PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
A. D. Reed is a writer and editor who operates the editorial service My Own Editor (www.myowneditor.com) and founded the North Carolina-based publishing imprint Pisgah Press LLC (www.pisgahpress.com). A lover of languages since childhood, he grew up with a multilingual, Canadian-born Russian �migr�e mother who spoke English with a flat Cleveland, Ohio, accent and Russian like a lifelong Muscovite; a father from a south Georgia farm family who spoke carefully and precisely (like many a self-conscious, self-made man) though with a noticeable drawl; an elder sister who became an acclaimed editor in Canada and the Cayman Islands, and an older brother who, after careers as a librarian and teacher (and writing poetry), nits and picks with the best of them. Their extended family and friends spoke southern, Appalachian, British, Anglo-German, Greek-American, deep country, and transplanted-New-Yorker dialects, among many others-all of which Reed listened to and absorbed with fascination. He studied French, German, Greek, Italian, Latin, and Russian as a high school and college student, becoming fluent in some languages, competent in others; but his first love remains the elegant, flexible, surprising, often incomprehensible, sometimes ridiculous, always delightful m�lange of tongues that has gradually evolved into the modern American English language.
"Reed's Homophones is the handiest quick reference on the subject. Writers, editors, students, teachers, business and government folks-I can't imagine anyone anywhere in the world who would not welcome this chance to make the world of words a friendlier place. Even prophets may profit. Mastery would not take long, but stopping once you start-as with whipped cream or kissing-may take more willpower than most folks have. David Madden, Pulitzer-Prize nominee for The Suicide's Wife, author of Abducted by Circumstance and many other books This is a reference book, and a very helpful one at that. It is not designed as a page-turner. But I found it so interesting, I actually read it from one end to the other ... That's how interesting and entertaining it turned out to be. It is also very educational as a tool for building your own vocabulary. A must for every writer, for sure, and for everyone interested in the English language. Fred Flaxman, author of award-winning memoir Sixty Slices of Life ... on Wry Reed's reference book should be front and center on every writer's shelf. His work has made the English language much easier to navigate. F. ""Ted"" Alexander, author, The Fall of Summer and After and Before"
