Jacqui Murray's Blog, page 144
October 22, 2014
8 Tips to Prepare for NaNoWriMo
Every year, thousands of people jump into the massive time commitment called NaNoWriMo. They vow to write 50,000 words by November 30th at midnight. Few make it, but many benefit. Here are some tips to help you if you’ve chosen to participate:
Each day, write until your mind throbs like a thumb hit with a hammer
Dinner is defined as ‘microwave’
Choose your words like steps in a minefield–no, don’t do that. Choose them like it’s a field of daisies–no danger there. Just get all those thoughts down on paper. Your goal is quantity–quality comes later.
Write until sleep hits you like a prizefighter’s punch
If you’ve been struggling with your writing, consider this an intervention. It’s a totally different approach with lots of epeople on the sidelines cheering you on. Go get ‘em!
When you need a break, read in your genre. It’s quite inspirational.
As you write, the picture you hope to create is probably Michelangelo rather than Jackson Pollock. That’s OK. You’ll fix it later.
Whoever or whatever calls you, let it go to voice mail. Except the dog. That may be too important to miss.
That’s it–eight tips. Does this sound like your sort of gig? If not, that’s OK. You have to bloom where you’re planted. You’ll find sunlight somewhere else.
Still here, pondering? Check out Hannah’s pros and cons here, and Men With Pens fun article, Are you a NoNoWriMo Failure? If you’re wondering whether you should even stick your nose under that tent, here are my thoughts on that.
More on NaNoWriMo:
23 Reasons I’m NOT Doing NaNoWriMo
How to Kickstart Your Writing Career
Jacqui Murray is the author of dozens of books (on technology in education) as well as the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. In her free time, she is editor of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.
Filed under: Book contests Tagged: nanowrimo
October 20, 2014
Writers Tip #85: Nathan Bransford’s 10 Commandments
When you read your story, does it sound off, maybe you can’t quite put your finger on it, but you know you’ve done something wrong? Sometimes–maybe even lots of times–there are simple fixes. These writer’s tips will come at you once a week, giving you plenty of time to go through your story and make the adjustments.
Nathan Bransford wears a variety of hats. He is a former literary agent for Curtis Brown Ltd., former social media manager at CNET, well-regarded how-to-get-published blogger, and author of the Jacob Wonderbar series as well as a variety of books on writing and getting published. The hat I like best is his blogger gig where he shares everything in a friendly approachable, believable voice.
So when I find his list of 10 Commandments for a Happy Writer, I stop to read them, even though they’re a couple of years old. If you’re struggling with a novel, trying to bounce back from negative criticism, or wondering why you ever thought you could write, this is a good list for you:
Writers aren’t generally known as the happiest lot. As a recent Guardian survey of some top writers shows, even the best ones don’t particularly enjoy it all that much. And in case you think this is a new development, an 1842 letter from Edgar Allen Poe to his publisher recently surfaced in which he was found apologizing for drinking so much and begging for money. But believe it or not, writing and happiness can, in fact, go together….here are ten ways for a writer to stay positive:
Enjoy the present. Writers are dreamers, and dreamers tend to daydream about the future while concocting wildly optimistic scenarios that involve bestsellerdom, riches, and interviews with Ryan Seacrest. In doing so they forget to enjoy the present. I call this the “if only” game. You know how it goes: if only I could find an agent, then I’ll be happy. When you have an agent, then it becomes: if only I could get published, then I’ll be happy. And so on. The only way to stay sane in the business is to enjoy every step as you’re actually experiencing it. Happiness is not around the bend. It’s found in the present. Because writing is pretty great — otherwise why are you doing it?
Maintain your integrity. With frustration comes temptation. It’s tempting to try and beat the system, whether that’s by having someone else write your query, lying to the people you work with, or, you know, concocting the occasional fake memoir. This may even work in the short term, but unless you are Satan incarnate (and I hope you’re not) it will steadily chip away at your happiness and confidence, and your heart will shrivel and blacken into something they show kids in health class to scare them away from smoking. Don’t do it.
