Restoration Day Has a Cover!

Yes, I am as excited as you are. No, wait – I am more excited than you are! (Unless you are bouncing up and down going eeee! in which case, welcome to the team.)

I could blether on for hours about the long road to this point, but instead I will cut the cackle, come to the ‘osses, and show you this:

Isn’t it beautiful?

My thanks go to the Caped Gooseberry for getting the background to look the way I wanted it to, and to Eve Doyle for the stunning typography which is, I think we can all agree, the best bit.

Now, those of you who have encountered books before may be wondering where the rest of it is. What about a spine? Or a back cover? Fear not. There shall be a back and a spine (although the spine will not be in the middle of the back, as is usual in most vertebrates I know of).

All detective 193412
Here’s a spine on the front cover!
And if you want to one day see them – or, indeed, see what lies inside this lovely-looking book cover, then pop across to the Home page and put your details in the form at the bottom.

Not the one at the very bottom – that’ll get you subscribed to the blog. The one headed Want To Be The First To Hear About New Releases? (Because you do, don’t you? First-equal, anyway.)

In fact, those who sign up will also be the first to hear when Restoration Day is available for pre-order, as it undoubtedly will be once I get all the technical duckies in a row.

Get your ducks in a row.jpgIt has just occurred to me to wonder where that expression came from. What are the duckies lining up for? I fear it will end badly for them. But not for us! We shall have books, spiny and otherwise.

Rejoice!

Welcome to the New Site!

Come on in and make yourself comfortable!

As promised, here are the answers to the Proofreading Fun quiz.

Probably Valentin de Boulogne - Saint Paul Writing His Epistles - Google Art ProjectChallenge One: matching the characters to the names.
1D, 2E, 3A, 4F, 5B, 6G, 7H, 8C
Which is to say:
guillemet «
interrobang ‽
obelus ÷
pilcrow ¶
asterism ⁂
solidus /
hedera ❧
octothorpe #

Challenge Two: where would you hyphenate the following words?
bur-ied
can-opy
guard-ians
min-ute (tick tick, not tiny)
sau-téed
start-ling
strength (there’s the trick question I warned you about)
whee-dling

Writing the Declaration of Independence 1776 cph.3g09904
Congratulations to those who took part. No one has yet said anything opprobrious regarding the Oxford Comma, but I trust that those who harbour ill-will towards it will feel welcome here nonetheless.

Proofreading Fun

Are you ready for some good clean proofreading-related fun? I thought as much.
Here are three challenges for you to whet your wits upon. Put your answer in the comments, and I’ll release the correct answers in due course.

Disclaimer: one part of one of these challenges (and no, I’m not telling you which) is something of a trick question. One of the other challenges may not even have a correct answer, but may result in injury, maiming or death. You can’t say I didn’t warn you.

Gun panda

Challenge One: match the characters to the names.
1 guillemet
2 interrobang
3 obelus
4 pilcrow
5 asterism
6 solidus
7 hedera
8 octothorpe

A ÷   B ⁂   C #   D «   E ‽   F ¶   G /   H ❧

Challenge Two: where would you hyphenate the following words?
buried
canopy
guardians
minute (tick tick, not tiny)
sautéed
startling
strength
wheedling

Battle between the imperial and the revolutionary army Wellcome L0040011
Challenge Three: are you for or against the Oxford comma? «barricades self under desk and refuses to come out»