All Caught Up

 

Here they all are. Way back when I started writing, when my son gave me that very first little laptop computer, back then, I didn't have internet, and I didn't have any new books to read or a way to go get any. I started by writing in a notebook left over from homeschooling the boys, but they were in town now getting their GEDs, drivers' licenses, and training in a trade. On their first visit home, one of them presented me with this little computer. First thing I thought was, what do you do with a computer without internet? Well - it would be fun to see if I remember anything from my high school typing class. 

That little computer was amazing. I learned more about grammar and spelling from that Word program than I ever picked up in school. Even homeschooling didn't teach me that much, though I learned from that too. It also had an encyclopedia in it, which was awesome. Unfortunately, that encyclopedia is no longer supported, and it's no longer compatible with my computer. Sigh. I do miss it still.

In 2008, we went to Fairbanks to spend our first winter away from home, my goal was to have internet access so I could publish my first book. When we got home, long about that fall sometime, we had a satellite dish installed here, and thus began my greatest distraction from my writing. Between those two points in time, almost all of those books up there were written. I was a writing monster. 

Since then, I've produced four books, two of which are short stories, and started a very long series that I'm still working on. Other than that, I've polished up what I have and learned how to navigate the publishing world. After trying a subsidy publisher (a VERY expensive learning curve) and a small publishing company as well as a mid-range publishing company, I took the plunge and published the rest myself. I even reclaimed those I stuck out there under someone else's apron. I like my books under my name - I also like their new covers. 

So now - finally - all those books I wrote way back when, are published, and in a few months, they will all be over on SmashWords too.

My next dream - a movie deal. What do you think?

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My Life and My Writing

My life interferes with my writing frequently. I work summers from mid May or so to mid September or so, give or take a week or two on either end. My hours aren't too bad, but I get no weekends. Believe me, it doesn't take long for me to get very tired - tired enough to just not feel like writing. Along with that is the desire to do other things associated with the business of writing, like advertising my books and socializing with my fans, both of which takes a chunk out of my sales. Also getting in my way is my slow internet, which has made it impossible for my husband and I to be online at the same time. This is something we'll fix one of these days, but it just can't be done yet.

At the end of my summer, it's kind of hard to get back into the groove. It was made even harder because I didn't have anything new to work on. I keep telling myself that I still have three books completed and in need of editing, but every time I get one out and start working on it, something interrupts me and I'm on a different track. Mood and motivation are lacking, and I just can't seem to reclaim it. Those three books need a lot of attention and concentration, and it seems like every time I try, something happens to break my concentration. The TV is like four feet in front of me, and my husband thinks I need it on as soon as the generator is running. Some series or movie I happen to like makes it hard to protest.

Back in the day, I'd write and write, one story after another, the length made no difference. It was a new story written to satisfy my desire to read a new book - I'd run out, you see, and bookstores are very far away. Then came the chance to publish and I finished my last book. That was back in '08. Then came internet and the distractions abounded. Publishing suddenly became easy, I had the books already written, and I've become a very good writer. I spent time pulling my published books back under my own wings and republishing them, which necessitated me finding my own cover artists, and figuring a way to earn enough money to pay them. As all this added up, I seemed to slow down.

Lately, I decided to write a new book, and I think that is the key to my slump. It would seem a new story, now nearly finished, just might be what I needed to do. I've been more motivated to write than I have been in a long time. Now all I need to do is come up with enough money for a cover. It's been a long time since I've sold a book through my website - the proceeds of which go into my PayPal account, which is what I use to buy my covers.

Publishing and covers aren't the only distraction I've been working on. I'm trying to get my books on regular bookshelves, and to that end, I've purchased my own ISBN numbers - I'm just scared to take that step. No one will explain to me sufficiently how that will work. I mean, if some store wants to order hundreds of copies of my books, I can't afford that.

One distraction after another - this path or that path - even this and my other blogs - it all gets in the way of finishing my new book. I'll be able to afford a cover soon. Keep an eye peeled for a new book one day soon. Any ideas for my next book? Happy writing to all you writers out there, and happy reading to all you readers out there.

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I Had a Dream

I did. Once upon a time I had a dream. I so wanted to inherit the ranch and run a riding academy for city kids. Long story short, my brother got the ranch and I joined the army.

I still think about that dream though, even though there is no chance it will ever happen now. So recently that dream found it's way onto my computer screen, and currently that document is over 200 pages long.

There were a few changes though. I took your average family - loving parents, two boys, and a girl in that order (not like my family). The parents were totally involved in the horsing world, and their primary income came from boarding horses. They also bred horses, and offered a couple stallions for stud services. They made a pretty good living that way.

Suddenly, when the girl turned 15, a horrible accident happened which took both parents away. Since the oldest brother was old enough, he inherited the business and the property, as well as raising his sister. He, however, had no interest in the business, and so it slipped away, leaving empty barns. The sister, who was like her parents, very passionate about horses, couldn't spot the changes through her depression. It wasn't until talk of selling off property crossed the table two years later that she woke up.

In looking around, she realized how the place of her dreams had slipped into a run-down dump with only three customers keeping their horses there. The office was a den of dust and spiderwebs. After these eye-opening discoveries, she discovered that her brothers had been selling off things for a while now; all her mother's treasured paintings were all gone. Gone to buy drugs, she discovered. Thus begins her journey of being totally pissed at her brothers. But thus also begins her journey to emancipation and power of attorney.

In her efforts to figure out what she could do about the business, she went to talk to her parents' banker. It was there that she learned about her second brother's many stints in detox. After her meeting there, she went to the police station to learn more. It had all been a carefully hidden secret until now.

Due to a fortuitous chain of events, the family lawyer also became involved and she got her wish. Of course, her brothers being arrested for possession, and possibly selling, kind of sealed the deal for her.

Now you might think this would be the end of the story, but it wasn't. Her brothers' involvement with drugs meant they were involved with dealers, and dealers don't like being ripped off. So with her brothers off to serve a stint in jail, said dealers came after her. They wanted their money. Herein is the guts of the story.

At the moment, they are just learning who has put out a contract on her head, and the current price is well more than the initial missing funds, mostly because of the fact that it was discovered that she happened to be a natural crack shot with her mom's 357 pistol.

I'm having fun with this story. My little girl is kicking some serious ass and she has acquired quite a reputation in darker circles. This is where I am now. What will happen later, only time will tell. If you have a suggestion for a cover, I'm all ears. I might have to go with a painting for this one though. Your thoughts?

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The Mighty Series

Or so everyone is lead to believe these days.

Of late, I've certainly seen a lot of them. Of course, that might simply be due to the waters I'm swimming at the moment. It seems everyone has, or is working on, or is planning a series. I see it like this: Picture the ocean. Each little ripple across that vast expanse of water is a book. The occasional hill or gentle roll of water contains the multitude of series - the bigger the hump, the larger the number of books in said series. Those smaller humps that might gently rock your boat consist of series number 2 to 4 books. The medium size humps, the kind that might make you hang on in your boat, or catch a cup sliding off the table, are made up of series numbering 3 to maybe 4 books. The big humps, the scary kind that might make you secure the hatches or simply get the flock out of there, are made up of those series of say 5 to 10+ books.

