This issue is a work in progress!
Released: Tuesday, June 19th, 2012
After much delay, the third issue of the Pen & Pencil Paper is out! I promise you, once we hit the summer, we’ll stick to our schedule much, much better! Anyways, enjoy this issue!
(Again, we have a few articles delayed -many apologies, I'll ensure they're up soon!)
✐Table of Contents✐
How to Use Apostrophes | On Fan-fiction | Fainted| Interviews with Hybrid: CS at Anthrocon | Sleepwalker | Story Prompts | Writer/Poet of the Fortnight How to Use Apostrophes
By: Viszla7
Apostrophes, more commonly known as ‘ArghIhatethissosomuch’, are the bane of many a writer. They’re tricky little things –some claim that their only purpose is to make one’s life more difficult. Whilst I don’t quite agree with that statement, it does ring true for quite a few other people –and that’s where this article comes into play. I’m writing this now (at precisely 1:12 a.m.) to teach you how to use apostrophes correctly, and make your life that much easier.
Before I begin, there are a few things that I’d like to point out. First and foremost, there are multiple ways that apostrophes can be used:
• to form contractions
• to show possession with singular & plural nouns
And, there are also multiple ways that apostrophes cannot be used:
• in conjunction with possessive pronouns
• to form plurals (generally)
I will teach you exactly what each of these entail later on in the article, as well as a few ways to remember them. These are key to being able to correctly use apostrophes –know the ‘rules’, and you will never have an issue with apostrophes again. And, remember, everything takes practice. So, don’t give up –you’ll get it eventually!
And, with that, let’s begin.
1. Contractions
A contraction is the shortening of a word by the omission of internal letters. For example, ‘they’re’ is a contraction of ‘they’ and ‘are’, and the letter omitted is ‘a’. The two words are joined by -you guessed it- an apostrophe.
Let’s have a few more examples, shall we?
• Who’re (who are)
• I’m (I am)
• isn’t (is not)
• she’s (she is)
Noticing a pattern, yet? The apostrophe is placed in place of the omitted letter. You don’t see a word written as ‘is’nt’, or ‘s’hes’, right? As long as you remember to replace the letter with an apostrophe, you’re all set!
*I must give special mention to ‘it’s’ and ‘its’. The former is a contraction of ‘it’ and ‘is’, whilst the latter is a possessive pronoun. Don’t get them mixed up, please.
2. Showing Possession
To start off, let me define ‘possession’. It is the state of owning, having, or controlling something (or, y’know, being controlled by, like, demons). You can show possession by using a possessive pronoun (examples being ‘mine’, ‘hers’, ‘his’, ‘yours’, ‘its’, etc.), by using ‘s’ with an apostrophe (for singular possession), or by adding just an apostrophe to the end (for the possessive of most plural nouns).
Let’s start with singular possessive nouns, shall we? All you need to do for these is add an apostrophe + s to the noun. For example: “John’s new car.” John is in possession of the new car, so ‘John’ is the word that you add ‘s to. It’s pretty simple stuff, really. So, if Kate has a purple crayon, which word would you add the apostrophe plus ‘s’ to?
It’s a little different for most plural nouns, though, as many of them already end in ‘s’. If the cats owned the bed, you wouldn’t write, “The cats’s bed.”, would you? That both sounds and looks ridiculous. No, if you have a plural noun, you just add the apostrophe, not the ‘s’. It would be, “The cats’ bed.”.
But, if the plural noun doesn’t end in ‘s’ (such as children, sheep, women, etc.), the procedure is the same as with singular nouns –apostrophe + s. An example would be, “The children’s play set.”. It’s that easy, really!
But, if we have a possessive pronoun, we do not add an apostrophe, as it already signifies possession. We don’t say, “His’s ice cream cone.”, do we? That’s an important one to remember. If it’s a possessive pronoun, you don’t add an apostrophe, or ‘s. The most common apostrophe misuse is with the possessive pronoun ‘its’. For some reason, hordes of people feel the need to write it as ‘it’s’. That’s a contraction. If I were to write, “It’s legs were long.”, I would be saying, “It is legs are long.”. No.. Remember, guys –save those abused apostrophes!
