Kim Iverson Headlee's Blog: Book Musings from the Maze of Twisty Passages, page 12
May 15, 2016
Get ready for THE CHALLENGE by @KimHeadlee Graphic Novel Episode 1
The Challenge
graphic novel, episode 1: Dilemmas & Deliberation Story by Kim Headlee, Art c2016 by Wendy Carey. Today on The Maze I am excited to report the completion of the first three pages of the graphic-novel version of The Challenge ! The e-book edition of Episode 1, titled Dilemmas & Deliberation, will be available soon on a Kindle near you. :D
I am using Kindle Comic Creator software for this task—and I will be blogging about the software in a future Business of Writing post because I am about ready to stuff it down Jeff Bezos's throat. While I add the finishing touches to The Challenge: Dilemmas & Deliberation, I do invite you to download either the e-book or the audiobook edition of the full story for your reading or listening pleasure.
The teaser graphic, by the way, features principle character Gyanhumara (Gyan to kin and friends; a.k.a. Queen Guinevere of Arthurian legend) and Angusel (Angus to kin and friends; a.k.a. Sir Lancelot). While the Lancelot of legend is identified as Guinevere's champion and defender, in The Dragon's Dove Chronicles ( Dawnflight , Morning's Journey , etc.), Gyan usually must fight her own battles and is, in fact, no stranger to the sword.
***
I'm running a giveaway for an e-copy of Dawnflight !
To enter, click HERE.
Last month's copies of Kings got snapped up fast, so don't delay; enter today!
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Subscribe today so you don't miss out!
***
All this month, you are invited to…
— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Follow Kim on Pinterest
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow<
… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!
May 13, 2016
Urien is going to flay Accolon alive in Ch 12/Sc 2 of RAGING SEA by @KimHeadlee #amwriting
Graphic overlay c2016 by Kim Headlee. Today I am pleased to announce the college graduation of my "part-time" daughter, Cassie M.! She was awarded a BFA degree in Theatre Arts from Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA, and her specialty is stage management.
Please join me in wishing Cassie and all members of the Class of 2016 the best of luck!
Accolon needs all the luck he can muster in today's excerpt from Raging Sea to keep Urien from killing him for allowing Morghe to get hurt.
But first Accolon must find a way to keep her alive.
Previous excerpts of Raging Sea
Chapters 1–6 in Raging Sea: Reckonings Chapter 7: Sc 1 | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4 | Sc 5a | Sc 5b |
Chapter 8: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 9: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 1d | Sc 1e |
Chapter 10: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2a | Sc 2b | Sc 3a | Sc 3b | Sc 3c |
Chapter 11: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 12: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c |
Raging Sea Chapter 12, Scene 2©2016 by Kim HeadleeAll rights reserved.
Kneeling with Morghe’s head and shoulders supported on his lap, Accolon watched the old Pict sprint at ground level with surprising speed to keep pace with the archer fleeing across the rooftop. The pair vanished beyond the end of the warehouse, and Accolon returned his attention to Morghe. Her eyes were squeezed shut from the pain, her breath was coming in short pants, beads of sweat dotted her brow, and her face was whitening by the moment.
Urien was going to flay him alive.
There didn’t appear to be a second assassin. He and Elian shared a nod, and the centurion brandished his rank and shouted for the crowd to stand back and give Morghe air. To the crippled man’s credit, not one person dared to disobey.
“You,” Elian said to a young man whose rigid bearing proclaimed him to be one of the off-duty recruits. “Bring medics!”
“Aye, Centurion!” The man thumped a quick salute and veered toward the fortress at a dead run.
Morghe groaned and started swatting at the arrow. “Get it out!”
Accolon grasped her hands to still them, shaking his head. “You might bleed to death. I can’t take that risk. The medics will—”
She gritted her teeth and gripped his hand hard. “You be the medic.” Her grip and jaw relaxed, but her eyes remained tight with pain. “Please.”
Elian was already sacrificing strips of his tunic. He pressed the wad into Accolon’s hand and knelt to steady Morghe’s shoulders. Accolon could only stare at the centurion, fighting to quell his rising panic. Elian’s countenance darkened. “This is no different than field dressing a wounded soldier. Get on with it, man!”
A soldier was the absolute last association he’d ever make with Morghe, but it did help a little. He drew his dagger. Miraculously, his hand didn’t shake as he lowered the point to her shoulder. “Chieftainess, I need to enlarge the wound a bit so the arrowhead’s barbs won’t do more damage. Are you sure you don’t want to wait for the medics?”
She inhaled a long, gasping breath. “Go ahead,” she whispered.
With a nod at Elian, who tightened his grip on Morghe, Accolon began the bloody task.
***
All this month, you are invited to…
— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Follow Kim on Pinterest
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow<
… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!
May 12, 2016
Meet @DianaLRubino, the author who redeemed Richard III's rep in For Love and Loyalty!
My author-friend Diana Rubino is a woman after my own heart.
While I have seen it as my lifelong mission to redeem the reputations of Guinevere (in Dawnflight and Morning's Journey ) and most recently Morgan le Fay ( King Arthur's Sister in Washington's Court ), Diana has done something similar for King Richard III in For Love and Loyalty !
Today on The Maze Diana shares a bit about herself and the inspirations behind this remarkable time-travel story.
13 Things That Inspired Diana to Write For Love and Loyalty
Picturing Richard III in modern times blow drying his hairThe Richard III SocietyMiddleham Castle, YorkshireBlackadder (historical British sitcom)The concept of time travelSéancesOur modern conveniences such as zippers, computers, carsRichard IIIRichard’s brother King Edward IVRichard’s other brother George, Duke of ClarenceThe Three StoogesJackie Gleason and Art Carney in The HoneymoonersThe discovery of Richard III’s remains in a Leicester car park
Buy Links
Kindle | Paperback | iTunes | The Wild Rose Press |
The Maze [TM]: Where did you get the idea for the story?
Diana Rubino [DR]: I was brainstorming with my longtime critique partner Bonnie (pen name Alice M. Cole). We tossed around a few ideas for a time travel, and she said, “I can picture Richard in modern times blow drying his hair.” I thought, “Wouldn't it be fun to see how Richard adapts to the 21st century?” The story grew around that one image.
TM: Why did you write it as a comedy rather than a serious novel?