Now lets look at sales: When these waves make it to shore, they all swish up on the sand with a certain amount of foam or bubbles - those equate to sales. Most of those little ripples will generate some foam as it scrapes up on the sand, but not all. A series might curl over in a breaker, and then crash against the sand with a lot of foam and bubbles, but then they're spent too soon after. Now those big waves, the kind that attract surfers from around the world, those make an even bigger splash, but they also might scare some people off the beach - I do know I wouldn't want to hang too close to something like that, though I might be inclined to watch.

My point is, if I see an advertisement for a seventh book, and I don't find it interesting enough on it's own, I'll probably stay away from the entire series.

If you're writing a series, more power to you, but you never know who will find book X before they come across book 1. I look at the blurb, and if that's intriguing enough, I might take a look inside if I can. Given that sample, if I'm left wanting information from a previous book, I won't buy it, and I probably won't go in search of that first book. For me to do that, I have to be really intrigued.

My trilogy might be guilty of this very thing, but it was written as a single book that happened to fall into three parts. What did I know? At first it was over a thousand pages long, and that was just the text part. At the time, I was still in search of a publisher, and I was told that no publisher would take on such a large project from a newbie writer. So, still leaning on the experience of others, I offered the book as a whole, but conceded that it could be separated into three books. Book one made a pretty good splash. Book two, less of a splash, but then it was published in less locations. Book three was pretty much of a bomb. That is the last time I will publish a series one year between books.

I have another series in the works that is plotted out to be 16 books, but since most of them are really quite short, I think I'll only offer them as eBooks (kindle editions). I thought I might offer the book as a whole for paperback, but I'm thinking it might be too big. The biggest CreateSpace will handle is 828 pages. So if I do decide to go paperback with this book, I might release all books at the same time and sell them as a boxed set. Depending on ultimate page count, it might end up being three books. I'm working on book 10 at the moment, so I have a ways to go yet before I need to worry about any of that.

But enough about me.

What I'm getting at, is make each book of your series a stand along story, more or less. It's fine to have each story farther along in your character's timeline, but if your reader can't understand why Prince Caspian is staggering through the woods, going out of his way to avoid his guards, you might lose your reader as he drowns in questions.

Like I said, my series didn't do this. But I'm willing to learn from my mistakes, and above all pass along what I've learned, or at least my opinion of it all. The best series I've read did just that - each book told its own story, and while development might have occurred along the way, and book two is better for having read book one, book two and even book three were just fine on their own. I used to have the Tarzan series once. I don't even remember how many books there were, but they all stood alone. In fact, I think some of them were written by different authors, but I didn't pay attention. It was just another story, another adventure. I'm willing to pick up a book if I know it's the next adventure. Maybe that's why my trilogy doesn't sell so well.

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Editing

Once was the time when I could churn out ten pages of writing a day. Doing so piled up nearly a dozen full length books and even more short stories, though I personally don't care for short stories. In my drive to tell stories, some of them simply ended after like five pages. For the life of me, I have no idea on how to make them longer - so, they will stay short, and someday I'll publish a book of short stories. Who knows, maybe I'll do that next. Hmmm now that's an idea.

But I digress - I seem to do that a lot lately.

Anyway - about editing. Since my writing has been mostly taken over by editing, it has become something of a habit. Even when I read a story on my kindle, I frequently see things that should have been treated differently somehow. A lot of the time, putting away my editor in order to enjoy a good book, is really quite hard. That doesn't keep me from recognizing a good story when I see one, and I've seen many.

Recently, a friend of mine posted in an FB group I belong to. She was concerned about mediocre reviews she'd received on her book. I offered to take a look, and since it was my offer, I wasn't about to charge her. I know - I'm never going to make a living by editing if I keep doing it for free, but really, I'd much rather see a good story made better than earn a buck. I'm a long way from earning a living this way anyway.

I was especially dismayed when I learned that my friend had already paid for an editor. I understand that many editors charge different prices for different levels of editing. I found a good page that describes it all here. I charge $1 a page, which puts my price range among the lowest on that page. However all I have is my passion for a well written story that doesn't raise any questions as I read along. So I guess I do most everything mentioned on that page short of the rewrites mentioned there. I have done a few ghost writes though.

What troubled me was that it seemed like her editor did little more than look for the cool little red and green squiggly lines. And while I leaned heavily on those when I first started writing (I learned a lot doing that), an editor really does need to give a manuscript a careful read-through in order to find those pesky little typos that aren't misspelled. I did find a couple of those that would have been easily caught if read. I wasn't looking for typos so much yet. I wanted all those questions answered first. In my book, first comes the story, then comes the mechanics.

I want the story to remain yours, so any questions that arise as I read along, I ask. My asking tells you that you missed something, just as any changes I make say the same thing. My goal is to help you develop your story to a point where it is a clear movie inside your reader's head. Only then can a reader truly enjoy the story. Questions and jarring inconsistencies diminish a good story.

Freelance editors abound of recent years, or maybe they were always around and I just wasn't around enough to run across them. And checking their credentials isn't all that easy, which is why I do ask for a comment on my website. I don't ask for a good review, it is important to me that I get an honest review. For any editor you want to hire, you need to make the effort to look into their credits. I don't have any education to support my editing. All I have is a passion for good writing, and what I've learned on the internet from other writers who are more knowledgeable than I am. When I go through a manuscript, all I have to offer is my opinion, and the hope that it helps. I find it frustrating that other editors seem to think only of the dollar.

This isn't the only time I've read through a book that had already been edited. The first time, I told the guy he needed to ask for his money back. I have no idea if he ever did, but he sure was embarrassed by the major mistakes I found. Whole plot holes and typos - that was years ago now and I don't remember what all I found in that book, but I do remember that it was pretty bad. I didn't know how to use the track changes feature back then, all I remember was that I would send him an email every time I ran across something, giving him page number and telling him what I found. I was sending him an email or two every day. It was still rather astonishing to me that he'd actually paid an editor for what I was reading. I've come across this a few times since. I find it rather sad really. Sometimes, I feel like I'm alone in my passion for good writing - good writing wherever I find it - not just my own.

Well, it's time to get back to my passion and my obsession. Happy writing, people. Remember to do your homework when hiring that editor. Now, I think I'm going to head over to my personal blog and write a post there. Check it out. Every day is an adventure around here. Well, almost every day is. :D

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The Evolution of a Blog

My very first post was on September 15th, 2009 - That's six years of blogging - wow. I never would have imagined.

Today I had reason to look back through my posts and I was really amazed by how it had evolved. At first, when I was so shy about writing online, the only thing I could think of to do with a blog was to post samplings of some of my writing. I could only do that for so long though before I started to repeat myself. Then, on the 19th of February, 2010, on the advice of others online saying I should be willing to give something away, I created a blog novel. You'll have to be patient with the structure of a blog to read this book, but I tried to make it easy. There is a table of contents. Thanks to a donation through this blog, I was able to buy the shown cover and then on 5th of January, 2013, I published it through CreateSpace. That was almost the very first thing I did with Amazon, and it has become my preferred publishing platform.

