Spring has sprung!

It’s fifty degrees today, the snow is all gone from my backyard, and the sun on my face feels like heaven! It’s a wonderful ending for my busy March, which started out with a weekend in Houston, MN, at the International Owl Festival. What an amazing time everyone had there – the whole town was in on the fun. You could get a Great Grey Mocha at the coffee shop, admire paper-plate and egg-carton owls made by gradeschoolers, ooh and ahh at the gorgeous owls visiting from the World Bird Sanctuary in St. Louis, and go out calling wild owls in the evening. I met tons of readers and fellow birders; a huge congratulations to Karla and the town of Houston for a fabulous event! On top of that weekend, I gave two book talks this month, so that really helped the end of winter fly by. Next weekend is another huge event – the annual Write of Spring at Once Upon a Crime bookstore in Minneapolis. There will be more than 60 authors there – me included! – to chat with readers and sign books. If we haven’t connected yet this year, I hope you can make it. My time slot is 1-2 pm, so I hope to see you then!

Tags: appearances, Minnesota, owls

Trust Me!

I always get a laugh from bloopers – the mistakes people make in using the English language. And, believe me, as a college English teacher, I see plenty of them every term in my students’ papers. Here’s a short collection of them from this past school year for your own reading enjoyment.

Blooper: “Every year on The Day of the Dead, families go to cemeteries to visit their diseased relatives.”

My comment on the student’s paper: I think you mean ‘deceased’ relatives. Typically, ‘diseased’ relatives are either in the hospital, a nursing facility, or at home. Cemetaries are places you bury bodies, not a place to host get-well parties. That would be pretty depressing for the patient, don’t you think? ‘Hey, Uncle Stu, let’s get everyone together at the local graveyard to ...more...

JanDunlap.com