DR: The hedonistic skirt-chasing Edward and George play so well off the prim and chivalrous Richard; he’s the perfect foil for them. Also, bringing people from the past to modern times posed many opportunities for humor, seeing our world through their eyes in the simplest ways: Richard goes to an open-air market with the modern heroine, and sees things he's never seen before: bananas, tomatoes, corn on the cob, peanuts. He begins to bite into a banana, and the heroine shows him the correct way: peel and eat it from the top. He takes an ear of corn and proceeds to eat it like the banana, from the top, but she explains that it's eaten sideways. How confusing the modern world really is! Not to mention his first glance at a running computer, connected with the world through the internet.
TM: Why does Richard go back to his own time instead of staying here?
DR: Richard wanted to go back ‘home’ to live his life differently—and in the future, no one will ever know he was once called “King Crouchback.”
TM: Why didn’t you have Anne Neville travel to the present?
DR: I left poor Anne back in the 15th century because I needed a modern love interest for Richard. At the time he pitched forward to modern times, he wasn't all that smitten with Anne; she was a mere diversion—as was the woman (girl? We don't know who she is) who mothered his illegitimate offspring, John and Katherine.
TM: How can Richard return to his era at the same time his bones are discovered under a Leicester car park? If Richard changed history - no Bosworth Field, etc. - then 500+ years later there should be no 'king in the car park' and no Tudor propaganda maligning him!
DR: I considered that paradox. When Richard returned to his own time after being here, he returned to an alternate universe, in line with the theory that time is an infinite continuum and 1485 is still 'going on' just as our time is.
Same as when Edward travels from here to the far future at the end of the story. From our perspective, it 'hasn't happened yet' but it's going on in that alternate universe, or another dimension, if you will. That's why there's some speculation that UFOs and aliens who visit Earth, if they truly do, may be from the future, and are time travelers.
TM: OK, so what's happened in an alternate universe doesn't affect ours, and Richard in our timeline still ends up in the parking lot?
DR: Yes, because theoretically, the universe is multidimensional, and alternate universes also exist, so in an alternate universe, your fate takes the path you didn't choose in this one. Maybe you wanted to go to Hollywood to get into motion pictures but didn't. But in that alternate universe, you did go to Hollywood, and might be a movie star in that universe.
It's all theory, of course, no one can prove it. I'm not sure Einstein looked into that, but it sure makes for great SciFi!
My head begins to hurt when I ponder the possibility of infinity. Never-ending? How can that be? But hold a mirror up to a mirror and think about it.
Exploring these theories is the ‘serious’ part of the story.
TM: Why did you call the previously published first edition One Too Many Times?
DR: The former title One Too Many Times refers to the number of times Richard traveled through time; i.e., he should have stayed in our time instead of going back to the 1400s to change history, especially after he made the reputation-restoring movie and found his true love while here and now.
The title also hit me over the head. When I was searching for a title, I realized the song “One Too Many Times” by the Australian band Midnight Oil was going through my head at that moment. It's from their 1996 album “Breathe”. Some of my book titles are song titles. So I used it as a tribute to Midnight Oil, one of my all time favorite bands. Sadly they broke up, but the lead singer Peter Garrett was an MP from Sydney for several years.
TM: Thanks, Diana, for visiting and sharing today!
About Diana:
Every Ricardian has a story about how they discovered Richard and here's mine: I'd just finished the first historical I ever wrote, The Jewels of Warwick, set in Henry 8's court. I was trying to think of an idea for my next historical. I was in the Cambridge (Massachusetts, US) library, in the 'stacks' upstairs where they keep excess books, and found Crown of Roses, a Ricardian novel on the wrong shelf. The author thanks the Richard III Society, which I'd never heard of. This is pre-internet time, 1991/2. I contacted the Society by snail mail, and wrote my next book, Thy Name is Love, set around Richard and a fictional hero & heroine.
Contact Diana viaWebsite | Blog | Facebook | Twitter: @DianaLRubino |
***
All this month, you are invited to…
— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Follow Kim on Pinterest
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow<
… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!
While I have seen it as my lifelong mission to redeem the reputations of Guinevere (in Dawnflight and Morning's Journey ) and most recently Morgan le Fay ( King Arthur's Sister in Washington's Court ), Diana has done something similar for King Richard III in For Love and Loyalty !
Today on The Maze Diana shares a bit about herself and the inspirations behind this remarkable time-travel story.
13 Things That Inspired Diana to Write For Love and Loyalty
Picturing Richard III in modern times blow drying his hairThe Richard III SocietyMiddleham Castle, YorkshireBlackadder (historical British sitcom)The concept of time travelSéancesOur modern conveniences such as zippers, computers, carsRichard IIIRichard’s brother King Edward IVRichard’s other brother George, Duke of ClarenceThe Three StoogesJackie Gleason and Art Carney in The HoneymoonersThe discovery of Richard III’s remains in a Leicester car park
Buy Links
Kindle | Paperback | iTunes | The Wild Rose Press |
The Maze [TM]: Where did you get the idea for the story?
Diana Rubino [DR]: I was brainstorming with my longtime critique partner Bonnie (pen name Alice M. Cole). We tossed around a few ideas for a time travel, and she said, “I can picture Richard in modern times blow drying his hair.” I thought, “Wouldn't it be fun to see how Richard adapts to the 21st century?” The story grew around that one image.
TM: Why did you write it as a comedy rather than a serious novel?
DR: The hedonistic skirt-chasing Edward and George play so well off the prim and chivalrous Richard; he’s the perfect foil for them. Also, bringing people from the past to modern times posed many opportunities for humor, seeing our world through their eyes in the simplest ways: Richard goes to an open-air market with the modern heroine, and sees things he's never seen before: bananas, tomatoes, corn on the cob, peanuts. He begins to bite into a banana, and the heroine shows him the correct way: peel and eat it from the top. He takes an ear of corn and proceeds to eat it like the banana, from the top, but she explains that it's eaten sideways. How confusing the modern world really is! Not to mention his first glance at a running computer, connected with the world through the internet.
TM: Why does Richard go back to his own time instead of staying here?
DR: Richard wanted to go back ‘home’ to live his life differently—and in the future, no one will ever know he was once called “King Crouchback.”
TM: Why didn’t you have Anne Neville travel to the present?
DR: I left poor Anne back in the 15th century because I needed a modern love interest for Richard. At the time he pitched forward to modern times, he wasn't all that smitten with Anne; she was a mere diversion—as was the woman (girl? We don't know who she is) who mothered his illegitimate offspring, John and Katherine.
