https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/sample-page\/alpha-members\/<\/a><\/p>\nIf your photo and details are not yet on the members\u2019 page, please, could you sort that out with Rosemary asap. Most of the pages now have up-to-date information on them. Do check it all out. I\u2019m pleased to see the Alpha books nicely presented. Soon time for Xmas pressies, don\u2019t forget! All money from sales goes to the Macmillan Cancer Support Charity.<\/p>\n
The showcasing is new for this season, and some members needed a bit of prodding and extra guidance on the finer points of what\u2019s involved. But it\u2019s slowly sinking in and Clare has so far offered two pieces for our benefit. They certainly illustrate the wide range of possible contributions and I expect we\u2019ll soon realise what a perfect addition to the Alpha register these pieces are. The Log tells us about all the things Alphas do with their writing talent; the showcasing pieces give us real examples. Clare is keen to hear from anyone who hasn\u2019t come up with anything yet.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve created a separate folder for the showcasing pieces to make sure I can find them when I\u2019ve got time to read them. The great thing is that there are no deadlines for comments; in other words you\u2019ve never \u201cmissed\u201d the opportunity to comment on one of the showcased pieces. Any time and any piece is fine.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Literature has made headlines recently with some really exciting news. I can\u2019t get over how neat it looks, as if it was selected for effect. Alice Munro received the Nobel Prize for her life\u2019s work. Eleanor Catton received the Man Booker Prize for her second novel. (That\u2019s two women, but that\u2019s by the by!)<\/p>\n
Alice Munro is 82. Eleanor Catton is 28. AM lives in Canada. EC lives in New Zealand. (Opposite ends) AM was rewarded for her short stories. EC was rewarded for her 832-page long novel.<\/p>\n
Isn\u2019t that as if the patterns were pre-arranged? I think it\u2019s so pretty \uf04a.<\/p>\n
Enjoy your Alphaday!<\/p>\n
Christine.<\/p>\n
PS: I did get very entangled in a question of punctuation. What follows is optional for those who\u2019d care to read it. It\u2019s outside the formal Alpha business schedule. (You have been warned!)<\/p>\n
Punctuation.<\/p>\n
When I\u2019m overcome by doubts on a writing related subject, I turn to my esteemed Alpha friends to see how they deal with the problem. I have a sneaking suspicion that I\u2019ve slipped into bad habits: I cannot resist the temptation to use ellipses and dashes; indiscriminately and excessively, I fear. Exclamation marks I\u2019ve managed to keep under control. I may use them loosely in informal emails, but for serious writing purposes I\u2019ll only use exclamation marks after an authentic exclamation, dammit! But time and again I\u2019m itching to use ellipses and dashes. I think it\u2019s because they seem to add drama to my written words in a far more striking way than ordinary punctuation marks can muster. When I look up articles on the subject on the web, warning bells start clanging. E.g. \u201cIn informal writing a dash may replace commas, semicolons, colons, and parentheses to indicate emphasis, interruption, abrupt change of thought.\u201d Oops! Doesn\u2019t this mean that the dash lacks the different nuances you can get by choosing a suitable punctuation mark from the usual register? Perhaps the dramatic-looking dash is in fact as inarticulate as a string of exclamation marks or a \u201csee wot I mean?\u201d tag. The most authoritative punctuation experts insist that the dash should only be used for violent, abrupt interruptions or changes of thought. The ellipsis is, strictly speaking, reserved for omissions and trailing off in full flow. But what about all those pauses, then? I ask. This is where the danger lies, I think. Is there an exact science of telling an interruption from a pause? Might they occasionally overlap? What\u2019s wrong with a full stop? To see where I was going wrong, I went through all the entries for Ch.1. That gave me plenty of food for thought. Did I find the answer to my problem? Let\u2019s just say I\u2019m much better informed \uf04a. Whatever your personal approach is, the main thing is to be consistent. I\u2019ve attached my findings separately, just in case some of you are or aren\u2019t interested.<\/p>\n
Christine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hi Alphas, Welcome to Alphaday 3, Season X. This is the real thing. All the little wheels and cogs have been set in motion and the Alpha season\u2019s machinery is purring contentedly…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6,7,5,11,8,4],"class_list":["post-125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alphaday-bulletins","tag-alpha","tag-alpha-writers","tag-challenges","tag-punctuation","tag-showcase","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}