Susan Dexter's Blog, page 9
October 22, 2016
Three Writers at Three Sheep
Three Sheep Gallery
Saturday, October 29, 2016 Noon—4:00 PM
6010 Market Street, Boardman, Ohio 44512
Sinead Tyrone, Lauren Hogue, Susan Dexter
Readings at 12:15:1:15; 2:15; 3:15
Tips on writing and publishing at 12:30; 1:30; 2:30; 3:30
Meet the authors. Books will be for sale through Three Sheep Gallery, and you can have your purchases signed.
October 11, 2016
Spinzilla 2016 Results
What I spun:
Jake the Farmpark Jacob sheep’s 2016 fleece (3 pounds) dyed RIT Teal and Hyacinth after the powdered drink mix and vinegar failed to add any color. (Still smells great, though!) Jake is a mainly brown Jacob, but he does have some white wool, so over-dyeing gives lovely colors. I combed the entire fleece for woolen spinning the week before Spinzilla began. I aim to spin it all this year.
How I spun: My 40 year old handmade drop spindle “Pet”. Made by a rug weaver and woodworker in New Bedford, PA. Bought at a Spinner’s Festival in Mercer PA.
Where I spun: In the barn, for my horse, Cash. For my co-workers. In the barn, for the new barn kitten, Chloe. For my cat, Kira. At the therapist’s, while my mom did PT. At Spinners Guild, in the Three Sheep Gallery. After my brother’s 60th birthday dinner. During the Presidential Debate on TV. I did my most productive spinning while watching my DVR. (Poldark!) I did most of my plying while watching Saturday Night Live.
How I Did: 1580 yards, spun and plied between October 3rd and October 9th. (FYI—1740 yards is a mile of yarn.)The last two spindles I filled Sunday evening—I spun until 11:45—yielded 167 yards of singles, The rest of my yardage was triple-ply, six skeins of it.
How I spun: My 40 year old handmade drop spindle “Pet”. Made by a rug weaver and woodworker in New Bedford, PA. Bought at a Spinner’s Festival in Mercer PA.
Where I spun: In the barn, for my horse, Cash. For my co-workers. In the barn, for the new barn kitten, Chloe. For my cat, Kira. At the therapist’s, while my mom did PT. At Spinners Guild, in the Three Sheep Gallery. After my brother’s 60th birthday dinner. During the Presidential Debate on TV. I did my most productive spinning while watching my DVR. (Poldark!) I did most of my plying while watching Saturday Night Live.
How I Did: 1580 yards, spun and plied between October 3rd and October 9th. (FYI—1740 yards is a mile of yarn.)The last two spindles I filled Sunday evening—I spun until 11:45—yielded 167 yards of singles, The rest of my yardage was triple-ply, six skeins of it.
October 6, 2016
Why I Won't Review for Amazon Any More
Because I’m tired of being used. Rate the Product. Rate the Packaging. Rate the Delivery. Rate the Shipper. Rate the Seller. Answer Questions to “Help Another Customer”….but post a Book Review? I get thanked for reviewing, and then the review comes right down, presumably because as a published author, I am a professional. (I have certainly never concealed that—my first book was published by Del Rey Books in 1981. I had at least 7 books in print before Amazon even existed.)It’s like the worst Loyalty Program ever. Amazon tracks your every move, buying, browsing. Asks for continual feedback. Makes horrible guesses as to what you might be looking for next. Wants you to rate a book you have not had time to read, and maybe share a photo too. There’s no compensation for your work, but Amazon constantly badgers you to do more of it. For them. For Free. I feel used, pestered, and stalked.All customers should be treated equally. I get that it’s customers reviewing for other customers. But let’s be fair—if I buy a book on Amazon, am I not also a customer? Why ask me to review and then toss the review away?
And who needs reviews anyway? As a customer, I am perfectly capable of deciding whether or not I want to buy an item. I don’t require—or put much stock in reviews. I don’t need computer-generated Recommendations to find a book, and I have learned that glowing reviews fail to tell me as much as a quick look inside the book.
So no more, Amazon! I will spend my time Reading , not Rating..
And who needs reviews anyway? As a customer, I am perfectly capable of deciding whether or not I want to buy an item. I don’t require—or put much stock in reviews. I don’t need computer-generated Recommendations to find a book, and I have learned that glowing reviews fail to tell me as much as a quick look inside the book.
