Fine wine needs to be nurtured, rested, watched and turned until ready for drinking.

I think words require a little care too. Serious writers probably have a couple of pages on the go at the same time. Maybe a dormant chapter or manuscript waiting in the wings to be revisited or re-enacted.

I find it a necessity to leave and come back, leave and come back yet again, until I feel I have a complete work, indeed will it ever be complete? It is that detail in the organisation of the narrative that, if ignored, can so easily make or mar the end product. It is often impatience that makes us avoid that essential writing task.

Once the brain becomes attuned and in tune with the process of ‘story’ it has an automatic flick response, that's what I call it, which reminds us of what we need to be thinking of next and to which the kinaesthetic readily responds. 

In another life I performed as singer and musician and had to learn a variety of repertoires, including, at one time, a new instrument. I went through a process until the flick, kicked in! But you cannot leave the flick, if you do it will not respond with that agility which facilitates coherence and fluency. It becomes part of the routine of life, though needs escaping from sometimes, in order to refresh the practitioner and creator.

The complexities and tribulations that accompany writing, for me, I cannot and would not speak for anyone else, can temporarily over absorb and possess the creator. This state of being accompanies other areas of creativity and it is important to recognise the symptoms of overload. Actors have tools and techniques to cope with tension and stress. Deeply learnt and imprinted methods of relaxation for example as part of their training.

As for removing writing stress, simply walking away or walking out for an hour are good antidotes to an exhausted or too busy mind-set. Brooding and analysing in an over serious way can alter the mood so much that it destroys the ability to select and organise, contributing to a long term writers block.

I believe these responses are all to do with the rigour and discipline serious writers have to contend with and those who do not know, do not understand.     

There is something deeply satisfying when one begins to feel the narrative moves and flows in the way it should. One hopes one’s readers will also feel that as they turn the pages. It can be a relief when the manuscript is set loose to fend for itself after many hours and days of turning, resting and maturing.

Pinot Noir or Chablis? Rioja or Muscat ? Which shall it be?   

Patience and consistency, fine words and fine wine! 

Jenny Dunbar

It would be wrong to say all things are circular, but it is interesting how the narrative can often nuance its starting point as one ties the ends up. Endings, like beginnings, are really vital ingredients and so hard to pitch exactly right. What do I hope my reader will feel here? Does the weight of the last paragraph leave us in mid air, bring us down to earth with a thump, or just miss the point entirely?

 This week as I have contemplated the ending of my story/ novel, I have been surprised as I moved the pieces of the jigsaw around slightly, how the time element suddenly made more chronological sense. Why did that not seem obvious before? How an automatic reflection upon an earlier part of the story seemed to take over and gave me another thread to sew with. I touched the primary characters again and hopefully they will touch my reader.

I know I mess around with time in my stories, I shift and vary, but this is a conscious decision, is worked out and not a random action. Hence a great deal of thought is involved and time spent in searching for what one hopes is a viable and credible end product.

Intense scrutiny into the completed draft is an arduous, but essential part of the creative process and actually releases some new ideas. That, of course, produces more reflection and inevitably more work. When I say, ‘completed draft, ’I do not mean the finished item, but it is getting there, thanks to those ever increasing circles which force me to meet my characters again and think about their raison d’etre.        

Anecdotes. They attach themselves, not quite as many coloured patches, but rather in the way one lengthens a dart, refining a point and hopefully streamlining the effect. If by some lucky chance this enhances the angle, pace and emotion of the words then craft has gone some way to creating a little  art in the narrative. We live in hope!

Thematic or formulaic?  On analysis, which is inevitable as one reads through and reads through again, themes as opposed to formulas crop up in my work. Water themes, mystical themes, themes of juxtaposition and abstracted landscape.They occur out of my imagination and I work with them, or discard them if they do not seem right. Oh! And sometimes a dash of alienation.

I do not plan in great detail, but I analyse and work in great detail.  That is just my way and a definite pattern emerges. When the knitting, patching and darting start to be necessary that pattern is hopefully made clearer and more resonant by its complexity.

The words wake me up late at night and the next part of the tale begins to take shape. I do not have a pen and paper beside me, but let the ideas fester and a version of those ideas will come to mind, if I am lucky, when I begin to write. And of course one thing leads to another, sometimes usefully, sometimes not.

At times the words rush round in those ever increasing circles I mentioned earlier and I am pleased when I wash my hair which seems to purge the demons.

We all have our versions of the ‘how’ we create I wonder what some of yours are?

Well what about the element of fire ? I have pots in the kiln and anticipate opening it tomorrow morning. If all is sound I will smoke fire the porcelain at some point and hope the shapes and patterning enhance the form.

Jenny Dunbar www.lockpublishing.com/dunbar.html

I discovered this little tidbit on a blog for writers who have Word 2010. I'm not a computer Guru, but It actually works! I only wish the voice sounded like Morgan Freeman.

"If you have Word 2010 you have, as a writer, a brilliant free tool at your fingertips. How many times have you wished that you could “hear” your own work back so that you can tell immediately whether it sounds right?

It takes a few minutes to install this tool but it is worth every second. Once you have this on your tool bar you simply highlight the paragraph you wish to hear and click on the microphone icon to hear if the words flow."

Several years ago a good friend of mine told me that I should write down a lot of my adventures because I had lived such an adventurous life. Then a year or so ago, a good friend of mine (and former high school Spanish student who is very gifted in all things computer) after having run my web-site for several years suggested that I write a blog.

 I agreed as I thought it might help the sales of my books, which seem to be coming out about one a year. At first I thought I should write a “how to” blog on screenwriting tips and writing readability in general. This lasted for about the first dozen or so blogs. Slowly but surely my blog went from the art of how to get words onto a page to a series of personal adventures. Instead of writing grammatical rules and script writing techniques, I finally found my niche—life adventures that one can translate to the written page.

