Sin and Syntax
How to Craft Wicked Good Prose

About Constance Hale

Constance Hale is a writer, editor, and literary critic. She is the author of several books, including three on writing: Sin and Syntax; Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch; and Wired Style, the one-of-a-kind guide to online English usage and geekspeak that was hailed by Newsweek as "The Chicago Manual of Style for the Millennium." As a reporter, she has covered Latin plurals and Latino culture, Berkeley politics, and Hawaiian sovereignty. Her freelance writing has appeared in the Atlantic, Smithsonian, National Geographic Adventure, the Los Angeles Times, and Honolulu, as well as anthologies.

Hale is an editor, too, and her approach to the "Bones," "Flesh," "Cardinal Sins" and "Carnal Pleasures" of writing has been informed by her twenty-five years of editing journalism, essays, and nonfiction books. She has been a staff editor at the Oakland Tribune, the San Francisco Examiner, Wired, and Health magazines; she has edited more than three dozen books for Harvard Business Press and private clients.

Hale lives in Oakland, California, works in San Francisco, and spends as much time as she can on the North Shore of O'ahu.