Introduction

roof of BLISS? I’ve spent over half a century being mortified by my middle name. It’s only recently that I’ve begun to come to terms with it, after spending my whole life being thankful it’s my middle name and not my first name, like my mother’s good friend Bliss Gerjets. So now, as I enter this blogging world, I’m going to proudly use my given name.

This blog will be a little different than most. I can’t share with you any crafting or decorating tips because I am hopelessly noncreative. Don’t get me wrong, I can copy with the best of them, but I totally missed out on the inspiration gene. That said, you’re right, that means I’m also not a great writer. But if you'll bear with me, the one skill I can share with you is proofing – correcting simple errors before you post your thoughts.

I started proofreading more than 20 years ago and continue the best love affair of my life, the love of words. (Yes, I realize what that says about the rest of my life is truly pathetic.) Nowadays I spend a good share of my time charmed by your blogs, loving these glimpses into the lives of people who actually have a life and sometimes copying an idea to make a corner of my home a teeny bit like yours. But every once in a while I want to grab a red pen (my only tax deduction) and fix some simple mistakes. Thus, this blog was born. My intent is not to nitpick or make anyone feel foolish about common errors. Rather, it’s to help you feel more confident in your writing. I know how easy it is to agonize over the right word, the right punctuation… Life’s too precious to waste that time!

This blog will cover one or two simple words or rules on each post. I won't be posting more than once or twice a week – after all, there are only so many rules and I don’t want to put myself out of work after just a couple months! I’ll title each post so that the archives are easy to search (How pompous is that; imagine, me having an archive!)

And I’m sure I’ll also let a mistake or two of my own slip through. The hardest thing for me to do is to proof my own work. That makes me just as human as everyone. Maybe I’ll give out an award to the first person who comments on a mistake in my post. That way, you’ll know I left it in there on purpose (um-hmm, sure). Seriously, my subjects will always be well researched and accurate, but occasionally a typo may slip through.

I may also veer slightly off course once in a while, maybe throw out one of my more oddball thoughts occasionally, or a recipe, or...whatever. Here's hoping you'll find Proof of Bliss interesting enough to come back and visit often.