TM: How can Richard return to his era at the same time his bones are discovered under a Leicester car park? If Richard changed history - no Bosworth Field, etc. - then 500+ years later there should be no 'king in the car park' and no Tudor propaganda maligning him!
DR: I considered that paradox. When Richard returned to his own time after being here, he returned to an alternate universe, in line with the theory that time is an infinite continuum and 1485 is still 'going on' just as our time is.
Same as when Edward travels from here to the far future at the end of the story. From our perspective, it 'hasn't happened yet' but it's going on in that alternate universe, or another dimension, if you will. That's why there's some speculation that UFOs and aliens who visit Earth, if they truly do, may be from the future, and are time travelers.
TM: OK, so what's happened in an alternate universe doesn't affect ours, and Richard in our timeline still ends up in the parking lot?
DR: Yes, because theoretically, the universe is multidimensional, and alternate universes also exist, so in an alternate universe, your fate takes the path you didn't choose in this one. Maybe you wanted to go to Hollywood to get into motion pictures but didn't. But in that alternate universe, you did go to Hollywood, and might be a movie star in that universe.
It's all theory, of course, no one can prove it. I'm not sure Einstein looked into that, but it sure makes for great SciFi!
My head begins to hurt when I ponder the possibility of infinity. Never-ending? How can that be? But hold a mirror up to a mirror and think about it.
Exploring these theories is the ‘serious’ part of the story.
TM: Why did you call the previously published first edition One Too Many Times?
DR: The former title One Too Many Times refers to the number of times Richard traveled through time; i.e., he should have stayed in our time instead of going back to the 1400s to change history, especially after he made the reputation-restoring movie and found his true love while here and now.
The title also hit me over the head. When I was searching for a title, I realized the song “One Too Many Times” by the Australian band Midnight Oil was going through my head at that moment. It's from their 1996 album “Breathe”. Some of my book titles are song titles. So I used it as a tribute to Midnight Oil, one of my all time favorite bands. Sadly they broke up, but the lead singer Peter Garrett was an MP from Sydney for several years.
TM: Thanks, Diana, for visiting and sharing today!
About Diana:
Every Ricardian has a story about how they discovered Richard and here's mine: I'd just finished the first historical I ever wrote, The Jewels of Warwick, set in Henry 8's court. I was trying to think of an idea for my next historical. I was in the Cambridge (Massachusetts, US) library, in the 'stacks' upstairs where they keep excess books, and found Crown of Roses, a Ricardian novel on the wrong shelf. The author thanks the Richard III Society, which I'd never heard of. This is pre-internet time, 1991/2. I contacted the Society by snail mail, and wrote my next book, Thy Name is Love, set around Richard and a fictional hero & heroine.
Contact Diana viaWebsite | Blog | Facebook | Twitter: @DianaLRubino |
***
All this month, you are invited to…
— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Follow Kim on Pinterest
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow<
… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!
May 10, 2016
The Business of Writing: Introduction to Book Translations by @OlgaNM, and EL RETO is #FREE today!
Today I am pleased to welcome author-friend Olga Núñez Miret to talk about translating your books from English to Spanish and vice-versa.
Olga Author Translator (mailto:mmxrynz at hotmail dot com)
http://eepurl.com/baUcO
Olga translated one of my novellas, The Challenge , into Spanish as EL RETO, which is free worldwide on Kindle today!
In Olga's words...
First of all thanks to Kim Headlee for inviting me to be a guest of her blog. I know Kim is very keen on exploring new markets for her books and she asked me to talk a bit about translations. So, here it comes.
Translations
What does the word ‘translation’ bring to your mind?
In my case, it always makes me think of a scene in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation. Bill Murray plays an actor filming a spirits’ advert in Japan (I think it was brandy) and the director is giving him instructions. As he doesn’t understand Japanese, there is an interpreter. The director talks for several minutes, gesticulating, quite intensely. He eventually stops talking and the interpreter just tells him that he wants him to say the lines looking at the camera. ‘Is that all he said?’ Yes, we’re never quite sure.
Of course, that’s interpreting (rendering live and orally a conversation, conference, speech…) whilst translation implies a written piece of work, but there are connections.
It also makes me think of the risks of mistranslating texts. In the case of the Bible mistranslating a Hebrew word and instead of rendering it as ‘beam of light’ it ended up becoming ‘horn’ and we have poor Moses depicted with horns (and not only in Michelangelo’s famous sculpture, that judging by the small size of the horns, makes me think that he wasn’t that convinced about the translation). Oh yes, if you’ve used Google Translate (that seems to be improving, to be fair) you know all about that.
According to Wikipedia: "Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. While interpreting—the facilitating of oral or sign-language communication between users of different languages—antedates writing; translation began only after the appearance of written literature." The word comes from the Latin translatio ("carrying across" or "bringing across").
Translation results in a great cross-fertilization between languages and new words being incorporated into languages.
These days we have machine translations (like the aforementioned Google Translate; other internet translation services are available) and CAT translations (computer-assisted translations, that involve a human translator aided by a machine that incorporates glossaries, analyses the style of writing and terms favoured by the translator and adapt them to facilitate their task).
Why am I talking about translation?
I’m from Barcelona, in Spain, and moved to the UK in 1992. I trained and worked as a psychiatrist for quite a few years, with gaps to do other things, like studying American Literature (a BA and a PhD). I’d always written in Spain, mostly in Spanish, but the year before I started my American Literature degree (in 1996) I took a creative writing course and started writing fiction in English (I’d written reports, essays, letters before, but mostly to do with my studies in psychiatry), short-stories at first and then longer stuff.
From then on I mostly wrote in English, although that depended on when and where I was writing. One day I rediscovered a story I had written when I was seventeen or eighteen and thought it wasn’t bad but it was a bit too short. I proceeded to translate it to English and then expanded it. Once I finished, I thought it was not right that the story started life in Spanish and now it would only be available in English so I translated it back to Spanish. A few years later, that ended up being the first novel I published, The Man Who Never Was. And once set on my way, I kept translating all my novels and publishing them in both Spanish and English.
A couple of years ago I decided to try something different and part of it involved offering my services translating (from English to Spanish and vice-versa) the works of other authors. It is a very interesting job—an art, some would say—that involves getting to know the texts very closely. I personally find it a very good way to edit and proofread my own books, as I can pick up issues of continuity, consistency, and simple proofreading mistakes I miss whilst reading repeatedly, when I translate.
