|
|
|
|
Next Field Trip/Program Meeting: Thursday, November 20
Next Networking Event/Holiday Party: Thursday, December 11
|
|
|
Clearstory Creative Digital Publishers and 2015 Board of Directors Elections
|
|
 Join SD/PEN for a fascinating field trip to Clearstory Creative Digital Publishers on Thursday, November 20. After a little snacking and mingling, we’ll hold a brief meeting to elect SD/PEN’s 2015 Board of Directors. Come vote and find out who your new board members will be.
Our host and presenter will be Debara Medina, CEO and owner of Clearstory Creative Digital Publishers. Debara will show us the behind-the-scenes workings of a book publisher.
All work is done in house at the state-of-the-art facility. Wait until you see the machine Debara calls “The Mother Ship”! Debara brought her experience working with high-tech companies to Clearstory. Your facilities tour will include her explanation of their specialized machines and how they’re used.
Clearstory celebrates everyone’s story. Debara is committed to providing the highest-quality digital printing, finishing, bookbinding, and innovation to anyone with a passion for telling their story, from businesses to individuals.
|
|
Meeting Details
Thursday, November 20, 2014
6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Clearstory Creative Digital Publishers
8320 Miramar Mall
San Diego 92121
Google Map
|
|
|
It’ll be festive, fun, and filled with food! It’s the holiday party you don’t want to miss! Join us Thursday, December 11, 2014, from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. at the San Diego County Health Services Complex for our semiannual bash. You can eat, play games, chat with old friends or new, and maybe even take home SD/PEN’s annual grand prize!
If you want to participate in the white elephant game, bring a wrapped gift to exchange. Buy a little something (approximate $5 value) or bring something to regift. You never know if your gift will become “the hot item” that everyone will be vying for. No matter what you end up taking home, you’re sure to have a good time playing or just watching the craziness.
Be sure to RSVP when you receive the email invitation as we will be providing food (including vegetarian fare) as part of the festivities.
|
|
Whether you’re a new or seasoned editor, SD/PEN membership includes valuable resources to help jump-start or support your career. They include:
- A listing on our website, www.sdpen.org, which is highly ranked on Google for the search term “San Diego Editor.” Your listing can include your services and subject and project specialties, as well as a link to your website. These details help potential clients search our Complete Member Directory database for a member whose editing skills match their needs.
- Access to SD/PEN’s “Members Only” section, where you will find job announcements, the newsletter archive, the Complete Member Directory, sample documents (including style sheets, letters of agreement, and invoices), and the SD/PEN logo to use on your own website.
- Networking opportunities, support, and potential referrals from other SD/PEN members. Just one job referral can more than pay for your annual membership dues.
- Free bimonthly Program Meetings on a wide variety of topics, always with snacks and door prizes! (Nonmembers pay $10 per meeting.) See the 2015 Year-at-a-Glance below for 2015 programs.
- Free semiannual Networking Events, always with food and prizes! (Nonmembers pay $10 per event.)
- Discounted attendance at Educational Workshops.
- Bimonthly newsletters.
- Opportunities to volunteer on the SD/PEN Board of Directors and on various committees to build your resume, learn new things, and make new friends.
- Discounted annual membership in the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (NAIWE).
A true business bargain at only $65 per year!
|
|
2015 Year-at-a-Glance
January 15, Program Meeting — Working With and Around Graphics
March 19, Program Meeting — Get the Price Right: Bidding Jobs
May 21, Program Meeting — Editing Fiction v. Nonfiction
June 4, Networking Event
July 16, Program Meeting — Editing for ESL Authors
September 17, Program Meeting — Legal Matters: What Writers and Editors Need to Know
November 19, Program Meeting — Style Sheets: Make a Decision, Make It Once
December 10, Networking Event/Holiday Party
SD/PEN also offers at least one Saturday workshop each year.
|
|
|
The following events are published for the benefit of our members and are not sponsored or endorsed by SD/PEN.
49th Annual Local Author Exhibit, San Diego Public Library
Calling all San Diego authors who published a book in 2014! Deadline to submit entries is November 30, 2014.
http://www.sandiego.gov/public-library/news-events/localauthors.shtml
Author-Editor Clinic “Introduction to Developmental Editing: Book-Length Fiction and Creative Nonfiction”
January 7–February 25, 2015, online course
http://www.authoreditorclinic.com/editors/
31st Annual SDSU Writers’ Conference
January 23–25, 2015, San Diego
http://www.ces.sdsu.edu/Pages/Engine.aspx?id=735
American Society for Indexing (ASI) Southern California Chapter “Evaluating Indexes”
February 7, 2015, San Diego
http://tinyurl.com/puh97p9
Contact: Catherine Barr at cabarr@utoindexing.com
29th Annual Southern California Writers’ Conference
February 13–16, 2015, San Diego
http://writersconference.com/sd/
|
|
|
We are pleased to welcome the following person who joined SD/PEN in September!
Paula Fitzgerald
paula@antechserv.com
|
|
|
Grammar Points and Practices
By Katy Laundrie
|
|
When Bobbie Felix goes walking with her friend, they don’t discuss movies, current events, or weekend plans: They talk about grammar. While she describes herself as “more nerdy than interesting,” Bobbie’s fascination with the system of rules that define the structure of our language made for a lively, informative, and interesting presentation at the September 18 SD/PEN program meeting.
 Bobbie was raised in Hawaii and received a master’s degree in English as a Second Language (ESL) from the University of Hawaii, Manoa. She has been an English and ESL instructor at Grossmont College and San Diego Mesa College for more than 15 years and teaches the Grammar Lab course in UCSD’s Copyediting Certificate Program, which many of SD/PEN’s members are very familiar with. (And yes, says Bobbie, it’s okay to end a sentence with a preposition!)
