by Allison Maruska

There are many rules that govern our writing and language use. Ever useful, sometimes changing, and occasionally bizarre.

There are some rules I just can’t seem to learn. My brain refuses to let them in, and I have to look them up every single damn time I need to use them. One of those is the lay/lie/laying/lying differences. Grammar Girl comes in handy with that one.

Christopher Slater raises an interesting issue in this article entitled “Do you judge writers?” (https://ryanlanz.com/2017/02/16/do-you-judge-writers/)

My own view is that while it is difficult not to judge writers (their morals or lack of them), one should, so far as is humanly possible avoid doing so. A great writer remains so even if he (or she) was/is a terrible parent to their children or held/holds views with which most liberal (with a small l) individuals would disagree.

In this article for the Telegraph A N Wilson mentions the poet, Philip Larkin’s wish (expressed in his correspondence) to join the far-right National Front and Eliot’s anti-Semitism (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3588935/World-of-books.html)

Wilson argues that we need to separate the author’s artistic creations from their views. This is a perspective with which I concur absolutely. We don’t have to share an author’s views to admire their work and if we only read those…

“CHILDREN as young as five are calling a helpline to be read bedtime stories because their alcoholic parents are too drunk to tuck them in at night”,

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/769135/Children-call-helplines-for-bedtimes-stories.

This is just so incredibly sad.

Here’s a cool how-to video that some DIY-types like me might like:

Source: How To Make a Free 3D Cover Image of Your Book.

This deviates from my regular posts so I will try my best to tie it back to writing. Specifically, this post is going to discuss the prevelance of political discourse (if you can call it that) on social media and how writers can take it as a lesson in “what not to do” in terms of marketing.

I honestly don’t care if a reader is left or right wing, conservative or liberal, I am exhausted by the constant spam from both sides. I’ve posted a screenshot detailing the description of “spam” below. The primary elements I want to focus on are irrelevant, inappropriate, unwanted, and intrusive. Each of these can be applied to almost every Facebook fight in regards to politics.

I am not saying that the topics are unimportant, in fact, I have some pretty strong opinions in regards to some current events, but when I keep seeing the…