Nancy Christie's Blog, page 20
February 17, 2023
Living the Writing Life podcast with author and screenwriter Peter Berk
On my Living the Writing Life podcast, author and screenwriter Peter Berk talked about the experience of collaborating with his father on creative projects, and the challenges and advantages of turning a screenplay into a book. Listen to the episode at https://livingthewritinglife.podbean....
A bit about Peter: He's the son of noted writer Howard Berk, whose credits included Columbo, Mission: Impossible and several novels and features. Peter has co-written several screenplays with his father, and on his own has written a recently-optioned sci-fi/time travel TV pilot, seven scripts and five novels in the TimeLock series, the first of which was published in late 2022 and is available here.
He also co-authored a non-fiction book with actor Dick Van Patten that was published some 15 years ago. Peter lives in Southern California and is the proud father of two sons and one grandson, with another grandson and a granddaughter on the way the first half of 2023.
You can learn more about Peter and his novel at http://www.ingramelliott.com/timelock... or follow him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?... and Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/timelocknovel/.
February 15, 2023
Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 2.15.23
Words for writers from Lilly Dancyger
The post Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 2.15.23 appeared first on The Writer's Place.
February 14, 2023
Thoughts on writing and life for February 2023
Just a few thoughts on why we need to show our writing self some love on a consistent basisThis is an edited excerpt from my February 2023 newsletter, The Writing Life.
You can also listen to it on my Living the Writing Life podcast.
Writing can be a hard and lonely activity. Yes, I know—nobody made us choose this path. We did it all by ourselves. But sometimes don’t we wonder if maybe there is an easier way to spend our time?
I mean, here we are, pulling thoughts and ideas out of the deepest ...
February 8, 2023
Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 2.8.23
Words for writers from Margaret Atwood
The post Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 2.8.23 appeared first on The Writer's Place.
February 6, 2023
Cover Reveal Day!
I'm celebrating the cover reveal for Reinventing Rita today! What do you think of the cover? Does it intrigue you?
There's lots of information about the book and two excerpts here!
And be sure to add the book to your bookshelf!
In a few weeks, I'll have pre-order links, too! I Can't wait to share Rita with all of you!
February 4, 2023
The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning
The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter by Margareta MagnussonMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I just finished reading The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter by Margareta Magnusson.
I'll be honest. I did not know what to expect or if this would be one of those grief narratives that make me cry.
Well, if I shed tears, they were tears of laughter. While this book makes some good points and has great advice, Margareta's writing style was so humorous and the topics she explored (dildos were just one of the items she covered!) were so honest and real-life that I couldn't help laughing.
So don't let the title put you off—the book has places that are laugh-out-loud hilarious!
Definitely add it to your To-Be-Read list!
View all my reviews
February 1, 2023
Cover Reveal Countdown Starts Today!
SAVE THE DATE! The cover reveal for my debut novel Reinventing Rita is coming up on Feb. 6, but until then, I’m sharing the skinny on the story! Check out Rita’s page, get a sneak peek at an excerpt, and subscribe to my mailing list to be entered in my eBook giveaway! Click here for information!
And if you're a baker like Rita, you'll love this month's recipe for Spicy Ginger Chocolate Cookies! (Just the thing to heat up your love life!)
#books #challengesatmidlife #coverreveal#friendshipfiction #lifereinvention #midlifechallenges #midlifemakeover #midlifemoxie #midlifereinvention #mustread #reinventinglifenovel #startingovernovel #womenatmidlife #womensfiction
And if you're a baker like Rita, you'll love this month's recipe for Spicy Ginger Chocolate Cookies! (Just the thing to heat up your love life!)
#books #challengesatmidlife #coverreveal#friendshipfiction #lifereinvention #midlifechallenges #midlifemakeover #midlifemoxie #midlifereinvention #mustread #reinventinglifenovel #startingovernovel #womenatmidlife #womensfiction
Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 2.1.23
Words for writers from Kristen Iskandrian
The post Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 2.1.23 appeared first on The Writer's Place.
January 31, 2023
Getting ready for cover reveal countdown!
I can't wait to share the cover for Reinventing Rita on February 6. It is exactly what I wanted and the BookBaby team did a perfect job!
