Editing

My memories of English class in school are nightmares of diagramming sentences. Now, as I work on this first novel I find I need to learn rules. Rules such as "Don't use 'ly' words; its, it's, and its'; do I write "Hello, this is the Matthews's home" or "Hello, this is the Matthews' home" or Hello, this is the Matthewes home". I'm going to cop out and answer, "Yah? Wadda ya want."

Good news though-- I found an editor who taught English in schools for years and promises to be brutally honest as she edits the manuscript.