And, last but not least, we have the misuse of apostrophes to make plurals. Every time I see this when I’m peer-editing, I do a facepalm. One does not add an apostrophe when writing a plural. The plural of ‘dog’ is not ‘dog’s’, it is ‘dogs’. No apostrophe.
(The only exceptions are to avoid confusion when writing letters or expressions that aren’t usually found in the plural, such as, “No more if’s or but’s!”. Otherwise, though, you don’t use an apostrophe when forming a plural.)
Thank you very much for taking your time to read through this –I certainly hope it helped! If you have any questions still, or complaints, feel free to shoot me a PM! And, remember, practice makes perfect!
On Fan-fiction (space-holder title :p)
By: Fanged & Viszla7
This article is a bit delayed -we promise it'll be finished soon!
Fainted
By: Fanged
|Part Two of Flying|
As I floated back down to earth, landing softly on one of the many fields, my thoughts wandered. They travelled through memories, some that were not my own, coming to rest upon one I would ever keep: the day that would change my life.
It had started out normally, a normal day, a normal Thursday, the school day I liked the least. I had slipped into my favourite outfit, carried out the usual battle with my hair, and wolfed down my breakfast. Then I brushed my teeth, slipped into my pair of worn-out sketchers and, after shouting a quick goodbye to the rest of my family, left. I walked down the same street as always, past the old houses that had long-lost their colour, and their sense of warmth. I only knew that time from the photos my parents had taken ... and now from memories that are not my own, but a certain old man’s...
That very man was standing at the end of the street, looking at me. I was a bit perturbed, but I brushed it off and continued walking. I was fighting something inside me, a need to look at him, to look at those clear green eyes I had only fleetingly seen. Eventually, I lost. I looked up at him - and was whisked from reality. The world turned into a blur, and I felt like I was being sucked into those eyes, still intent on mine, oblivious to the effect they had on me. My vision gradually flickered, fought and finally, it faded.
I awoke to a soft rocking. It took me a few seconds to realize I was sitting in an old-fashioned rocking-chair. The man was sitting on a second chair, opposite of me. I sat up from my slumped position nervously.
“Who are you?” I asked, still queasy from my faint.
“I am Jarvis W. H. Lagorio, and I have chosen you.” he answered me calmly, ignoring my slightly accusatory tone.
“Chosen me?! What for?” I cried in answer, almost leaping out of my seat. I found that it was harder trying to leap out of a rocking chair, than from a normal one. It ended with me almost landing flat on my face. Almost.
“I have chosen you, for the transfer of my wisdom, my immortality.”
Usually there would have been a sneer on my face, but somehow, this was different -don’t ask me why. “But...how?” was all I could muster.
He smiled at me “I am an Angel.”
Interviews with Hybrid: CS at Anthrocon
By: Hybrid
1. First of all, how was the experience as a whole to you?
2. What was your favourite part? Such as meeting the CS staff or chatting with other members.
3. If CS went to another Anthrocon, would you consider going again?
4. Did you buy any CS merchandise? If you did what did you buy?
5. If you could tell Tess or Nick anything about the con, what would you tell them?
Wolf Blood Song
1. It was definitely one of the most fun things I have done in a long time. I got to meet some of the nicest and most talented people and it was very entertaining. I probably spent way too much money, but it was more than worth it. All the staff were so kind, and talking to Vampy and Smashy
before the dealers room opened was very fun.
2. Getting to meet and talk to the staff, they were all so much fun and so nice to talk to.
3. Definitely, I have already demanded that we go to anthrocon next year x3
4. oh CS merch... All of it xD
Buttons, Magnets, Keychain, the custom button, Stickers, Mugs, and I even applied for the t-shirt and tote bag x3 EVERYFING.
5. That it was an amazing experience and if money wasn't an issue, they should have it every year. Thank you, Tess+Nick, for keeping this site amazing and having the con!
