Welcome to Hot Pepper Communications. My name is Kim Siever, and I’m the face behind Hot Pepper Communications. I’m a freelance writer based in Lethbridge, Alberta. I’ve been freelancing since 2013, and prior to that, I was an in-house copywriter for a small business here in Southern Alberta.
In 2020, I transitioned from doing commercial writing to independent journalism. I still take on commercial and academic writing and editing work from time to time, however.
While you’re here, check out the most recent writing topics I’ve blogged about below.
- Reader question: When do you capitalize “husband”?
A reader recently emailed me this question: A woman who is a columnist for our local San Luis Obispo Tribune always capitalizes the word husband when it precedes his name, i.e. Husband Richard. She also capitalizes Son Sean. When I grumbled about it to a friend who edits books she claimed that was proper. Wondering… Continue reading Reader question: When do you capitalize “husband”? - Difference between evoke and invoke
This is part of the difference between series. I recently encountered a document that misused the word invoke, confusing it for evoke. So I thought I’d do a post on the difference between the two. Evoke Evoke is used when the speaker wants to communicate a calling forth or a calling up. For example, if you want… Continue reading Difference between evoke and invoke - Difference between more than and over
This is part of the?difference between?series. Last month, Unifor, a union in Canada, held an online writing workshop for their research and communications team. Related to this was the following tweet they sent out. Here’s the thing though: using over instead of more than isn’t a writing mistake. I quote tweeted their tweet saying as… Continue reading Difference between more than and over - Should I capitalize husband?One of my readers is writing a work of fiction and needed to know whether to capitalize “husband”. Here’s my answer.
- Sopping wet, not slopping wet
I was recently searching for something, when I came across the phrase “slopping wet”. But this phrase is actually wrong. - Do Canadians use “center” or “centre”?
One of the challenges of Canadian English is that it incorporates British English while simultaneously incorporating American English.