Shannon Stacey


Happy 4th of July!

First, a rare serious moment: Please don’t give your children sparklers. 2000 degrees, people. Quite frankly, they’re safer playing with a box of matches, but you don’t let them do that, do you? Those snap-and-glow neon sticks that are dirt cheap at Walmart are just as fun—they glow in funky colors, leave a light trail enough for a child to write his/her name in the dark and won’t kill or disfigure him/her.

Okay. Serious, contemplative Shan pulls crappy traffic, so let’s move on.

What am I doing today? I’m obsessing about raccoons.

See, during the post-self-editing spellcheck—see, Angie, I listen—Word kept flagging racoon and telling me to replace it with raccoon. That didn’t look right to me, but I figured it’s that same “cc” thing as in brocolli/broccolli/broccoli/whatever. Then Charli commented on the raccoons without the second “c”. Because that still looked right to me, I went in search of an answer. Unfortunately, they’re both correct.

Anybody know if there’s a consensus among NY editors on the correct spelling of racoon/raccoon?

Furry woodland creatures are holding up my submission. (Well, that and the fact I realized late last night the damn post office is closed today.)

Dunkin Donuts better be open. Just sayin’.

9 comments to “Happy 4th of July!”

  1. Jaci Burton
    Comment
    1
      · July 4th, 2007 at 10:55 am · Link

    For the love of dick, Shan. Do you really think an editor is going to reject your book based on the correct spelling of raccoon/racoon?

    I swear you are SO lucky that thousands of miles separate us. Where’s that rolled up newspaper when I really need it?

    :whip:



  2. Shannon
    Comment
    2
      · July 4th, 2007 at 11:12 am · Link

    :tomato:

    I’m changing it to racoon.

    I think.

    :write:



  3. Charlene
    Comment
    3
      · July 4th, 2007 at 11:44 am · Link

    One is probably the standard UK spelling, one US. That’s usually what two correct alternate spellings comes down to. And either way, house style wins in the end, so just pick one and use it consistently. :cheesy:

    Hope DD’s open today! You need coffee to get that sucker ready to mail when the PO opens tomorrow. :coffee:



  4. Charlene
    Comment
    4
      · July 4th, 2007 at 11:45 am · Link

    Jeez. Angie’s going to read that comment and see three adverbs and come gunning for me.



  5. Michelle
    Comment
    5
      · July 4th, 2007 at 12:53 pm · Link

    I thought it was racoon but then again I spelled it the other way yesterday ’cause I copied what you wrote. I assumed you must know! LOL :boogie:



  6. Shannon
    Comment
    6
      · July 4th, 2007 at 12:56 pm · Link

    I changed it to “racoon” and now the proposal is packaged and ready for the post office to open, so I can’t change it now. Racoon just looks right.

    I assumed you must know!

    :lmao: The only thing I know is Word’s spellcheck is evil. :villain:



  7. Melani Blazer
    Comment
    7
      · July 4th, 2007 at 2:09 pm · Link

    Us hicks in Indiana (apologies to any other Hoosiers) just say ‘coon. Solves it all.
    :shrug:



  8. Jean
    Comment
    8
      · July 4th, 2007 at 4:37 pm · Link

    I was wondering, too. My American Heritage Dictionary, 2nd College Edition has both spellings; however, for “raccoon,” they have a complete definition. For “racoon,” they only have “raccoon” after it. Would I be correct in presuming the double “c” double “o” version is preferred? It doesn’t say, so you’re probably ok to use either one and do a global find and replace if the editor you sell the book to prefers the other way.



  9. Natalie J. Damschroder
    Comment
    9
      · July 4th, 2007 at 6:36 pm · Link

    When I read the post on your main page, I was going to say, “I NEVER saw it raccoon!” But then I clicked to the comments, and racoon looked wrong.

    Hey! Firefox spellcheck is telling me racoon is wrong!

    But then, it’s also telling me spellcheck is wrong.:wtf:







  • Get my latest news straight to your inbox!

    I'll only be sending newsletters when I have news to share, and I'll never share your information. You'll receive an email asking you confirm your subscription (so please check your spam box if you don't receive that). You can unsubscribe at anytime.

    Search

  • Affiliation

    Shannon Stacey is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com.

    If you purchase a book listed on the site from Amazon.com, she’ll earn a small commission. Thank you!