The Elephant in the Book
Thank you, J.Z. York! I just finished York’s debut novel, Pulse. I’ll do a full review later. Bottom line: good book, worth reading. But that’s not the topic of this post. I’m thanking York for addressing the elephant in the book. An Elephant in a Book is a situation (tech, weapon, disease, technological advance, social…Read More
My Problem with Typos
Sometimes my mind goes faster than my fingers can type as I write. Typos ensue. Mostly I catch them in early drafts but sometimes I introduce new ones during revisions. Even with beta readers and professional editors/proofreaders, some slip by and make it into the published version of the book. I was on a deadline…Read More
Abuser of Semicolons
Let’s face it, semicolons are confusing. They are easy enough to use in separating email addresses, or tags, but otherwise not so much. At least for me. Semicolons are tough; I struggle to this day. In the final draft of Fire, I had sixteen semicolons. For a 100,000-word book, that’s not a lot. Certainly not…Read More
(Mis)Adventures in Publishing
So. I’ve been promising everyone that Book 2 will be out in time for Christmas this year. That may still happen. Here’s the deal: I signed a contract with a publisher that gives them the rights to everything in the SPARK universe for ten years. Earlier this week, they told me that the book will…Read More
Extend or Delete: Some Thoughts on Revisions
Today, during an interview, I was asked to read from SPARK. I hadn’t revisited the text for a while other than to fact-check myself. As I read, I found myself distracted by thinking simultaneously about how I’d rephrase a sentence or two if I were writing/revising the text now. That’s the danger of reading your…Read More
Submitted!
Late last night, I clicked “send” on the manuscript for Book 2 in the SPARK series: Fire. It’s now in the publisher’s inbox waiting to be assigned to one of the two developmental editors Inklings has hired recently. I have mixed feelings about it. I was so confident about the first book, that I was…Read More
Promise the story you are going to end
I recently finished Orson Scott Card’s Mithermage series – good stuff. At the back of Book 2, The Gate Thief, he writes an afterward (always read the epilogues and afterwards) explaining why the book was six months late. It wasn’t that he was busy binging Battlestar Gallactica, it was that he got the structure of…Read More
28 Errors
Peeved. Vexed. Disgruntled. Upset. Miffed. Angry. Embarrassed. Piqued. Irked. Irritated. Riled. That’s me. I finished my review of the first printing of the novel. I found lots of errors. Others found more. 28 in total. That seems like a lot. I did a little research and found that almost all books have typos – even…Read More
Writing help
Sometimes help comes from an unexpected quarter. It’s an old adage that in order to be a better writer, you must read voraciously. I do. Not quite at the level of Maria Popova (https://www.brainpickings.org). But I read a lot. In my entire life, I’ve only re-read a few books: Dune, some W.E.B Griffin stuff, Ready…Read More
Schlock Mercenary’s version of Hemingway’s Rule #1
If you’re a Sci Fi fan and don’t follow Howard Tayler and his web comic, Schlock Mercenary, you’re missing out on good writing, good stories, and Schlock himself. Schlock Mercenary’s Hemingway Rules