"I" or "Me"

One of my pet peeves is the use of "me" when it should be "I" or vice versa. TV commentators, newsmen (or women), politicians, movie stars, sports heros, and every day Joe's misuse the two constantly. From educated to uneducated and CEOs to mail clerks.

I corrected my sons on their grammar through their high school years. Then, one day, I said something and my oldest son corrected me. I was thrilled he'd learned the lessons I'd taught.

So, let's learn the true use of "I" and "me."

In Helen Wilkie's tip for today she explains it this way -  the simplest definition I've ever seen:

"People often confuse the use of "I" and "me" in sentences. The grammatical principle is that "I" is a subject pronoun and "me" is an object pronoun. Here's how that looks in practice:


I will ask John to guide Nancy and me through the process.
but
Nancy and I will work through the process together.

The simple way to choose the correct form is to remove the other subject from the picture altogether. For example, if Nancy wasn't in the sentence, would you say, "I will ask John to guide I through the process"? No, I didn't think so! You would use "me" in that case, and the fact that you added another subject doesn't change anything.

If you take Nancy out of the second sentence, would you say, "Me will work through the process"? Again, you wouldn't. You would use "I", and you still use "I" when you add another subject."

The same principle applies to other object/subject pronouns like who/whom. I hope I haven't broken any rules in pasting her solution here. 

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.

Next Book

Now that HOW THE WEST WAS DRAWN: COWBOY CHARLIE'S ART is at the printer, I have concentrated on a book for the same series called Frederic Remington's Art.

Once you've a contract for one submission, you can follow the guidelines given you by the publisher for sending the final manuscript as you prepare your next submission.

For instance: Pelican requires Times New Roman, 12. I usually work in Courier New, 12. So I reformatted my Remington manuscript to the new font and size. Pelican also wants the pages numbered a certain way. I followed those guidelines. Each paragraph needs to be indented by a keyboard tab, not individual spaces or a formatted tab.

They want no spaces between paragraphs. All punctuation must be followed by one space, no more. In other words, one space after a period at the end of a sentence. I've been following that rule for several years now. To get used to it, copy one page of a manuscript and place only one space after a period. By the time you've typed the page, it will be a habit.

They want double-spaced manuscripts with one inch margins all around. If your book has chapters, they want all the page numbers from the beginning to the end of the complete manuscript. Even though they ask that each chapter be a separate file, the numbers remain for the whole book, not by chapters.

These guidelines, as well as many more, are for a contracted manuscript. However, some things I applied to my new manuscript submission. Always check your manuscript several times for spelling errors, etc. I usually find something I'd missed. That goes for blogs also! After I write a post, I copy and paste it into a Word document to check spelling. Did I miss anything?

In other words, I sent the manuscript last week. YEA! Now the waiting begins. Should I be positive and begin the process of following the rest of the guidelines like a dedication, chronology, introduction? I guess it won't hurt. No matter who eventually buys the book, I'll need those additional pages.

Edits

The next step in publishing is the editing process. Late Friday, I received the edits for my Russell book from the editor at Pelican.

She used the tracking system on Microsoft Word. If you haven't used it, try it. Works great for editing or critiquing other's works. In Word 2007 it is found under "Review" and called "track changes." In older versions, it may be under tools or edit. The program draws a line through things to be deleted and color codes things to be added or moved. It was hard to follow in the edits but I managed. The editor suggested I send an email describing the placement of any revisions I suggested.

I thought I'd perfected the manuscript. Wrong! She moved things around, changed words and asks a lot of questions to clarify questions or information in the manuscript and description for the pictures. I liked what she'd done although there is still more to do with what I sent later this afternoon. My deadline was Sept. 3rd and I was determined to send it much earlier. Therefore, I hurried a little too much and missed some things. She wrote back and I finished late this afternoon.

That brings up another subject - commas and lists. Some grammar style books advocate the use of commas between lists until before the "and." They suggest you omit that comma. However, other manuals suggest still using that comma before "and." I've discovered it depends on the publisher. Unfortunately, I didn't realize Pelican requires a comma before "and." I could have saved the editor lots of work had I known their rules. I don't think that was mentioned in all the information I received. Perhaps they will include it for future authors.

Besides the edits, she informed me one of the picture's dpi was too low to use. When I'd downloaded the picture from the original CD, the computer couldn't handle 600 dpi so it downloaded at 96 dpi. Without realizing that, I sent the pictures. Today I sent the original CD with the 600 dpi. Hopefully, it won't get lost or I'll have to request another copy from the collector who sent it to me for free. That might be embarrassing. The moral of that story is check everything twice and even three times before sending it.

Another unrelated subject, I received my copies of Chicken Soup for the Soul: A Book of Miracles this past week. My story is on page 62 even though it states the author as the person who told me the story. CS changed the way they list "as told to stories." I still receive the check and the ten books but am not listed as the author. Bummer!

I also received the rough draft of a press release Pelican plans to send out. Since my editor decided the Introduction should be written to the child readers (a move I wholeheartedly supported), I needed to inform the woman of changes needed in the press release All the staff of Pelican have been absolutely wonderful. I hope to maintain a good relationship with each.

It seems like "when it rains it pours." Today, I planned to dedicate the day to tweaking two articles for Rocky Mountain Senior and writing two others. "The best laid plans of mice and men.......!"