 Most people when they think of the word adventure, they think of something exciting and unusual. It may also be a bold, usually risky undertaking with an uncertain outcome. The term also broadly refers to any enterprise that is potentially fraught with physical, financial or psychological risk such as a business venture or other major life undertaking.

 Since I changed over to “adventure writing”, you will obviously have noticed that my stories are all over the map literally—some high adventures and some quite small and home grown. For example: My adventures in growing up in Okolona, Mississippi; my adventures with some of my relatives and people I have known; my adventures in foreign lands and situations, my selling Fitzgerald’s Happiness Tonic.

In my blogs, I show how I have used all of these adventures in my writing. I really don’t have to sit and dream up plot complications. The way I have lived my life is enough to just pluck an adventure from my memory and transfer it to one of my screenplays, novels or stage plays.

I suppose I have been trying to show that if you want to become a writer, you must live first—that means get an undergraduate degree from the University of the World and a Graduate degree from the University of Hard Knocks. I have degrees from both. Actually this is what my friend was suggesting: Write down some of your coursework at both of those universities.

 A couple of years ago I attended a high school reunion in my hometown of Okolona, Mississippi. I reunited with my best friend growing up. We were inseparable for all those teenage years. Then at age 19 we separated; he went to a Christian Bible School to become a preacher and I went off to Mexico, California, the Army, and a wide range of adventures in life. At that reunion, we hadn’t seen one another for 55 years. Even so, we took back up in our chatting like it had only been a weekend ago that we had seen one another. He told me after a bit, “You certainly have lived an adventurous life.” Then the next day from the pulpit after introducing me to his congregation he said, “Jack went to Hollywood and I went to Jesus .” In a way, I suppose he was saying Jesus was his adventure in life and mine was Hollywood and the worldly universe.

 I know that a lot of things I write about sound like high adventure and many of them are—like being caught up in the Cuban Revolution—like being arrested in East Berlin for black market currency dealing—like hitch hiking and getting picked up by some army guys who had stolen a car and were awol, etc. etc.

 Adventure is where one is involved in a bit of danger or where your livelihood is at stake or you are taking a chance of some kind. Those are the most popular adventures we like to hear about. However, we can make life an adventure on a much smaller level. I remember when I was young there was a Hillbilly comedienne named Minnie Pearl out of The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN. She was pretty much the country Joan Rivers of her day. She could make ordinary happenings hilarious. In the process, she became famous and wealthy and beloved.

 So you see, adventure is where you find it. Some people get it in the kitchen. Julia Child made omelets an adventure and caught millions of people up in her world.

So just like my friend when he told me to put some of my adventures down on paper, I’m telling you the same thing. Put some of your adventures down on paper. You’ve had as many as I have but maybe just in your own way. You can keep them to yourself or you can share them—and then if they are interesting enough, they become adventures for others!

 Adventure is where you find it and most importantly, what you make of it.

Cheers, put a little adventure in your life today. As Helen Keller said, “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”

I recorded The Grammy's because I wanted to watch The Hunger Games for the first time. The Hunger Games represented one faction of society having control over another, to me. That movie had a huge impact on me as I fear it is a sign of the times. My son was walking to the convenience store, at my request, yesterday and a white man drove up, blocking his way, and accosted him. He screamed all kinds of ignorant statements because he was tired of “Drug Dealing Niggers,” walking down his street. We called the police and they went out to the man's house.

This ignorant man proceeded to attack the police because he feels the Police in our community are doing an awful job of keeping “Niggers” out of Lake Helen, Fl. where I live. He said the Police need to stop “Niggers” from moving here and especially stop “Niggers” from walking down his street! He also stated he did not like the way my son dresses, particularly the black “Doo Rag.” my son wears on his head. My son, at the young age of 31, has a badly receding hair line that makes him self conscience and he wears that garment to hide it. This man was arrested but of course out in 24 hours. The convenience store my son walks to is the only nearby convenience store in our area and the route my son takes is the only only route to reach that store. We do not own or can afford a car and my son enjoys walking. Are we to give up our right to go to the store because he has to pass by that man's house? Does this man have the right to reach into our lives and control us? Do you think I should ask my son to go to the store again and sit home in fear of him becoming the next Trayvon Martin? This man stopped his car in front of our house tonight and waited. My eight year old Grandson ran to me frightened and screaming. As I ran to the living room and parted the curtain's he drove off. I am angry!

Trayvon Benjamin Martin (February 5, 1995 – February 26, 2012) was a 17-year-old African American from Miami Gardens, Florida who was fatally shot by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, in Sanford, Florida. On the evening of February 26, Martin went to a convenience store and purchased candy and juice. As Martin returned from the store, he walked through a neighborhood and Zimmerman, a member of the community watch, spotted him and then followed Martin (despite being told not to do so by the police) on foot to ensure that Martin would not try to steal anything from the neighborhood. Moments later, there was an altercation between the two individuals in which Martin was shot in the chest. Zimmerman also blamed Martin's death on the fact that he was wearing a black hoodie.

This is going on all over the country!

Back to The Grammy's, Beyonce's stage setup for her rendition of the gospel standard "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" featured a wall of African-American men while they held their hands up, which is a nod to the "Hands up, don't shoot" campaign that came out of Ferguson. And Pharrell's "Happy" used his performance to shed light on not only Ferguson, but also on Trayvon Martin as well. Backup dancers donned black hoodies like the one that Martin wore when he was shot and killed in 2012, and broke out the "Hands up, don't shoot" gesture amidst the middle of their performance.

Precious Lord, take my hand,
Lead me on, let me stand,
I am tired, I am weak, I am worn;
Through the storm, through the night,
Lead me on to the light: Amen!