Rainbow Dash
1. I've never been to a big furry convention before. Anime, many times (Otakon, Anime Expo, and San Diego Comic-con twice) and a small furry meet (West PA Furry Weekend) but never a big furry con. I didn't know what to expect coming into Anthrocon.
But overall I don't think I'll ever forget it. It's a great experience being able to be with people who are into the same things you are and not being afraid to fully express yourself. It's an experience I'd love to have again if I can, if not at Anthrocon at another furry convention.
2. Next to meeting the staff (which was a big reason I went in the first place, I live in California so getting to Pittsburgh was a trip) probably seeing some of my friends and meeting artists I look up to and admire. But meeting CS fans and staff was the biggest highlight. It was great to put faces to names and meet people I've admired the work of!
3. Absolutely. It might take a little bit of saving up to go back but it's very much worth it.
4. Oh man I loaded up on merchandise. I got 6 pins (and one "color your own dog" pin colored by Leurai,) Sunback and Galaxy cellphone charms, and a CS mug which I posted on the AC discussion thread. I'm going to get the plushie when it's available since I got the con discount.
5. I'd tell them to please come back to Anthrocon and to visit other cons in America. We'd love to have them back. (And please come to Los Angeles, I know where the best sandwich place in the city is!)
Vampiric
1. It was the most amazing experience. I am so lucky to have been able to meet my fellow staff and so many awesome members. I wish I could have stayed with them forever, but alas I had to come home. There was lots of fun and excitement every day, and a lot of hard work, totally worth it! I hope I can meet some of them again in the future.
The journey was long and arduous, however, and I can say that doing that every year would be costly and tiresome, perhaps if there was a closer con that some of us european staff could attend that would be neat xD
2. Hanging out with the other Staff at the hotel, the evenings were relaxing and a lot of fun, we had many moments where we were laughing and at some points crying laughing from random, stupid things, but still! Also the birthday party was pretty sweet, we played Uno and Apples to Apples (never played either before) so that was very amusing! I might end up writing a journal about the birthday party cos it was so nice of them to throw one for me ^^
If only we'd had longer it would have been nice to all go out some more and visit some places around the area. Half of us did go to Taco Bell / Wendys together the one night, we were hungry xD First time eating Wendys, it was pretty good!
3. I would, but it would really depend on if I could afford it and if I was not busy irl with something.
I notice a lot of users are asking us if we are going to any more cons, but in reality it needs to be remembered that we all have lives, jobs and commitments so.. it's not really possible to just go to everything, everywhere. I'd love to go to one if it was in Europe though, as that would be a lot less expensive and practically on my doorstep! Maybe I could convince Sorren to join me, then, XD
4. I didn't, no! I was too busy involved in the making and selling of it xD I spent a good part of one day churning out the badges and buttons, ask Leurai, I was like a demon on the machine xD -puts stuff in twist STAMP twist flick out NEXT-
I hope people will enjoy or buy some of the merchandise that will go up for sale online, i'm quite eager to see how popular they will be with people who could not attend.
5. I would tell them it was definately worth doing, and we should meet up again in future, regardless of a con x] It was so much fun! Though i'm sure I don't need to tell them that, haha.
Story Prompts
By: ʀose ;
As I'm sure you know, Writer's Block is the potentially fatal disease that befalls nearly 99.099% of writers. There are seldom any warning signs before this disease strikes. It can strike you at any moment, at the beginning of a story, or even in the middle! If you find yourself stricken with Writer's Block, treatment can be found below.
Prompt one;
"I've never thought anything could hurt me, at least not until now."
Prompt Two;
The man sat on the bench, watching the girl from afar. It was nearly midnight. When the clock-tower bell rang, he would strike.
Prompt Three;
"He's... he's dead."
Prompt Three;
A beautiful beach, a warm breeze, and just the right amount of sun screen. Nothing could go wrong. Or so she thought.
Prompt Four;
He waited for her, but she never came home.
Prompt Five;
"I was frozen, I couldn't move."