What skills do translators require? According again to Wikipedia:
a very good knowledge of the language, written and spoken, from which they are translating (the source language);an excellent command of the language into which they are translating (the target language);familiarity with the subject matter of the text being translated;a profound understanding of the etymological and idiomatic correlates between the two languages; anda finely tuned sense of when to metaphrase ("translate literally") and when to paraphrase, so as to assure true rather than spurious equivalents between the source- and target-language texts.A competent translator is not only bilingual but bicultural. A language is not merely a collection of words and of rules of grammar and syntax for generating sentences, but also a vast interconnecting system of connotations and cultural references whose mastery, writes linguist Mario Pei, "comes close to being a lifetime job."
Olga has so much more to offer on the subject of translations that I plan to publish the rest of her thoughts at a later date!
Meantime, follow Olga via:
Newsletter | Website | Blog | Twitter @OlgaNM7 | Facebook | LinkedIn | Goodreads | G+ | Pinterest | Wattpad | Tumblr |
You may buy her featured novel, Escaping Psychiatry: Beginnings,
the three-story prequel to Escaping Psychiatry via:
Amazon | Kobo | Apple | Nook | Page Foundry | Scribd |
And don't forget to snag your copy of El Reto!
***
All this month, you are invited to…
— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Follow Kim on Pinterest
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow<
… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!
Olga Author Translator (mailto:mmxrynz at hotmail dot com)http://eepurl.com/baUcO
Olga translated one of my novellas, The Challenge , into Spanish as EL RETO, which is free worldwide on Kindle today!
In Olga's words...
First of all thanks to Kim Headlee for inviting me to be a guest of her blog. I know Kim is very keen on exploring new markets for her books and she asked me to talk a bit about translations. So, here it comes.
Translations
What does the word ‘translation’ bring to your mind?
In my case, it always makes me think of a scene in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation. Bill Murray plays an actor filming a spirits’ advert in Japan (I think it was brandy) and the director is giving him instructions. As he doesn’t understand Japanese, there is an interpreter. The director talks for several minutes, gesticulating, quite intensely. He eventually stops talking and the interpreter just tells him that he wants him to say the lines looking at the camera. ‘Is that all he said?’ Yes, we’re never quite sure.
Of course, that’s interpreting (rendering live and orally a conversation, conference, speech…) whilst translation implies a written piece of work, but there are connections.
It also makes me think of the risks of mistranslating texts. In the case of the Bible mistranslating a Hebrew word and instead of rendering it as ‘beam of light’ it ended up becoming ‘horn’ and we have poor Moses depicted with horns (and not only in Michelangelo’s famous sculpture, that judging by the small size of the horns, makes me think that he wasn’t that convinced about the translation). Oh yes, if you’ve used Google Translate (that seems to be improving, to be fair) you know all about that.
According to Wikipedia: "Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. While interpreting—the facilitating of oral or sign-language communication between users of different languages—antedates writing; translation began only after the appearance of written literature." The word comes from the Latin translatio ("carrying across" or "bringing across").
Translation results in a great cross-fertilization between languages and new words being incorporated into languages.
These days we have machine translations (like the aforementioned Google Translate; other internet translation services are available) and CAT translations (computer-assisted translations, that involve a human translator aided by a machine that incorporates glossaries, analyses the style of writing and terms favoured by the translator and adapt them to facilitate their task).
Why am I talking about translation?
I’m from Barcelona, in Spain, and moved to the UK in 1992. I trained and worked as a psychiatrist for quite a few years, with gaps to do other things, like studying American Literature (a BA and a PhD). I’d always written in Spain, mostly in Spanish, but the year before I started my American Literature degree (in 1996) I took a creative writing course and started writing fiction in English (I’d written reports, essays, letters before, but mostly to do with my studies in psychiatry), short-stories at first and then longer stuff.
From then on I mostly wrote in English, although that depended on when and where I was writing. One day I rediscovered a story I had written when I was seventeen or eighteen and thought it wasn’t bad but it was a bit too short. I proceeded to translate it to English and then expanded it. Once I finished, I thought it was not right that the story started life in Spanish and now it would only be available in English so I translated it back to Spanish. A few years later, that ended up being the first novel I published, The Man Who Never Was. And once set on my way, I kept translating all my novels and publishing them in both Spanish and English.
A couple of years ago I decided to try something different and part of it involved offering my services translating (from English to Spanish and vice-versa) the works of other authors. It is a very interesting job—an art, some would say—that involves getting to know the texts very closely. I personally find it a very good way to edit and proofread my own books, as I can pick up issues of continuity, consistency, and simple proofreading mistakes I miss whilst reading repeatedly, when I translate.
What skills do translators require? According again to Wikipedia:
a very good knowledge of the language, written and spoken, from which they are translating (the source language);an excellent command of the language into which they are translating (the target language);familiarity with the subject matter of the text being translated;a profound understanding of the etymological and idiomatic correlates between the two languages; anda finely tuned sense of when to metaphrase ("translate literally") and when to paraphrase, so as to assure true rather than spurious equivalents between the source- and target-language texts.A competent translator is not only bilingual but bicultural. A language is not merely a collection of words and of rules of grammar and syntax for generating sentences, but also a vast interconnecting system of connotations and cultural references whose mastery, writes linguist Mario Pei, "comes close to being a lifetime job."
Olga has so much more to offer on the subject of translations that I plan to publish the rest of her thoughts at a later date!
Meantime, follow Olga via:
Newsletter | Website | Blog | Twitter @OlgaNM7 | Facebook | LinkedIn | Goodreads | G+ | Pinterest | Wattpad | Tumblr |
You may buy her featured novel, Escaping Psychiatry: Beginnings,
the three-story prequel to Escaping Psychiatry via:
Amazon | Kobo | Apple | Nook | Page Foundry | Scribd |
And don't forget to snag your copy of El Reto!
***
All this month, you are invited to…
— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Follow Kim on Pinterest
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow<
… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!
May 6, 2016
All hell breaks loose in Ch 12/Sc 1c of RAGING SEA by @KimHeadlee #amwriting
Graphic overlay c2016 by Kim Headlee. It's May, that time of year when a mother's thoughts turn toward… … helping her daughter move out of her college apartment for the summer.
This year's event was further complicated by a fatal shooting in the adjacent complex, just two days prior to my trip, putting the entire campus into lockdown for several hours.