I am glad movies like, “Selma,” are still being made, people need reminding! But there were also Common and John Legend, weighed in when they performed "Glory," their contribution to the "Selma soundtrack. "That's why Rosa sat on the bus; that's why we walked through Ferguson with our hands up," Common said. The most explicit of the comments coming from The Grammy's came from Prince, who said, “BLACK LIVES MATTER.”

It’s one of the hardest parts of being a writer, don’t you think? Editing your own work, running over the same pages over and over again…and still, if you’re human, it’s inevitable that you’ll miss a quotation mark here, an extra space there, or worse, a typo.

You know that reading your own words is the most difficult scenario for proofing, don’t you? Your big, beautiful brain is so good at translating what you physically “see” on the page into what your mind “knows” you “meant” to type, that it usually will glide right over an extra “the” or a missing “a.”

Yes, it purposefully corrects the errors, without even notifying you!

You can read the same sentence a hundred times, and it’ll look great to you. Your mind interprets it as you intended it. And when the first person to take a look at your book finds a glaring omission, or an extra word in that lovely prose, you may feel like an incompetent idiot.

You thought you were careful. Right? You worked so hard to catch those typos.

When it first happens, it's embarrassing. But over time, you’ll learn you cannot catch all of the errors by yourself.

I’ve written twenty-two books, so I’ve been through this process a few times. (you can see them at www.lazarbooks.com, including my newest release, Betrayal.) Over the years, I’ve had publishing house editors go over my manuscripts. They found errors, I fixed them. And I tried not to make more errors when I made the corrections, which is all too common.

We had the first and second edits, then copy edits in the end to make sure we didn’t miss anything. Once in a while, in spite of our best efforts, an error would creep through. Humiliated, I’d beat myself up for this one stupid error and swear it would never happen again. 

As time went on, I learned that beta readers were an amazing asset. Not only were they excellent at finding and spotting typos, but if you found talented readers or writers with a knack for literary insight (like my beta readers!), they would point out inconsistencies in a scene or even mention when they thought a character went beyond their natural boundaries. My beta readers have helped my books become the best they can be, and I love them. ;o)

Over the years I’ve developed friendships with writers and readers, and I’d offer them the job of beta reading my manuscripts before I submitted the book to my publisher. It worked out very well, and I always felt better when they’d read through my books. On average, I have 10-12 people read the manuscript before I consider it “close to done.”

Of those twenty-two books, I’ve published fifteen through a traditional small press since 2007, and have recently moved on to self publish (through Kindle Select) seven more that were waiting in the publishing queue in the past year. Polishing and proofing all of these manuscripts was a real challenge, and my beta readers did me proud. But believe it or not – they didn’t catch all the typos.

I have discovered there is one more essential step to proofing one’s manuscript: reading it aloud.

Yes, it’s something you can do yourself. It might take you a whole weekend to get through it. But it’s worth the effort. Better yet, if you have a narrator who is recording the audio book version, this is where the final catches will be found. 

I have found that my best narrators (actors, really, with great attention to detail) have consistently isolated a couple of leftover “extra or missing letters/words” which are the hardest to find. Sure, with a real typo, like a misspelled word, MS Word underlines it for you in red. Those aren’t too hard to find. It’s harder when you have an extra preposition in a sentence, or a misused word like “here” instead of “hear.” MS Word doesn’t often catch those mistakes.

I find these errors creep in at the end of a work in progress, when I’ve gone through to beef up a sentence or make changes in general. Then I don’t always “cut” fully or “paste” fully and that’s my downfall! Creating typos because you’re fixing another typo is annoying, but pretty common.

Does that happen to you?

Here’s my advice on how to produce a typo-free book.

1) When creating your book, try to find a writer or reader friend who will swap chapters with you as you write it. You read their stuff, they read yours. You help them, they help you. It’s all good. They can help you cull out that first crop of errors, right off the bat.

2) When you’re done writing the book, go through it until you feel you are satisfied. This may take multiple read-throughs. It all depends on how careful you were the first time around when creating the story.

Even with this painstaking approach, once in a while something slips through. It’s disappointing if it happens, but it’s probably God’s way of keeping us humble. ;o)

Let me know what you think in the comments below. And remember, if you love to write, write like the wind!

    Our overriding job as fiction authors is to entertain our readers.  They buy our books not to be impressed, awed or confused but rather to be entertained. Here are some do's and don'ts that I think we need to pay attention to.

    (1) Unpronounceable Names. Some authors give characters unpronounceable names. Bad idea. Most readers subvocalize so words that are difficult to pronounce usually get skipped over. If the reader skips over a character's unpronounceable name they will find it difficult to follow the story. Calling a character d'Aczrgueith instead of Azerg is an unnecessary obstacle to the reader being able to enjoy your book.

    (2) Complicated Names. In science fiction, writers sometimes think they are being clever to invent an entire naming scheme. They decide that male aliens will be named d'Aczrgueith A XXXXXX and female aliens will be named d'Aczrgueith K XXXXXX then they give you a cast of characters with names like d'Aczrgueith A Fuirnbz, d'Aczrgueith A Kertnm, and d'Aczrgueith K Szrmnof. This is another example of the "See how clever I am that I was able to think up all this stuff" syndrome. We are not writing a novel to prove to readers how clever we are.

    (3) Similar Names. It's our job to make it easy for readers to keep our characters straight. If you have one potential love interest named Rachael then don't name another potential love interest named Rhonda. If you have a major character named Carlson don't have another one named Cartman. If the hero is Steve Fisher then make the hero's boss Walter Tallman and his best friend Ralph Amoroso and the villain Eric Ames. Keep both the character's first and last names very different.

    (4) Odd Units of Measurement. Another aspect of the "See how clever I am" syndrome is the science fiction writer's temptation to create completely new units of measurement. "The ship was a small freighter, only 132 irals long." Does that convey any information whatsoever to the reader? No. Should we expect our readers to turn to a glossary in the back of the book to learn that an iral is equal to 2.439 meters and then get out their calculators to translate 132 irals into meters or, heaven forbid, from irals to meters to feet in order to understand our story? No.

