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You had it right.

I' was without power for two days but now back on line. Still raining, though, and speaking of that, did the dam hold, Marilyn?

I agree with Vern about #5! Consequently, that makes #6 moot. #25 is priceless!

I'm surprised Temple wants it spelled out. One writes, "Poverty claimed another victim," and the reader can make the interpretation -  helped, perhaps, by the description of the victim when discovered, but not necessary, since we should already have a context in the story.

The Getaway in Space

I used to like Clive Cussler's books. I still like the imaginative stories, but I find it hard to read them as literature anymore. His dialogue tag and POV errors, as well as his penchant for adverb modifiers,  distract me from the story.

When I started out, I thought I had what it took to be a writer. I knew how to put words together to make coherent sentences, I had a decent vocabulary, I knew all the rules of grammar and punctuation (not quite all, it turned out!). So when I started posting chapters here ten years ago, the critiques surprised and humbled me. But I learned and didn't become discouraged, because reviewers gave me positives along with the negatives. Ten published books later, I'm still learning. I'd like to think that each new novel I write is better written than the previous one. I still get the occasional scathing review here, but now I have the experience (and confidence) to consider such critiques as opinions - some on point and worthwhile, others not - rather than gospel. It takes time to find one's stride in this pursuit. Those with the writing bug, and you seem to be among that number, should stick with it, regardless of how gloomy the path ahead appears at the moment. Otherwise, one will always wonder about what might have been.

Absolutely right. Clive Cussler has a huge fan base, and I'm among that number - but for the stories, not the writing. He breaks dialogue and POV rules all the time. But, to the point others in this thread have made, I didn't notice that in the beginning of my fanship. It was only later, after I learned the "rules," that his writing bothered me. But I still like his stories.

Until someone can give me an example whereby putting in that last serial (Oxford) comma confuses the meaning instead of clarifying it, I'll be an Oxford comma writer! There's no reason not to use it, IMO, other than a determination to avoid commas at all cost. And then the onus would be on the anti-Oxford comma writer to make sure the sentence doesn't give the reader the pause he was trying to avoid in the first place.

One set of three dots is an ellipsis. More than one ellipsis are ellipses.

Not sure what Marilyn meant by an ellipsis symbol (other than dots). I tried looking it up and got nowhere. And to my mind, using a symbol of some sort instead would confuse most readers, so why bother?

Stay the course, Mike.