Editorial Inspirations

I trust my husband, I think. I know he is not perfect, but why does he do things he knows make me uncomfortable?

He gambles. He does the internet gambling, and he tells me that it’s okay because he is not using real money. It may not be real money, but he still becomes an addict. His playing on the computer ceases to be when I am not home, and he continues to play instead of spending time with me.

“I’m not addicted,” he says. “I’m just trying to make us some extra cash.”

We have large dreams that take more money than we have. Thus, we each have more than one job. But I would still rather be with him, than sit alone on the couch while he gambles.

He continues to console me by saying that he is not using our money, but is making money for us. Don’t I want that?

I am saddened that he longer has an interest in me, but am grateful that he is not wasting away our money.

A credit card statement shocks me with a charge from a gambling website. Has my husband’s addiction moved to a new level?

In September, I attended a few sessions of the Fall for the Book Festival in Fairfax, Virginia. I had heard about the event for the past few years and was extremely excited to finally be able to attend some of the sessions during the week-long event.

However, I now doubt whether I will attend again. The session I was able to attend was informative in both the subject matter and the publishing success. But I tried to attend more events than I succeeded in. With a schedule that had been printed earlier that morning, I dutifully entered Old Town Hall at a few minutes before the scheduled beginning of the session only to find out that the session’s time had been changed and the talk was just ending. With this having been the last session I could attend for the day, I left with a distaste of the festival.

Even so, the event that was successful (only because I had arrived at the location a half an hour early), included four Civil War authors who discussed the facet of the war and its focus on local history. Many of the authors discussed how they became interested in the subject matter as well as their research process.

Chuck Mauro focused his research on the portions of the Civil War that occurred in Fairfax City, allowing him to point out locals throughout his presentation. “When you’re writing about history, you’re really writing about what you would like to know,” Mauro said. “You’re satisfying your own curiosity.”

Ed Trexler studied local families and discussed the parade through Old Town Fairfax with President Jefferson Davis and 30,000 troops, which Trexler says was one of the largest Davis Parades.

Karla Vernon developed an interest in history through one of her children’s school projects. From that, she began studying the life of a particular character who sparked her interest. Dressed in Civil War attire, Vernon spoke of the timeline she was able to compile through various letters and other historical documents.

Don Hakenson, a local historical tour guide, grew up in Fairfax City. He remembered his third grade teacher reading stories each day about Virginian, and he looked forward to these times. He began to take mental notes of events in each story. “I did it for me. I did it for selfish reasons,” Hakenson said of why he wrote and self-published his books. “I sold every one of those books and it was the best decision I ever made. There are a lot of places where people lost their lives and that should not be forgotten.”

With a turnout of more than 20 people, this session was interesting and inspirational. I would have enjoyed attending more festival events. Maybe I will give them another try next year….

To recognize parts of speech of words, it is essential to first understand the function of a word in a sentence and recognize its form, since many words can act as more than one part of speech. There are, however, a few words that have only one classification, such as notify (verb), sleepy (adjective), and practically (adverb).

Words are grouped into the following eight classes: noun, verb, pronoun, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection. Of those classes, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs make up more than 99% of all words in the dictionary. Only prepositions, conjunction, and interjections never change their form.

Watchful kittens typically pounce at bugs.

Try It!

1. Classify each word in the following sentences.
a. He met the woman in the park on a Saturday afternoon.
b. Gladys wrote three poems last week.
c. Jason writes computer programs for his company.
d. The two boys bought flowers for Stacy.
e. The vagrant lives on 21st Street.

2. Select a word and write sentences using it in as many different parts of speech as possible.