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Several pages into a highly recommended memoir, a factual error popped my eyeballs nearly out of my head. Can you find the mistake? In September 1963, the Cuban and Russian governments placed           nuclear bombs in Cuba. In October 1963, the Cuban Missile Crisis ended…. In November 1963, John F. Kennedy was assassinated. In December 1963, I was born…. The Cuban Crisis was in 1962! Both that event and the JFK assassination are indelibly burned into my memory. The author can’t remember , I thought, but how could something this obvious slip by the editing involved in a traditionally published book? I checked Wikipedia to be absolutely sure, then kept reading. Along the way, I found half a dozen typos, and by the time I finished, I’d found several loose ends in the story along with an apparent contradiction. But still, I do appreciate the book and its many strengths. The story is powerful and the author’s voice superb. I understand the book’s appeal. The mess saddens me on the author’...

Ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive E-lim-inate the negative Latch on to the affirmative Don't mess with Mr. Inbetween. Who doesn't recognize the value of this sage advice from the 1945 hit sung by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters? But you may not realize the power of this advice for your writing when applied at the micro-level of sentences. I'm not talking here about avoiding negative topics. I'm talking about the value of rephrasing sentences from negative statements to positive. One of the most compelling examples of this is found in an online article, Kurdish Female Warriors On the Front Lines Fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria . The lead paragraph states: A notoriously fierce segment of the Kurdish security forces are striking terror into the hearts of ISIS terrorists – female fighters. The Jihadists have no problem slaughtering defenseless women but they don't like facing armed female warriors in battle – because they don't believe they'll go to heaven if th...