Dear ,
 

Kathy Brown is a writer and freelance copy editor when she’s not making sandwiches for her three sons. After graduating from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism (BS, MS), Kathy was a staff writer and editor at various magazines, first in Charlotte and then in London, where she lived with her husband from 2000-2003. After returning to North Carolina and having kids, she was the copy editor of Little Ones, a local parenting magazine, for eight years, and a contributing writer for Business North Carolina and Charlotte Magazine. These days, in between carpool runs, she focuses on writing fiction and recently finished writing her first novel. Kathy is also an avid reader and semi-professional coffee drinker who’s obsessed with proper punctuation.

Find out more about her editing services and read her grammar and punctuation blog at www.kathybrownwrites.com/blog.

What Kathy says about WordPlay

As a journalist, I was accustomed to writing nonfiction articles, but I had never been trained how to write fiction. When my youngest son started kindergarten, I finally had the time to fulfill my lifelong dream of writing a novel. I quickly discovered that it was a lot harder than I’d imagined! I found myself buying books such as Writing Fiction for Dummies and spending long hours alone with my laptop at the kitchen table, frustrated and out of my element.

It wasn’t until I joined Maureen’s Under Construction class two years ago that the pieces finally started coming together. Through Maureen’s loving guidance and my critique group’s priceless feedback week in and week out, I began to understand the elements of fiction, and I began to write with confidence and enthusiasm. This spring, in the midst of the pandemic quarantine, I completed writing my first novel, a contemporary adventure story for middle-grade readers. I can honestly say that it never would have happened without the support of Maureen and my classmates. What I needed most was a group of fellow writers to coach me, challenge me, and cheer for me, and that’s exactly what I found through the writing community that Maureen fosters.

 Featured Writing

The Art of the Friendly Letter

by

Kathy Brown

           Oh, the joys of quarantine. My husband and I have tried to use the extra time to teach our three boys a variety of “real-world” skills. He showed them how to change a flat tire and how to build a fire. We taught them how to play Spades and paid one to figure out how to put together our new patio furniture.

I took it upon myself to teach them the art of writing a friendly letter.

“What do we write?” one said.

“Why can’t we just text whatever we want to say?” said another.

“Why would you pay to mail a letter when you can email one for free?” the eldest said.

“All good questions!” I replied. “But you can’t go through life not knowing how to write and address a letter.”

“I bet we can,” one said.

He might have been right, but I persevered, because as a friend recently pointed out, unless we teach the children about the postal system, their adult selves won’t know to check their mailboxes regularly and will subsequently default on their car payments.

It took my children all of three minutes to handwrite their letters—one to a cousin, one to Nana, one to a friend. Then it was time to address the envelopes, and that’s when the fun really began.

They struggled with where to put the return address. Where exactly does this stamp go? How large should I write the addressee’s address? How small is too small? How can I possibly fit that whole address in that space? Gross, I’m not licking that.

Then one child inserted a comma after the state postal abbreviation. My blood froze.

“No commas after postal abbreviations!” I shouted, because at that point, my patience was as thin as their word counts.

There is a punctuation lesson here, and I’ll keep it brief, because reliving the friendly letter session is giving me a headache.

When addressing a letter, use a comma after the city name but never after the state postal abbreviation. For example:

Charlotte, NC 28270 (CORRECT)

Charlotte, NC, 28270 (INCORRECT)

            Back at the table with the friendly letters, massaging my temples, I explained that this punctuation rule conflicted with the rule for state names found in the text of a letter or a book. In that case, you always include a comma after both the city and the state, and you should spell out the state’s name instead of abbreviating it.

For example:

I live in Charlotte, North Carolina, with my kids who despise writing letters. (CORRECT)

I live in Charlotte, North Carolina with my kids who despise writing letters. (INCORRECT)

            I made my children march their letters to the mailbox signed, sealed, and addressed properly. Things were decidedly unfriendly at that point, and I told them to text me if they needed me for anything before dinner.

~ from www.kathybrownwrites.com/blog