Norm Applegate's Blog: Norm Applegate's Blog, page 2

Censorship: Paypal goes after Smashwords and look who is behind it...

What is going on in America? 
If you write books this will upset you. 
If you read books this will upset you.
Censorship by finacial institutes...what? 


That's right, the banks are attempting to censor what we can write or read. I woke up this morning, Saturday March 3, to find this email. It's from Mark Coker at Smashwords.  


The rhetoric in this country over the last few years reminds me of the same dialog we hear from fundamentalist Muslim countries in the middle east. I feel like we've gone insane. This has to be stopped; read on... 


____________________________________________________
Saturday March 3, 2012:
In case you haven't heard, about two weeks ago, PayPal contacted Smashwords and gave us a surprise ultimatum:  Remove all titles containing bestiality, rape
or incest, otherwise they threatened to deactivate our PayPal account.  We engaged them in discussions and on Monday they gave us a temporary reprieve as we continue to work in good faith to find a suitable solution.

PayPal tells us that their crackdown is necessary so that they can remain in
compliance with the requirements of the banks and credit card associations (likely
Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, though they didn't mention them
by name).

Last Friday, I sent the following email to our erotica authors and publishers:
https://www.smashwords.com/press/release/27   Then on Monday, I issued an update, and announced we would delay enforcement of PayPal's guidelines so we and PayPal could continue our discussions:  https://www.smashwords.com/press/release/28

THE PROBLEM:

PayPal is asking us to censor legal fiction.  Regardless of how one views topics
of rape, bestiality and incest, these topics are pervasive in mainstream fiction.
We believe this crackdown is really targeting erotica writers.  This is unfair,
and it marks a slippery slope.  We don't want credit card companies or financial
institutions telling our authors what they can write and what readers can read.
Fiction is fantasy.  It's not real.  It's legal.


THE SOLUTION:

There's no easy solution.  Legally, PayPal and the credit card companies probably
have the right to decide how their services are used. Unfortunately, since they're
the moneyrunners, they control the oxygen that feeds digital commerce.

Many Smashwords authors have suggested we find a different payment processor.
That's not a good long term solution, because if credit card companies are behind
this, they'll eventually force crackdowns elsewhere.  PayPal works well for us.
In addition to running all credit card processing at the Smashwords.com store,
PayPal is how we pay all our authors outside the U.S.  My conversations with
PayPal are ongoing and have been productive, yet I have no illusion that the
road ahead will be simple, or that the outcome will be favorable.


BUILDING A COALITION OF SUPPORT:

Independent advocacy groups are considering taking on the PayPal censorship case.
I'm supporting the development of this loose-knit coalition of like-minded groups
who believe that censorship of legal fiction should not be allowed. We will grow
the coalition. Each group will have its own voice and tactics  I'm working with
them because we share a common cause to protect books from censorship.  Earlier
today I had conversations with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), The
American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) and the National
Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC).  I briefed them on the Smashwords/PayPal
situation, explained the adverse affect this crackdown will have on some of our
authors and customers, and shared my intention to continue working with PayPal
in a positive manner to move the discussion forward.

The EFF blogged about the issue a few days ago:  https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/02/legal-censorship-paypal-makes-habit-deciding-what-users-can-read
Today, ABFFE and NCAC issued a press release:  http://www.scribd.com/doc/83549049/NCAC-ABFFE-Letter-To-PayPal-eBay-re-Ebook-Refusal-2012

I will not be on the streets with torch in hand calling for PayPal's head, but
I will encourage interested parties to get involved and speak their piece.  This
is where you come in...


HOW YOU CAN HELP:

Although erotica authors are being targeted, this is an issue that should concern
all indie authors. It affects indies disproportionately because indies are the
ones pushing the boundaries of fiction. Indies are the ones out there publishing
without the (fading) protective patina of a "traditional publisher" to lend them
legitimacy. We indies only have each other.

Several Smashwords authors have contacted me to stress that this censorship affects women disproportionately.  Women write a lot of the erotica, and they're also the primary consumers of erotica.  They're also the primary consumers of mainstream romance, which could also come under threat if PayPal and the credit card companies were to overly enforce their too-broad and too-nebulous obsenity clauses (I think this is unlikely, but at the same time, why would dubious consent be okay in mainstream romance but not okay in erotica? If your write paranormal, can your were-creatures not get it on with one another, or is that bestiality?  The insanity
needs to stop here. These are not questions an author, publisher or distributor
of legal fiction should have to answer.).