So no more, Amazon! I will spend my time Reading , not Rating..
October 2, 2016
Spinning Spells, Weaving magic
There have always been nods to my textile hobbies in my books—Druyan of The Wind Witch weaves and spins, and coaxes prisoner of war Kellis to sort and card fibers for her endeavors. Elisena spins—her drop spindle, with the pattern of little birds pressed into the clay of the whorl, sits in the room she and Tristan share. Elisena wove a self-repairing cloak for Tristan—a handy skill, as her wizard is really hard on his clothes!
I never really thought, when I was writing Wizard’s Destiny, about what Elisena might have been doing, while she spun yarn and wove cloth. Years later, I have a better understanding. She could spin miles of yarn while Tristan read those numberless volumes of Calandra’s history aloud to her, and they discussed the nights away. I’m sure she spun protections for her family into her yarn, and unlike me, she probably knits. Socks that never wear out, sweaters that the kids never grow out of. She doesn’t have to make all of her cloth, of course, only what she chooses. She’s had no problem bringing to light the fine fabrics stored away in Crogen’s secret rooms, so there’s plainly more to her textile work than simply acquiring a wardrobe.
In a few hours, Spinzilla begins. I’m a part of team Dyed in the Wool with Three Sheep, and for seven days spinners all over the globe will be spinning to challenge ourselves—to spin more yarn than we have ever spun before, to try new fibers, to boldly try new methods of spinning and plying…
I have washed, dyed and carded the entire fleece which Jake the Chardon Farm Park Jacob sheep produced this year. It may well be Jake’s final fleece, and I want to do something special with it. So, that’s the fiber I plan to spin for Spinzilla!
I never really thought, when I was writing Wizard’s Destiny, about what Elisena might have been doing, while she spun yarn and wove cloth. Years later, I have a better understanding. She could spin miles of yarn while Tristan read those numberless volumes of Calandra’s history aloud to her, and they discussed the nights away. I’m sure she spun protections for her family into her yarn, and unlike me, she probably knits. Socks that never wear out, sweaters that the kids never grow out of. She doesn’t have to make all of her cloth, of course, only what she chooses. She’s had no problem bringing to light the fine fabrics stored away in Crogen’s secret rooms, so there’s plainly more to her textile work than simply acquiring a wardrobe.
In a few hours, Spinzilla begins. I’m a part of team Dyed in the Wool with Three Sheep, and for seven days spinners all over the globe will be spinning to challenge ourselves—to spin more yarn than we have ever spun before, to try new fibers, to boldly try new methods of spinning and plying…
I have washed, dyed and carded the entire fleece which Jake the Chardon Farm Park Jacob sheep produced this year. It may well be Jake’s final fleece, and I want to do something special with it. So, that’s the fiber I plan to spin for Spinzilla!
May 11, 2016
Writers Should be Literate
Young or old, self-taught or a university grad, native English speaker or not, whether the project is a novel, poem, short story or forum post, if you choose to call yourself a writer, you agree to a modest standard of literacy, and you should aspire to more.
There’s no excuse for not reading, not learning the craft—no one can actually make you write, other than for a class assignment. Writers choose to write. You could just as easily choose to paint, sew, bake bread, braid hair or weld metal into a sculpture.
Yet, writers with only a slight command of language write…and publish, now that it’s so easy literally anyone with an internet connection can become a publisher. So either learn to write in a workmanlike way, or don’t publish. Writers need to write. They don’t need to publish what they write. There’s no entitlement in the marketplace, sorry.
This post began as a review of an Indie Published “book” Blacky and Me by Thina Muhammad Ali. I will take care that it does not become longer than the book itself, which is at most 10 printed pages. I first became aware of the work as one of many seeking “feedback” on KDP’s Voice of the Author forum—back then the title was Me and My Blacky, and the author was blissfully innocent that her title might be offensive to many, many of her potential customers. After all, it’s simply the story of a girl and her cat, a children’s story.
Now the book’s out. And there was another request for “feedback”. I’ll stand by what I posted: This book should be required reading for all Indie authors. Here’s why:
It won’t take you long. Fifteen minutes, maybe twenty. What you’ll learn: It’s way too short to be broken into five chapters. And extra blank pages and weird formatting are as unattractive as poor spelling and illogical plotting.