And of course putting my nerves on high alert.
Fortunately, I was able to soothe my nerves by speaking with my daughter to learn that she all her friends are safe. While my husband is the family's designated worrywart, in this instance I just had to hear her voice and was beyond relieved when I did.
Gull's nerves go on high alert in today's excerpt from Raging Sea when he witnesses an attack on Morghe, and resolves to do something about it.
Previous excerpts of Raging Sea
Chapters 1–6 in Raging Sea: Reckonings Chapter 7: Sc 1 | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4 | Sc 5a | Sc 5b |
Chapter 8: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 9: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 1d | Sc 1e |
Chapter 10: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2a | Sc 2b | Sc 3a | Sc 3b | Sc 3c |
Chapter 11: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 12: Sc 1a | Sc 1b |
Raging Sea Chapter 12, Scene 1c©2016 by Kim HeadleeAll rights reserved.
“Gull, I am honored to present Lady Morghe,” Elian said. The auld boar’s cheeks flushed and he gave her a deep bow. “Please forgive me, Chieftainess Morghe.”
Beaming, she pushed his shoulders until he straightened. “My dear Elian, it is so good to see you looking fit and fine. I’m sure Urien will be pleased to hear of it too.”
Elian grunted, which seemed an odd response to Gull, but this was neither the time nor the place for such a query. He clapped Gull’s shoulder. “My lady, this is Gull of Caledonia, my assistant with training recruits. And my closest friend.”
Tucking a stray auburn lock behind her ear, she stepped closer to Gull and extended that hand. Gull grasped her fingers and kissed them—and was smitten by a wave of lust. When he released her hand, the wave receded, thanks be to all the gods. Being a tiller of another man’s field was the fastest way to get oneself plowed under, and he’d never conceived of such an act in his entire life—or death. He gave his head a slight shake and masked the action with a bow.
“I am right honored to meet ye, Chieftainess.”
“The honor of meeting a man with such a fine way with children is mine, Gull of Caledon,” she said in flawless Caledonaiche. Before Gull could respond with more than an upraised eyebrow, she swept a graceful arm toward her escort. “And this is Lord A—”
Whatever she had been about to say ended in a loud “Ah!” as an arrow embedded in her chest, and she staggered back against the warrior. A dark red blot encircled the wound and grew at an alarming rate.
A second arrow tried to finish the work of the first, but Chieftainess Morghe’s escort had lunged to shield her with his body. The arrow deflected off his scale mail to graze Elian’s wooden leg.
“Find that archer!” the warrior roared as Elian pressed in close to guard her back.
Gull presumed the man had meant the command for him; he had already spun about to start the hunt. A blur of movement on a nearby warehouse rooftop caught his eye, and the race began.
***
All this month, you are invited to…
— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Follow Kim on Pinterest
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow<
… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!
May 5, 2016
Repairing a despised king's reputation in FOR LOVE AND LOYALTY by @DianaLRubino
Today on The Maze I am pleased to introduce you to the latest release by longtime Maze contributor and author-friend Diana Rubino,
For Love and Loyalty
!
In Diana's words...
Believing you can ‘go back and do it all over’ can create miracles.
King Edward IV of England and his younger brothers George and Richard ‘do it all over’ when they travel across five centuries. They change their destinies and the world’s—for the better.
In 1475, the mischievous George, Duke of Clarence buys an amulet from a wizard to ward off a vengeful woman’s spell. When George realizes it doesn't match his raiment, he gives it to his brother, King Edward IV. But their youngest brother, Richard, the future King Richard III, borrows the amulet from Edward's jewel box and slips it around his neck. That evening, while out riding, Richard is accosted by highwaymen. Because the amulet shields Richard from harm, he vanishes and turns up in the year 2013, among the ruins of Middleham Castle, his childhood home. Wandering the ruins, lost and bewildered, he stumbles upon his first encounter with 21st century folk—a group of Richard III Society members holding their annual séance to summon Richard's spirit.
Julianna Hammond, a Ricardian historian and Richard III Society officer, takes Richard home. As he explores her house, spellbound by the modern gadgets, she realizes he’s no ghost.
Back in the 15th century, the frantic King Edward and George beg the wizard to find out what happened to Richard. Their youngest brother comes into focus inside the crystal ball, sitting before a square device that displays moving pictures. The wizard realizes where Richard is—five centuries in the future. King Edward demands to be sent there to join his baby brother, who he fears is in mortal danger. He names a cousin heir to his throne and devises a temporary disappearance. George, afraid of being left alone, goes with him.
A beautiful noblewoman, Elizabeth Woodville, is deeply in love with Edward. Approaching the wizard's house for a love spell, she overhears the men planning a journey to the future. She can't bear to live in the 15th century while her beloved Edward goes to the 21st.
Despite reading about his tragic fate, Richard is adapting to modern times easily enough. Julianna runs into a fellow Ricardian, Dorothy Dunstable, who’s producing a movie about Richard. Struck by Richard’s charm, Dorothy and the other producers immediately cast him in the starring role. Richard offers to re-write Home of Thy Heart portraying himself as the kind soul he truly is, rather than the mangled humpback of popular folklore. The producers agree to his script changes, just as another amazing incident happens: Edward and George appear from the past.
The three brothers' emotional reunion moves Julianna, who invites Edward and George to stay with her and Richard. She introduces them to the modern world. They agree to portray themselves in the film, and all is running smoothly, until . . .
A beautiful woman appears at Dorothy's house, looking for Julianna's cottage. She's Elizabeth Woodville, sent here by the wizard to be with her beloved Edward.
Home of Thy Heart becomes a blockbuster hit. Richard is a hero of the silver screen, a compassionate king and loving family man. As he and Julianna fall in love, she realizes Richard is the prince she's always hoped for. It's hard to keep his identity a secret when she wants to shout from the rooftops that she's found her soul mate across five centuries. They want to spend the rest of eternity together, as do Edward and Elizabeth, and George and Brooke Hill, the movie's heroine.
The wizard pops up in the present, purple robes swirling around him. He asks the time travelers if they want to return to their own time. Richard wants to go back and right all the wrongs of his first destiny. Julianna is shattered, but she knows she can't hold him back. Of course he wants her to go with him, so she agrees to be his queen in this alternate course of history. They return to the 15th century so Richard can relive the remainder of his life and avoid the battle.
Fate brings them all where they belong—Ned and Elizabeth decide to go to the far future, while George and Brooke stay right here.
