Editing copy to perfection

 

“Some books that I've read on the Kindle, I've been like, 'I want that on my shelf.' Because it says, 'I'm the kind of person who has read this.' The kind of book that says, 'I'm serious and intellectual and historical and race-conscious.'" —Jennifer Lee

Born on the Ides of March in 1976, Lee holds the distinction of having the numeral 8 for her middle name.  After not being given a middle name at birth, she assigned this one to herself as an adult “because in the Chinese culture, that number signifies prosperity and good luck.”   

Author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles about "how Chinese food is more all-American than apple pie,” she is a part-time journalist and full-time writer while serving on a variety of boards including at the Center for Public Integrity and the Asian American Writers' Workshop.

Lee started writing as a journalist on The Harvard Crimson, then did a series of internships at some of the country’s best newspapers before working as a writer and editor for The New York Times.   There, she served as both a copy editor and a headline writer. 

 

“People often think that reporters write their own headlines. In fact, they almost never do,” she said.  “The people who do write headlines are the copy editors who are the front and last lines of quality-checking in a newspaper before it goes to print. “

A Writer's Moment: 'Never stop questioning'

A Writer's Moment: 'Never stop questioning':   “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination.” – Albert Einstein   Today is a day Einstein wou...

'Never stop questioning'

 

“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination.” – Albert Einstein

 

Today is a day Einstein would have enjoyed.  It’s National Pi Day, named for the mathematical constant that’s the ratio of the distance around a circle to the circle’s diameter.  This produces a number, and that number is always 3.141592653 . . . continuing without end but always the same numbers.  It's quite helpful in solving problems or making discoveries.

 

Celebrating National Pi Day on 3-14 makes sense because the first three numbers are, of course, 3-14.   I think Einstein would especially like National Pi Day (something that wasn’t celebrated while he was still alive) because it also falls on his birthday.  Einstein (born in 1879) probably would have had as much fun with that as anyone because he often showed that he had a great sense of humor to go along with his brainy abilities. 

  

He once noted that people should never kiss and drive at the same time.  Because, he added, then you aren't giving the kiss the proper amount of attention.    He also said – probably with a bit too much modesty – that he didn’t keep a notebook of his great ideas because “I’ve only ever had one."

 

 A final note from Einstein:  “Learn from yesterday, live for today, and hope for tomorrow.  The important thing is not to stop questioning.”

 

 

A Writer's Moment: 'Hitchhiking' into writing fame

A Writer's Moment: 'Hitchhiking' into writing fame:   “There's nothing worse than sitting down to write a novel and saying, 'Well, okay, today   I'm going to do something of high ...

'Hitchhiking' into writing fame

 

“There's nothing worse than sitting down to write a novel and saying, 'Well, okay, today  I'm going to do something of high artistic worth’.” – Douglas Adams

Born on this date in 1952, Adams is author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which originated in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before being turned into a series of books that sold more than 15 million copies.  Ultimately it also generated a television series, several stage plays, comics, a computer game, and a feature film. 

Adams, who died of a heart attack at age 49, also was known as an advocate for environmentalism and conservation, a lover of fast cars, cameras, and technological innovation.  And, of course, for his prowess as a writer, something he started in elementary school.  His first published piece came at age 10 in the school newspaper, and at age 13 a humorous short story was published in a national youth magazine.   

 

 He loved writing but struggled with deadlines.  “I love deadlines,” he once said.   “I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”

                            

A true Renaissance man, he was not just a writer, but also an actor, singer, producer, computer game developer, and stand-up comic.  His work on “Hitchhiker’s Guide” has been enshrined in The UK Radio Academy’s Hall of Fame. 

 

“I seldom end up where I want to go,” he said about his movement among careers and opportunities.  “But I almost always end up where I need to be.”

A Writer's Moment: All the sounds of Spring

A Writer's Moment: All the sounds of Spring:   “Like a piece of ice on a hot stove a poem must ride on its own melting ... Read it a hundred times, it will forever ke...

All the sounds of Spring

 

“Like a piece of ice on a hot stove a poem must ride on its own melting ... Read it a hundred times, it will forever keep its freshness as a metal keeps its fragrance.  It can never lose its sense of a meaning that once unfolded by surprise as it went.”

 – Robert Frost

 

I almost always think of Robert Frost’s poetry when I hear or see things in nature.  This morning, unlike the bird that bothers Frost in his short poem below, the bird near our house is not singing off-key but, instead, just creating angry noise.

 

But I decided a noisy bird is still better than no bird.  I just wish, like the bird Frost is annoyed with in his poem, it would work a little on its singing.   For Saturday’s Poem, here is Frost’s,

 

A Minor Bird

 

I have wished a bird would fly away,
And not sing by my house all day;

Have clapped my hands at him from the door
When it seemed as if I could bear no more.

The fault must partly have been in me.
The bird was not to blame for his key.

And of course there must be something wrong
In wanting to silence any song.