A couple months ago I saw a tweet from Leanne Prain, one of the authors of the book Yarn Bombing: The Art of Knit and Crochet Graffiti. The tweet linked to the yarn bombing website and said they were organizing a yarn bombing of the Historic Joy Kogawa House’s cherry tree.

This immediately sparked my interest as it merged two of my passions—yarn and books! And I immediately knew the perfect yarn to use (from my stash too) and started crocheting blossoms.

I also had a thought— at my new internship I’ve got the chance to contribute to various magazine websites (I’m in the digital editorial department). So I mentioned the yarn bombing to Granville Magazine‘s editor, Hilary Henegar. She liked the idea and said to go ahead with the article.

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I found this neat bit of grammar trivia when I was cleaning up some editing handouts I got during the SFU Writing & Publishing Program. I thought it was neat (because I am a grammar geek) and I think learning is fun. Yes, I’m a big nerd — and kinda proud of it!

It’s actually interesting if you have any desire to learn more about the English language.

The position of only in standard spoken English is not fixed; stress and intonation provide all the clarification needed. In edited prose, only tends to be placed immediate before (sometimes after) the word or words it modifies.

Only I hit him in the eye yesterday.
(no one else did any hitting)

I only hit him in the eye yesterday.
(I didn’t shoot him in the eye)

I hit only him in the eye yesterday.
(I didn’t hit anyone else)

I hit him only in the eye yesterday.
(I didn’t touch any other part of him)

I hit him in the only eye yesterday.
(He had just one eye)

I hit him in the eye only yesterday.
(Not long ago— recently)

I hit him in the eye yesterday only.
(Not any day other than yesterday)

Now, I must apologise as the handout I received did not have a source referenced. After some Google-fu, someone on Wikipedia seems to think that it is from The Careful Writer by Theodore Bernstein (first published in 1977), based on a sentence that appears in G. & C. Merriam’s Word Study.

Friday was the second annual BookCamp Vancouver and it was a great day with a diverse crowd and thought-provoking discussions. BookCamp is an unconference where attendees pitch ideas for presentations and discussions. If you’re at a session and decide you’d like to check something else out, you’re encouraged to do so. Or perhaps you have a question/suggestion or something to add, you’re also encouraged to speak up and share your thoughts.

The morning began with just a short address from the BookCamp Vancouver organizers and acknowledgments for the sponsors and supporters. What I like about BookCamp compared to other conferences is that there isn’t a keynote speaker. Sometimes the keynote speaker can be less than expected and/or the acoustics can suck and/or it just doesn’t interest you. At least an unconference it’s not rude to leave a session — which is something I wouldn’t do to a keynote speaker.

Anyway, on to the sessions! Grab a cuppa something good and settle in for a loooong post.

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I haven’t been blogging much because… well a number of reasons. One of which is that I am in my final course for the SFU Writing & Publishing Program. I am in a certificate program for editing. While looking through some notes to complete my project, I came across a print out one of my instructors shared. I thought it would be appropriate to share it here.

A good editor will pick every nit. No use accusing them of nit-picking. It’s their job. — Margaret Atwood

What kind of person makes a good editor? When hiring new staff, I look for such useful attributes as genius, charisma, adaptability, and disdain for high wages. I also look for signs of a neurotic trait called compulsiveness, which in one form is indispensable to editors, and in another disabling. — Arthur Plotnik

Good editors are not obsessed with commas, spacing around headings, or parallelism. We are obsessed with readers and their ability to understand printed words and thoughts as effortlessly as possible. — Mary J. Scroggins

If you do not tolerate a certain level of anxiety over a considerable length of time (say, an entire career), then you are probably not constituted to be an editor. — Gerald Gross

The writer’s job is to write while the editor’s job is to worry. — Gregory Clark

If you look at any list of great modern writers such as Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, you’ll notice two things about them: (1) they all had editors; and (2) they are all dead. Thus we can draw the scientific conclusion that editors are fatal. — Dave Barry

A few weekends ago I attended the first ever FreelanceCamp Vancouver at The Network Hub downtown.

This was very well-spent $10 admission, but with an unconference style only some of the talks appealed to me.

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