My Latest Novel

I just finished my second Philippa Gregory book in a little over a week. I’ve really enjoyed this author because she writes historical fiction about 16th-century England. The books I’ve read are told from first-person, which makes these historical books feel more up-to-date and authentic. The two books I’ve read are about the juicy, turbulent times of King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth, making for hard-to-put-down stories. However, I have two problems with her writing: She does not use commas appropriately, and she doesn’t use proper English grammar many times.

When two sentences are joined by a conjunction (e.g., and, but, so) to form one sentence, the sentence warrants a comma before the conjunction. I realize this observation may be more for her editor, but it distracts from her great storytelling ability. I’ve edited too much writing (my own and others’) to be able to ignore repeated, blatant errors. There are other times she omits necessary commas, but the comma before a conjunction is my biggest beef.

From The Other Boleyn Girl on page 177, Gregory writes, “From the leads of the castle we could see the beacon bonfires burning all the way to London and the city itself was red against the night sky with fires at every street corner and men spit-roasting carcasses of beef and lamb.” It’s a lengthy sentence that longs for a comma or two. Without a doubt a comma is needed between the two independent clauses that are joined by a conjunction—“…to London, and the city itself….” I would not draw attention to her aversion of commas if it didn’t happen so often and repeatedly throughout the novel. Her sentences are sometimes long and the paragraphs long, so the reader needs commas to help delineate the text and aid in comprehension.

My second problem is a little pickier. Since people usually don’t speak with correct grammar, it’s harder to notice when an author doesn’t use a possessive pronoun before a gerund or “who” when “whom” is required. Before I lose the interest of all you grammar-phobes, here’s a simple example to explain the use of a possessive pronoun before a gerund.

Betty really wanted to go to the party, and I didn’t want my going to the game to mess up her plans.

Now, most people do not speak this way, though it’s correct grammatically. Most people say, “…I didn’t want me going to the game….” If the possessive pronoun sounds funny to your ears, try replacing the gerund “going” with an appropriate, recognizable-sounding noun, such as “trip.” I don’t think anyone would say, “…I didn’t want me trip to the game….” Keep in mind a gerund is the present-progressive form of a verb (i.e., an -ing word) being used as a noun.

Because this novel is about 16th-century England, I feel like her narrator and other characters would use correct English. So her continued misuse of grammar doesn’t feel authentic for the characters; it feels more like she as the author doesn’t know the correct grammar. Perhaps she needs a better editor.

Writers' Group

I've joined a writers' group, and I feel so excited and decidedly cool to write that. While Hamilton was playing at school, I met three fellow writers at a coffee shop. We're wives and mothers, published writers and homemakers. Some of us blog or intend to blog, and some of us write professionally. We chatted about our writing styles, our goals and aspirations in our writing, and our expectations for the group. And, we all agreed we wanted accountability and encouragement in our writing.

While blogging is great in some ways for motivating me to write--I have regular readers, I feel like I've gotten into a rut with the topics about which I feel comfortable blogging. So my desire is to blog and write about new topics and things that are a little bit out of my comfort zone. I know all my readers love "Claire-isms" and pictures of Hamilton, and those topics will continue to be featured at Morgan Adventures. However, I'm also hoping to explore other topics that I haven't made the time to write about or felt like I could sufficiently write about before.

So don't be surprised by an out-of-the-ordinary blog post; I'll be trying some new topics and styles. I hope my wonderful, reliable readers will enjoy the journey.

Fifteen Months Old

Hamilton was officially fifteen months yesterday, though I took these pictures this morning before school while we waited on the front porch for "Miss Amanda" to arrive for carpooling. Since it was 45 degrees this morning when we woke up, I dug around for some fall clothes for Hamilton and found these which he'd been given as a baby.

Hamilton loves to play outside, and we've spent most of the week in the backyard. Hamilton loves to carry around "treasures"; these plastic shovels have been favorites for a few weeks. Treasures work best if they're small and fit into his hand, making them easy to carry around. Last night his chosen treasure--the plastic tray off the top of his highchair--was way too big and cumbersome, so he got irritated and cried/fussed while dragging and playing with the plastic tray that's almost as big as he is.

He's great at giving kisses now whenever asked, though he always wants to shower whoever else is around with kisses too. There's nothing better than getting a wet kiss from that little boy, especially as a "good-bye" when I strap him in Miss Amanda's car for school.

He's using two more signs now--cheese and help. Cheese is a favorite food and probably the one he consumes the quickest. Hamilton asks for help when he wants to get onto the couch on the porch with me. He'll sit for a few seconds on the cushions like a big boy, smiling and looking impressed with himself; then he properly gets down by himself, going feet first. Immediately he'll ask for help again to get back up on the couch, and the cycle continues. I usually only help him onto the couch once; I know his wiley ways.

Hamilton's still enjoying school, though he is so glad to see me when I pick him up. His note home from school today said, "Hamilton enjoyed playing with cars today, and he makes great sound effects."

New Toys

Last week when Deb was visiting, she suggested that Hamilton needed some new toys, so off we went in search of quality, used toys. We found lots of great toys at reasonable prices that Hamilton has loved, but his favorite new toy by far has been the Fridge Farm Magnetic Animal Set. He loves the music it makes right now, though I'm sure eventually he'll enjoy playing with the animals and finding their matches.

Garage Redo

Back near the end of July, I decided to tackle the garage. I knew we'd have to put some money into a good storage system, and I wanted to completely change the organization of it. Our current system was not working, and I was determined that it could be better. Mr. Morgan works on so many projects out in the garage--bikes, cars, lawn equipment, and we store unused and seldom-used items out there because our attic is so small.

Organizing all the lawn equipment, tools, bikes, toys, ladders (we had 3), baby stuff, chairs, etc. was an enormous undertaking, and I didn't know how long this project would take when I started. I may have been less enthusiastic if I had known. Below is the garage just before I started clearing everything out and sorting into piles.

Earlier that morning I had been to Lowe's to pick up some necessary, heavy-duty, storage units. The two men who helped me to my car with the flatbed cart and regular buggie were so surprised that it all fit.

 

After two months of countless hours of Mr. Morgan and I working together, going through every box and tool, we finally finished. Some weeks were lost to my new pregnancy and feeling bad, so we could possibly have finished a bit sooner if we hadn't gotten pregnant in the middle of the project. I'm SO happy about the way it turned out, and Mr. Morgan has been great at keeping it organized after working on projects.