GIVEAWAY!!!!! AND Author/Book Spolight: Tamara Hart Heiner

BOOK RELEASE BLOGGY TOUR!!!!

INTRODUCING

Tamara Hart Heiner, baker...ahem, I mean author. :-)

Well, she's both!

And quite frankly, that's a wonderful combination. I mean, we writers are emotional creatures, so imagine being able to stuff your face with yummy baked goods every time you are in a rut? Mmm....pie, chocolate cake, pastries, strudel...

Whoa...where was I? Oh, yes, TAMARA!!!! And the introduction of her newest book, Altercation:

Altercation is the sequel to her first book, Perilous.

Here's a short little blurb to suck you in!

The FBI promises Jacinta Rivera and her friends that they are safe. Jaci wants desperately to believe them but weeks of hiding from their kidnapper, alias "The Hand", have left her wary. Hidden from the public eye in an FBI safe house, Jaci must reconcile both the mysterious disappearance of her father and the murder of her best friend.


A betrayal lands Jaci back in the grasp of The Hand, shattering her ability to trust and leaving her to wonder if she will ever piece together her broken life.


Tamara is also hosting a bloggerific giveaway in honor of the release of her newest book! THIS is how it works:

Leave a comment on MY blog and Tamara will give away one FREE copy of either Altercation or Perilous (the ebook) to a randomly selected commenter. YAY! The only rule is there must be at least ten comments. SO, run and tell your friends to stop by and comment and win an copy of the Tamara's ebook!

BUT that's not all! For each comment you leave (either here, or any of the other 20 blog tour stops), you will be entered to win PRIZES!!! The comment points are cumulative, so go and comment on all of the other blogs to win one of these ah-mazing prizes:

THIRD PRIZE: 50-page critique of something of your choice (if you're not awriter, a $5 amazon.com gift card)
SECOND PRIZE: lot of five YA books
FIRST PRIZE: $20 gift card to Amazon.com

SQUEE!!!!

AND if that wasn't enough...if you leave a comment and ALSO mention that you blogged/tweeted/FB about this, I'M going to randomly pick TWO of those commenters  and send them a FREE PAPERBACK copy of the book I wrote with my daughter!! (Seriously, the offspring did help write this book).

Stolen Horse Dreams (MG Fiction)

Now, go get Tamara's book! And tell your friends ALL about this contest! And DON'T forget to leave a comment (you'll be entered to win STUFFFFFFFF)

~JD 

Grammar Police: The Serial Comma (aka The Oxford Comma)

Relax, just do it.
When you want to comma.
Relax, just do it.
When you want to comma.

Yeah! I KNEW there was a none-dirty version of that song. ;-)

Today the sheriff shall tackles the serial comma. Aka, The Oxford Comma. 


The serial comma can be defined as: the comma that comes before the final conjunction in a list (a list that has three or more items). Like this:

I love to read, write, and eat chocolate.

The little highlighted thing is the serial comma. Here's the rule when it comes to the serial comma:

Would you believe that it's a stylistic thing?

I swear it. Really. I promise that in America, it's stylistic. The same cannot be said for other countries. Americans use the serial comma more than pretty much everyone else. Figures. We are gluttons for over-usage of just about everything. Newspapers and print magazines usually don't use the serial comma because it takes up essential print space.

The sheriff here is a serial comma user. I never really figured out why I started out doing that. I think it just looked better to me. Even, if you will. JD likes things even. And to have a whole list in a sentence separated by commas only to leave out those last two? Gah! Those poor things, the want a comma!

PLUS (and I never thought of the serial comma like this) if you don't use it, you might be saying something you don't really mean. Like this:

Picture Credit

See that bit of orange juice on the toast? *snort* Well, different strokes for different folks, I guess. I, for one, LOVE me a grammar rule that is solely based on stylistic preferences.

Now feel free to go and either add or delete those serial commas!

~JD