Is this your first time to visit Writing the Cyber Highway? Be sure to subscribe to my Feed or by e-mail. In the next couple of posts, I’ll be sharing photos and details about my visit to an old-fashioned festival where I dressed up as a pioneer woman (bonnet and all!) and also had the amazing opportunity to meet an Editor and an Editor-In-Chief. Eeek! (It’s coming, I promise!)

The Contest Has Ended

What an awesome contest! Thanks so much for all the wonderful entries. I truly wish I had enough copies of Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing to send each and every one of you a copy–but I don’t.

I know you’re all super excited to find out who won, so I’ll get right to it. I used Random.org to randomly select the winners. Speaking of which…

And the Winners Are

Winner #1 is comment #26, which is Rebecca Laffar-Smith!

Here’s what Rebecca said in her comment:

26.  Rebecca Laffar-Smith Says:

June 4th, 2009 at 1:45 am

“Grammar! It’s a frightful word to be honest. I’ve fudged my way through the ins and outs but don’t really know the ‘rules’. Thankfully, very few people do know all the rules so it’s not so hard to get by in day to day writing but when we’re submitting to the harsh eye of an editor every grammar goof is a glaring admittance of ignorance. Have you tried learning from style guides? I am brain dead in ten seconds. It would be nice to have a resource that makes learning Grammar light, easy, and fun.”

Winner #2 is comment #1, which is Lori from Green Gigs!

Here’s what Lori said in her comment:

1. Lori Says:

June 3rd, 2009 at 10:23 pm edit

“Two words: science major – that is why I could use this book! I love the passive voice, “quick” and “light-hearted” are my type of tips!”

Lucky ladies, contact me with your mailing addresses and I’ll get Mignon Fogarty’s fun words of wisdom in the mail to you!

Thank you to everyone who entered, and especially to Richard Rhorer and Mignon Fogarty for making this contest possible!!

First, I’d like to send out a special thank you to Richard Rhorer and Mignon Fogarty for sponsoring this contest.

Is this your first time to visit Writing the Cyber Highway? Be sure to subscribe to my Feed or by e-mail. In the next couple of posts, I’ll be sharing photos and details about my visit to an old-fashioned festival where I dressed up as a pioneer woman (bonnet and all!) and also had the amazing opportunity to meet an Editor and an Editor-In-Chief. Eeek!

“My philosophy is that learning about language should be fun. I’m not in this for the thrill of running a metaphorical red pen through e-mail messages or blog posts. Although writing badly is like dressing in lime skorts and an orange plaid sweater-people notice-publicly correcting a stranger’s writing is as rude as asking someone with a fashion problem “Did you think that looked good when you got dressed this morning?” I would do neither. Instead, I hope to raise the waters of good writing by distributing quick and dirty tips as widely as possible.”-Mignon Fogarty, aka Grammar Girl

And she’s definitely accomplishing that!

I love the fun way Mignon Fogarty explains difficult English grammar and usage rules. The cartoon examples are fun, too! You don’t have to be a writer to want to improve your grammar. Maybe you’re in college or high school, or maybe you just want to write perfect e-mails to your co-workers or persnickety friends and family. Whatever reason you have for wanting to learn the ins and outs of English, now’s your chance to do just that! I’m excited to offer a contest with Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing as the prize. Wait, not only does one reader get the chance to win-two of you are going to have the opportunity to win this awesome book!

No, you aren’t seeing double!

Two of you will each win a copy of Grammar Girl’s book!

Mignon Fogarty shares her knowledge of the English language in a light-hearted, down-to-earth way all of us can learn from.

From the bright, cheerful cover to the fun and easy-to-understand grammar and usage tips to the oh-so-cute cartoons of Squiggly and Aardvark, Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing is a book that should be on everyone’s bookshelf-even if you aren’t a writer or blogger!

A peek inside:

Learning from Aardvark…

You may find it odd that an adult English grammar reference book has cartoon illustrations sprinkled throughout its pages, but you’ll understand once Fogarty explains:  “I get flashes of crazy memory tricks, funny phrases, and cartoons where Aardvark (a blue aardvark) and Squiggly (a yellow snail) go on grammar adventures, and I love to share them all with you.” (Isn’t it so nice of her to share with us?!)

Keep up with Grammar Girl

Grammar Girl speeds the cyber highway sharing grammar and usage tips and can be found at the following locations:

• On Twitter: @GrammarGirl
• Subscribe to her daily tip newsletter.
• Visit Grammar Girl’s site and listen to the podcast!

I love the cover design!

I have an endless thirst for knowledge. I love learning, and as a writer and blogger, I especially love honing my craft. I adore writing reference books. Some of you may remember last year I won a contest myself: a $100 Amazon Gift Certificate. You better believe I used every last penny of it on reference books to enhance my writing career. And this is one reason I’m so excited for you, my readers, to have the opportunity to expand your own reference library!

Have a Kindle? You can get a Kindle version of Grammar Girl, too!

Oh, and did I mention Mignon Fogarty is only Oprah’s favorite grammar gal?!

Contest Rules

You’re allowed FIVE entries for this contest:

Note: Please leave a comment for each thing you do (tweet, plurk, etc.) because each comment will be counted as a number when I enter the total number of comments at Random.org once the contest ends. Thanks!

