Twenty-five years ago, self-publishing was still somewhat synonymous with the term vanity publishing . Vanity publishing, as the name implied, was for authors who were driven by ego, not merit of work. So, they worked with vanity presses who would print their work for a fee, no matter what it read like. Unlike traditional publishers, who invested in authors and shared profits from book sales, vanity presses made their money upfront. The result was often poor production qualit

Four exclamation points in colorful text bubbles The English major in me says that the use of exclamation points is like cooking with hot pepper chili flakes; something to use sparingly for extra oomph. Still, the old "bang" in writing could be argued as unnecessary. If the choreography of the words themselves hasn't generated excitement, is a line with a dot on the bottom really going to make it better? Quite the contrary—exclamation points can dull the impact with visual wh

I have a love/hate relationship with Trams. I get that it’s the vehicle that everyone joins to transport stuff, but I do find it lags at...

There was a time when I drove an SUP. I needed the extra space when my daughter was little and I was carting her and her friends around....