    Yes, it's likely that aliens will not use feet, meters, pounds, kilos etc. but aliens are not reading our books. People who do use feet, meters, pounds and kilos are reading our books and therefore we need to use units of measurement that are understandable to those readers.

    If you had written a novel about an OSS agent working behind the German lines in WW II your book would still be in English even though real people in that situation would have been speaking German. Do the same automatic translation for your readers for aliens' units of measurement.

    When I was very young I read a comic book where Donald Duck somehow ended up in a jungle in South America where he was confronted by a lost tribe of natives. The balloon above the tribal chief's head said something like, "Why have you come here?*" and at the bottom of the page was a footnote: "*We have translated all conversations from Sumapti to English for the convenience of your readers."

    We need to be equally considerate for our readers.

    (5) Clarity In Time And Place. If a story takes place in multiple locations and at multiple times we need to make the time and place of each incident clear to the reader. One way to do that is with a specific time and place designation.

    "Chapter One – January 27, 1945, Hitler's Bunker, Berlin." "Chapter Two – March 1948, Zurich." This works but it can be inconvenient for the reader because he/she may have to flip back and forth between chapters in order to keep things straight. If possible, use comparative times: "Chapter One – Hitler's Bunker, Berlin." "Chapter Two – Two Years later, Zurich." "Chapter Three – Present Day – Washington D.C."

    These may seem like mundane issues but they make a big difference in the reader's comprehension of and therefore his/her enjoyment of our work.

My website: http://www.davidgraceauthor.com
My latest book is Death Never Lies – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NLTBMSQ

    –David Grace

I specialize in crime fiction and I've written over fifteen novels. Several of my short stories have been published in national magazines. You can check me out at:
http://www.amazon.com/author/davidgrace

To my characters in Against Their Will, family is important in different ways. Not only are the relationships that are typically formed between family members an important part of what the characters do and experience, but the genetic map they carry also has implications that not many people take time to consider. But genetic composition as well as relationships are two foundations on which families are built.

I attended a family reunion today. I really enjoy getting together with this group of people from my mother’s father’s family. We have much in common; we laugh, we catch up and we joke about the changes in our lives, mostly on how we’re getting old way too fast! It occurred to me, however, that family really does influence our lives and having one is not something to take for granted. While we are all born of biological parents, that doesn’t necessarily mean that we automatically have a family. Deaths occur, marriages never happen or are dissolved, children are abandoned or adopted. Many things happen in life that disrupt the flow of life via the biological family. Even non-biological families can suffer from dysfunction, or can thrive through good relationships. It is a sense of belonging to another, however, that drives so many on a quest for family in one way or another.

Lack of family is what drives Lynn McCaine in Against Their Will. As we meet her in the opening of the story, she is distraught over things she has learned about her family. She is frantic to return to the only family she knows at the time, her cat. Her search for family is a driving force motivating her to set out on a quest for knowledge. That quest costs more than her life.

Matt Grayson has a loving family. And, he is blessed to be able to appreciate them in the present. Like most of us, he takes them for granted from time to time. But, when it’s crunch time, they are there for him and him for them.

While family is an underlying theme in Against Their Will, a parallel theme is that of being there for and supporting others in our lives. When Matt and Lynn’s ill fated flight ends in flames in East Texas, Matt Grayson doesn’t stop to think about any danger he may be in, or the non-existence of a relationship with the woman in the seat beside him with violet eyes and independent hair. He is focused on one thing, making sure he gets her out alive. Why would a stranger do something like that?

How many of us would do the same? Why would we? What’s in it for us? What drives Matt to do what he does?

Against Their Will by Nancy Livingstone

This post was recently published on our website: ianmooremorrans.com

    At left  you'll see a photo of "editor me" at my desk on one of the last days before retirement (in 2004) as Editor of Esprit magazine and Program Director for Evangelical Lutheran Women at our office on the second floor of Portage Place in Winnipeg. In addition I've included a photo of the gift I received at my retirement party in July 2004. As Ian and I were preparing to take off  for a retirement adventure driving down to Mexico in our newly acquired 35-foot motorhome, my boss chose to wrap an assortment of "helps" for that trip inside or underneath a large box decorated to look like our motorhome - complete with photos of Ian as driver and me as passenger.

After several years in Mexico, with trips up to Manitoba to maintain our Canadian residency, we returned to Canada for good. I hope to start blogging about our Mexico sojourn in the near future. Time will tell if I ever get to it. While there in Mexico I began editing Ian's writings and am continuing that in our present home in British Columbia, as well as now contributing to his writings. Here my desk is in our little den and I look out the window at the low mountains surrounding our part of the Okanagan Valley. The desk is different from the one at ELW, but just as messy. That's the way I work. I do not like a messy final product, however, and decided that it was time for me to have an editor's rant about what I am seeing on some web blogs and in many comments that come into our site.

I don't think I'm unique in claiming frustration when reading some comments on web blogs or even some particular web blogs which are so full of errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation or just plain English that I feel compelled to edit them as I'm reading. Sometimes even understanding them is impossible, so I quit reading and trash the comment or close the web blog.

As I routinely check out other web blogs, I am more-often-than-not impressed by so many varied topics and excellent writing, but am also occasionally appalled by the lack of English writing skills by some bloggers. In those cases, I cross those web blogs off the list of ones I want to follow, no matter how interesting the topic might be. I find it painful to read something when I feel a need to correct practically every sentence. (As an aside: I lived in Germany for 18 years and ended up speaking passable German but would never in my life think of hosting a blog in German! I wouldn't feel confident enough to do a decent job of it. My late husband who worked in a profession there, could easily have hosted a blog in German. Obviously his language skills were much superior to mine.)