Want to know more about REINVENTING RITA and my Midlife Moxie novel series? I've posted some tidbits on my book page.
And there are two excerpts from the book you can also download.
Please add REINVENTING RITA to your bookshelf. Pre-orders will start in a few weeks!
And if you sign up for Nancy's Book News in February, you'll be entered in a giveaway!
Want to know more about REINVENTING RITA and my Midlife Moxie novel series? I've posted some tidbits on my book page.
And there are two excerpts from the book you can also download.
Please add REINVENTING RITA to your bookshelf. Pre-orders will start in a few weeks!
And if you sign up for Nancy's Book News in February, you'll be entered in a giveaway!
January 27, 2023
The Writing Version of the Missing Sock Mystery
The following is an edited excerpt from my post on Focus on Fiction. You can read the full post here.
I’m sure you’ve all heard about the missing stock mystery: how you can put two of each kind in the washer, but by the time you take them out of the dryer, you’re short one or two—or sometimes even more—even though you swear they were all there just a short time ago.
Well, I’m here to tell you that there’s a writing version of the missing sock mystery. I should know because, for the past several months, I’ve been dealing with it as I worked on edits to Reinventing Rita, my debut novel and the first in my Midlife Moxie novel series.
Words, letters, and punctuation marks that I was certain were there when I wrote the copy have since disappeared. And this led to the long, laborious task of re-checking the entire document—sometimes more than once!
Now that I’m done with the proofreading process, I wanted to share some of my tips and tricks I used to make REINVENTING RITA as perfect as possible. (Not to be confused with “perfect” because I am sure all the other authors out there have found minor errors in their books—after they were printed!) Try them the next time you have to review your manuscript!
Word Doc Review
Read the entire manuscript out loud. Every bit of it, including the frontmatter and backmatter. Listen for places where the rhythm is flat, the cadence is off, or something just doesn’t sound right. Sometimes all you need to do is replace a word with one that has the accent on a different syllable or has more or fewer syllables.
Remember: although reading is done with the eyes, there should still be a musicality to the words, phrases, and sentences.
While you’re reading, listen for words, phrases and clichés that tend to show up more than once. I have learned that there are some that I am extremely fond of, and so they work their way into every chapter. I have learned to open a Word doc, and each time I run into one of these, I add it to the list. And then I replace it with a better word.
Now do a search for certain types of punctuation that you might overuse. I knew that I was overly fond of em-dashes, but apparently, I also have a passion for exclamation points, as one of my readers pointed out. A search of both turned up far too many instances that required revision.
Then check spacing and quotation marks. Remember, one space after a period, and no space between em-dashes and the preceding and following word. As for quotation marks, make sure that if it’s supposed to be a single quotation mark, it didn’t turn into a double, and vice versa.
Finally (and I can’t believe I am saying this except it happened to me!), double-check all the characters’ names. Because I am always working on two books at a time—revising one while writing another—sometimes I get a wee bit mixed up. Which is how in one place I changed the name of a character from what it should be to one from the other book. Sheesh.
Also make sure that the spelling of the names is consistent, not “Bobbie” in one place and “Bobbi” in another.
Last but not least, because you are reading it out loud, take your time and say every word. That is the only way you’ll know for a fact that you are reading what is there, not what you think is there.
In the PDF Proof
Start with the easy stuff. Check the running headers and footers to make sure they say what they are supposed to say. If you requested one header on the right page and a different one on the left, check that, too.
Check that each chapter and section starts on the right-hand page. Verify page numbers against the table of contents and know which pages or sections should use Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3), and which should use Roman numerals (i, ii, iii).
Look for any formatting glitches. For example, in my PDF proof, some words were underlined that shouldn’t have been, and in one place, a foreign word that should have been all in italics had some letters italicized and some not.
Then, read the whole thing out loud. Yep. One more time. Just in case there is anything you missed before you sent it off, or in case the techno gremlins stole one of your “socks”—i.e, one of the words that you swear was there but is now gone.
One Final Tip
Don’t go nuts if, when the book comes out, you find a few minor errors that slipped past you. Every book has them, and unless they are significant, most readers won’t even notice them.
