In house style or what people were taught as generally accepted never bothers me. As long as it’s clean and in the best shape possible.

I wrote a technical non-fiction textbook two years ago and got thank you letters from my editors because my manuscript didn’t need a lot of work and I went to a lot of effort to follow the author guidelines I had received.

I grin like mad whenever my editors tell me that they look forward to my submissions because they’re really clean. I call that a sign of success.

And I’m a good self-editor, generally.

I fixed it - thank you for pointing it out.

Aline **grin**

(I know it was done to prove your point right.) Heheh

That doesn’t mean a writer shouldn’t do the best they can regarding punctuation and grammar even if it does go to line-editors and proofers. I treat my writing as I would any form of work. A manager wouldn’t appreciate sending a sloppy letter out, so when representing yourself and particularly with something as close to your heart as a story (and what writer doesn’t feel that way about their work, and if they don’t why are they writing?) then why would you send it out poorly presented?

It doesn’t matter if I’m sending an electronic document or posting by mail, I always take care of presentation. Editors WILL turn down submissions due to poor layout, bad grammar, and I even recall one editor writing how she received a manuscript covered in coffee stains that she just threw in the bin, and who can blame her? Time is money and life is short. I’ve even had small press editors thank me for the way I’ve set out my work. Let that be a lesson to new writers everywhere.

That salad sounds heavenly…I love your description of how the ingredients get tossed together. All in all, a fun and festive meal for a cold, wintry night!

Happy Valentine’s Day

Michele