It won’t cost you much. 99 cents. What you’ll learn: That’s still a lot of money for not much of an experience. Don’t promise your customer what you can’t deliver. Customers expect content, not just the honor of reading your work.
It’s got a real nice cover—a lovely witchy woman holding a black cat in front of some scary trees. Might be the book the author had in mind, but it’s not really the book she wrote. What you’ll learn: Don’t mislead the customer with your cover. (And if you credit an illustrator in the Product Description, there ought to be some illustrations in the book.)
We’ve all been there. Writing. Yearning to share. Mostly we’ve been 12, and we didn’t publish, but still! I wrote my first books in old diaries. Carefully hand-printed text and chapter headings, dust jackets with watercolors over ink and pencil. I’m so grateful that they are safely locked away, that I never had to face the temptation of sharing them with strangers all over the world. That I kept writing and readings and learning until I had something I was happy to share with an editor, with a publisher, with readers.
Thina Muhammad Ali is very brave, to put a barely literate work out for the public’s merciless judgment. May we all have such courage—but let’s learn from every other writer, even if it’s only that there’s a better way, that it’s smart to be prepared, that there’s no need to rush into anything other than doing our best, literate work.
There’s no excuse for not reading, not learning the craft—no one can actually make you write, other than for a class assignment. Writers choose to write. You could just as easily choose to paint, sew, bake bread, braid hair or weld metal into a sculpture.
Yet, writers with only a slight command of language write…and publish, now that it’s so easy literally anyone with an internet connection can become a publisher. So either learn to write in a workmanlike way, or don’t publish. Writers need to write. They don’t need to publish what they write. There’s no entitlement in the marketplace, sorry.
This post began as a review of an Indie Published “book” Blacky and Me by Thina Muhammad Ali. I will take care that it does not become longer than the book itself, which is at most 10 printed pages. I first became aware of the work as one of many seeking “feedback” on KDP’s Voice of the Author forum—back then the title was Me and My Blacky, and the author was blissfully innocent that her title might be offensive to many, many of her potential customers. After all, it’s simply the story of a girl and her cat, a children’s story.
Now the book’s out. And there was another request for “feedback”. I’ll stand by what I posted: This book should be required reading for all Indie authors. Here’s why:
It won’t take you long. Fifteen minutes, maybe twenty. What you’ll learn: It’s way too short to be broken into five chapters. And extra blank pages and weird formatting are as unattractive as poor spelling and illogical plotting.
It won’t cost you much. 99 cents. What you’ll learn: That’s still a lot of money for not much of an experience. Don’t promise your customer what you can’t deliver. Customers expect content, not just the honor of reading your work.
It’s got a real nice cover—a lovely witchy woman holding a black cat in front of some scary trees. Might be the book the author had in mind, but it’s not really the book she wrote. What you’ll learn: Don’t mislead the customer with your cover. (And if you credit an illustrator in the Product Description, there ought to be some illustrations in the book.)
We’ve all been there. Writing. Yearning to share. Mostly we’ve been 12, and we didn’t publish, but still! I wrote my first books in old diaries. Carefully hand-printed text and chapter headings, dust jackets with watercolors over ink and pencil. I’m so grateful that they are safely locked away, that I never had to face the temptation of sharing them with strangers all over the world. That I kept writing and readings and learning until I had something I was happy to share with an editor, with a publisher, with readers.
Thina Muhammad Ali is very brave, to put a barely literate work out for the public’s merciless judgment. May we all have such courage—but let’s learn from every other writer, even if it’s only that there’s a better way, that it’s smart to be prepared, that there’s no need to rush into anything other than doing our best, literate work.
April 20, 2016
What Is Editing?
What is editing?
Here’s how it worked in traditional publishing (Fiction, my own direct experience):
The Author was the First, Best Editor. Because—if its creator was unwilling, unable, or just unaware as to the importance of making the writing the best it could be, if correct manuscript format was not practiced— that manuscript was not going to go any farther than the editorial assistant’s desk and the thank-you-for-showing-us-your-work post card. (And there was no appeal process. You could approach another agent or publisher, one after another, never several at once. If they all rejected the work, there was no publishing except a costly vanity press.)