But I digress - I get ahead of myself.

Not long after starting my blog novel, thanks to a very non-writerly rant on this blog, I came to realize that I might be able to use a personal blog as well. So, on the 14th of June, 2010, I created Anna of Alaska, named after a book a friend of mine wanted me to write. I tried, but I just can't write about myself in book format, so this was something of a compromise.

That makes three blogs to maintain. It might seem like a lot, but somehow I managed. The last chapter of the blog novel was posted on the 20th of April, 2012, which made it a little over three years old. Other than keeping side panels updated, there is nothing more to do there. I do have a wordpress blog, but I almost never post there.

Over the years, this blog evolved to being my interpretation of writing techniques, usually in response to some book I read or something I saw online.

Over the years, I too have evolved. I've gone from a non-stop writer, tucking book after book under my belt to a blogger and platform builder. I think I've done pretty good on that but my writing has greatly suffered. Now I edit more than I write, and I'm talking about editing my own books mostly, because I still have some to get out there, but I've also taken on some paid editing jobs, and most recently, a ghost writing job.

At work over the last three years, with about +/-3 hours of free time during the afternoon, I took my computer to work so I could continue working on whatever I was working on, be it editing or writing. During the summer before this last summer, my boss kept worrying that I wasn't getting my job done. So, last summer, I decided not to take my computer to work at all. Instead, I took my kindle and was either on Facebook or reading. With an 11 hour day, I was in no shape to do anything by the end of the day.

I ended up allowing the whole thing to get to me more than I thought it would, and I've been off my game ever since.

My new year's resolution was to climb back in the saddle. I'm pretty sure I can hang onto the saddle horn because I also quit that job for a job across the river and much closer to an 8 hour day. Plus I get to dig back into the garden I'd spent 14 years developing. I missed that garden. But that's for some other post, probably on my personal blog.

So, though distractions abound, and they always will, I'll buckle down and get on with my writing, in one form or another. Be patient with me.

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A Story Told

New Year's resolution: No more letting discouragement and distraction get in the way of my writing. That means I'll be trying to avoid FB until evenings - at least most of the time.

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Now on to the reason for this post:

Last night I finished an awesome story. If I were to rate this book on the story concept and the telling of it alone, I would give it five stars and wish to give it more. HOWEVER, if I were to rate the writing, it would be one star with the added comment of 'amateurish'.

Don't get me wrong. As far as I could tell there was nothing wrong with the writing itself. No typos jumped out and slapped me in the face. No careless sentence rearrangements. Not even any unclear sentences that maybe could have been put better. That kind of thing was all good.

The problem is

It was a story TOLD

Let me start at the beginning. Like some movies, this book zoomed in from outer space in a way. It started with an explanation of the world. This world was a large island with five major cities - four coastal cities and the capital in the center. World economics would indicate that there were probably some outlying villages and farms but they were never mentioned.

Closer in we are introduced to the people. There were three races and it was stipulated that though they freely intermarried, there was never a child from such a union. Adoption was never mentioned either. One of these races was human and no outstanding description was given of them so I'm left to assume they were your average white man. Another race was blue-skinned and they cast fire and ice (and other magics, which were only hinted at once) from their hands. They were also heavily inclined toward learning and logic, so they were the teachers and lawyers/judges of the society. I also learned at the end of the book that the king was from this race - of course. The last race were the fighters. They were taller and stronger than your average human, but other than being slightly darker, they were very nearly indistinguishable from humans. They also had near-superhuman endurance and durability. They were the peace-keepers and police of the society. Since nothing much was said about the humans, I guess they were the working class.

Zoom in down to street level, we come across a couple seventeen-year-old boys. I think they both belonged to the warrior race. Both of them have dreamed and trained to join the city guard since they were first allowed to pick up their wooden practice swords. I have no idea how young that is.

It took me a few pages to figure out if the story was going to be about both boys or primarily just one, and which one, but other than that they seemed to be very normal teenagers. One of them, our hero, Nick by name, fell for a pretty girl but was too shy to speak to her. The first time they spoke, the two boys had rescued her from being raped, and while the friend ran for the peace-keepers, Nick and the girl waited at the scene to be questioned. They didn't say much, and neither of them did anything but wait. Just sit and wait? Missed opportunity to pull some heartstrings here. She could have been shaking and in tears, and maybe Nick would find the courage to at least be a shoulder to cry on, but no. On with the story. Many things skimmed over. The next time they meet, Nick is brave enough to ask how she's doing and is totally thrilled when she gives him a peck on the cheek. There's a little more in there, but you don't need a blow by blow. The third time they meet was for their first date which isn't discussed other than to say it was great. Budding romance in place.

This book is written in third person limited for 90% of it, so a step-away to Nick's father is out of place, and really quite odd. Nick's father is a sword-smith and he prides himself in making the best swords and knives he can. It is his calling and his life-long passion, though we never see him actually working. One day he goes to his shop which is filled with all manner of swords and knives - the best ones, the most expensive ones, are hanging on the wall behind the counter. What makes this day so special? A man come in shortly after opening and wants to buy a couple knives, "for hunting" he says. Apparently having customers this early in the morning is out of the ordinary, but he does sell knives, so he goes over to the table that holds all manner of knives, picks out a couple and offers them to the man. We are told that he is uneasy about this customer, but we don't know why. Premonition? Who knows? Maybe.

Later that day Peace-keepers come in to verify that the knives were indeed bought there that morning. Why this information would be important to them I have no idea, unless this society subscribes to the notion that the weapon did the dirty deed, and therefore perhaps the maker might share some responsibility for the crime. This doesn't appear to be the case, but it is a means of telling Nick's father that his knives were used for murder. This information was too much for the man. He could handle that his knives and swords were used for self defense and for the protection of the innocent, but not murder. He's so broken up about it that he decides that he's going to close his shop and never make another blade. Now I'm going to assume that this family is at least upper middle class, but it's not discussed. Anyway, he decides he's going to take his son out to dinner and tell him the news (there is no mother; she died of some illness). What will he do next? No idea.

They pick a table near the back of a busy tavern so they can have a little privacy for their discussion, so no one really sees what happens next. After Nick's father breaks the disturbing news, and before Nick can properly protest much, they are disturbed by a stranger who asks to verify who they are then, despite their protests he joins them at their table for a moment. This writer isn't comfortable with writing fight scenes so things get a little fuzzy here, but somehow the man goes from sitting somewhere at their table to standing behind Nick's father, slicing his throat, pulling him to land on the floor, and then pinning his brain to the floor with his sword. Nick is taken so much by surprise that he is unable to react until it's too late, but he then tackles the man and pulling a hidden knife from his boot maybe (not sure where he kept it, but did know that he had one) and proceeds to pour all his anger and frustration into killing this man. Now is the only time anyone notices anything out of the ordinary in the back of the inn - maybe, but I wouldn't think so, but that's the story so we move on. Peace-keepers are summoned, and because witnesses now deemed Nick uncomfortably dangerous, he's hauled off to jail to await his trial.

