New Release Date/Quotation Punctuation

WOW! I learned this weekend that the release date on my book has been moved up from February 15th to February 1st on amazon.com. Pelican said they could have the books as early as Monday (yesterday) but I imagine she forgot it was a mail holiday. Not sure how books are shipped to a publisher but today might be the earliest date.

Sorry this blog is a day late. However, I'd like to give some writing tips on grammar. Helen Wilkie still sends out her twice weekly tips even though she said she needs some more ideas.

I discovered I've misused punctuation marks inside and outside quotations. I believed punctuation marks at the end of a sentence always went inside the quotation marks. Wrong, not always. In dialogue, yes, always. These examples are from my Essentials of English book:

"Periods and commas are always placed inside the closing quotation marks."

Example:
"I wanted," he said, "to go home."

"Colons and semicolons are always placed outside end quotation marks."
Example: He called his friend "old dog"; he didn't mean it as an insult.

Example:
He took the advice given in the article "How to Study": sit rather than lie in bed.  

"Other marks are placed where they logically belong-within the quotation if they punctuate the quotation, outside the quotation if they punctuate the sentence of which the quotation is a part."

Example:
How can I tell that "Whatever is, is right"?
He might ask: "What is right?"

Some examples might seldom be used in your writing, but, at least you now know the proper usage.