This morning, I posted a review on Goodreads about Laini Taylor’s latest book, Strange the Dreamer. I love the book (read it!), but the review led to a really funny moment, thanks to my ex-boss and primo editor-in-chief of Highlights, Christine French Cully.

“Kim,” she wrote, “In your most recent post, I think you meant to say he spent his days in the ‘bowels of a library,’ not ‘bowels of a librarian.’ Ewwww.”

Here’s the original sentence from the review: This book features a classic underdog hero who spends his days in the bowels of a librarian and scribbling notes into a book to try to understand a mysterious lost realm. What’s not to love?

I’m sure you can see the problem. I corrected the sentence (thank goodness for “edit” features), and added a “Thank you” to Chris at the bottom so that other readers could have fun with my abominable abdominal slip. Suffice it to say that this is proof of what I always tell my writing students: every word matters…a lot!