Some effort is put in here in Nick trying to figure out his defense. Without witnesses, he has little chance of proving his innocence. The case starts off with Nick being responsible for both deaths because apparently no one knows that the one man was Nick's father. I mean, if he was such a fine sword maker, he should have been known, but I guess not. It ended up that because the sword fit the other man's scabbard, Nick wasn't responsible for that death, thus shortening his sentence by half. They couldn't see justice in the other killing though, even though Nick claimed fear for his life. Seventeen stab wounds was too much overkill for that, so it was a two-year sentence in the arena for Nick.

Some discussion was devoted to the arena too. Murderers and rapists went to the arena for a fairly standard sentence of two years. Who knows how other criminals were punished; it was never mentioned. As we get to the arena, we learn that every fight is to the death; break this rule and both combatants are killed. Pretty much a sentence to the arena is a death sentence because very few actually make it the whole two years to be released back into society.

Now the arena is another thing where the writer was seriously lacking. Even though all the details of running a business may never make it to the book, it should all be clear in the writer's head, but not in this book. All we have is a commissioner who is sloppy rich raking in winning from betting on the fights and from sales of food and drink, I guess - no idea. The arena could have been so much more. He could have allowed patrons to shower their chosen fighter with gifts of money, jewelry, and food. While prison food kept a fighter from starving (barely), gifts of food might have kept him in top form and thus winning more fights. The loser's accumulations of gifts could have been added to the commissioner's coffers or given to the winner. In the book, some prisoners could buy influence within the arena from whatever wealth they had outside, but someone outside had to be willing to handle such transactions, and prisoners are thoroughly cut off from the outside, so you see my problem. However with gifts flowing into the arena, bribes could abound and things could get interesting - but no - too complicated maybe.

Fights within the arena are another thing skimmed over. Like I said before, I don't think this writer is very comfortable with fight scenes. Early on Nick found a mentor whom he fervently hoped he'd never be paired up against; only one of them could come off the sand alive. However, every fight on the sand could be a learning experience too. The first fight was pretty good. The second one was okay too, but it could have been better, I think. However, after it was discovered that Nick was a member of a supposedly extinct fourth race, his fights in the arena were hardly worth mentioning other than to say they were a piece of cake.

More on this fourth race: They were a people that looked and fought a lot like the peace-keeper race, but they could also cast fireballs and ice (and presumably other things) like the blue-skinned race. Apparently some previous king had deemed them too dangerous and had ordered them wiped out. Hmmmmm Obviously at least two escaped that genocide.

Back to managing the business of the arena for a moment. Since we know that every fight means one dead at the very least, managing the population is important. How often are these fights? They should be organized to happen on every Saturday for instance, though there is no mention that there is such a day of rest in this society. Having fight for only one day a week would give time for new blood to enter the arena at a steady trickle, but any new guys are seldom mentioned. I get no real idea of how many men and women are in this arena, but it feels like at least less than a hundred. We do learn that the arena in the capital holds a population of a thousand though so who knows. Lets say that each fight lasts an average of fifteen minutes to half an hour, and your average fight day stretches from say 11:00 to around 4:00 in the afternoon. If they allow half an hour for every fight, that's 10 fights with plenty of time between for the buying of food and drink. 10 fights means 10 less people to fight so to maintain a steady population, the commissioner has to hope for at least 10 new murders or rapes in the city per week. Eh, maybe, maybe not. When the population gets low, the writer should allow for the trading between arenas of prisoners upon occasion. Maybe in one of the other cities the population is too high and they can't house them. Any a sudden influx of new fighters could change up the game within the arena once in a while, just as lining up for something of a lottery to be chosen to go to another arena a possibility. These kinds of things need to be known by the writer so this kind of fullness of world can be added to the book.

Back to the fights: Even though Nick now has the ability to fight with a sword as well as cast fireballs, doesn't seal the win on every fight. Just as he once won a fight against such magic, experienced fighters just might give him a run for his money. Each and every fight needs to be a learning experience as he hones his skills, but all this is skimmed over and Nick is the darling of the commissioner.

Things take a turn when a new guy shows up as a prisoner, only we're told there's some significance to the man, but not what. Hmmm man of interest - why? Late one night, this man manipulates the locks on his own and Nick's cell doors and takes Nick to a storeroom to discuss a few things. He wants Nick to escape with him and join his team. This man also has a little information about why Nick's father was killed. Supposedly it was by order of the king, and he want's Nick to help him kill the king. Nick, however, can't bring himself to believe him, so he runs to the arena guards for help. Some die but the other guy gets away anyway.

Story foreshortened, Nick manages to get a message to the king to warn him and the king sends men to retrieve him from the arena. He is taken the two day trip to the capital where he is bathed, shaved, and made presentable to the king, then he is asked to join in the king's defense after he proves he is the last member of this long lost race. Suddenly word comes that someone broke into the arena here at the capital and all the prisoners have been released. What does this king do? He sends all his strength to help corral the prisoners, even after he's been warned that someone is after his life. He even sends Nick, a man he doesn't know and at this point has no reason to trust. Yes, he's a good and staunchly loyal man, but that's beside the point. Plus, it appears as if he has no house guard. All he has are a few council members who are apparently the best of the very best in what they do, which he just sent away all but two. Apparently running a kingdom is another thing this writer needs to think on. Where are all the functionaries? The halls should have been crowded with the goings ons of royal business, but the palace was empty even of door guards with the exception of a couple here and there.

Anyway, needless to say, one man of this team of five usurpers was enough to create mayhem at the arena while the other four captured, and in front of hundreds of people, killed the king. All in the name of freedom, or so he claims. Do I believe him? I'm not sure.

There is a book 2 and I guess book 3 is in the works. However, though I'm tempted, because I do like this story. I don't think I'll be buying either of them. Too much telling for me. Just as I get into a moment, we're sloughed past it to the next point. Sigh

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Getting into the Groove

It's hard to get into the groove. Lately all I seem to want to do is read. Of course editing is a perfect opportunity to do that, as long as I don't let my desire to read get in the way of the editing process. Lately, that's been kind of hard cause the stories really were very good.

Getting back into my own story has been really hard lately. At this point I can't tell if it's just because I'm so far behind on it, or if I'm getting tired of it. Both issues are very frustrating; add to that the fact that I go back to work in a week, which is another delay, makes it kinda hard to pick up the groove. The last couple days has been the hardest of all. I don't seem to be in the mood for anything - not even Facebook. Aaaahhh

Anyway - I think I'm due for a break. This blog will take a summer vacation, unless I rally by next week. Don't worry. Nothing holds me down for long. At best, I'll be back next week like usual. At worst, I'll be back by September. I certainly won't be off for long. I remember before I started blogging - I didn't have a clue what I'd write about. I've grown to love it, even if only a handful of people ever stop by. This, and my other blogs have all become something of a chronicle of my writing journey as well as my life.

So - no worries. I'll be back. I have more books to publish.

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Do you communicate with your readers?

Do you communicate with your readers? Those who are other than Facebook friends that is?

I remember when I was a kid, I'd read some book and there was an address in the back. As I recall, it was something like 'you can contact the author through the publisher'. Being impressed I guess, I fired off a letter. I don't even remember what I wrote - probably some kind of gushy fan thing. Anyway, I have no idea if the letter ever got through - I never got any kind of reply. For all I know, the publisher chucked it in the trash.

