Re: my guess is he's hoping a mentor will answer his questio
sorry maestro, but italics are incorrect in this instance... theyr'e not even to be used for thoughts, which many unseasoned writers think is ok... but some authors do get away with that, when thoughts run for a whole paragraph... it does make it easier for the reader to remember it's thinking and not dialog or narration...
and i didn't see that it was dialog, yesh... if it is, your version is the right one, of course... as for the reversal of single and double quotes, that's only done in uk usage... american usage mandates the double for outer and single for interior quote...
per strunk and white, if you want to check...
hugs, maia