Authors Come in All Shapes and Sizes.

[persephone33]

I have a question for the flist.  Have I punctuated this correctly?

The flat was what he imagined people called ‘cosy,’ but what his mother would have disparaged as ‘untidy’ or ‘cluttered,’ which in Narcissa-speak was on par with ‘war zone,’ ‘ebolic,’ and ‘third world-esque.’  

Do the commas go in the quotation marks or on the outside?  My brain's fried and I can barely form a coherent sentence.  I did finish putting the beta corrections in my contest story, but I think I need to read through it one more time before sending it off, and that, unfortunately, won't be today.  I have a monster headache.  

My son, aged almost seven, who has been put off several times in the past few weeks in favor typing furiously at the computer, came to me today with a question.

Ethan.  How many books have you written, mommy?

Me.  I'm working on my first one.  I'm about halfway through.

Ethan.  (pulls out stapled stacks of notebook paper from behind his back)  I've written three.

*mommy's mouth drops open unbecomingly*

And so he has.  They are entitled Rescue Heroes Find Their First Volcano, A Hard Day in the Jungle, and Cowboys doomed and a Gorilla (my personal favorite).  And they're illustrated.  In color.  He rocks.  I suck.  I see his point, though.  So this afternoon I'm taking a break from all things computer and taking my kids to the park.

Comments

[rainpuddle13.livejournal.com]

Commas go on the outside of single quotes (unless you're in England where single quotes denote dialog quotes as well).

Grammar. My arch nemesis.

[persephone33.livejournal.com]

Thanks. How about another quick question?

If you are talking about a family, and a party that they're having at their home, would you say:

The Longbottoms' ball
or
The Longbottom's ball?

I wrote the first one, but it just LOOKS weird, you know?

Re: Grammar. My arch nemesis.

[rainpuddle13.livejournal.com]

I know it looks weird, but the first one is correct because you're referring to the collective Longbottom family meaning more than one thusly it would be the plural possessive Longbottoms'. The second one would be singular as in Draco stole Longbottom's Remembrall.

Re: Grammar. My arch nemesis.

[persephone33.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's what I thought, but the longer I looked at it, the more I thought, "That can't be right..."

I did the same thing with the word 'their' earlier. That's on the second grade spelling list and I looked at it for five minutes thinking, 'their'?