Portland.BloggersPub

4 years on to this evergreen/church planting/emerging church thing I’m beginning to realize just how far removed I am from the experiential side of evangelical worship. Honestly, it’s begun to feel downright cross-cultural to me… Yesterday was rough on that…

In California, trying to unwind. It hasn’t happened yet, but… I woke up this morning a bit past five, crept past the sleeping Chip, Chris and Dustin (they are SO cute when they are asleep) and headed down to the…

I ran into a website called Common Ties that publishes short stories (50 words or less) based on answers to 20 questions and then pairs it up with artwork. They pay $50 for accepted answers and typically $50 to $150 per accepted artwork. Definitely worth a checkout.

I’m at the National Pastors Convention in San Diego this week… Chris, Dustin and I are sharing a room. I think I’m sleeping with Chip. Hope he doesn’t mind spooning… I can’t sleep without a good 15 minutes of cuddling.

I adore em dashes. They are useful and beautiful. Imagine my surprise, then, when one author expressed a different view. This gentleman is a PhD and a fine writer. One day, I queried him about replacing a pair of commas with a pair of ems (to relieve what I considered a comma-heavy sentence).

He replied that dashes were acceptable; however, in school he had been taught not to use them because they are not “proper grammar.” Furthermore, he did not permit his students to use dashes.

This made me think: em dashes do have a boldness to them, even a sort of brute force that might come off too strong in a formal document. Although I happen to think them appropriate in any form of writing, others may disagree.

I would love to hear more opinions about this. Was anyone else taught not to use em dashes? Do any authors out there refuse to use them? Have any editors encountered this situation before?

In the case in question, I reasoned that obeying the author’s wishes outweighed the need to change commas to dashes. I let the sentence stand.

I’ll close with some excerpts from The Chicago Manual of Style.

6.87 Versatility and frequency of use. The em dash, often simply called the dash, is the most commonly used and most versatile of the dashes.

6.88 Amplifying or explaining. An em dash or a pair of em dashes sets off an amplifying or explanatory element. (Commas, parentheses, or a colon may perform a similar function.)

6.90 Indicating sudden breaks. An em dash or a pair of em dashes may indicate a sudden break in thought or sentence structure or an interruption in dialogue.

The Molly Gloss and Tony Wolk reading at Portland State’s Millar Library was quite pleasant. The laws that govern the Universe compelled me to go: you see, my very first experience with Ooligan Press was when I got up the courage to attend a reading of Wolk’s Abraham Lincoln, A Novel Life. The book had just been released, I had just learned about the Publishing Program; so I walked down to the library and sat shyly in the audience, looking in wonder at Dennis Stovall and the other attendees who were undoubtedly all amazing Super Publishers.

Anyway, Friday night’s reading went well. I had never heard or read Molly Gloss before but became instantly impressed and enthralled with her writing. She read from The Hearts of Horses. Tony was great, of course, with his Harry Stein and Joan Matcham and his insights about President Lincoln.

To see The Hearts of Horses at Powell’s, click here. Or go to your favorite independent bookstore!

To see Tony Wolk’s Good Friday, click here. Or just stop by www.ooligan.pdx.edu and look at our books.

A side note:

The Powell’s website synopsis uses the word “gentling,” as in, “a determined young woman with a gift for gentling wild horses.” Grrr. I have always disliked the use of gentle as a verb: it strikes me as one of those new trends, those dreadfully clever verbings of nouns or nounings of verbs. The only thing worse in this world is using birth as a verb, but if I start up on that, I will get too excited and end up throwing a chair through a window.

Imagine my astonishment, then, when Merriam-Webster tells me that the use of gentle as a verb dates from the 14th century. That doesn’t mean I have to like it, though.

(Boy, I sound out of sorts today. Does this mean I’m finally approaching “cranky editor” status?)

Best Unintentionally Ironic Bumper Sticker of 2008: “Bush Supporters Are Smug Bigots”

Okay- I was an hour and a half into trying to finish my review of Pagan Christianity, but I’m bailing out now. I’m sorry- the Adventure in Missing the Point that this book represents is simply too ridiculous to keep…

My wife and kids may meet my dad for the first time next week. Honestly, just typing that sentence makes my back start to seize up… I haven’t seen my dad in something like 8 years. Not since burying my…