Copyediting Is His Business
Posted by: Keir Graff
Mary Frances Wilkens sent me a link to John E. McIntyre’s “Grammarnoir,” from his blog You Don’t Say, writing, “Reminds me of something I once read about a book reviewer and his curmudgeonly boss . . . ” She’s referring, of course, to “Reading Is My Business,” from last year’s Mystery Showcase. “Grammarnoir” is very funny, and the similarity is very striking, although I think the only thing it proves is that more than one desk-bound book nerd secretly harbors the desire to wear a gun on his hip instead of a pencil behind his ear. Anyway, check it out. Here’s the opening paragraph of the first chapter, “Down those mean sentences I walk alone“:
I was sitting at my desk in the old Intelligencer-Argus building the day she walked in. It was late afternoon on a rainy day, and my hand had strayed more than once toward the dictionary in the bottom desk drawer. I heard footsteps approaching, and when I looked up, there she was. She was — lissome.