Work offered a publishing contract got you consultation with the publisher’s editing staff. This could be written in great detail on a first contact, by phone later. “Here’s what you need to work on…” This is called a Content Edit. It is going to involve the Author re-writing/revising the work until the editor feels it works. No, the editor did not re-write the book for the author. And the work is not approved for publication until the Editor said it was.
The revised manuscript then went to the Copy Editor. (Sample Chapters might also go to the Cover Artist.) Publisher’s Style Manual would be followed, same as for a newspaper or magazine. (Is it a.m. or AM? One Thousand Dollars or $ 1,000.00? British English or American? Is it King or king? Military fiction?) Specific concerns were hashed out between the editors and the author. This is the Line Edit—every line being read and edited for spelling, continuity and fact-checking. The author is involved for major issues. The Copy Editor handled obvious typos as a matter of course.
Now the manuscript went to the Typesetter. Font and point size determined by formula to calculate number of pages and cost of book to produce. Manuscript format also made the typesetter’s work easier and allowed for editing.
Finally, the Galley Proof. Exactly as the book would appear in print—typeface (font), point size. My first galleys were looonnng strips of book paper the width of a paperback page. Review and return only those pages with corrections. Later, galleys became Bound Proofs, and these were also sent out as advance or review copies. Either way, by this stage the process is Proofreading, because editing is essentially done. And whether I was Proofing or Reviewing, the turn-around time varied from a week to three weeks. The Proofs were physically marked with the corrections and physically returned to the editor’s office. (Some authors read their galleys at the editor’s office.)
Finally, the author received, from their editor, a final printed copy of their actual book. Saw the cover for the first time. Read the back cover copy. And undoubtedly spotted a typo, once ‘twas too late!
Copyright Susan Dexter 2016
Here’s how it worked in traditional publishing (Fiction, my own direct experience):
The Author was the First, Best Editor. Because—if its creator was unwilling, unable, or just unaware as to the importance of making the writing the best it could be, if correct manuscript format was not practiced— that manuscript was not going to go any farther than the editorial assistant’s desk and the thank-you-for-showing-us-your-work post card. (And there was no appeal process. You could approach another agent or publisher, one after another, never several at once. If they all rejected the work, there was no publishing except a costly vanity press.)
Work offered a publishing contract got you consultation with the publisher’s editing staff. This could be written in great detail on a first contact, by phone later. “Here’s what you need to work on…” This is called a Content Edit. It is going to involve the Author re-writing/revising the work until the editor feels it works. No, the editor did not re-write the book for the author. And the work is not approved for publication until the Editor said it was.
The revised manuscript then went to the Copy Editor. (Sample Chapters might also go to the Cover Artist.) Publisher’s Style Manual would be followed, same as for a newspaper or magazine. (Is it a.m. or AM? One Thousand Dollars or $ 1,000.00? British English or American? Is it King or king? Military fiction?) Specific concerns were hashed out between the editors and the author. This is the Line Edit—every line being read and edited for spelling, continuity and fact-checking. The author is involved for major issues. The Copy Editor handled obvious typos as a matter of course.
Now the manuscript went to the Typesetter. Font and point size determined by formula to calculate number of pages and cost of book to produce. Manuscript format also made the typesetter’s work easier and allowed for editing.
Finally, the Galley Proof. Exactly as the book would appear in print—typeface (font), point size. My first galleys were looonnng strips of book paper the width of a paperback page. Review and return only those pages with corrections. Later, galleys became Bound Proofs, and these were also sent out as advance or review copies. Either way, by this stage the process is Proofreading, because editing is essentially done. And whether I was Proofing or Reviewing, the turn-around time varied from a week to three weeks. The Proofs were physically marked with the corrections and physically returned to the editor’s office. (Some authors read their galleys at the editor’s office.)
Finally, the author received, from their editor, a final printed copy of their actual book. Saw the cover for the first time. Read the back cover copy. And undoubtedly spotted a typo, once ‘twas too late!
Copyright Susan Dexter 2016
September 10, 2015
July 8, 2015
Editing is NOT Proofreading
Editing is NOT Proofreading
Mary Tudor loved her half-baby sister .
His eyes rolled across the kitchen, muttering.
Roxanne’s heart trashed against her ribs.