1. Leave a comment sharing why you’d benefit from owning a copy of Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing. (DO NOT just say “thanks for the contest” or something like that-I do not publish those type of comments because they seem like spam and aren’t fair to the other contestants who leave a thoughtful, genuine answer.)
2. Do you use Twitter? Tweet about this contest and then leave a comment with your Twitter name.
3. Share this contest on your blog, linking back to this post. (The pingback will be counted as your third entry.) If you don’t see your pingback, just contact me and let me know. It may have gone to spam for some reason.
4. Add Writing the Cyber Highway to your favorites on Technoratori. Comment to let me know, with a link to your technoratori profile to show you added us.
5. Do you Plurk? Share this contest on Plurk and then leave the Plurk page URL in the comments. That will count as your fifth (and last) entry.

NOTE: ANYONE can enter this contest. You DO NOT have to be in the United States. Oh, and I’ll be using Random.org to choose the winners.

Contest ends Saturday, June 13th, at 9 p.m. (Central Time) so you have 10 days to get all your entries in. Have fun trying to win!

Warning: This post isn’t my normal inspiring, motivating, uplifting kind of post–it’s pretty depressing in fact so if you’d rather not feel sad, you might want to skip along the cyber highway and wait to read my next post….

Wow. Time flies by so fast….

Where I’ve Been

I haven’t forgotten about the contest I told you about– honestly. Circumstances beyond my control have kept my focus away from blogging lately. I mentioned in my last post that I’ve recently lost two cousins (only in their thirties). Well, since that posting, I’ve lost a third cousin (only 28). Major shocker. I grew up with two of these cousins and was around them all the time, so they were more than just a “cousin” or “relative”, they were extremely special to me.

I went to school with the cousin who was 32. He just didn’t wake up one morning. It was his heart. The 36-year-old cousin lost his life in a car accident, and the 28-year-old cousin who just passed away also lost her life in a car accident. She was like a little sister to me. She was so special and we were so much alike. I’ve been devastated and have been at a total loss for blog posts. I haven’t even been writing/blogging for editors/clients since she passed away. I’ve taken some time to try to absorb all of this. I mean, one death is one thing, but two? That was hard enough. And then a third one? And for her to be such a beautiful, special soul? That’s when I realized I had to step away from the page and just let it sit there blank. The Muse–and my creative inspiration–has taken a flying leap and deserted me. But that’s okay for now. I am relishing the quiet moments. I need them. I crave them. I am using these quiet moments to find strength, hope, and healing. I’m using them to find renewal and to fill back up on the energy I need so I can move forward. This has all been so exhausting, it’s unreal. The bad news, the services, seeing my family members and even my cousins’ friends hurting so badly, missing their loved ones so much…. And realizing I’ll never see my cousins again–not on holidays, not on family visits, and there’ll be no more opportunities to send a birthday card….

Life, Death, and What Comes After

I won’t pretend to be a genius and concoct fancy images of the after life for you to figure out. Those of you who have followed me from the beginning of this blog and who have become close to me along the cyber highway and my freelance journey know that I am a Christian. No, I don’t say it in every blog post or on every social media site. I don’t try to force my beliefs on others and I have found that even those of you who don’t believe in God at all respect me (and my walk with God) because of that. Am I ashamed? No. And those of you who know me, know that too. Some people (okay, a lot of people) disagree with me on that. They think I should shout from the rooftops that I’m a Christian. I firmly believe what my Grandmother always taught me: actions speak louder than words. I can say I’m something until I lose my voice, but if I show what I am by my actions, then you’ll know without a doubt. Simple, eh?

So, anyway… I do believe there is life after death but the life after death I’m referring to here is on this side of the world. I’m talking about those of us who are left here to pick up the pieces and to wonder why: Why did they have to die so young? Why couldn’t they have lived and why couldn’t have God taken someone else? Someone who did horrible things and who was a horrible person who hurt people? But He didn’t. He took my cousins. All of them had children. Now their children are minus a parent.

What to Do?

Sometimes there just aren’t any answers. Sometimes we have to leave it at that. We don’t know everything….

So, what do we do? What can we do? We can wake up each morning as the sun kisses our face or the rain pelts the window or the dark clouds hover over our homes and be truly thankful in our hearts that we are alive and can gobble up all the goodness that day will bring! Don’t think there’ll be any goodness in a new day? Then be the person who brings goodness to the world!

Love your family and friends as if there were no tomorrow. Remember: tomorrow may never come for some of us. We aren’t guaranteed to wake up when we go to sleep, or to make it to our destination alive when we hop in our car–or someone else’s–and drive away.

Don’t take the people you love for granted. Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today: let them know how much you appreciate them, tell them you love them instead of just assuming they already know it, buy them a beautiful (or even silly) card “just because”, make time for your loved ones–even if you don’t think you can.

There are definitely potholes in the roads of life. Nevermind them. Stop to smell the roses and enjoy the journey as best you can. Cherish every moment that you breathe. Live so that you won’t have regrets. Forgive and forget–even if it hurts. Love yourself enough to love those around you. Don’t wait until it’s too late and you can’t…

I leave you with this thought: life is a book.

Be sure to subscribe to Writing the Cyber Highway’s Feed or by e-mail! In the next couple of posts, I’ll be sharing photos and details about my visit to an old-fashioned festival where I dressed up as a pioneer woman (bonnet and all!) and also had the amazing opportunity to meet an Editor-In-Chief and an Editor. Eeek! I’ll also be posting that contest I’ve been telling you about, so keep up with me on the cyber highway!

Photo Credit: wowacom