My motto is: "check, double-check and recheck anything you post", for it is easy to miss a word here or there if one doesn't do so. I always try to self-edit any of my blogs and usually have Ian read through them before posting. That isn't to say that I might not post a small grammatical or spelling error from time to time. It happens to the best of us. Almost inevitably after checking and re-checking the magazine I edited and having our executive director and a professional copy editor go over everything before publishing, I would find some little thing wrong when reading the issue after publication.

In the past I've found myself editing a lot of comments that come in on this web blog so that they can be understood. I conclude that quite a few of those who comment on posts do not have English as their first language and are obviously using an English-to-another-language dictionary when they make their comments. Perhaps they are taking an ESL course and have been given an assignment to comment on specific web posts. (Comments often come from the same site with different email addresses.) If that is the case, how I wish the instructor would at least give them some help in making the comments understandable. It is nice to get compliments or constructive criticism, but not if the comment cannot be readily understood and if the blogger receiving the comment has to edit it extensively in order to print it. WordPress usually identifies these type of comments as "spam"; in the past I've looked at every comment and sometimes chose to "un-spam"a few because I'd like to honour the intent. I have edited them for comprehension, though. I'm wondering if other bloggers have chosen to do this or if these type of comments simply get trashed. Here's an example of one comment we recently received, showing the places where I have cut out more than half of the words and added clarifying words in order to get what I think the commenter intended.

"Attractive section of content. I just stumbled upon your web site and in accession capital to assert that I acquire in fact enjoyed account your blog posts. Any way I’ll be subscribing to your [web blog.] augment and even I achievement you access consistently fast."

Another recent commenter asserted that, though our blog's content was good, many of the posts were "rife with spelling issues." Well, that got my dander up! I did, however, calm down and try to address what I thought might be the problem. Here's my answer:

"We’re surprised to hear that you find several of our posts 'rife with spelling issues'. We are wondering if you might be pointing out our use of the British way of spelling English words, as opposed to the American way. (An example would be the use of “ou” in place of “o” as in “neighbour.” We are Canadians and so use the British way of spelling. I (Gayle) am the blogger and, though American-born, changed my way of spelling sometime after I emigrated to Canada and became editor of a Canadian magazine. I’ve kept up that way of spelling in retirement and, as Ian is British-born and I edit his writing, that method has worked out well for us. Then, too, Ian speaks Scottish-English so when he writes about Scotland in either his novels or memoirs, he uses what I call “Scottishisms.” Some of those words are only found in Scottish-English or may mean something entirely different in Scotland than they do in other countries where English is spoken. We’ve pointed that out in some of our posts about his memoir, “From Poverty to Poverty: A Scotsman Encounters Canada.” I had quite an education in “Scottishisms” when editing that book! In addition, I had to turn off the spell-check as my word-processing program gave up on providing corrections! Of course, even editors sometimes need to be edited; however, I try to double-check whatever I post. We’d be interested in hearing from you further so that you could point out some examples of those spelling issues. Looking forward to hearing from you." To date, we have received no further communication on this subject.

That brings up the challenge when commenting on web posts of exactly what to say. Sure it is nice to have affirmation that someone "enjoyed" a post or found it "awesome" or "educational" or "informative." But does that really help the blogger to know how they are connecting with the reader? In haste I, too, sometimes choose to just give kudos by checking the "like" button on a post; but if I take the time and REALLY like or dislike something I try to comment on it. How did I feel when I read the post? Intrigued? Scared? Amused? Why and how? Perhaps the blogger was promoting a book, a picture, a poem or a piece of music that he/she had written, drawn, photographed or performed. Did the blog catch your interest so that you plan to order the book or picture, quote the poem or obtain the recording? Did the post remind you of a happening in your own life or a person you met or an emotion you felt? Then describe that connection. You might wish to reblog the post, giving credit to the writer and quote your reaction to it on your own blog or on Facebook, Twitter or the like.

Conversely, if a post draws a negative response from me and I think it can be constructive, I'd like to think that I would be willing to document why I had that response. Although I didn't post the following comment on a novel writer's blog but instead posted it on Amazon after reading the novel, here is an example of how I could make both a positive and, I hope, constructive negative response to the novel on a writer's blog:

"You have written a well-rounded story about a group of characters, each flawed in a unique way, all seeking redemption. Your background in counseling is evident throughout; perhaps that is what makes your story so believable. Your prose is clear, yet poetic. Your descriptions of both characters and scene are captivating. I would have given this book five stars had it not been for the unnecessary profanity which I felt cheapened the narrative, especially those instances when the name of Jesus was invoked through cursing."

I send a challenge to bloggers and commenters alike: If you can't edit your own postings, please, please find someone who can do the edit for you.

Please and thanks in a spirit of kindness and mutual understanding. Keep the relevant and understandable comments coming!

Gayle Moore-Morrans
P.S. In the meantime we have recently received a comment (perhaps sent in error?) which went on for several hundred words.  The comments were obviously a multiple choice list of helps for would-be commenters who needed guidance on how to word comments they wanted to make on various posts. In the past the comments we received from that particular commenter had included, solely or partly, promotions for his web blog that included little or nothing about the post he was supposedly commenting on. Many of the multiple-choice comments he included sounded similar to many of the comments we have received from a number of people over time. Thus, in the future I intend to honour Word Press' use of Akismet to check incoming comments and rate them as "spam", then delete the spam comments without reading them. Most of us writers and editors who blog find it difficult to have enough time to do our writing or editing what with all the other duties and distractions of life. We don't need 276 comments in our "Spam Comments" section. That is the number I encountered last week after not checking the comments for about a week's time. For the first time, I chose to permanently delete all those spam comments without even looking at them.  I truly appreciate the efforts a number of commenters make in sending in compliments or kudos on our posts, or even criticisms when they are constructive. However, I'm trying to promote our books or share views on writing, photographing, reminiscing or life in general and am hoping to glean relevant information from other bloggers instead of spending valuable time reading, rewriting, replying to or trashing umpteen comments a day. I am sharing these words in hopes that others will understand my frustrations and those of other bloggers who are surely having similar problems with unwarranted comments. Perhaps some of them will attempt to correct their comments or have them edited by someone else or those who just want to advertise their own blogs will cease and desist. At least I won't have to relate to them if I trust Akismet's weeding out those comments.

