AGE GRAMMAR

I have often wondered how to write age such as two-year-old. Do you hyphenate or not? Helen Wilkie's tip says if you use the age as how old you are, don't hyphenate. However, if you are describing your two-year-old grandson, do hyphenate. When the age is a description, it is hyphenated. Now if I can just remember this!

This past week I skipped the Friday post because I was babysitting my nineteen-month-old twin grandsons. Needless to say, I had little time to write a post. Besides their keeping me busy, my son's house was visited by two herds of elk. Both consisted of over 30 animals. They decided to relax and enjoy the day on my son's backyard in Evergreen, Colorado - one group at a time. They filled the space between two houses and spread out beside the house as well. In fact, at one time, four decided to eat the carved pumpkins on the front porch. Only large floor to ceiling windows separated us. They stared at me as I stared at them.

There must be a story in there somewhere.

Hyphens bring to mind a requirement of Pelican Publishing. They don't like the use of a dash but prefer an em dash or hyphen with no spaces. Since I wasn't quite sure from their examples of what they wanted, I made sure I had no use for them in my manuscripts. If not sure, don't use it, I decided.

I received my second advance check and immediately spent it on a multimedia projector for classroom presentations. I'd rather depend on my own equipment and knowledge of it. A friend suggested she'd much rather have her own equipment since every visit ended up with something missing, the AV person absent or a machine she didn't know how to operate.

Now I have one more advance check when the book is released. Hopefully, I'll pocket that one. The other two paid for the book pictures and, now, equipment to help in marketing the book. Will I ever make any money on this sale? Some people assure me I will. We'll see.