Script Tease: A Wordsmith's Waxings on Life and Writing

Why write in the first place, other than your grocery list? Eric Nicol believes it's the second-most satisfying thing you can do lying down. But it's not enough to want to write. You must need to write.

Now, after more than seventy years of scribbling -- he wrote for the school newspaper at Lord Byng High School in Vancouver, British Columbia -- Eric holds forth on dangling participles, punctuation, and literary jargon. What's more, he answers the burning question: "How much should creative writers depend on editors to correct their grammar?"

Then Eric provides a wide selection of essays to demonstrate how it's done. These include a dramatic demonstration of the chutzpah of a big Tom wild turkey and its harem on a B.C. Gulf Island, the discovery that Eric's one-way-view window in the bathroom has been installed incorrectly, the trials and tribulations of computers and the creative process, and a riposte to the query, "Are nipples really necessary on guys?"

Pure Nicol. Minted in Canada. Priceless!

Eric Nicol was born in Kingston, Ontario, and claims to remember the dinosaurs well. He graduated from the University of British Columbia with an arts degree and a writing habit. He is the author of more than thirty-five books, including the recent Old Is In, and has won Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour three times. Currently, he lives in Vancouver.