Now that I've published my first eBook and it's started getting some downloads, I wanted to share some lessons I learned as I went through the process of writing it. If you  haven't written your first eBook yet, I hope you'll keep these things in mind as you start writing it.

Make it a priority - If you're determined to write an eBook, you need to set aside time to actually work on  the process.  If you work full time, this means you  may have to get early or stay up late so you can put in a little time on your eBook.  I often got up at 5:00 or 5:30 in the morning so I could work on writing or researching my eBook , or doing other things related to my it.

Have a to-do list - I always try to make a to-do list of what I want to accomplish for the day - that could be writing or outlining a chapter,  researching a chapter,  brainstorming ideas, or anything else that I need to do that's related to my eBook.  Then I would at least try to make a dent in those tasks during the time I set aside for working on my eBook.

Don't be afraid to ask for help - If your goal is not only to write an eBook, but actually make money off of it, there's a lot more to the process of writing an eBook than just writing it.  You also have to design a book cover and find ways to market your it.  Not everyone knows how to do all these things well though, nor do they have the time to do it, so it's ok to enlist the help of others you might know.  When I was writing my eBook, I asked a friend of mine if she could use her graphic design skills to modify a graphic that I had downloaded and was considering using in my cover.  I also had people help me with editing my eBook as well as my eBook description, and putting the description into the proper format so it would look good on my eBook's sales page. 

If you don't already have one, build a following while you're working on your eBook - When I first started writing my eBook back in 2012, I did have a little bit of a following  because I had been a contributing writer on Work at Home Adventures for a little over a year at that time, but I also decided to  start a free blog on wordpress.com so I could let people know about the progress I was making on my eBook.  Later when I had the money, I converted the free blog to a self-hosted website on Wordpress.org.  

Write as much as you can about your eBook's subject so you can get the word out about it  - You can write guest posts for blogs about your eBook's subject, or even write articles for sites like Hubpages and Yahoo! Voices.  If you have a blog or website, be sure to mention it in your article or blog post.

Get the word out about the articles you wrote - You can do this by connecting with others on the sites you write on, and you can also share your articles on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. 

Create a mailing list that people can sign up for - Mailchimp is great for this - I first found out about Mailchimp from Miranda Grimm, the owner of Work at Home Adventures.  You can sign up for a free account and you'll be able to send 12,000 emails a month to a list of 2,000 subscribers.  If your list  ends up being larger than that, you may want to consider upgrading to a paid account.  Once you create a mailing list, you can copy and paste the code for the mailing list widget right into your Wordpress website, or post a link to your mailing list sign-up page on different social networking sites.  

These are just a few of the lessons I learned from writing my first ebook.  To follow my ebook progress, be sure to check out my website. 

We are now two weeks into 2014, and it is a good time to gauge where you are, as far as new year’s resolutions are concerned.

Millions of people vow to start each year by working out, eating healthy, quitting smoking, etc., but the majority give up on those commitments.

Why is this so?

Well, I am certainly no expert, but can only speak for myself.

First of all, I don’t even make any new year’s resolutions, because, quite frankly, I live the way I want to all throughout the year, and, therefore, don’t need to start doing anything from scratch from day one.

That is not to say that I have my “house in order” completely, but do by best to live the right way on a daily basis.

Perhaps it is because I spent nearly six years behind bars from 1998 to 2004, and do not want to chance returning to the negative lifestyle that I was involved in for so long back then, and now always maintain my focus on my top priorities in life.

Exercising, healthy eating, waking up with a smile on my face, and being grateful for where I am now in my life, are just a few of the constants that continue to keep me grounded and content these days.

Writing this blog, maintaining my sobriety, and delivering motivational & inspirational speeches to help others in their recovery, or anyone not living up to their full potential, are things I began doing once I came home from prison, and have truly become almost as important to me as breathing, since they are my personal ingredients for a happy, productive life.

Now, back to you, my readers.

For those of you who have made new year’s resolutions, and are now having a tough time keeping them, here’s some advice from me.

You might want to start off slow, rather than bite off more than you could chew.

For exercise, try walking a block every day for a week, and then each time after that, increase your distance by small increments until you arrive at a satisfying mark. If you feel that your stamina has built up to a good level, then by all means begin jogging.

As far as eating healthy, start your day off with a nutritious breakfast that will keep you full and energized until lunchtime.

Consuming a lunch that is high in protein will insure that you won’t get hungry and have to grab that unhealthy candy bar at around 2:00 in the afternoon.

For dinner, have a sensible meal that will carry you over to breakfast the following morning, including vegetables and a piece of fruit as a snack.

I find that drinking water all throughout the day not only keeps me away from binging on chocolate and chips, but also does wonders for the skin.

If you are a smoker – and I hope you are not – then quitting this nasty habit could very well be the toughest task of your entire life.

However, like anything and everything else, you have the power and the choice to accomplish this!

You weren’t born to lag behind anyone else in the world.

You are a winner and role model to others.

So, start to shine like the star you are!

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Oh.  Hi.  My name is Robin Bull and I am socially awkward.  I promise I do get more interesting the longer you know me (or the more vodka I drink...that vodka - it's one chatty girl).