In the epilogue, George lives in our present as a member of the Richard III Society. He joins the rest of the world in witnessing the discovery of Richard's skeleton under a Leicester car park. The facial reconstruction on his skull and examination of his remains prove that Richard wasn't the ugly mangled humpback of Shakespeare lore. “Yep, that's my little brother Dickon, I’d know that mug anywhere,” George whispers as he gazes upon the handsome face.
More about For Love and Loyalty by Diana Rubino:
In time travel, anything goes, and the humor is bawdier than our jaded modern minds can imagine it was in the 15th century.
In the majority of time travels, the modern heroine goes back in time, but to have historical figures come to modern times from the past is unique.
The 1480s beheld the biggest mystery in English history—the disappearance of King Richard’s nephews, “the Princes in the Tower.” Richard’s enemies accused him of murdering his nephews and maligned him in every way, from his politics to his physical appearance. Here was the most fitting historical figure to bring to the present. We watch his stunned reaction as he reads biographies of himself, learns his fate, and changes his destiny.
Buy Links
Kindle | Paperback | iTunes | The Wild Rose Press |
About Diana:
Every Ricardian has a story about how they discovered Richard and here's mine: I'd just finished the first historical I ever wrote, The Jewels of Warwick, set in Henry 8's court. I was trying to think of an idea for my next historical. I was in the Cambridge (Massachusetts, US) library, in the 'stacks' upstairs where they keep excess books, and found Crown of Roses, a Ricardian novel on the wrong shelf. The author thanks the Richard III Society, which I'd never heard of. This is pre-internet time, 1991/2. I contacted the Society by snail mail, and wrote my next book, Thy Name is Love, set around Richard and a fictional hero & heroine.
Contact Diana viaWebsite | Blog | Facebook | Twitter: @DianaLRubino |
***
All this month, you are invited to…
— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Follow Kim on Pinterest
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow<
… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!
In Diana's words...
Believing you can ‘go back and do it all over’ can create miracles.
King Edward IV of England and his younger brothers George and Richard ‘do it all over’ when they travel across five centuries. They change their destinies and the world’s—for the better.
In 1475, the mischievous George, Duke of Clarence buys an amulet from a wizard to ward off a vengeful woman’s spell. When George realizes it doesn't match his raiment, he gives it to his brother, King Edward IV. But their youngest brother, Richard, the future King Richard III, borrows the amulet from Edward's jewel box and slips it around his neck. That evening, while out riding, Richard is accosted by highwaymen. Because the amulet shields Richard from harm, he vanishes and turns up in the year 2013, among the ruins of Middleham Castle, his childhood home. Wandering the ruins, lost and bewildered, he stumbles upon his first encounter with 21st century folk—a group of Richard III Society members holding their annual séance to summon Richard's spirit.
Julianna Hammond, a Ricardian historian and Richard III Society officer, takes Richard home. As he explores her house, spellbound by the modern gadgets, she realizes he’s no ghost.
Back in the 15th century, the frantic King Edward and George beg the wizard to find out what happened to Richard. Their youngest brother comes into focus inside the crystal ball, sitting before a square device that displays moving pictures. The wizard realizes where Richard is—five centuries in the future. King Edward demands to be sent there to join his baby brother, who he fears is in mortal danger. He names a cousin heir to his throne and devises a temporary disappearance. George, afraid of being left alone, goes with him.
A beautiful noblewoman, Elizabeth Woodville, is deeply in love with Edward. Approaching the wizard's house for a love spell, she overhears the men planning a journey to the future. She can't bear to live in the 15th century while her beloved Edward goes to the 21st.
Despite reading about his tragic fate, Richard is adapting to modern times easily enough. Julianna runs into a fellow Ricardian, Dorothy Dunstable, who’s producing a movie about Richard. Struck by Richard’s charm, Dorothy and the other producers immediately cast him in the starring role. Richard offers to re-write Home of Thy Heart portraying himself as the kind soul he truly is, rather than the mangled humpback of popular folklore. The producers agree to his script changes, just as another amazing incident happens: Edward and George appear from the past.
The three brothers' emotional reunion moves Julianna, who invites Edward and George to stay with her and Richard. She introduces them to the modern world. They agree to portray themselves in the film, and all is running smoothly, until . . .
A beautiful woman appears at Dorothy's house, looking for Julianna's cottage. She's Elizabeth Woodville, sent here by the wizard to be with her beloved Edward.
Home of Thy Heart becomes a blockbuster hit. Richard is a hero of the silver screen, a compassionate king and loving family man. As he and Julianna fall in love, she realizes Richard is the prince she's always hoped for. It's hard to keep his identity a secret when she wants to shout from the rooftops that she's found her soul mate across five centuries. They want to spend the rest of eternity together, as do Edward and Elizabeth, and George and Brooke Hill, the movie's heroine.
The wizard pops up in the present, purple robes swirling around him. He asks the time travelers if they want to return to their own time. Richard wants to go back and right all the wrongs of his first destiny. Julianna is shattered, but she knows she can't hold him back. Of course he wants her to go with him, so she agrees to be his queen in this alternate course of history. They return to the 15th century so Richard can relive the remainder of his life and avoid the battle.
Fate brings them all where they belong—Ned and Elizabeth decide to go to the far future, while George and Brooke stay right here.
In the epilogue, George lives in our present as a member of the Richard III Society. He joins the rest of the world in witnessing the discovery of Richard's skeleton under a Leicester car park. The facial reconstruction on his skull and examination of his remains prove that Richard wasn't the ugly mangled humpback of Shakespeare lore. “Yep, that's my little brother Dickon, I’d know that mug anywhere,” George whispers as he gazes upon the handsome face.
More about For Love and Loyalty by Diana Rubino:
In time travel, anything goes, and the humor is bawdier than our jaded modern minds can imagine it was in the 15th century.
In the majority of time travels, the modern heroine goes back in time, but to have historical figures come to modern times from the past is unique.
The 1480s beheld the biggest mystery in English history—the disappearance of King Richard’s nephews, “the Princes in the Tower.” Richard’s enemies accused him of murdering his nephews and maligned him in every way, from his politics to his physical appearance. Here was the most fitting historical figure to bring to the present. We watch his stunned reaction as he reads biographies of himself, learns his fate, and changes his destiny.