To set the mood, Bobbie began the evening by taking a look at “Language” with the humorous Stephen Fry video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7E-aoXLZGY. Then she quizzed willing participants on the Rules of Usage she had prepared just for SD/PEN, incorporating those topics in her PowerPoint presentation.
As Bobbie delved into grammar, she told us that it is becoming more acceptable to use the plural possessive pronoun their with a singular subject, as in: “Each student brought their books to class.” She admits that many writers would still prefer to recast the sentence with a plural subject, such as “The students brought their books to class.”
After reviewing pronoun agreement, Bobbie gave us a brief refresher on case—nominative and objective—with a valuable tip for remembering the correct pronoun to use after a preposition. The common error, heard all too frequently, is using the nominative pronoun I, we, she, or he, when the objective me, us, her, or him, is called for. In a sentence like “Mary went for a walk with John and I/me,” just remove the intervening name, John, and you’ll see immediately that “with I” is wrong; it must be “with John and me.”
The next topic, subject/verb agreement, clarified which verb form to use with a collective noun: It depends on whether the noun represents the actions of a group or of the individuals in it. The examples Bobbie offered were “A dozen eggs is all I need,” the dozen being a distinct group, versus “The staff are considering a strike,” emphasis on the actions of the individuals. As it turns out, among experts there’s disagreement on agreement! In the sentence “One of the girls live/lives next door,” Bobbie prefers the singular “lives,” but the Chicago Manual of Style prefers the plural “live.” So at least we editors can’t really go wrong there! As always, consistency within a document is the key.
The subject of back-formation came next; that’s the process by which new words are derived by shortening a noun to form a verb, such as morphing bartender into bartend. Some folks make the mistake of trying to create a new word this way when a perfectly good one already exists, such as coining orientate from orientation when we already have the verb orient.
 An SD/PEN member had asked Bobbie to address where to place punctuation marks relative to quotation marks. The answer: Periods and commas always go inside the quotation marks; colons and semicolons go outside. Other punctuation marks go inside or outside depending on whether the mark applies to the entire sentence (outside) or is part of the quote itself (inside).
And there was so much more! If you missed the meeting, you can view a PDF of Bobbie’s complete presentation at http://tinyurl.com/p27ws9j. In the meantime, we’re thankful that grammar is part of Bobbie’s DNA, and that she took the time to share her expertise with us.
|
|
Dear SD/PEN Members,
 I’d like to use my final message to remind everyone what a valuable resource the SD/PEN website is and to inform you of its status. SD/PEN is a great organization of exceptional people and our website is how we let everyone know that. It’s a place for potential employers to find editors and other publishing experts, as well as for members to find resources on a wide variety of subjects.
Because our website is such a vital resource, the board of directors undertook a huge project this year. As most of you are aware, Jamie Winkelman, our web developer and webmaster of many years, retired in January and passed away in July. Our website was operating with outdated technology and was difficult to update, so we created a new SD/PEN website with all the capabilities of our old one.
You may have noticed something that wasn’t updated right away or something that “looked funny.” The process of keeping an older website updated while building a new one proved problematic. Having vetted the developer and having our plans preapproved didn’t prevent snags while transitioning such a complex database to another platform. That database is the heart of SD/PEN’s website, controlling the Member Directory, members’ listings, and all the search options we value, so we are working to make it perfect. We will launch SD/PEN’s new website in early December. When we do, we’ll announce it and you can sign up for 2015.
If you’re not a 2014 member, you should be aware that this will be the last newsletter you receive unless and until you rejoin the organization. At the beginning of 2014, the board voted that SD/PEN would continue to send newsletters to former members as a courtesy while the website was under construction. We hope that you make the decision to rejoin SD/PEN for 2015. See the “Why SD/PEN?” article above for more reasons to rejoin.
 Now please indulge your outgoing president while I give a big thank-you shout-out to the following SD/PEN members for stepping up to the plate this year and hitting home runs volunteering. This organization depends and thrives on their service.
Board of Directors: You know what positions they held and some of the duties they performed, but these are the individual qualities that I will remember them for.
Sharon Penny — for her willingness to take on any new challenge for the benefit of the group.
Patricia Harriman — for her perpetual smile and eternal optimism.
V. Kay Sweet — for her levelheadedness and die-hard attitude.
Katie Barry — for meticulously keeping us all on track and in line.
Craig Leimkuehler — for his reflective thoughtfulness and perfectly timed wit.
Beth Bolwerk — for her unwavering loyalty to the cause and can-do attitude.
2014 Workshop Committee: Shirley Clukey and the 2014 Board of Directors
Website Committee: Katie Barry, Sharon Penny
Newsletter Committee: Beth Bolwerk, Katie Barry
Program Meeting Presenters: Andrea Susan Glass, Shirley Clukey, Katie Barry, Catherine Barr, Sharon Penny, Roberta Niederjohn
Program Meeting and Workshop Review Writers: Kathleen V. Kish, PhD, Camille Cloutier, Lynette M. Smith, Catherine Barr, Gerrie Marie Gomez
Program Meeting Snack Providers: Camille Cloutier, Gwen Jorgensen, Dipthi Battapadi, the 2014 Board of Directors
And to ALL the members who helped set up for and break down from meetings, thank you, thank you, thank you.
Here’s wishing all SD/PEN members a happy and healthy holiday season.
Melanie Astaire Witt
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