Vital Stats 

• I am really tiny.  My grandmother used to call me bird bones.  I am only about 5'4 and my weight fluctuates between 110 and 125.
• I chose to be a red head.  It's kind of an external and silent warning to the public.  
• My eyes change colors depending on my mood.
• I am a college instructor.
• I am a really tiny woman married to a large (muscle), protective man.  He was a professional fighter.
• I am a mother to sons.
• I am a survivor of domestic violence in a prior marriage.

Writing Stats

• I chose to self publish to retain control over my artistry.  
• I write and publish a magazine.
• I have one self published novel.
• I am working on two poetry books.
• I am working on a book for paralegals.
• I am ghost writing an autobiography for a retired federal agent.

Random Facts

• I write for me and me alone.  If you like it, great.  If you don't...it doesn't bother me.
• I teach paralegal studies and criminal justice.
• I was and am a victim of stalking and harassment.
• I love Constitutional law.
• We don't have cable because I get upset when I watch the media twist stories and falsify facts.
• My husband is my knight in shining armor.
• I'm Wiccan.  If you can't handle that, don't talk to me.  I won't shove my beliefs down your throat and I expect the same respect.  Oh, and I don't worship the devil.  I don't believe in the devil.
• I have Systemic Lupus.  
• I have three life mottos.

Umm...so yeah.  That's pretty much me in a nut shell.  I love to talk so feel free to add me or message me.

On effective writing

What’s your best chance of surviving as a freelance writer? Before answering this, let us tie this question up with the time and space in which we live. In the present world, earning money from writing words is one of the most difficult jobs. That is what makes at least some of us wish, if we could live in the 19^th century when you didn’t have such competition.

Don’t click the corner button please; I know the reason why you went through the first paragraph. The reason is the same as that which spurred me to write these very words.

If you are a beginner, let me make myself clear—my intention is not to put you off from your writing dream. On the other hand, I am trying to address an issue, which due to its wild impact, remains unspoken-about in any writing class or book or web page about writing.

In my opinion, the question of survival is not a negative one at all. Just like a river that detours around any obstruction and finds for itself a new shore and a whole lot of life forms along those shores, the concomitant of being a writer is to find new paths and create new shores. If you understood my stand about the question of survival, you would also have understood the question being transformed into a sign, a sign that calls upon the need for a vital detour.

Inevitably, a writer would be forced to choose or create a niche for him or her under such concern for survival; what I mean is, being genre specific. Most of them, dreaming about a literary grandeur, might want their profiles full of academic writings, in which the writer proclaims his independence from the readers. This style, which is jargonistic and dull, often drives readers away from spending their money, especially for a new writer.

On the other hand, if the writer becomes reader specific, he or she can find a space better accessible.

This detour also leads some writers to dedicate themselves in areas where they are good at or they actually find their love in. This helps in your maturation as a writer. For those who think popular literature or writings that are made for the common people second grade writing, I have only one thing to say, great books are never away from people and so are great writers. However difficult the concurrent situation is, even if we all wish to be Charles Dickens or Stephen King, the ultimate question is always the same; how committed are you to your work?

Recently, one of my friends, an aspiring writer, emailed me a You Tube video link, an interview of John Irving, in which Irving says if he were a writer of 27 starting off his career NOW, he would have been tempted to shoot himself.

I asked my friend dejected; what are you planning to do with your life now?

He had a smile and said; I posted this video on my Facebook wall and sent it to many debuting writers too. It sure will thin out much of my competition!

He meant that the love for his craft is total and blind and that he would never quit.

For MORE: http://anu-lal.blogspot.in/2013/07/is-your-love-blind.html

Many people raise an eyebrow when I tell them my recently released novel is a baby boomer novel. I can almost read their skepticism about the content as they imagine a novel about a get off my lawn kind of person. Goodbye Emily is a boomer novel. It's also funny and irreverent. It follows three baby boomers who relive their trip to Woodstock in 1969. One final roadtrip. One last chance to say Goodbye Emily.

Why did I write a novel that focused on three men age 60? What better group to create a character from. Boomers are talented, funny, shaped with experience, and in my case, influenced by the cold war, Camelot and Vietnam.

There's also a practical reason for writing for and about baby boomers. Boomers are the largest group of book buyers in the country. Will this change with the growth of Kindle and other devices? Hardly. Boomers are the largest group of ereader users.

Next time you consider a baby boomer novel, don't assume it will be about someone adjusting to retirement. Boomer novels are often witty, suspenseful and brilliantly crafted coming of (old) age stories. Just like all genres. So check them out.

I love adjectives!!

I know authors are supposed to use them sparingly. Today, we’re urged to find strong nouns rather than depending on supporting a weaker noun with an adjunct. Unfortunately, sometimes the search through the dictionary or the thesaurus just doesn’t come up with the exact meaning I want to impart.

Most times, when I know there’s an adjective that works well and will create the exact emotion I’m trying to communicate, I give in and use the darn thing.

For instance in “Spin the Wheel”, the book I just finished and will release at the end of this month, I described a wedding gown. It’s true, those two words are probably sufficient to give the reader the idea of what type of clothing my heroine wore. Except I wanted that dress to belong to her, be true to her personality and therefore I had to add words like strapless and white satin and lace.

I know there are times when one word is sufficient to tell the story. Words like: fragility, knickknacks, stupor, slumlord, and on and on. I also knew my vocabulary wasn’t huge, so when I first began to write seriously, every book I read for months I highlighted all the strong nouns. Then I listed them on an excel spreadsheet. My best learning style for acquiring and processing information is by writing things down and so I instigated this procedure and stuck with it for months until I had gathered multiple pages with multiple columns of wonderful nouns to choose from.

Surprising how often that file comes in handy when I know there’s a word I want to use… the perfect word, and I just can’t think of it. Skimming these lists has saved my sanity time and again. Aha! There are still occasions when I’ve searched and searched but the term just isn’t there.

