Author Archives: jamesbhouston
About jamesbhouston
I am a freelance writer and editor. My blog is a record of my efforts to learn and understand more about writing, language, and how great things find their way from the brain to the page.I Wrote a Feature for a Food Magazine
If you are part of the iPad set, please use it to grab this free download of Honest Cooking’s inaugural feature-length magazine and check out my article on dining at a North Korean restaurant. It may or may… continue reading »
How Good Content Can Avert Tragedy
“(Theodore) Dreiser in some ways, some of the time, is one of the worst writers who ever lived. An American Tragedy, for instance, is an endless book with terrible sentences like ‘He found her extremely intellectually interesting.’” -John Gardner, quoted… continue reading »
On The Wine Trail
Check out my review of Trefethen Vineyards’ tasting room, the first of many CA wineries I’ll be covering for American Winery Guide.
Don’t Let Functional Variation Torch Your Thanksgiving Turkey
“5.31 It is fairly common in English for nouns to pass into use as verbs; it always has been.” -The Chicago Manual of Style Maybe, but it’s also fairly annoying. This occurs to me as the holidays loom and I… continue reading »
Check this out!
Please take a look at the continuing serial fiction on my other blog, Double Decanted.
What Obamacare and Snap Polling Tell Us About Prepositional Phrases
“Alexi Halavazis, 25, also of Herndon, Va., cast his first presidential vote for Obama. He said the reason was Obama’s health care law, which allows him to be covered by his parents’ medical coverage. With ‘Obamacare. I can stay… continue reading »
The Milo Minderbinder Guide To Killing Your Friends and Betraying Your Country
“The rest of the officers fled toward the two exits in panic and jammed up the doorways like a dense, howling dam of human flesh as they shrank from going farther. . . Tents and trees were in flames,… continue reading »
6 Writing Books On My Big-Ass Desk
I just moved into a new apartment, and the previous tenant must hate moving as much as I do–because he left behind a 75′”x 37.5″ solid wood table. I guess it was intended to be a food-supporter, but it’s… continue reading »
How Safe Is Your Syntax From A Dangling Modifier?
Having determined that dangling modifiers make the writer look like a chump, Layman’s Terms will avoid them from now on. Wait, wait… Layman’s Terms didn’t determine anything. I did! For myself, at least. You probably knew it already. But it’s… continue reading »
The Shocking Truth About Hyperbole
So a headline is there to grab the reader by the earlobes and leave him no choice but to read the sub-headline, which is there to grab him by the eyelids and leave him no choice but to read… continue reading »