All writers and their readers should stand up and voice their opposition to financial
services companies censoring books.  Authors should have the freedom to publish
legal fiction, and readers should have the freedom to read what they want.

These corporations need to hear from you.  Pick up the phone and call them.
Email them.  Start petitions.  Sign petitions.  Blog your opposition to censorship.
Encourage your readers to do the same.  Pass the word among your social networks.
Contact your favorite bloggers and encourage them to follow this story.  Contact
your local newspaper and offer to let them interview you so they can hear a local
author's perspective on this story of international significance. If you have
connections to mainstream media, encourage them to pick up on the story.  Encourage them to call the credit card companies and pose this simple question, "PayPal says they're trying to enforce the policies of credit card companies.  Why are you censoring legal fiction?"

Below are links to the companies waiting to hear from you. Click the link and
you'll find their phone numbers, executive names and postal mailing addresses.
Be polite, respectful and professional, and encourage your friends and followers
to do the same.  Let them know you want them out of the business of censoring
legal fiction.

Tell the credit card companies you want them to give PayPal permission to sell
your ebooks without censorship or discrimination.  Let them know that PayPal's
policies are out of step with the major online ebook retailers who already accept
your books as they are.  Address your calls, emails (if you can find the email)
and paper letters (yes paper!) to the executives.  Post open letters to them
on your blog, then tweet and Facebook hyperlinks to your letters.  Force the
credit card companies to join the discussion about censorship.  And yes, express
your feelings and opinions to PayPal as well.  Don't scream at them.  Ask them
to work on your behalf to protect you and your readers from censorship.  Tell
them how their proposed censorship will harm you and your fellow writers.

Visa:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=V+Profile

American Express:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=AXP+Profile

MasterCard:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=MA+Profile

Discover:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=DFS+Profile

Ebay (owns PayPal):  
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=ebay+Profile

Mark Coker
Founder
Smashwords
http://smashwords.com
blog:  http://blog.smashwords.com
twitter:  http://twitter.com/markcoker
_________________________________________________


Norm Applegate author of:


Into the Basement


Shockwave

Norm Applegate interview for Sleepytown Press Newsletter

This interview is in the February Issue of Sleepytown PressEmail Address: Sleepytownpress@yahoo.com
An Interview with Norm Applegate. 
What would you like people to know most about you?I am the ex-drummer for the Who. Also in my younger years was a stand in for Sean Connery. Okay, I lied... but I want this interview to be really exciting. Hahahahaha...The truth, the older I get the more confused I am about life.Tell us your latest news?Just had a grand-daughter born into the family in February; Aubree Lynn Hussey. Can't believe how I felt after just holding her for a minute, priceless.Writing news: finishing a sequel to Shockwave, a thriller. Not sure what to call it, maybe "Kill a President," or "Slices of Violence." It should by out by May on Amazon. It's a continuation of my character Jack Dwyer, he's kind of a Lee Child hero. The title gives it away, a sniper is poised to kill the President with a .50 caliber Barrett rifle, which is a serious weapon by the way.When and why did you begin writing?I think a lot of people want to write a book and I was no different. It started when I was traveling through Australia and New Zealand as a hypnotist. This was before the days of email. I wrote a letter to my wife every few days sharing my experiences with her and to keep her close. That made me realized I could do it. Into the Basement was my first novel and now I try to get one novel out per year.What do you feel are your "three" best writing tips?Okay don't tell anyone but these are the tips that have been handed down in secret ceremonies; 1). Develop an outline so you know where you are going.
2). Write the novel before editing.
3). Hire an editor...If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?I do have a mentor; David Hagberg. He writes CIA terrorist novels. He has written over 80 books and his advice is spot on. The Cabal is an excellent example of how to write a novel.What book are you reading now?Kind of go through spurts of different genre's. Just finished "Top Secret America," by Dana Priest, real scary stuff about what we've done to ourselves since 911. Started on "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich."What are your current projects?Finishing a thriller novel, writing a comic book based on my first horror novel, "Into the Basement," and working on an advanced degree on cyber-genetics...oh you are not buying that last part? hahahahahahaDo you see writing as a career?Yeah I do. When I first started writing I was thrilled when someone bought one my books. Now I'm collecting a monthly paycheck so the trend keeps going in the right direction every month. I'd like to think that this will become my full-time career when I retire from consulting.If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?Not in my latest book. But I should have done a sequel of my first novel;"Into the Basement." It sells very well particularly on AmazonUK where it's: #1 for graphic>horror and in the top #15 for Fiction>horror>thrillers.Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?Oh yeah, finding time to write. I travel every week as a consultant and writing on planes is where I do my best work, I'm isolated with no interference.Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?I don't have a favorite author, there is a lot I like, David Hagberg, Lee Child and James Patterson but I'm all over the place with what I read, fiction and non-fiction.Which of your books is your favorite and why?It always seems to be the current book I'm working on, although I like the writing style in did for "Shockwave." It's a crisp, short staccato style like Lee Child, reads very fast.Did you learn anything from writing your books and what was it?I've been a musician, mailman, an electrician, truck driver, hypnotists, sales rep, office manager, gym manager and consultant. Writing was the only discipline where I looked at my true feelings and understood a little more of who I am. I call it a cleansing experience.Do you have any advice for other writers?An author friend of mine asked for some help. Her question was: how do you market books?1). Editing! Pay an editor! Quality is important. Here's the name of the person I used on my last book, SHOCKWAVE. She's not free...For me she was worth it. I'm going to work with her again on my next book.Deborah Levinson, she a friend of mine on my Facebook site. She is good.
2). Cover work! check out the cover for Shockwave, my thriller and short story Jumpers. Nice work... Contact James Rone at jameron713@gmail.com tell him I sent you. He's an art student in Phoenix. 3). Use Amazon...they are the largest book distributor in the world.
Amazon Kindle for ebook. Look up Kindle Direct Publishing.4). Product Description: I looked at a pile of book descriptions on Amazon. I believe what I've done works. I combined what I liked from a number of successful authors. Look up my books on Amazon and you'll see the description I use. Lots of stuff for people to read...5). Price...the ebook price for a new book is $2.99 your older stuff $0.99. However you might consider starting at the $0.99 price point. I know it's cheap but that seems to be the market, check out authors on Amazon not the big names, the indie authors. HEADS-UP - This may be shifting. Some authors are raising their ebook price to find the sweet spot, the right number of sales at the maximum price to generate the most profit. Remember, at $2.99 on Amazon you get 70%. At $0.99 it's only 35%.6). Go to Smashwords and format your ebook yourself from their guidelines. They have the best outline for formatting an ebook and publish on Smashwords. That gets your book into Apple's iPad, B&N. Sony. Diesel and Kobo...7). Start a blog, use Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads and any other sites you have time to post stuff on. ...that was a lot of stuff...hope it helps.I live in Sarasota, and I write thrillers, horror and paranormal books. My Into the Basement, novel is about abduction, torture and murder. I also wrote Blood Bar, which is about vampires and a different kind of club. Into the Spell, is a hypnosis paranormal thriller, you know, the dark side of the occult.My latest vampire book is First To Die, an adventure not for vegetarians. It's a bit more violent and juicy than my other books, but there is a sliver of breathing room. Expect a lot of violence, knives, pain, carve in, carve out. My Kim Bennett is a bent woman.Last year I released my first thriller: Shockwave (see below). A sequel will be out by May.I'm also a Mac Fanatic. Smooth Jazz enthusiast. Drummer. Horror Movie Fan.
Check out two of Norm's Books:
Into the Basement (THIS BOOK IS FOR ADULTS!)In San Francisco, women are disappearing. Three detectives pull Kim Bennett into the game. The hunt for a killer. She goes missing!This is a raw dark story of sadistic people tha pits Kim's physical and mental agility against one of the fastest rising crimes in America, sexual slavery.

ShockwaveJack Dwyer is observant. Sitting at Starbucks he watches a van come to a stop. A nervous guy gets out, looks around, seems strange. Dwyer watches him. The guy crosses the street. Dwyer realizes the guy's staring at a pretty woman, Kelly Paul. Dwyer makes eye contact with her. Dwyer looks left, right, reacts, moves fast, pushes her down, saves her but the bomb explodes. People are killed. She goes missing and Dwyer is the suspect.