Alber t rubbed his chin with furrowed brows.
The above examples all appeared in indie-published novels. Identifying details have been changed so as to avoid slapping any author in the face, but I assure you, those highlighted words are the only words I changed in those sentences. All of them are grammatically correct sentences, but the picture they make in a reader’s mind is surely not what their authors intended. And every one of these problems can easily be fixed by any author. All it takes is will and the desire to put your very best effort out there. (And in fact, if you are ever putting out something you know is not your best effort—shame on you!)
No one is making you write. No one is making you publish. These are choices, and the ability to self-publish is in the hands of the authors in ways it never was before!
With great power comes great responsibility. So, no fair whining about what you can’t do, because you can in fact do anything you choose to do, and no one can write and edit your story better than you can. No one!
copyright Susan Dexter 2015
Mary Tudor loved her half-baby sister .
His eyes rolled across the kitchen, muttering.
Roxanne’s heart trashed against her ribs.
Alber t rubbed his chin with furrowed brows.
The above examples all appeared in indie-published novels. Identifying details have been changed so as to avoid slapping any author in the face, but I assure you, those highlighted words are the only words I changed in those sentences. All of them are grammatically correct sentences, but the picture they make in a reader’s mind is surely not what their authors intended. And every one of these problems can easily be fixed by any author. All it takes is will and the desire to put your very best effort out there. (And in fact, if you are ever putting out something you know is not your best effort—shame on you!)
No one is making you write. No one is making you publish. These are choices, and the ability to self-publish is in the hands of the authors in ways it never was before!
With great power comes great responsibility. So, no fair whining about what you can’t do, because you can in fact do anything you choose to do, and no one can write and edit your story better than you can. No one!
copyright Susan Dexter 2015
April 21, 2015
The Wizard's Shadow
As I prepare
The Wizard's Shadow
to return to print--soon--I thought I'd share it's creation with you:
I first encountered Richard Plantagenet, youngest son of the House of York, Duke of Gloucester, Richard III of England, via Rosemary Hawley Jarman’s 1970s historical novel We Speak No Treason. After that, I sought and read every novel and biography of Richard I could lay hands on—not so easy in pre-internet times. I joined the Richard III Society (American Branch), booked a place on their Quincentenary Tour of England in 1985, and later became volunteer staff artist for their newsletter, The Ricardian Register.
So, when I needed a complex political situation to drop my peddler hero into—by preference, one having little to do with happenings on the other side of the Great Sea—I turned to a simplified version of British history and the War of the Roses. Oh, the bonuses to mining history for an unreal world—I could throw out anything that didn’t suit me, and I got to rewrite the Battle of Bosworth Field and let Richard win! (Every Ricardian’s secret dream, surely.) Does it get any better than that?
Sure it does. Because the Richard III Society, worldwide, has continually supported research that gave me great details for my fiction, inspired my artwork, and eventually led to the discovery of Richard’s burial place, and his bones. Thus, the last English king to personally lead his troops into battle was not dumped into a river, after all the other sundry indignities visited upon his corpse. And the car park that replaced the priory offered excellent protection for his bones!
There’s a Battlefield Center at Bosworth, a memorial statue of Richard in nearby Leicester, and a memorial slab bordered by white silk roses in Leicester Cathedral. His Queen, Anne Neville, is buried in Westminster Abbey. The bones of their son, the Prince Edward, may have been transported as far as Sherriff Hutton on the way to an intended burial in York Minster. We don’t really know what Richard intended for his own final resting place—while the “Mausoleum of the House of York” is at Fotheringhay, his brother George is in Tewkesbury Abbey’s crypt—in a glass box!—and his brother Edward is in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. His niece Elizabeth married Henry Tudor, uniting the White Rose of York with the Red Rose of Lancaster. Her brothers, Edward and Richard, vanished from history, and we’ve finally gotten the Yeoman Warders at the Tower of London to stop automatically accusing Richard III of their murder. (I’m pretty sure that whoever those bones so solemnly interred in the urn in Westminster Abbey belonged to, they weren’t Richard’s nephews. No, those boys may just have lived to die in obscurity somewhere in Richard’s beloved North—and maybe at a ripe old age.)