When I first got internet out here, I put some thought into what kind of online presence I wanted. Since we got internet primarily so I could make a stab at marketing my own book, my goal was to promote myself as a writer/author. And since I fully believe in helping other writers like me, I went to great lengths to find and share important writing tips and tricks. I also vowed to be as communicative with my readers and fans as I possibly could.

I have always believed that honesty really is the best policy, and I put a good deal of effort into trying to be diplomatic about it. I won't blurt out the truth, knowing it will hurt someone's feelings. However, I learned early on that telling a writer their work had mistakes, hurt some feelings. I also learned early on - it is big advice out there - that a writer needs to grow a thick skin for that very reason. Their baby just might not be the gem they envisioned it being - not yet anyway.

Not long ago, I got an email from a writer, asking me to read and review their book. Early on, it sounded like the main characters were gradeschoolers, but I suspect someone told him that he would sell more books if the characters were older. So, pretty much the only change he made to the book was the age of his characters. He made a few more changes that were age-appropriate like one of the characters could drive. The biggest mistake he made with this story was not changing any of the behavior of his characters. Ten-year-olds just act different - like kids, and where twenty-year-olds might make some of the same decisions - a few might even act like they were still ten, but on the whole, they have outgrown the adolescent behavior. Not so with these characters. The story read like he'd made a quick alteration and then threw the book out there. Needless to say, I sent him an email saying as much long before I was even half way through - I mean, really, the book was very annoying, though really there didn't seem to be anything wrong with the story premise.

Did I hear back from him? Not a peep. Were his feelings hurt? Probably. But it was better he hear this from me in an email rather than have me post what would have been a rather scathing review, not that I would have listed a bunch of details, but like I said, I believe in the truth - I would have said as much.

Most recently, I contacted two different authors to inform them of mistakes I'd found in their kindle edition books. One was an entire scene repeat of two or three pages, as if the scene had been copied twice in a row. The other was a hyphenated word that happened to fall at the end of a page and the second half was just gone. I didn't know if the word was the end of the paragraph or not, and I wasn't sure what the whole word was - for this one, I went to Amazon and looked inside the sample available there. It was the last word of the paragraph too, and apparently it didn't occur in the paperback edition.

Just so you know, if you ever spot a mistake in one of my books - LET ME KNOW. I want to go fix it as fast as at all possible. Frankly, I'm surprised no one ever contacted me about anything in my first book, though I did get one review that told me the writing was rather rough - Thanks for that. When I read back through it, I could only cringe - I'd learned a thing or two since publishing that book, mostly since we got internet here.

Over the years, I've gotten a handful of emails concerning my books. So far, those notes have all been good, and to show that I am approachable, I replied to every one. I fully intend to continue in that vein. You will get an honest review from me, and if it's going to be a bad review, I'll let you know in an email, or if I can't do that, I won't post anything. I have no desire to hurt another writer's sales. I also generally don't review a book that already has hundreds of review. What's the point?

What do you do? Do you talk to your readers? Do you hear from any?

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My Next Book

Sorry this is late - I found myself distracted by Facebook yesterday. It happens sometimes. When the TV is on, thinking kind of takes a hiatus and time slips away while my finger surf through my game on Facebook. Bad me, bad me.

Anyway, this week I planned to tell you all about my next book. I won't even mess with it until next fall after I'm done with work. 12-hour day-7-day weeks tend to suck me pretty dry in no time at all.

By popular vote (only 3), my next book will be Lord of the Land. You can read a detailed accounting here. Anyway, a trio of young men, more boys really, passing as soldiers, enter an inn to escape the weather and recover a little from some battle they'd endured a short time before. One of them can't go any farther, and there's a chance that he will never go any farther anywhere, but he's lucky. In the mean time, his two friends hurry on in an effort to warn the king, who is the father of one of them, of an impending coup. They don't make it.

With father and son displayed over the gate, everyone is confident that the tyranny is over, only it isn't really. You see, the son displayed beside his father was the second son born to the king, but no one knew of the first born, he'd been sent away and his existence expunged by the queen.

As the country crumbles under the factions squabbling with each other over the throne, our young prince seeks to earn his keep, but he can't stay at the inn forever. The old innkeeper won't let him. He sends for another old friend who takes the prince under his wing and tries to teach him how to be a knight and a prince, hoping that one day he will take his rightful place on the throne and put order to the chaos.

However, their plan didn't work out quite like they planned. The prince fell in love and settled down to raise cattle and a family. He was quite happy, until his past came knocking on his door when he wasn't home. Not that his past knew whose door they knocked on, but the result was the same. After burying his family, he went after revenge, but the one man wasn't enough. An entire web of revenge surfaced and it needed tending to.

Along the way, he learned a lot about his true roots and the tattoo on his chest. It's quite a journey. Along the way, he discovered a deep attachment to the land, one that superseded his efforts to rule his country and to raise another family, but there was no choice. The magic pulled - He was the first Lord of the Land in generations, and it wasn't just his country he was committed to look after. He was compelled to protect all of the land. That didn't stop him from returning home frequently, and as a result his bloodline was more than certain, and his legacy was too.

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There are places in this book that always brings me to tears, no matter how many times I read it. I really tortured this poor guy, but he so blossomed. I'm curious what will happen under a rewrite. You'll know when it gets there. If you'd like to beta-read, let me know. I can send a copy now or later after the rewrite. I really do love the feedback, no matter what it is. Heck, you might even have a good idea for a cover.

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Slang, you say?

A friend of mine from across the pond asked me a while back if he should change the spelling of his book in order to market it here in America. I told him I wouldn't worry so much about the spelling - it's not really all that different - only the occasional extra u here and there. No, I told him that the biggest issue I had with reading books from around the world is the area-specific slang.

Language is such a melting pot, and it's very likely that English is the biggest melting pot of them all. Of course, I don't really have much experience with many other languages. I know that the Swiss language, spoken, is very region specific, being a mix of German to the north, French to the west. Russian to the northeast, Austrian to the east, and Italian to the south. The Swiss language, written, is German. At least that's how I understand it. I can't speak it. I took German when I was in college, but I could never remember the vocabulary. But I also took a class on Old English, which I found fascinating, but which I also failed.

At any rate, regardless of my ineptitude at languages, I love listening to them, and because I'm good at listening, I can hear similarities between them. As we (humans) mixed and moved around over the centuries, our words also left their mark wherever we went, and as an end result slang took different forms in different regions. I read (or tried to read) a book once where the slang was so unfamiliar and so liberally used, that I lost the content of the story from time to time. As I recall, that writer was somewhere in the south of Ireland, I think.

It's not that slang is a bad thing. Quite the contrary. It adds a flavor and it adds character to one or more characters. You just have to be careful to make sure all your readers can understand it. If you have someone who is from the out back of Timbuktu whose slang is so stiff it's nearly another language, you might want to add in a new friend from somewhere very proper (and yet within reach). That way you can have someone constantly asking for clarification. Might add a little comedy too if misunderstandings can abound. If it's just the odd word, make sure the surrounding content adds definition.