Another tip for writers: A simple reminder about conjunctions.

Another writing tip, this one uses the phrase A WHITE BUS as a reminder about conjunctions with which you can begin dependent clauses. This helps to make our writing more interesting.


A dependent clause is a phrase that must be attached to an independent clause — a series of words that can stand on its own as a sentence — to make grammatical sense.


Below, you'll find the words or phrases that the letters in A WHITE BUS represent, and sample sentences in which they're employed.


A1. "After dinner, we'll go see a movie."
2. "Although I'd rather not, I'll make an exception."
3. "As you know, she's rather eccentric."
W4. "When we're done, let's get some ice cream."
5. "Whenever I go, I try to see something I've never seen before."
6. "Whether or not you agree, I think it looks fine."
7. "Where I go, they always have sales."
8. "Wherever I go, I try to enjoy myself."
9. "While I'm there, I play music on a jukebox."
H10. "How is it that even though you go there all the time, you've never noticed that before?"
I11. "If you find out, please let me know."
12. "In case you hadn't heard, I couldn't care less."
13. "In order to enjoy your trip, take your time and enjoy the sights."
T14. "That I like wearing red — that has never been in dispute."
15. "Though I'm flexible, I draw the line about that."
E16. "Even if it is true, I'll forgive him."
17. "Even though I'd heard the song before, I hadn't known who sang it."
18. "Ever since I met her, I haven't been able to think about anything else."
B19. "Because I've been there before, I'd rather go somewhere else."
20. "Before I saw the house, I was ready to just rent an apartment."
U21. "Unless you're willing to wait, you'll have to come back tomorrow."
22. "Until we find it, we can't leave."
S23. "Since then, I've had a different opinion of him."
24. "So sure were you of your theory about them, you ignored evidence that you were wrong."
25. "So that I'm sure I understand you, please repeat what you said."

Author Norm Applegate:Into the Basement

Shockwave










Source: Daily Writing Tips

Attention writers: 100 Words for Facial Expressions

Here's an excellent list of names to explain to your readers what you are saying about someone's facial expression. How many times to you use the same words? Well, spice it up, keep it interesting:

1. Absent: preoccupied
2. Agonized: as if in pain or tormented
3. Alluring: attractive, in the sense of arousing desire
4. Appealing: attractive, in the sense of encouraging goodwill and/or interest
5. Beatific: see blissful
6. Bilious: ill-natured
7. Black: angry or sad, or see hostile
8. Bleak: see grim and hopeless
9. Blinking: surprise, or lack of concern
10. Blissful: showing a state of happiness or divine contentment
11. Blithe: carefree, lighthearted, or heedlessly indifferent
12. Brooding: see anxious and gloomy
13. Bug eyed: frightened or surprised
14. Chagrined: humiliated or disappointed
15. Cheeky: cocky, insolent
16. Cheerless: sad
17. Choleric: hot-tempered, irate
18. Coy: flirtily playful, or evasive
19. Crestfallen: see despondent
20. Darkly: with depressed or malevolent feelings
21. Deadpan: expressionless, to conceal emotion or heighten humor
22. Dejected: see despondent
23. Derisive: see sardonic
24. Despondent: depressed or discouraged
25. Doleful: sad or afflicted
26. Dour: stern or obstinate; see also despondent
27. Downcast: see despondent
28. Dreamy: distracted by daydreaming or fantasizing
29. Ecstatic: delighted or entranced
30. Etched: see fixed
31. Faint: cowardly, weak, or barely perceptible
32. Fixed: concentrated or immobile
33. Furtive: stealthy
34. Gazing: staring intently
35. Glancing: staring briefly as if curious but evasive
36. Glaring: see hostile
37. Glazed: expressionless due to fatigue or confusion
38. Gloomy: see despondent and sullen
39. Glowering: annoyed or angry
40. Glowing: see radiant
41. Grim: see despondent; also, fatalistic or pessimistic
42. Grave: serious, expressing emotion due to loss or sadness
43. Haunted: frightened, worried, or guilty
44. Hopeless: depressed by a lack of encouragement or optimism
45. Hostile: aggressively angry, intimidating, or resistant
46. Hunted: tense as if worried about pursuit
47. Impassive: see deadpan
48. Inscrutable: mysterious, unreadable
49. Jeering: insulting or mocking
50. Languid: lazy or weak
51. Leering: see meaningful; also, sexually suggestive
52. Meaningful: to convey an implicit connotation or shared secret
53. Mild: easygoing
54. Mischievous: annoyingly or maliciously playful
55. Moody: see sullen
56. Pained: affected with discomfort or pain
57. Pallid: see wan
58. Peering: with curiosity or suspicion
59. Peeved: annoyed
60. Petulant: see cheeky and peeved
61. Pitying: sympathetic
62. Pleading: seeking apology or assistance
63. Pouting: see sullen
64. Quizzical: questioning or confused
65. Radiant: bright, happy
66. Roguish: see mischievous
67. Sanguine: bloodthirsty, confident
68. Sardonic: mocking
69. Scornful: contemptuous or mocking
70. Scowling: displeased or threatening
71. Searching: curious or suspicious
72. Set: see fixed
73. Shamefaced: ashamed or bashful
74. Slack-jawed: dumbfounded or surprised
75. Sly: cunning; see also furtive and mischievous
76. Snarling: surly
77. Sneering: see scornful
78. Somber: see grave
79. Sour: unpleasant
80. Stolid: inexpressive
81. Straight-faced: see deadpan
82. Sulky: see sullen
83. Sullen: resentful
84. Taunting: see jeering
85. Taut: high-strung
86. Tense: see taut
87. Tight: see pained and taut
88. Unblinking: see fixed
89. Vacant: blank or stupid looking
90. Veiled: see inscrutable
91. Wan: pale, sickly; see also faint
92. Wary: cautious or cunning
93. Wide eyed: frightened or surprised
94. Wild eyed: excited, frightened, or stressful
95. Wistful: yearning or sadly thoughtful
96. Withering: devastating; see also wrathful
97. Woeful: full of grief or lamentation
98. Wolfish: see leering and mischievous
99. Wrathful: indignant or vengeful
100. Wry: twisted or crooked to express cleverness or a dark or ironic feeling