And now, Richard himself has been honorably interred, in a coffin handmade by his many times great-grandnephew, in Leicester Cathedral. To commemorate this I'm halfway though getting The Wizard's Shadow ready to release as an e-book. Next post, I'll tell you about how I came to write that book.
I first encountered Richard Plantagenet, youngest son of the House of York, Duke of Gloucester, Richard III of England, via Rosemary Hawley Jarman’s 1970s historical novel We Speak No Treason. After that, I sought and read every novel and biography of Richard I could lay hands on—not so easy in pre-internet times. I joined the Richard III Society (American Branch), booked a place on their Quincentenary Tour of England in 1985, and later became volunteer staff artist for their newsletter, The Ricardian Register.
So, when I needed a complex political situation to drop my peddler hero into—by preference, one having little to do with happenings on the other side of the Great Sea—I turned to a simplified version of British history and the War of the Roses. Oh, the bonuses to mining history for an unreal world—I could throw out anything that didn’t suit me, and I got to rewrite the Battle of Bosworth Field and let Richard win! (Every Ricardian’s secret dream, surely.) Does it get any better than that?
Sure it does. Because the Richard III Society, worldwide, has continually supported research that gave me great details for my fiction, inspired my artwork, and eventually led to the discovery of Richard’s burial place, and his bones. Thus, the last English king to personally lead his troops into battle was not dumped into a river, after all the other sundry indignities visited upon his corpse. And the car park that replaced the priory offered excellent protection for his bones!
There’s a Battlefield Center at Bosworth, a memorial statue of Richard in nearby Leicester, and a memorial slab bordered by white silk roses in Leicester Cathedral. His Queen, Anne Neville, is buried in Westminster Abbey. The bones of their son, the Prince Edward, may have been transported as far as Sherriff Hutton on the way to an intended burial in York Minster. We don’t really know what Richard intended for his own final resting place—while the “Mausoleum of the House of York” is at Fotheringhay, his brother George is in Tewkesbury Abbey’s crypt—in a glass box!—and his brother Edward is in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. His niece Elizabeth married Henry Tudor, uniting the White Rose of York with the Red Rose of Lancaster. Her brothers, Edward and Richard, vanished from history, and we’ve finally gotten the Yeoman Warders at the Tower of London to stop automatically accusing Richard III of their murder. (I’m pretty sure that whoever those bones so solemnly interred in the urn in Westminster Abbey belonged to, they weren’t Richard’s nephews. No, those boys may just have lived to die in obscurity somewhere in Richard’s beloved North—and maybe at a ripe old age.)
And now, Richard himself has been honorably interred, in a coffin handmade by his many times great-grandnephew, in Leicester Cathedral. To commemorate this I'm halfway though getting The Wizard's Shadow ready to release as an e-book. Next post, I'll tell you about how I came to write that book.
January 11, 2015
We Are ALL Charlie
When terrorist thugs assassinate writers and artists for performing the jobs of writers and artists, it should trouble all of us, regardless of nationality, race, religion, or politics. The madness that struck in Paris diminishes all of us. We should stand shoulder to shoulder in support of one another.
I’ve been following the Amazon forum Voice of the Author/Publisher for a few months, reading much, replying seldom, learning and drawing conclusions. It troubles me that forum rules appear to restrict the authors/publishers—in other words, the Indie Authors—to endless discussions of the value of reviews, the iniquities of the rating structure on Amazon and how to find the perfect cover to make our books bestsellers. Are we really so shallow, only interested in ourselves?
Maybe. I just know there are no posts about Charlie Hebdo on KDP Voice of the Author/Publisher, and the one I put up the morning of January 11, 2015 vanished before the virtual ink was even dry! So I’ll post it here. Because…it matters.
I’ve been following the Amazon forum Voice of the Author/Publisher for a few months, reading much, replying seldom, learning and drawing conclusions. It troubles me that forum rules appear to restrict the authors/publishers—in other words, the Indie Authors—to endless discussions of the value of reviews, the iniquities of the rating structure on Amazon and how to find the perfect cover to make our books bestsellers. Are we really so shallow, only interested in ourselves?
Maybe. I just know there are no posts about Charlie Hebdo on KDP Voice of the Author/Publisher, and the one I put up the morning of January 11, 2015 vanished before the virtual ink was even dry! So I’ll post it here. Because…it matters.