Buy Links
Kindle | Paperback | iTunes | The Wild Rose Press |
About Diana:
Every Ricardian has a story about how they discovered Richard and here's mine: I'd just finished the first historical I ever wrote, The Jewels of Warwick, set in Henry 8's court. I was trying to think of an idea for my next historical. I was in the Cambridge (Massachusetts, US) library, in the 'stacks' upstairs where they keep excess books, and found Crown of Roses, a Ricardian novel on the wrong shelf. The author thanks the Richard III Society, which I'd never heard of. This is pre-internet time, 1991/2. I contacted the Society by snail mail, and wrote my next book, Thy Name is Love, set around Richard and a fictional hero & heroine.
Contact Diana viaWebsite | Blog | Facebook | Twitter: @DianaLRubino |
***
All this month, you are invited to…
— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Follow Kim on Pinterest
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow<
… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!
May 3, 2016
The Business of Writing: May the 4th be with your publishing endeavors! #StarWars
Photo © Rodeyhamzah | Dreamstime.com Star Wars-R2D2 PhotoThe Business of Writing is taking a week off for some much needed G & R (Geeking and Relaxation :).
Meantime, please feel free to enjoy this cultural "holiday" by popping over to Cheryl Carpinello's blog for a peek at the new e-book cover for my science fiction / fantasy crossover novel King Arthur's Sister in Washington's Court . It's a continuation of Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, starring Queen Morgan le Fay (oops, Her Majesty just =hates= it when I let slip the "le Fay" bit), and written as if by Mark Twain.
KASIWC features time travel, political shenanigans, a spot of romance, and a lot of baseball, all wrapped up in humor that runs the gamut from slapstick to subtle, biting wit. If I do say so myself. :D
Have a great week with your writing and publishing, andMay the Fourth be with You!
***
All this month, you are invited to…
— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Follow Kim on Pinterest
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow
… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!
April 30, 2016
#Giveaway and more MAYhem from The Dawnflier (May 2016) by @KimHeadlee!
The Turkish Stars: Turkish Air Force national aerobatics team, c2015 by radoslaw_maciejewski Depositphotos ID 103611144.
Photo for editorial use only.
Mayhem is indeed the operative word for my life these past few weeks, to whit:
The hardcover edition of my Twain sequel, King Arthur's Sister in Washington's Court, won a major national award, the IBPA Benjamin Franklin gold medal for Science Fiction & Fantasy. This will score the book featured placement at BookExpo America in Chicago and a public booksigning and party, both scheduled for later this month.In spite of computer issues, the audiobook edition of King Arthur's Sister in Washington's Court is now on sale via Audible and Amazon, with its iTunes listing in the pipeline. The e-book edition is sporting a new cover.My narrator's computer issues rubbed off on me apparently, and my laptop decided to give up the electronic ghost last week. Switching over to the new laptop hasn't been as smooth as I'd hoped, but I am now up and running on Windows 10 and getting accustomed to working in LibreOffice, Microsoft's free competitor.I put the finishing touches on the paperback edition of Faith, Family, Film: A Teacher's Trek by longtime friend and fan of my work Fred Eichelman. Its Kindle edition is on sale now.
Present mayhem:
I'm running a giveaway for an e-copy of Dawnflight ! To enter, click HERE. Last month's copies of Kings got snapped up fast, so don't delay; enter today!
Upcoming mayhem:
The Challenge graphic novel, episode 1 (Dilemmas and Deliberation) will be available on Kindle soon. Public book signing and celebration party for King Arthur's Sister in Washington's Court and all my books on Tuesday, May 24, 6-8 p.m. at the Black Horse Artisan Guild, Wytheville, VA.All-day signing and selling my books on Family Day, Saturday, June 4 at Wolf Creek Indian Village, 6394 North Scenic Highway Bastian, VA.
Public Service Announcement Don't let my computer woes rub off on you. Back up your data now!
***
All this month, you are invited to…
— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Follow Kim on Pinterest
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow<
… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!
April 29, 2016
Gull makes a startling discovery in Ch 12/Sc 1b of RAGING SEA by @KimHeadlee #amwriting
Graphic overlay c2016 by Kim Headlee. Slowly I'm getting my new laptop whipped into shape. Windows 10 has not been the disaster I was expecting. In fact, as an operating system it's actually halfway decent. This, from someone who still remembers the improvements rolled out with Windows 3.1 in the last millennium.
I have had to bite the proverbial bullet and get accustomed to Microsoft's "ribbon" method of command organization for applications such as Windows Explorer, but I flat-out refuse to drink the Cloud Subscription Kool-aid for Microsoft Office.
Rather than install Microsoft Office 2010, however, I have decided to try an "open" (i.e., free) software suite, LibreOffice. So far, I have used its spreadsheet and word processing programs, and I've found the interfaces to be a reasonable hybrid of the pre- and post-2010 versions of their Microsoft Office counterparts.
As of this writing, I've also begun dabbling with LibreDraw, which opens Microsoft Publisher files, and thank heaven for that mercy. I had been using Publisher to create promotional materials and to develop the Kindle edition of my forthcoming graphic novel, The Challenge . Now that I have my nonstandard fonts installed, and with the final page of episode 1 soon to be finalized, I have dived into that work in earnest.
Best of all, LibreOffice's command icons are brightly colored, making it much easier for my beleaguered eyes.
Gull can scarcely believe his eyes in today's excerpt from Raging Sea when he sees what Morghe's ship has been transporting.
Previous excerpts of Raging Sea
Chapters 1–6 in Raging Sea: Reckonings Chapter 7: Sc 1 | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4 | Sc 5a | Sc 5b |
Chapter 8: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 9: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 1d | Sc 1e |
Chapter 10: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2a | Sc 2b | Sc 3a | Sc 3b | Sc 3c |
Chapter 11: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 12: Sc 1a |
Raging Sea Chapter 12, Scene 1b©2016 by Kim HeadleeAll rights reserved.
The first passenger off the ship was a wee lad, tugging on his father’s hand and leaning forward for all he was worth, like a hound straining against the leash, whilst his mother struggled to keep pace. Both parents were toting knapsacks stuffed to bursting with the gods alone knew what. The man had a second, larger pack strapped to his back.
As his feet touched the dock, the lad surged and broke his father’s grip. Whooping with triumph, he careened toward Gull, ignoring his parents’ startled, “Eoghann, no! Come back at once!” They exchanged grimaces and rushed after him.