Make a note of them, and then, if you feel that you just can’t bear to have them appear on the page, ask your editor about making corrections, or if you’ve self-published, pay for the fixes.
So where I am now on my review process for REINVENTING RITA? Well, I just got an email notifying me that my e-book proofs are ready to review so here we go again…
I’m sure you’ve all heard about the missing stock mystery: how you can put two of each kind in the washer, but by the time you take them out of the dryer, you’re short one or two—or sometimes even more—even though you swear they were all there just a short time ago.
Well, I’m here to tell you that there’s a writing version of the missing sock mystery. I should know because, for the past several months, I’ve been dealing with it as I worked on edits to Reinventing Rita, my debut novel and the first in my Midlife Moxie novel series.
Words, letters, and punctuation marks that I was certain were there when I wrote the copy have since disappeared. And this led to the long, laborious task of re-checking the entire document—sometimes more than once!
Now that I’m done with the proofreading process, I wanted to share some of my tips and tricks I used to make REINVENTING RITA as perfect as possible. (Not to be confused with “perfect” because I am sure all the other authors out there have found minor errors in their books—after they were printed!) Try them the next time you have to review your manuscript!
Word Doc Review
Read the entire manuscript out loud. Every bit of it, including the frontmatter and backmatter. Listen for places where the rhythm is flat, the cadence is off, or something just doesn’t sound right. Sometimes all you need to do is replace a word with one that has the accent on a different syllable or has more or fewer syllables.
Remember: although reading is done with the eyes, there should still be a musicality to the words, phrases, and sentences.
While you’re reading, listen for words, phrases and clichés that tend to show up more than once. I have learned that there are some that I am extremely fond of, and so they work their way into every chapter. I have learned to open a Word doc, and each time I run into one of these, I add it to the list. And then I replace it with a better word.
Now do a search for certain types of punctuation that you might overuse. I knew that I was overly fond of em-dashes, but apparently, I also have a passion for exclamation points, as one of my readers pointed out. A search of both turned up far too many instances that required revision.
Then check spacing and quotation marks. Remember, one space after a period, and no space between em-dashes and the preceding and following word. As for quotation marks, make sure that if it’s supposed to be a single quotation mark, it didn’t turn into a double, and vice versa.
Finally (and I can’t believe I am saying this except it happened to me!), double-check all the characters’ names. Because I am always working on two books at a time—revising one while writing another—sometimes I get a wee bit mixed up. Which is how in one place I changed the name of a character from what it should be to one from the other book. Sheesh.
Also make sure that the spelling of the names is consistent, not “Bobbie” in one place and “Bobbi” in another.
Last but not least, because you are reading it out loud, take your time and say every word. That is the only way you’ll know for a fact that you are reading what is there, not what you think is there.
In the PDF Proof
Start with the easy stuff. Check the running headers and footers to make sure they say what they are supposed to say. If you requested one header on the right page and a different one on the left, check that, too.
Check that each chapter and section starts on the right-hand page. Verify page numbers against the table of contents and know which pages or sections should use Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3), and which should use Roman numerals (i, ii, iii).
Look for any formatting glitches. For example, in my PDF proof, some words were underlined that shouldn’t have been, and in one place, a foreign word that should have been all in italics had some letters italicized and some not.
Then, read the whole thing out loud. Yep. One more time. Just in case there is anything you missed before you sent it off, or in case the techno gremlins stole one of your “socks”—i.e, one of the words that you swear was there but is now gone.
One Final Tip
Don’t go nuts if, when the book comes out, you find a few minor errors that slipped past you. Every book has them, and unless they are significant, most readers won’t even notice them.
Make a note of them, and then, if you feel that you just can’t bear to have them appear on the page, ask your editor about making corrections, or if you’ve self-published, pay for the fixes.
So where I am now on my review process for REINVENTING RITA? Well, I just got an email notifying me that my e-book proofs are ready to review so here we go again…
Cover Reveal for REINVENTING RITA Happening on February 6!
The cover reveal for my debut novel takes place on February 6, but during the five days preceding it, I’ll share some details about the book, the cover design and other stuff so be sure to check out the REINVENTING RITA page on my website, sign up for my Nancy’s Book News newsletter, and follow me on
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to stay in the know!
