastised authors for addressing important issues in their crime fiction and added that those particular authors weren't "good Christians and would go to hell." What gives you the effing right to play God and tell authors what and how to write? Are you aware that there were at least 6 effing typos in your chastisement? And that you didn't trim your post? How effing rude!
Then I'll file it in my Draft folder.
That night or the next day I'll revise until it looks like this:
To the poster who chastised authors for expressing opinions that disagreed with your own opinion. My favorite saying is "Words unexpressed sometimes fall back dead, but God himself can't kill them once they are said." With all due respect, my suggestion is to think before you write. That's what I try to do.
Okay, confession: I do have one bad habit. I'll click on the email address of a Very Important Person -- let's say a reviewer, or a publisher -- when I visit a website. The email will go from the website directly into my SEND file. Then, forgetting to transfer it into my Draft file and write a message, I'll hit "Send & Receive."
The subject header will read: Re: Hi from author Denise Dietz
The body of the email will look like this:
Dear Very Important Person,
I've noticed a trend lately on my many (way too many) listservs.
A poster will send a private, personal email meant for someone on the list to the whole list, then follow it up with an apology...to the list. Both emails will have a siggy line that's bigger than Poland.
Before email, it would take me two days to write and edit a letter. To my mother!
Today, 99% of the time I'll put an email in my Draft folder, especially when I'm pissed off. The original email might look like this:
To the obnoxious poster who chastised authors for addressing important issues in their crime fiction and added that those particular authors weren't "good Christians and would go to hell." What gives you the effing right to play God and tell authors what and how to write? Are you aware that there were at least 6 effing typos in your chastisement? And that you didn't trim your post? How effing rude!
Then I'll file it in my Draft folder.
That night or the next day I'll revise until it looks like this:
To the poster who chastised authors for expressing opinions that disagreed with your own opinion. My favorite saying is "Words unexpressed sometimes fall back dead, but God himself can't kill them once they are said." With all due respect, my suggestion is to think before you write. That's what I try to do.
Okay, confession: I do have one bad habit. I'll click on the email address of a Very Important Person -- let's say a reviewer, or a publisher -- when I visit a website. The email will go from the website directly into my SEND file. Then, forgetting to transfer it into my Draft file and write a message, I'll hit "Send & Receive."
The subject header will read: Re: Hi from author Denise Dietz
The body of the email will look like this:
Dear Very Important Person,
Later, sounding like a complete doofus, I'll send a second email explaining what I did.
Makes a great impression, eh?
Sometimes I'm firmly convinced that my life needs editing.
Over and Out,
Deni
Makes a great impression, eh?
Sometimes I'm firmly convinced that my life needs editing.
Over and Out,
Deni