The lad shook his head, his wee little legs and arms pumping in furious rhythm to gain distance. But he missed spotting a loose board, tripped, and smacked headfirst onto the planking.
Gull dashed to his side and righted him in moments. The tyke looked more confused and stunned than hurt, though he already had grown a fair purpling knot on his forehead. But as his parents neared, he broke into a loud wail. Gull scooped him up. The boy, still howling, started flailing his fists and kicking anything in reach. Gull had to hold him at arm’s length to avoid getting bruised.
“So sorry, sir,” said the father in gruff Breatanaiche, reaching for the lad. Gull was all too happy to deposit the squirming dervish into the man’s arms.
“No harm done,” Gull assured him as the mother joined them to coo over the still struggling child, fingering his knot. Gull laid a hand on Eoghann’s shock of carrot hair. “Ye be a brave one, mo laochan.”
That got the lad’s attention. All movement of limbs and torso stilled. Between sniffles he gave Gull a puzzled stare.
“It means ‘my little hero’ in the tongue of my people,” explained Gull to the trio, selecting a word he thought the lad might know.
This time when Eoghann kicked, it was accompanied by a squeal and grin of pure joy.
And this time, Gull noticed the outline of a pair of tiny blue doves flying across the boy’s bare heel.
Only Caledonaich tattooed their children, and only children of the clan’s àrd-banoigin received such a tattoo. And only one clan in all Caledon laid claim to the pair of doves in flight.
Loholt . . . alive? With Móranach guardians? Answering to the name Eoghann?
Before Gull could decide which question to voice first, the lady Elian had hailed and her companion jounced down the gangplank. Gull and Elian watched as the warrior tried to steady her while maintaining his balance, though the pair managed to traverse the distance without mishap.
For a few moments the woman appeared to be looking past Elian and Gull, a slight but triumphant smile flashing across her face.
Gull turned to follow the line of her gaze in time to glimpse Loholt and his guardians disappearing into the crowd.
He could have kicked himself all the way to fire-ravaged Ifrinn and back.
Elian would be hearing about his suspicions later; Gull knew not whom else he could trust with such a sensitive matter.
***
All this month, you are invited to…
— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Follow Kim on Pinterest
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow<
… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!
April 26, 2016
The Business of Writing: Introduction to Amazon's Kindle Book Previewer
STOP WISHING. START DOING. c2015 by zzoplanet.
Depositphotos ID:86051516. I have been a programmer since the days when to program a computer meant flipping a series of switches on its console—and a deck of punched cards was a vast improvement.
So please forgive me if I geek out on you a bit and get technical today. I promise I will make it up to you next week. :D
Amazon tops my list of companies that I love to hate (with Microsoft and Google coming in a photo-finish second and third, in case you were wondering), but earlier this year the wit-heads behind the arrow-smile rolled out a feature that I actually like: the embeddable Kindle book previewer.
Before I get too far along, I want to give a shout to author Stacy Juba. It was via this blog post of hers that I first learned of the embeddable Kindle book previewer. Thanks, Stacy!
Why would you want to avail yourself of the Kindle book previewer?
I can think of several reasons:
The cover images are stored on Amazon's servers, not yours.The covers load faster for blog visitors.The latest cover image is always displayed.Amazon gives you access to "Preview", "Buy", and "Share" options without a visitor ever having to leave your page.
The good news is that implementing the Kindle book previewer is as easy as 1-2-3, as shown in Amazon's tutorial on this page. The process allows you to generate either a link or a chunk of HTML code.
In case you're too busy to click the link, the basic steps are:
Display the Amazon product page of the Kindle book for which you want to generate the preview link or code.
NOTE 1: If you are an Amazon Affiliate, do not display the page with your affiliate tag; Amazon's browser software doesn't know how to process that, and the page will sit and spin forever. Not to worry, however; they give you an opportunity to specify your affiliate ID in the code-generation popup window.
NOTE 2: The most compact form of the Amazon.com link for your book, without having to grind it through link-shortening software, is
http://www.amazon.com/dp/Your_Books_ASINOn the product page, click the "<Embed>" link. It is located in the same line with all the other sharing options (email, Facebook, etc.) underneath the long bar that reads "Add to List".
For example:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BLNN6XS
NOTE: If you are working off a tablet, laptop, or (God help you) an even smaller screen, you will have to scroll down a bit to find the <Embed> hyperlink.On the popup window, select either the "Get a link (URL)" (default) or "Embed on your site (HTML)" option, and then copy the result by clicking in the display area and pressing the <CTRL> and <C> keys. (To dump the contents of the paste buffer into another application, press <CTRL><V>.) These are near-universal hot-key shortcuts.
NOTE: If you have an Amazon Affiliate ID, click the link to enter your ID before you copy the code or link. Type your ID where they tell you to, and the system will update the result as you watch. Then click in the box displaying the code or link, and copy it.
If you have requested a link, you will see something like this:
https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=Your_Books_ASIN&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_5G2hxb127NHFS
&tag=Your_Amazon_Affiliate_ID
To save yourself the hassle of steps 1, 2, and 3, create a copy of the above link and replace "Your_Books_ASIN" and "Your_Amazon_Affiliate_ID", or delete all text beginning with "&tag" to the end of the string if you don't have an affiliate ID, and you're all set to embed the link.
The link code gets pasted between the "" in your <A HREF=""> HTML tag.
If you have requested an HTML fragment, you'll get:
<iframe type="text/html" width="336" height="550" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen style="max-width:100%" src="https://read.amazon.com/kp/card?asin=Your_Books_ASIN&preview=inline&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_5G2hxb127NHFS
&tag=Your_Amazon_Affiliate_ID" ></iframe>
Same drill as with the link as far as customizing this fragment for your needs, but do not delete the "></iframe> part at the end of the fragment.
Next time, I'll go into detail about how to customize the HTML to "float" the book's cover with text flowing to one side or the other, as shown below, as well as reducing the cover's size as in my sidebar's images.
Meanwhile, happy embedding and promoting!
***
Enter this great Rafflecopter giveaway
for a signed copy of KASIWC and more!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
***
All this month, you are invited to…
— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Follow Kim on Pinterest
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow
… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!
Book Musings from the Maze of Twisty Passages
Welcome to my Maze of Twisty Passages, Goodreads edition! Here I share reviews of books old and new, information about my own critically acclaimed, award-winning books, and whatever else winds its way
...more
- Kim Iverson Headlee's profile
- 339 followers
