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Showing posts from August, 2012

Words: Wine—Whine

Sunday, August 30, 2012 A homonym that trips some up. WINE—Red wine goes well with kumquats and prickly pears. WHINE—Okay. They don’t pair. Stop your whining. Wine Whine Wine of Violence: A Medieval Mystery (Medieval Mysteries) by Priscilla Royal No Whine With Dinner: 150 Healthy Kid-Tested Recipes from the Meal Makeover Moms by Liz Weiss, Janice Newell Bissex Posted 2012/08/30 at 20h12ET in Words , Writing .

Words: Licence— License

Sunday, August 26, 2012 Easy to miss this one. LICENCE—Always a noun. He has a licence to collect alien spaceships. British spelling variation. LICENSE—A noun. A verb. U.S. spelling variation for noun. The federal Bureau for Interplanetary Affairs is empowered to license individuals, corporations and charities. Licence License Licence to Kill by John Gardner Artistic License by Julie Hyzy Posted 2012/08/26 at 18h24ET in Words , Writing .

The Protectors (A Thriller)

Words: Throw—Throe

Wednesday, August 22, 2012 Easy to miss this one. THROW—Transitive verb. You throw something. A book, your voice, a planet. THROE—A noun. Emotions. Spasms. In the extreme. The throes of love, of battle, of using a computer. throe Throes of Democracy: The American Civil War Era, 1829-1877 by Walter A. Mcdougall Posted 2012/08/21 at 14h48ET in Words , Writing .

Words: Flow—Floe

Tuesday, August 21, 2012 I don’t make these things up. FLOW—Some like it when champagne flows, others when it’s beer. Water flows down hills and in rivers, but there are no ice flows. FLOE—An ice floe. Chucks of ice floating in water. Big chunks, the size of a city, are called ice fields. DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Canada National Geographic Guide to the National Parks of Canada Posted 2012/08/21 at 14h27ET in Words , Writing .

Should I Use Up The KDP Promotion Days Before They Expire?

Monday, August 20, 2012 ... some decisions are easier to make than others because you don't have all the facts ... I I have a decision to make. Two of my novels on Amazon are part of the KDP select program and the 90-day period expires in a week. I have some free promotion days left to use. Do I use them or let them expire? Do I re-enlist for another 90 days? How to decide? Overview of the KDP Select Program: Applies to e-books only. 90-day period. Book becomes exclusive to Amazon. No non-Amazon sales allowed. 5 free promotion days. Unused promo days expire. No roll over. No royalty for promo day downloads. Lending program for Select members. 1 new lend per month per member. Royalty for lending, around $2 per lend. The Benefits. People love free and will download. Increased visibility from: Amazon’s list of books currently in free promo. Web sites and tweets of your free promo. Hitting bestseller list on Amazon. More clicks on the LIKE

Words: Colombia—Columbia

Monday, August 20, 2012 This one never tripped me up. Not sure why. It should have. COLOMBIA—Country in northern South America. Shares a border with Panama connecting South America with Central America. COLUMBIA—Not a country. Colombia - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture by Kate Cathey One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez Posted 2012/08/20 at 13h39ET in Words , Writing .

Why This Novelist Stopped Watching TV

Sunday, August 19, 2012 ... When you're on your deathbed, will you cherish all the time you spent watching TV? ... I n 2007, after a lifetime of watching of TV, I stopped watching. My habit was like any, like smoking or drinking. It was just something I did. No real thought about not watching. When I decided to stop, I went cold turkey. I had many weak moments in January and February 2007 but I eventually broke the habit. Whatever urge I had to turn on the TV completely vanished and I haven’t looked back. But how could I? When I mention to people I don’t watch TV, they are incredulous or think I’m nuts. Well, it is true. I don’t watch TV and perhaps I am nuts but I have my reasons. I had known co-workers and friends who had turned off TV completely. I read about journalists and writers who did the same and I always thought they were a touch nuts but then I read Stephen King’s book On Writing. In it he says, and I paraphrase, if you want to write novels, what the hel

Words: Ecuador—Equator

Sunday, August 19, 2012 Similar words that can cause confusion. Me included. ECUADOR—Country on northwest coast of South America. Includes the Galapagos Islands. EQUATOR—Zero degree latitude. Splits northern and southern hemispheres. The equator runs through Ecuador. Frommer's Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands by Eliot Greenspan The Rough Guide to Ecuador by Melissa Graham, Harry Ades Posted 2012/08/19 at 12h59ET in Words , Writing .

Writing The Next Chapter of The Julian Assange Narrative

Friday, August 17, 2012 ... using a real life character to write a narrative about what could happen ... A couple of years ago I read an article on Julian Assange in The New Yorker. At the time, he was a minor celebrity. Times have changed. Today he garners headlines all over the world. Most know something about him. To some he’s a hero. To others he’s a villain. I’m not here to take sides; I’m here to analyze the narrative aspects of his current situation. In other words, use what we know to write the next chapter of the story—create a political thriller if you will, one that could even include plots for assassination. Hey, I’m making it up and want to create suspense. At the moment he’s holed up in Ecuador’s embassy in London, England. The Swedes want him on a criminal investigation. There’s an INTERPOL arrest warrant. The British have agreed to extradite him to Sweden. He has lost all appeals with British courts. If it weren’t for the protection provided by Ecuador and

Writers and Rejection

Great Article on The State of Publishing Industry

Thursday, August 16, 2012 ... The publishing industry and it is a business first and foremost ... G reat article in Forbes about the current state of publishing and the digital revolution by David Vinjamuri . Must read article that covers the state of publishing and does so with precision. Some added thoughts. Brad Thor thinks if you’re good enough, you’ll find an agent and a publisher. He fails to take into consideration the “luck” factor, as well as the benefits of self-publishing for niche markets or mid-list type authors. His mindset is NYT bestseller list and it shows. As Vinjamuri writes, “most new authors who make it through the arduous process of finding both an agent and a publisher are surprised to learn that it is the author who is responsible for marketing and promoting his or her own work.” Until, and if, you break out, you’re on your own. So why go with a traditional publisher? He’s correct when he says the amazon rating system has become us