BlogBloghttp://www.johndufresne.com/blog/2012-02-09T15:06:12ZSquarespaceflorida bookshttp://www.johndufresne.com/blog/2012/2/9/florida-books.htmlJohn Dufresne2012-02-09T14:55:04Z2012-02-09T14:55:04Z

My pal Lynne Barrett won the Gold Medal in this year's Florida Book Awards. Michael Lister is making his book Blood of the Lamb available for free download for a limited time. I'll be joining both Lynne and Michael at the FIT Creative Writing Institute in May. Lynne and I will also be at the Rosemary Beach Foundation Conference for Writers in May. 

]]>willie and friendshttp://www.johndufresne.com/blog/2012/2/7/willie-and-friends.htmlJohn Dufresne2012-02-07T23:11:18Z2012-02-07T23:11:18Z    WIllie Nelson's rehearsal tody:

Willie and Bobbie

Kevin, Mickey, and Willie

The band is playing in Fort Lauderdale tonight. Mickey and I spent the day talking about music, books, and writing and visiting Books & Books on Lincoln Road for literature and lunch

]]>two pairs of glasses, two dayshttp://www.johndufresne.com/blog/2012/2/7/two-pairs-of-glasses-two-days.htmlJohn Dufresne2012-02-07T22:10:32Z2012-02-07T22:10:32Z

I've had both pair for over twenty years, but to fall apart like this. 

]]>book talk cafehttp://www.johndufresne.com/blog/2012/2/5/book-talk-cafe.htmlJohn Dufresne2012-02-05T19:39:48Z2012-02-05T19:39:48Z

I'll be talking at the Book Talk Cafe in Ponte Vedre on Mondy the thirteenth. 

]]>writing the novelhttp://www.johndufresne.com/blog/2012/1/31/writing-the-novel.htmlJohn Dufresne2012-01-31T14:04:57Z2012-01-31T14:04:57Z

I'll be in St. Augustine on February 11 at Flagler College for a workshop on novel writing. You're invited. 

]]>interrobanging?!http://www.johndufresne.com/blog/2012/1/29/interrobanging.htmlJohn Dufresne2012-01-29T23:18:10Z2012-01-29T23:18:10Z 

For years I've been telling students you only get one mark of punctuation at the end of a sentence. Decide if you want it to be a question mark or an exclamation mark. You don't get two. The students might, of course, use the interrobang. It's a punctuation mark invented by Martin K. Spekter in 1962. The name comes from a combination of the question mark (interrogaton point) and the exclamation mark, called a bang in printer's jargon. The American Heritage Dictionary accepts the spelling interabang as well. The OED has no entry under either spelling. It's availabble in Wingdings 2 in Word. Merriam-Webster says interrobang rhymes with oragutan, but it's a slant rhyme at best. Here's a great article about the interrobang from Shady Characters: the secret life of punctuation.

]]>disposable incomehttp://www.johndufresne.com/blog/2012/1/29/disposable-income.htmlJohn Dufresne2012-01-29T13:37:10Z2012-01-29T13:37:10Z

My nephew Evan has a new gallery show in Worcester. And here's a nice piece in the Worcester Magazine about the bhow. 

]]>usage and abusagehttp://www.johndufresne.com/blog/2012/1/26/usage-and-abusage.htmlJohn Dufresne2012-01-26T16:15:23Z2012-01-26T16:15:23Z 

This ad was placed in Popular Science in 1926 by the Sherwin Cody School of English in Rochester, NY. The rest of the ad was an offer for his home-study course in English. From Wikipedia: The Sherwin Cody 100% Self-correcting Course in English Language arrived in 25 weekly booklets, each divided into five sections. Composition was on Mondays, spelling on Tuesdays, punctuation on Wednesdays, grammar on Thursdays, and conversation and literature on Fridays. The daily lessons were tied to other reference books published by Cody including his Nutshell Library, a collection of pocket books excerpting the works of great writers, supplemented the literary studies. You can read his The Art of Writing and Speaking the English Language here. You can buy the course itself here.

]]>word of the dayhttp://www.johndufresne.com/blog/2012/1/26/word-of-the-day.htmlJohn Dufresne2012-01-26T14:23:13Z2012-01-26T14:23:13Z 

Cheftestant: which I've also seen spelled chef'testant and chef-testant. The Urban Dictionary defines the term: Competitor on a cooking show. Coined by recapper Keckler on televisionwithoutpity.com, it is the combination of the words "chef" and "contestant." Inspired by Bravo channel's "Top Chef." [The TV show should, of course, be italicized, not in quotes.] 

]]>disguisehttp://www.johndufresne.com/blog/2012/1/25/disguise.htmlJohn Dufresne2012-01-26T02:36:26Z2012-01-26T02:36:26Z 

"Every story is about an achievement, otherwise there's no story. The poor use every kind of ruse but no disguise. The rich are usually disguised until they die. One of their most common disguises is Success."

-- John Berger, Bento's Sketchbook

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