Author Norm Applegate:Into the Basement

Shockwave

Best concert, book and movies of 2011

Since the year is over. Thought I would share my views on 2011 with respect to music concerts, books and film.
Concerts:            This year I was lucky enough to see Eric Clapton at the MGM in Vegas. Jeff Beck at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater. Rod Stewart in Vegas at the Forum and Andrea Bocelli in Tampa.
Winner for best concert – Jeff Beck.             An incredible performer at age 66 emits high energy and is considered one of the best guitarists in the world. Beck is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds; (Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page). He also formed The Jeff Beck Group with Rod Stewart and Beck, Bogert & Appice. Interestingly he does not use a pick but instead gets incredible sounds from his fingers and the vibrato bar on his Fender Stratocaster. Curious fact: Jimmy Page played bass for a short time with Jeff Beck in the Yardbirds.
Winner for best book – Top Secret America: The rise of the new American security state. Dana Priest and William Arkin.            Both authors are relentless reporters. Priest has won two Pulitzer Prizes for her work. In this book they uncover the explosive growth of America's secret world since 9/11, it's staggering. The waste, redundancy and domestic surveillance steps the government is taking is scary. The novel focuses on the Pentagon's secret army that has killed more terrorists than the rest of the US forces combined. After 9/11 Congress gave a blank check to America's secret security agencies with no public accountability. We worry about the government checking our email…oh it's much worse than that. All the money, in the hundreds of billions and over 800,000 employees doing "Top-Secret," work and guess who they're focusing on next??? Us…!
Winner for best movie – Martyrs            Okay, this is not a new movie (2008) but new for me. I saw it this year, heard about it for a while and it is the best horror to come out in years.             This is a disturbing movie!!!!!It's a French film written and directed by Pascal Laugier. It is being ranked as one of the scariest movies ever made. The last 30 minutes is gruesome, some say the most intense ever filmed. It's not the bloodiest but it's intense. The reason why the torture is happening is so unexpected…it's brilliant.
As a side note here's a few of my favorite Netflix streaming movies:            Let the Right One In            Frontiers    The Horde    Them    Creep    Isolation    High Lane    Deathwatch
Norm Applegate author of:ShockwaveAmazon

Improve Your Writing Right Now: 5 Steps

Lately I've been posting some tips to improve your writing, these five are excellent.


