One of my editing clients wrote about the Lake Superior State University 2008 List of Banished Words to a Yahoo group for writers and publishers to which we both contribute. He commented, “I’d expect Mary Jo Tate to come up with this.”
Here’s my reply:
Now, Jay, don’t throw me UNDER THE BUS just because someone else came up with this first. (Quite a clever PR gimmick for a little-known university, I might add.)
BACK IN THE DAY, you thought my work as a WORDSMITH was SWEET.
Now you’re DECIMATING my reputation by creating a PERFECT STORM about a list of banished words.
You’re so RANDOM, and it’s causing a pretty EMOTIONAL scene around here.
Maybe I should host a WEBINAR about how to AUTHOR a book. After all, AUTHORING IS THE NEW WORDSMITHING.
Including humorous trivia like this could really make it POP.
Just so you don’t think I’ve been sitting around twiddling my thumbs, I’ll have you know I’ve been busy editing a book about Iraq that talks about the troop SURGE in a POST 9/11 world. Oddly enough, it doesn’t address the issue of WATERBOARDING.
Don’t forget to start planning ahead for a BLACK FRIDAY sale on your curriculum this November. Can you find a way to market astronomy as an ORGANIC subject?
I just wanted to GIVE BACK by using every word and phrase on the Lake Superior State University 2008 List of Banished Words in a single e-mail.
Like it or not, IT IS WHAT IT IS.
I’m SO outta here!
MJ,
Girl, having been under your firm and loving tutelage for several months, I’d say you have earned the right to throw just about anything you WANT under the bus!!
To anyone who is reading this blog, this woman is a true wordsmith, and worth every penny it costs to hire her.
Signed,
A thrilled customer, Ali Elizabeth Turner, author of the soon-to-be-released “A Ballad for Baghdad:An ex-hippie chick Vietnam war protestor’s three years in Iraq.”