books – Page 37 – Andrew Careaga

Friday Five: Q&A with ‘Mercedes Masterson’ author Nathan Weaver

Welcome to the inaugural post of Friday Five interviews with fellow travelers on this writing journey. I plan to post occasional five-question email interviews to spotlight other authors and their work. We kick it off this Friday with a question-and-answer session with Nathan “Nat” Weaver, author of the Mercedes Masterson series of detective stories of the hard-boiled variety. The first in the series, Sweet Sixteen Killer, was published in 2020. The next book, Jonah of Olympic, is expected out later this year. Nat is also a personal friend and a friend of this website.

That exclamation point!

Some see the ! as the comic sans of the punctuation world, a clownish affront to all who take their writing and reading seriously.

When I decided to rename this blog Andy writes! to signify its new direction, I’m sure a few readers cringed at the sight of an exclamation point in the title.

I understand. For writers, the exclamation point (hereinafter referred to as “!”) is perhaps the most maligned and most offensive of all punctuation marks. In his book Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style, Benjamin Dreyer calls the ! “bossy, hectoring, and, ultimately, wearying.” In her Grammar Girl Style Guide, Mignon Fogarty, without passing judgment, advises, “Don’t overuse them.” The late Elmore Leonard, a prolific and best-selling crime novelist, laid down the law on the ! in his 10 rules for writing: “You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.”