1. Avoid cliches like the plague: You can't omit them altogether — and you shouldn't try — but take care when recasting a tired word or phrase into something fresh and new. When calling attention to hypocrisy, instead of reciting the cliche "This is a case of the pot calling the kettle black," you could write, "Keywords: pot, kettle, black." You can also play with words, referring to an especially distraught drama queen as a trauma queen.


2. Avoid filler phrases: Delete content-free wording like "be that as it may," "to all intents and purposes," and "in the final analysis." These prolix protrusions pop up naturally in speech to bridge a gap between one thought and the next, but although you're forgiven for including them in a first draft, there's no excuse for letting them pass inspection when you review your writing or edit someone else's.


3. Avoid verbosity: Watch for wordy phrases like "in order to," unnecessary words and phraseslike currently and "that is," and smothered verbs (constructions in which a noun can be transformed into a verb, such as "offered an indication" when indicate will do.)


4. Avoid redundancies and repetition and saying the same thing twice: Take care to avoid doppleganger words in stock phrases — common, like filler phrases, to spoken language but inimical to good writing — like "actual fact" and "completely finished."


5. Avoid repetitive sentence structure: Craft your prose in such a way that phrases, clauses, sentences, and paragraphs flow smoothly (avoid a Dick-and-Jane style of writing reminiscent of text in primary-grade reading books) — and consider the visual impact of your writing.


Norm Applegate author of:SHOCKWAVE
Into the Basement


Source: Dailywritingtips

This Book is a Gem

This book is a gem. It's about zombies. It's well told. It's how the Victorian upper class deal with the undead.
I'm impressed by an author who can stay true to a time period like R.G. Bullet has done. But first a little bit about him. R.G. Bullet was born in Berkshire, UK. After living in nine different countries he has finally settled in Miami Beach, USA. He is addicted to tea, reading, writing, motorbikes and shamefully, Call of Duty.
Having published five novels, two are of The Keeper series and the other three; The Caldecott Chronicles, I suspect he'll have another out shortly.
I had the pleasure of reading The Caldecott Chronicles Excerpt 1 of this short story series. I read the Kindle version and the graphic drawings; which are only a few come across excellent. The paperback is 120 pages. But it's what's in these pages, a hilarious, unique take on the zombie genre.
This is a tale of the undead set in 1899 from the Earl of Rothshire's journal. It's fun, graphic, very detailed and the references to the British era are brilliant. Here's a sample of how R.G. Bullet describes a scene.The undead and certainly unwashed are traipsing across overgrown lawns intent on ripping the very flesh from the Earl's body, scooping his brains out and eating his remaining horse.Very nicely done. Hard to imagine a zombie book written better than this.
Bottom line, The Caldecott Chronicles are a special find. 



Norm Applegate author of:SHOCKWAVE

5 Tips for Cleaning Up Your Writing

Here are five quantitative quick tips about improving your writing functionally, before you even get into improving the quality of your prose:
1. Always Use Serial CommasThe policy of preceding every item in a list but the last one with a comma is commonsensical (read a previous article about the serial comma). Confusion is possible when you don't and highly unlikely when you do. What if, using a non-serial-comma style, you write about more than two things when one of the things consists of more than one part or ingredient? ("The choices are roast beef, turkey, and ham and cheese.") Do you insert a serial comma for clarity (and introduce an inconsistency) or leave the sentence as is for readers to stumble on? Adherence to serial-comma style eliminates the dilemma.
2. Minimize CapitalizationJob titles are capitalized only before names. Names of academic majors aren't capitalized unless they are already proper nouns, like names of languages ("English") or references to regions ("Asian studies"). Generic names of entities ("the hospital," "the organization," and so on) are lowercased. Yes, capitalization is a minefield; when in doubt, look it up, and search on this site for "capitalization" for many articles on the topic (including this one).
3. Repair Comma SplicesA comma alone cannot separate two independent clauses in a sentence. Break the clauses into distinct sentences, or separate them with a semicolon or an em dash — or a comma and a conjunction (and, or, and so on) — but not with a comma alone. For more information on this topic read 5 Ways to Fix the Comma Splice.
4. Omit Extraneous Hyphens, and Insert Necessary Ones"Decision making," "problem solving," and similar compound nouns require no hyphen, unless they precede a noun as a compound modifier ("decision-making procedure," "problem-solving aptitude"). "Near collision" and other similar constructions don't, either, with the same exception ("near-collision statistics"). Established compound modifiers usually don't require a hyphen even before a noun ("high school student"). Confused? Here's a simple rule: Look it up. (And check out this DailyWritingTips article and find others on the topic by searching on the site for "hyphens.")
5. Limit Displays of EmphasisWords can be italicized to indicate that they are being used to refer to themselves, not the things they stand for ("Note the word emphasis"), or to signal a foreign term ("Wunderbar" means "wonderful"), or to make sure the reader understands that something is really important. Words can be initial-capped to indicate irony or other humorous intent. ("The rent-a-cop exuded the air of an Authority Figure.") Boldface is appropriate for introducing new vocabulary or otherwise calling attention to an unfamiliar term but is best limited to textbooks and guidebooks. But all-caps are invariably excessive, "scare quotes" are seldom necessary, and be judicious about otherwise calling attention to words and phrases.