At any rate, don't lose your reader to slang.

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The Other Side of the Page

Imagine, if you will, that the page you are filling with words has something else on the other side. On the other side of that page, your words are creating a movie. Of course if your words are unclear, your movie will be unclear as well. Not that it's bad, just slightly out of focus, and maybe only here and there. Maybe no one will notice, and maybe they will refine the blur with something from their own imagination, and this is just fine in most cases, but once in a while...it isn't.

Most of the time you can allow your reader/movie-goer to fill in the gaps and your movie will be everything you both are quite happy with, but where the reader's imagination might hit rather off in left field is when the lack of description leaves them to assume. I'm reading a book (yeah, most of these posts come because of a book I'm reading) where the 'people' aren't the normal kind of human you and I see every day. With Trolls as a part of this world, I can accept that things are going to be very different. The fact that much of society is dictated by a 'crest' grown at puberty, also tells me that the 'people' aren't quite normal.

The thing is, with this book, I don't really know what this crest - any version - looks like. I have no problem picturing the Trolls - they're various degrees of big. They have tusks. They have three fingers and a thumb. They have huge feet. They stink. But appearances can be deceiving - they are not stupid. One race - crystal clear.

The crested race was also perfectly clear - all except the crest. Bald until puberty. Five fingers and a thumb (assumed). Standard facial features (assumed). Two legs and two arms (assumed). A full range of body sizes and shapes (assumed). What lead all of my assumptions? All the pronouns - he - she - woman - man - you get the idea; we use them all, all of the time. They lead me to picture yo average Jo or Josephine of whatever position in life. The fact that growing hair was the height of bad luck, and that such a person would be utterly shunned was brought up early on, as was the waiting for the cresting. The main character is 14 and his cresting is late. He's VERY anxious about it. To remain a 'moon-head' for the rest of his life was only a little better than growing hair. What teenager doesn't worry about how they are perceived by those around them?

So what does this crest look like? It will decide his standing in his society. It will influence the standing of his family. Above all, it will dictate what class of magic, if any, he'll be able to access. At first I thought it might be something like a stiff mohawk only maybe stiffer. They come in all shapes and sizes, and there was some mention of temper engorging them will blood so I picture something like a rooster's crest. However, a comment of 'running fingers through it lead me to think of something more spiny. I mean, all the other details have to still apply.

Having found this book on Twitter, I asked the author about this. His vision was something primal to the Minbari from Babylon 5. Interesting. Now I have a new detail to add to my still-blurry view of these crests. Ah but this is really only a minor detail. The kid's crest is supposed to be something unique; I'm sure I'll get a proper focus eventually. So, stay in focus. Questions, distract your reader - remember that.

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The Appearance of Your Work

I've always been very picky about what my books looked like. That's inside; covers were a learning curve - I certainly made my mistakes with the first one. To date, the biggest issue I've had was keeping the fonts I like. I'll frequently use some sort of handwriting font in notes shown in the books.

My biggest hurdle in preserving my fonts is the Kindle edition, but I've come to accept that there's never going to be anything fancy there. That doesn't mean I don't try for the best appearance I can.

For my latest book - my ninth book - a number that still amazes me - I had an additional problem. I used star symbols to clue the gaps, and in a couple other spots. I really, really liked them. My story, after all, was a science fiction story. By the time kindle made the translation, they looked like some kind of Chinese writing. It was really quite bewildering.

My first effort was to try loading a pdf, though Kindle doesn't really like that. When that didn't work, my next option was to turn these symbols into small pictures. What a pain. Well, not really but still... I only have Paint, and Paint for MAC isn't as good as what I had on my PC, but it works well enough. It has a habit of quitting if I get to complicated with it, but with patience I can usually get it to do what I need it to do.

So - I was working my way through my manuscript, pasting in my little pictures, when I discovered another spot that needed like attention. Using Futhark font - font that looks like elven writing in Lord of the Rings - I used that font to identify the monsters in my book. It is a very angular, harsh, font - fitting, I thought, for how my monsters would see themselves. The point of needing to keep that font was that the subsequent name of my monsters evolved from how it looked translated into equivalent letters in our language. There was no way around it and keep that thread in tact. Of course, Kindle translated that font to Times which killed the whole thread entirely. I had to turn that into pictures too. Fortunately there was only three places where that was needed. The tricky part was cropping my image down tight enough to not cut off any part of a letter, and still not have the image take up too much space in the line of typing. That was a toughie. It's not perfect, but I don't think I can do any better.

My biggest problem with all this was that Word didn't always put my star symbols pictures where I wanted them. Most times they allowed a space under them (which I wanted), but sometimes they didn't - every time I tried to add that space, the picture would jump to the middle of the paragraph - I couldn't figure out why, and there was simply nothing I could do to change it. And of course Kindle picked up on that. So upon occasion, you'll see those stars sitting close to the next paragraph, whereas most of the time there's a space above and below them. Inconsistency annoys me no end, but not so much so when I can't fix it.

How much do you pay attention to the appearance of your books? Sometimes I wonder when I see all manner of formatting inconsistencies in the books I buy.

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Guardians

My latest book - can you believe it? I mean, I had them all written already, years ago, but actually getting them published and out there is such a wondrous concept for me. I really can't explain it. I've devoured these kinds of books since I was a kid, but I never really thought I'd be writing any. And when my son gave me that old laptop way back when, I didn't really know what else to do with it. We didn't have any internet at the time, and what do you do with a glorified typewriter. Oh yeah, and it had Paint and I had an Encarta encyclopedia on it too. Couple that with the desire to read something I hadn't already read and this is what you get, I guess. Well now - I got four more to go and then I'm down to a large fistful of short stories. I guess we'll be talking about those somewhere along the line.

Anyway - I digress - my apologies

Guardians is my second (so far) science fiction story. Idea elements came from the video game, Final Fantasy VIII, which gave me my first soldier, Reed, the dark haired guy, and all his abilities. Like in the game, I needed an enemy, but the enemy in the game was too ambiguous, so I turned to my favorite movie for that idea. Starship Troopers had the perfect enemy for me, but I needed them to be just a little more believable so they aren't exact, and of course they had to be different in other ways too.

During the course of writing this book, the enemy evolved. Being space-faring, they had to be highly intelligent, but running up against humans proved to be more than they expected. I'm going to assume that somewhere in their distant past, roaches somewhere gave them fits so they took on the bug form and it served them quite well for a very long time, but against humans, it wasn't good enough; they were being pushed back, and they couldn't have that. The next logical step (I love logic) would be to create one of their own.

Enter my second character. Reed found him at the age of maybe two way down in the bug hive and named him Adam. He was human in every way except his DNA. Reed raised him like his own, right along with his family, and he was normal in every way right up until his magic developed.

Born with an ability that could not be genetically transmitted from parent to child in any way, he had to learn how to use it, and he had to keep it quiet - he wasn't entirely successful, but he never found himself under some dissection knife. He had too many friends in powerful places. He could, however, fly the pants off anything with wings, and was a well-known in all the simulator hangers. After he joined the Air Force, he became a force to be reckoned with in his own right.

