I believe in the power of punctuation. I love commas, semi-colons, exclamation
points, hyphens, en-dashes, em-dashes, and apostrophes. I believe! In the power! Of punctuation! So, when I came across zygoncurry’s Punctuation
is my Kryptonite, my very first thought was, “WEbooker
of the WEek? Never!”
WEbookers, I am prepared to eat my words.
As it turns out, there is much more to zygoncurry than lousy punctuation. To be precise, zygoncurry has started six projects, including a collection of funny poetry, two oddball novels, and a journal about his impending fatherhood. He has also contributed to 16 other projects. His writing may lack the occasional comma or apostrophe, but it certainly doesn’t lack energy, humor, or imagination.
WEbooker of the WEek? Naturally!
Of his six WEbook projects, zygoncurry lists the comic novel Hammer Time as his personal favorite, because of its Monty Python-esque humor. According to zygoncurry, “Let’s face it—if you are writing a fantasy story about a talking hammer and its unwilling companion, it can't really be anything but humorous.” (And, yes, I did add punctuation to that quote.) For those who have already read and commented on Hammer Time, zygoncurry promises a new chapter by the end of the week—and a finished product by October! He welcomes feedback from skilled editors.
To get to know zygoncurry, I subjected him to a few pointless questions.
Q: What is the biggest mistake you ever made?
A: Falling in love with my best friend’s
ex-girlfriend and selling my massive comic book collection to impress her, as
she thought it was immature. Now I am happily married, and my wife, whilst not
a lover of the comic book medium, at least tolerates it—along with my insane love
of B-movies!
Q: What was the first apartment or house you lived in on your own?
A: When I first left my parents, I moved
into an old Victorian house that had been converted into five one-bedroom
flats. I will always remember the wacky
neighbors, including an elderly gentleman who kept locking himself out by
accident (I was always on the phone to the fire brigade), and the family who
cooked very strong-smelling fish curry every morning—so strong that if you
walked past their door you could taste it, and the smell often stuck to your
clothes as well!
Q: What makes you angry?
A: People who treat public transport as
if they are in their own homes, by smoking, playing their mobile phones too
loudly, or throwing their fast food wrappers on the floor. I have written about this in the form of a
mock rap, in my poetry collection Beer Froth.
In addition to providing feedback for Hammer Time, poetically inclined WEbookers can contribute their own work to Funny Poems. To find out even more about zygoncurry, check out his submission to Illustrations for Bios (previously featured in this blog entry).
Happy writing!
-- Melissa
P.S. This WEbooker of the WEek entry by no means implies that I no longer care about punctuation. Along with grammar, syntax, and word choice, punctuation is a writer’s best friend. Proper punctuation can mean the difference between someone reading your work three times before understanding it, and understanding it the first time through. If you, too, care about punctuation, there are some good resources out there, including Eats, Shoots & Leaves—though, personally, I would never forego the use of serial commas.
Comments