Norm Applegate author of:


Shockwave


Into the Basement

Source: Dailywritingtips

A Disturbing Expose on Counter Terrorism. Gave it 5 Stars!

Dana Priest and William M. Arkin, have written an incredibly important book. "Top Secret America." Bottom-line, they have unveiled JSOP, Joint Special Operations Command, the pentagon's secret killing machine and the growth of America's post 9/11 counter terrorism agencies. Frightening.             Priest is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and along with Arkin, they expose the secret buildings, unlimited funding in the billions and sadly how no one in Congress is accountable.             Some worry about surveillance by Goggle and Facebook! It's nothing compared to what the government is doing in the name security. Not sure what we are getting for the vast dollar amount spent by Congress. Close to a trillion dollars has been spent!            The CIA, NSA and who knows how many other secret agencies involved missed the "Arab Spring."             The book is a must read for anyone interested in where our nation is headed.             Dana Priest and William M. Arkin deserve another Pulitzer.

Norm ApplegateAuthor of Shockwave

7 Sentence Structures

Sentence structure can be categorized into seven patterns: one simple, three compound, two complex, and one compound-complex. Here are examples of each pattern with accompanying formulas, all to help you think of how to craft sentences in a greater variety of syntax:

1. Simple sentence (independent clause): "I went for a walk."
(An independent clause is set of words that includes a subject and a predicate. It can be a sentence or part of one. A dependent, or subordinate, clause is one that cannot stand on its own but provides additional information to supplement an independent clause.)
2. Compound sentence, IC+CC+IC (independent clause plus coordinating conjunction plus independent clause): "I went for a walk, and I was soothed by the gentle night air."
(Coordinating conjunctions are words that link one independent clause to another to form a compound sentence. These words can be recalled with the mnemonic FANBOYS and include for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so.)
3. Compound sentence, IC+S+IC (independent clause plus semicolon plus independent clause): "I went for a walk; I was soothed by the gentle night air."
4. Compound sentence, IC+AC+IC (independent clause plus adverbial conjunction plus independent clause): "I went for a walk; consequently, I was soothed by the gentle night air."
(Adverbial conjunctions are adverbs that serve, when following a semicolon, to link independent clauses. They include consequently, however, moreover, nevertheless, therefore, and thus.)
5. Complex sentence, DM+C+IC (dependent marker plus clause plus independent clause): "Because I hoped to be soothed by the gentle night air, I went for a walk."
(Dependent markers are words that provide a relative context for a subordinate clause. They include after,although, as, "as if," because, before, if, since, though, until, when, where, whether, and while.)
6. Complex sentence, RP+C (relative pronoun plus clause): "Whatever doubts I had about taking a walk dissipated when I was soothed by the gentle night air."
(Relative pronouns are pronouns that relate a subordinate clause to the noun it modifies. They include who,whom, whose, whoever, whosoever, whomever, which, what, whatever, and sometimes that.)
7. Compound-complex sentence, DC+IC+CC+IC (dependent clause plus independent clause plus coordinating conjunction plus independent clause): "As I headed out for a walk, my doubts about doing so dissipated, and I was soothed by the gentle night air."
There are, of course, many variations to these patterns; even a simple sentence, for instance, can begin with the object in the example converted to the subject of another simple sentence: "A walk was my next order of business."

Norm Applegate author of:
Shockwave