Joe Diorio interviewed on Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb

Joe Diorio is the author of the new book A Few Words About Words: A Common-Sense Look at Writing and Grammar.

Q: What inspired you to write A Few Words About Words?

A: The book traces its roots to a compilation of my monthly email newsletter of the same name. Each issue is only about 700 words or so. I had been writing the newsletter on and off for nearly 30 years and figured I may have enough material for a book.

More important, though, is that I wanted to reach a broader audience (The newsletter had a readership of about 5,000 at the time; it’s up to about 7,000 now. You can subscribe at my website – Joe Diorio Writer, editor. – Words on paper. That’s me. (joedioriowritereditor.com)) and I thought having a book could create opportunities to share a message to a bigger audience.

In my case the message is that yes, I’m bad at English grammar, but with work and perseverance I – and anyone for that matter – can become proficient. I decided to inject humor into the book to make it unique.

There seem to be plenty of books about overcoming educational deficiencies. Tara Westover’s Educated comes immediately to mind, and I don’t want to replicate that. I wanted to create something that tells readers that yes, writing can be hard sometimes. But writing can also be fun.

To read the rest of the interview, click here.

To learn more about A Few Words About Words, click here.

To learn more about Joe Diorio, click here.