For instance – muscles. What better noun can you use to describe muscles? The thesaurus says strengths, powers, physiques, brute force.

Nope – ain’t gonna work!

Say I’m describing my hero’s body and a sentence comes up about his muscles. Fine! The charmer has muscles. Not all that exciting, right? What if I said –The charmer’s bulging muscles... Much better!

Hopefully you get a mind picture of a man whose very strong, likely works out and who’s physically active in some way. And if that was the exact vision I wanted you to have, then rather than saying it in any other way, adding one word to get my point across seems rather logical to me.

On the other hand, I have read some stories that are silly with adjectives. At the worst it’s annoying and at the least it’s unnecessary. Guess we all have to come to grips with what constitutes the term – too many.

If anyone would like a copy of my list of nouns just send an e-mail to mimibarbour@hotmail dot com I'm happy to share.

So here I am, checking my email and lo and behold I find a link to this wonderful social network.  I'm pretty excited about it for its not often that there are networks that I assume cater to authors or artists, so this is quite nice.  I first wanted to take the time to introduce myself.  

Once upon a time there was this crazy broad named Julie.  Yep, she was crazy but in a good way.  People had this tendency to call her 'Jewelz, Julie-bird, The Jeweled Canary' etc. which she didn't mind so much.  Pet names I suppose but the final nickname became a sort of totem for her.  This girl loved to sing as much as she loved to write.  Dancing around her house, in the shower, in the middle of Wal-Mart produce section with her two children in tow she'd belt out a song that would resonate through the entire building.  She's never had security called on her for it...yet...but she has received countless stares, giggles, and shaking of heads as the common folk of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan walk past.  

This woman has such a story to tell though.  If you give her the chance, she'd be apt to talk your ear off.  She'll tell you the tales and woes of her past battling the monster called Divorce and severing the ties that bound her into a miserable existence.  Of her forthcoming rebirth within the arms of her knight in vomit colored PJ's.  She'll talk of her struggles through distance and time apart from her love, and how soon her soldier will be returning for good this time.  This girl is a dreamer, you see, creating blankets with the yarns that unravel through her subconscious.  From pen to paper she draws the reader in like a deep breath and with quite a hypocritical stance on the subject, she has nary a whisper of a care for grammatical faux pas, but meticulously grinds down, and polishes the rough edges of others' work.  She takes her time much like a samurai perfecting his form, though she is much too quick in her thoughts to spend too much time on the trivial; always in a hurry and rush in her own life.  For others, though, she gives so much time.  

Creator of a reinvented household where she learned the tools of her trade and went far beyond that in the literal sense; she reinvented her house and transformed it into a whimsical world full of pleasantries, paint jobs, new cupboards and walk-in closets.  From there, architecture and renovation was simply not good enough for her, no, she wanted more (and she was bored) so she started a company with a namesake that plagues the writers of history.  The proverbial cinder block to the head upon where the silent dead and dumb reside behind.  Writerz Block.  From there, she would transform the work of independent authors and dreamers such as herself with the help of her magical friend, Caffeine.  These two became inseparable; accomplishing so much that even Time became quite jealous.  With their powers combined they wrote, compiled, edited, formatted, and published a book of poetry with none other than Aramey, another kindred spirit.  Once the dynamic duo (this Julie chick and Caffeine) had finished this venture, they began on others including following Irony, Karma, and Fate around observing how these three goddesses tormented a tryster among others in epic poetic fashion.  They swam within the Faces in Still Waters and became haunted by the spirits and souls within them.  They ventured hand in hand in two other books while during a third, reflected upon the past while doling out advice during a warped mental time-traveling excursion (memoir).  Unfortunately, they went without a TARDIS and had to foot it.  They also didn't have an interpreter available to decipher the scrawling but they made away with it anyway and remembered the peculiarities.  They also developed a sort of warped codex.  On their adventures, they happened upon other adventurers with their own mega bosses to defeat.  So they stopped along these side-quests and lent a hand.  

Now, currently this adventurous, perhaps slightly twitchy and overworked individual manages to live her caffeinated life much like a cyborg (it has been said that her energy level far exceeds that of a fictitious pink bunny rabbit who apparently spent copious amounts of time being the wall-flower bandgeek in school, sporting shades and dancing about drumming his drum as she skips to its beat.  She and that bunny go waaaaaaay back not unlike Alice as well (no, not the future-seeing sparkly vampire Alice although she's kinda cool too and probably the best out of the lot of them.  Well...Jasper's cool too.).  Aside from her day job raising two angels (angels in disguise,mind you.  Terrible twos and sanity severing six's) she finds other ways of keeping herself too busy to breathe such as taking a few courses on coursera.org to further develop her craft or bragging  about (Development and Marketing Director) a miraculous literary magazine, Miracle E-zine.  

She looks forward to sleeping roughly once a month which is about two seconds after she collapses into a heap and power naps for 12 hours then wakes up ready to go it again!  At 32 years young, tattooed, pierced, and 32 flavors of all kinds of funky, this girl...well...is honestly quite modest yet obscenely quirky.  When she does something, she opts for flair because subtlety isn't exactly 'her thing' or so she says.   

So this Jeweled Canary takes flight and soars through the mind, body, and soul in search of adventure, personal ethical philosophy and wisdom whether its domesticated adventures or following the jet-stream within the mind.  If you close your eyes and listen really closely though, you can probably hear her belting out 'The Sound of Music' as she does the dishes.  

Please drop by and check out my book's webpage.  There you'll find excerpts, humorous anecdotes, videos and information about my book's recent launch and its immediate rise to NUMBER ONE on Amazon's most downloaded Biographies & Memoirs list.  It also reached number 8 in Amazon's Humor chart.HOLLYWOOD HUCKSTER

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