Even award-winning authors have grammar preferences and peeves. When reading a great book by a great author, do you — like me — find yourself thinking, “You must have a word you always misspell too. What do people say that bugs you? What is your favorite word?”

I was excited to hear what Daniel Stashower had to say about his grammar loves and challenges. Daniel is a New York Times bestselling author who recently released his historical true-crime story “American Demon.” If you’re looking for a thrilling tale of a sadistic killer hiding in plain sight, check out “American Demon.”

Now, on to Daniel’s grammar quirks!

Grammar Girl: What’s your favorite word and why?

 A:  “Tintinnabulation.”  When I was growing up, my mother had an arsenal of favorite lines from literature that she could deploy at a moment’s notice. For instance, if one of us didn’t finish all the Brussel sprouts on his plate, she’d say, “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child.”  We lived within earshot of a large church, and whenever the bells would ring, my mother went straight to Edgar Allan Poe:

Keeping time, time, time,

In a sort of Runic rhyme,

To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells

From the bells, bells, bells, bells . . .

 I still hear her voice in that poem, and especially the pleasure she took in spinning out the beats of “tintinnabulation.”

GG: What’s a word you dislike (either because it’s overused or misused) and why?

 A: I think “literally” is almost a given, but I also have a private grudge against “lugubrious.”  I was taught that it means mournful to an exaggerated or ludicrous degree, but it seems to have subsided into being an everyday synonym for sad.  I find that lugubrious. 

GG: What word will you always misspell?

A:  Separate.  A simple word, but I have an intense block.

GG: What word (or semblance of a word) would you like to see added to the dictionary? Why?

 A:  That would have to be “Fafoofian.”  It’s a word created by one of my sons, while writing a poem about someone who was “stuck on the roof again.”  It got him out of a jam. 

GG: Any grammar pet peeves we should know about?

A: I know this isn’t a grammar issue, but it’s been a struggle to adjust to a world in which we only put one space after a period, between sentences.  I’m a habitual two-spacer, even though I know it’s a relic from the era of typewriters.  (I’m also a relic from the era of typewriters.)

GG: Do you have a favorite quote or passage from an author you’d like to share?

A: Absolutely!  “To Sherlock Holmes, she was always the woman.”  It’s the opening line of “A Scandal in Bohemia,” the first story of “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” and I can honestly say that it changed my life. The whole opening paragraph of that story is magnificent.

GG: What grammar, wording, or punctuation problem did you struggle with this week?

 A: Forming the possessive in a last name that ends in “s” or double-“s.”  Which is a hell of a thing to admit, having just written a book about Eliot Ness.  

Thank you to Daniel Stashower for his fantastic responses. Be sure to check out his latest book “American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America’s Jack the Ripper.”