I know that all sounds so peachy, but no journey through life is easy. It seems a family relative wanted him. She tried to get her claws on him when he was a kid, but that didn't succeed. By the time she found him again, he was essentially untouchable, but there were other ways. There's no knowing all of her reasoning, or if her reasoning was even rational, but they do eventually meet, much to her dismay.

Read it - leave a review.

I gotta go work on the document some before I can put it up as an eBook, because Kindle doesn't recognize the symbols I used to mark gaps - I need to turn them into pictures and see if that works. Sigh - Too bad pdf doesn't work for kindle publishing.

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The Best Word

There a best word for every situation. I'm reading a book now - just started it today, and I think I'll like it, but every once in a while, I come across a word that just creates the wrong picture for the content of the sentence. The latest one that comes to mine is how steam from the hot shower 'engulfed' the bathroom mirror. We all know what the picture is supposed to be, how steam had turned the mirror into a frosted panel, but 'engulfed' says the mirror is now gone, it has been eaten by the steam. I know, it's a minor thing, but there were quite a few of these sorts of things so far in this book.

At any rate - since I'm late with this post, having been distracted by an editing job I wanted to get finished last night since I was so close to the end. The task caused me to forget what day it was, and really, I hadn't thought about what exactly what to write.

Well, that's my 2 cents on that subject.

Another book I've been reading presented a different sort of problem, namely how old you say your characters are and how old they act. A book was given to me to review, and well within the first handful of chapters I knew the three main characters, a brother and sister and a male best friend, were most assuredly not the 18 & 20 the author said they were. By their actions they were maybe 8 & 10 at the most. The subject matter would dictate that they be no younger than that, but some of their actions were extremely juvenile. I got the distinct impression that just maybe the story had originally been written for the younger age range and then hastily converted to aim for an older age group. At any rate, I sent the guy an email saying as much, but I haven't heard back from him. I am not going to post a bad review. I do wish him luck. I like the snarky voice of the story; this writer, I think, will go far.

And, that's my 2 cents on that subject too.

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Author Spotlight - Richard Milton

Visit Richard's Amazon Author Page at - http://www.amazon.com/Richard-Milton - I'm so happy to have crossed paths with him. Find him on FaceBook too - https://www.facebook.com/richard.milton.54

Enjoy the interview. I sure did.

What inspired you to become a writer? Why did you go from non-fiction to fiction? Why did you choose this particular genre?

I wanted to be a writer since I was nine or ten. I would make up treasure maps and bury them in the garden hoping someone would discover them and dig them up. Sadly, they never did. When I was 15 I bought an old cast-iron typewriter from a junk shop, lugged it home on the bus and taught myself to type. The books I wrote in the evenings were not very original and, like the treasure maps, remained undiscovered.

Eventually I managed to get a job as a journalist and worked on business magazines and newspapers. I developed an interest in geology and spent my spare time visiting cliffs and quarries collecting rocks and fossils and this started me investigating Darwinism. My first book was Shattering the Myths of Darwinism, which didn’t go down too well with some sections of the scientific community, who started foaming at the mouth and chewing the carpets. Richard Dawkins called me ‘loony’ and suggested I needed ‘psychiatric treatment’, although he didn’t trouble himself to respond to any of the scientific questions I raised.

I wrote several other non-fiction books. Alternative Science looks at the curious phenomenon where some scientists are averse to new discoveries and declare certain subjects taboo. Bad Company looks at why large corporations sometimes behave in insanely self-defeating ways. Best of Enemies examines Anglo-German relations through two world wars and the birth of the PR industry.

I started writing fiction because I find it the most challenging and the most satisfying form, but in my stories the factual background is never far away and I like themes that introduce the unusual, the exotic and even the paranormal into everyday life.

What’s your strongest point as a writer?

I consider myself very lucky to have been trained in old-school journalism where you are compelled to express the facts as economically as possible and still tell an interesting and engaging story. I was given one tip early on that I find very useful in fiction. I always draft a novel first (mainly) in dialogue, like a screenplay, and add the exposition and descriptions later. This makes your story lean and mean and stops all the throat-clearing and long-winded descriptions.

As Author, what do you consider your most difficult obstacle?

The biggest obstacle to writers is the traditional publishing industry which now works against us rather than with us. The big publishers have squeezed out mid-range authors in favour of books “authored” by TV celebrities, sports stars and models, and will no longer even look at unagented manuscripts. The good news is that the reservoir of writing talent that traditional publishers have sponged off for so long now has an alternative outlet in the form of professional self publishing and especially Kindle.

What new projects can we look forward to from you, and where and when will they be available?

I’m putting all my books, past, present and future on Kindle. So far, I’ve published Dead Secret, The Glass Harmonica and Conjuring for Beginners, as well as my non-fiction book Shattering the Myths of Darwinism. If anyone wishes to review any of these, please email me and I’ll be happy to email you a complementary copy.

My latest Kindle novel is Conjuring For Beginners (only put up last week and at the time of writing no-one has yet reviewed it at all). It’s a story about a woman magazine journalist, Rosa Daniels, whose father - Ferdy Daniels - is a legendary con artist living out his days in Switzerland. When Ferdy dies alone and penniless, Rosa, inherits his victims who are convinced she was his partner in crime. To stay alive, Rosa must unravel Ferdy’s web of deceits. But to understand her father’s past, she must learn to become as quick-witted and cunning as Ferdy. She must learn to become a conjuror like him.

In the next few months, I’ll be publishing a fourth fiction book, a collection of short stories called True Stories, and more non-fiction, starting with The Ministry of Spin and then a follow-up to my Darwin book titled Darwin Doesn’t Work Here Anymore.

Where can we find you?

My website, with more details of all my books is at www.richardmilton.net If anyone would like to contact me directly my email is richard@richardmilton.co.uk (note the site has a different domain name from the email).

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Dead Secrets by Richard Milton

This book was given to me to review. It was presented as a paranormal romance. Cover unseen at this point, those two words brought up a couple pictures in my mind. Paranormal of course usually brings up something to do with vampires or werewolves, not that I mind much, but the subject is getting rather old in my opinion. And then there is romance. Most romance I've seen lately involves a whole lot of "love at first glimpse" and "I just can't live without him/her". The rest of the book, in my opinion, too many of them fall just short of erotica as the erstwhile pair struggles to hate each other while at the same time they can't stay out of each others pants. The whole point of the story is to get from point A-in bed to point B-in bed to point C-in bed... You get my point.

Anyway...

This book has paranormal more along the lines of precognition and the romance is the kind that makes you cringe with fear. Yes, I said fear. Almost as soon as Tony meets Miss Eve Canning, he loves her, but he still carries on with his research. His goal, to debunk scientifically one wealthy psychic. However an inheritance from his mother opens a puzzle-box that he can't resist. When his work starts to cross paths with the mystery surrounding his mother, he has to dig hard, and when his psychic ends up dead, Tony starts mixing with the rich and rather freaky. I mean, when some old lady with a title can shell out 7 million for a skull... Yeah - scary.

Have I tweaked your curiosity yet? This book is well written and well researched. If I didn't know it was fiction, I could have easily taken it for some kind of diary. It lead into realms, London, that is, I'd never been to before, and yet I had no trouble following in Tony's footsteps, nor did I have any trouble following his logic. I don't believe I would have made the choice he made at the end, but then again, I was more than a little scared of Eve, and I wasn't in love with her.

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The Trials of the Youngest Princess

My next book. Isn't that face awesome? She is so out for revenge.

Why?

I see Princess Anella as a tom boy (like me) before such an idea every occurred or was tolerated by anyone. That means that her interests and talents weren't quite feminine, but she tried.

So why is she out for revenge? Well, you see, even though she was willing to accept that her growing skill with a sword could never be seen beyond the midnight lessons in the arms-room, an uncle she'd never been told about had other plans - not that he knew anything about her first hand.

Thanks to her passion for the tournament (like her father and her brothers), she wasn't in the palace at a time when everything fell apart. Her uncle somehow was able to smuggle a sizable force into the palace when everyone was busy preparing for the ball that would take place after. Anella came in after the coup was successful to find her father impaled and her brothers hung from the rafters. That is enough to give anyone nightmares.

Since she is in disguise as a boy, she is able to see and then get away before anyone is the wiser. And then she is on the run. Until she can figure a way to drum up an army and undo the damage, she's just a girl, seventeen years old, who happens to be pretty good with a sword.

One thing evolves to another and someone comes up with the idea of following the tournament circuit. Just following wasn't good enough either. Passing as a boy of roughly fourteen, she needed to sharpen her skill with the sword enough to win each event. She could accomplish two things this way. First, competing in every district around the land would almost certainly see her presented to the new king personally, but almost might not be good enough; placing well would very likely seal the deal and she would be able to confront the man who had killed her father and brothers face to face. The other thing she could accomplish is a private meeting with each of the lords who were attached to her family via marriage. Everyone could make an appearance at the grand tournament in the capital, and lords could bring an entourage of guards; they would even be invited to the ball, and could bring an escort. With luck, her army would be enough. With luck, she would be presented to the king. Everything - the entire house of cards - depended on if the new king, her uncle, was as passionate about the tournament as her father had been. It depended on how much of the customs he'd changed and how much he'd much he'd kept the same.

Need I say... Yeah, she got the bad guy, but that's not where this story ends. You see, he's had an entire year to import his own personal army. Now she had to go after them. No way could she just let them wander around uncontested.

I'm working my way through a final edit and waiting for some feedback from some pre-readers, or beta readers as they are commonly known. You'll be seeing this book on Amazon hopefully by the end of the month. Look for it.

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How do you Walk?

I just read a really cute book. It was about a guy who can't have kids so his wife divorces him. He's going through a bad patch, struggling with depression and lack of motivation. A bad day can't get any worse when he gets a flat tire. And then a space craft crashes nearby. Well of course he and the tow truck driver simply have to explore, and the open door is so inviting. I mean, it was a crash; someone might be hurt. Deep inside they come face to face with gun-toting green folks and of curse the logical thing to do is pick up the closest thing that looks like a weapon and arm yourself. Um yeah, it didn't work out that way. Turns out this 'weapon' was a pregnancy inducer and it was pointing backwards, and yeah, it goes off. Now we have two guys who are pregnant with alien babies. Not written as a comedy, it was nonetheless very entertaining as this poor guy struggles with all the things us women go through - morning sickness, cravings, being unable to reach things on the floor, and emotional swings, among other things.

The biggest drawback about this book, little that it was, was the inexperience of the writer. Don't get me wrong, I loved the story. I recommend you read it, but the reason for this post is because many times other words for movement could have been used to improve the story.

I googled for a list of words one might use instead of walk and found this. Each word elicits a picture or an emotion, and it is key to your efforts to show rather than tell. Anyone can walk from point A to point B, but the word conveys just that - any-old-one. It says absolutely nothing about your character. Let's think about a few of those words and see what they say:

Amble: Who would you picture ambling? What does this stride say? I picture a cowboy as he makes his way across the corral. Such a stride would keep the contents of that corral calm because it is a smooth stride.

Hobble: This might indicate someone who is or has been injured. It might also indicate age as in very old. Think about it; if you saw someone hobbling along in front of you, what's the first thing you would think of that person. Environment would have a deciding factor in your judgement but found on Anystreet USA, you'd likely think old.

Mosey: This might, if you're paranoid enough, make you think of someone up to no good.

The word used frequently in the above mentioned book is:

Wander: To wander is to be aimless in your direction and intention.  It might also indicate a head injury, or disability such as severely retarded.

These are only a few of those words so you should go there and maybe copy the list. It's important that you use the word that best conveys the attitude of the person you're writing about. Think about it. how many soldiers do you think wander around the battlefield? How many little girls walk down the hall? You get the idea. Now run with it.

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To Rush Your Editor

Have you ever read a book that felt like all or part of it had been rushed? I have. There's a difference between ramping up the drama of things like a fight scene and a car chase, and simply rushing through a scene, skimming over the details with only the ending in sight and no care given to the journey to get there.

But there's another rushing you should really avoid, and that is trying to rush your editor. I know how anxious you can get when you've finally written those final words - The End - and then you ship your baby off to the editor. Some marketing strategies aim for certain holidays in the hopes to catch those shopping for Christmas or Valentine's Day because the content of the book is relevant. But if that is the issue, it would be better to hold off till the next year than to rush your editor.

I recently took a job where publication was aimed for Valentine's day. The writer told me that from the beginning. She was aiming to be done with the first draft by the end of January. Knowing that it can take 3 or 4 days to see a paperback up on Amazon, that didn't give me much time. I did try. she was asking for chapters almost every day. It was a good thing she had another reader to go through it, and with screen shots, things I'd were pointed out to her.

Me, I'm a stickler for picky so I was utterly mortified at the list - crazy little things like missing words and extra words left over from sentence adjustments. Now I will admit that there were a couple there I might have missed no matter what. Those annoying words that look very similar and are even pronounced alike but with a slight spelling variance making it mean something entirely different. I'm not perfect.

Anyway, she sent the document back to me, even offering to pay me for a second round, but I won't take pay for a document I've already been paid for. Now six months after the fact might be a different issue.

At any rate, I have a wonderful trick I discovered way back when I had my first computer. Back then - seven years ago now - my PC would read a pdf if you told it to. On a later computer, I could tell my computer to read whatever text I selected. I'm sorry, I don't have a PC anymore and I don't remember how I did it then. There should be a text to speech option for selected text. On my MAC I had to set up a key command, and if you're a computer whiz you can figure out how to do that too. I had to be talked through it by a tech over the phone. I'm sure, even with a PC, you can call up someone who can help you too. I'm having my computer read this document and I've found much more than just those caught by her other reader.

I encourage you to try it out. You'd be surprised the little things this trick will help you find. For me, other than those annoying words that look so close to something that should belong in that sentence, this helps me with coma placement and sentence rhythm. It's a rhythm that the brain puts in there most of the time, but with a little literary help, the end result is less work for the reader, affording them more enjoyment in the content of the story. Try it - you'll like it - I'm sure of it.

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