Recognize the forces that are outside of your control. While it’s tempting to think that it’s all your fault if your book doesn’t sell, or your agent’s fault or the industry’s fault or the fault of a public that just doesn’t recognize your genius, a lot of times it’s just luck not going your way. Chance is BIG in this business. Huge. Gambling has nothing on the incredibly delicate and complex calculus that results in a book taking off. Bow before the whims of fate, because chance is more powerful than you and your agent combined.
Don’t neglect your friends and family. No book is worth losing a friend, losing a spouse, losing crucial time with your children. Hear me? NO book is worth it. Not one. Not a bestseller, not a passion project, nothing. Friends and family first. THEN writing. Writing is not an excuse to neglect your friends and family. Unless you don’t like them very much.
Don’t Quit Your Day Job. Quitting a job you need to pay the bills in order to write a novel is like selling your house and putting the proceeds into a lottery ticket. You don’t have to quit your job to write. There is time in the day. You may have to sacrifice your relaxation time or sleep time or reality television habit, but there is time. You just have to do it.
More? Click here…
The ‘Ten Commandments’ advice approach is popular. Here are three more lists from experts:
Ten Commandments from Richard Bausch
Henry Miller’s Ten Commandments of Writing
The 10 Commandments of Fiction Writing
More on being a writer:
8 Things Writers Can Do No One Else Can
15 Traits Critical to a Successful Writer
It’s OK to Fail Over and Over and Try Again
To have these tips delivered to your email, click here.
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is the author/editor of dozens of books on integrating tech into education, webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics.
Filed under: writers, writers tips, writing Tagged: 10 commandments, writers life, writers tips
October 17, 2014
Book Review: Law of Primitive Man
The Law of Primitive Man: A Study in Comparative Legal Dynamics
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I have a long-standing passion for early man. He is my ancestor. He laid the foundation for what we as Modern Man accomplishes. How did he survive in a feral world where his skin was too thin (unlike the rhino) and his teeth too dull (unlike the sabertooth)? What was his magic tool? To answer these questions, I read the entire Aliso Viejo CA library on prehistoric man. I have a good idea how we made it through the Plio-Pleistocene, evolved from Homo habilis to become the workhorse of the human species–Homo erectus.
Erectus was a man’s man with his thick skull (from being beaten about the head too often, paleoanthropologists speculate) and his advanced tools (Acheulian by then). As I studied his world (he survived longer than any other human species to date), I hoped to find the beginnings of religion, culture, music, why we decorate our bodies with jewelry and paint.
And where did our acceptance of laws come from?
Much has been written about the seeds of religion, music, jewelry, but not the beginnings of jurisprudence. Why do we voluntarily submit ourselves to the subjective rule of another? We allow ourselves to be ostracized or jailed. We change our behavior to suit laws that are grounded only in the geography in which we live. I read everything I could find about modern primitive people, but there aren’t many left. Man has ‘civilized’ most of our globe and few isolated cultural groups remain. In the days of Margaret Mead, anthropologists studied many groups of primitive men–the Bunyoro, the Yanomamo, the Dinka–but within a hundred years, most of the tribes had disappeared.
Possibly the last comprehensive study (to my knowledge, though I am not a trained anthropologist) was done by E. Adamson Hoebel and his ambitious survey of five cultural tribes in The Law of Primitive Man: A Study in Comparative Legal Dynamics (Harvard College 1954)–by ‘primitive’ he means ‘non-literate’. He starts with an overview of primitive law, discussing its cultural background, his methods of studying the tribes, and the fundamental legal concepts he applied in the study of primitive law. His subjects are the Eskimo, the iFugao, the Comanche/Kiowa/Cheyenne, the Trobriand Islanders and the Ashanti. I knew what I was in for with this treatise when it took Hoebel eleven pages to define law as A social norm is legal if its neglect or infraction is regularly met, in threat or in fact, by the application of physical force by an individual or group possessing the socially recognized privilege of so acting.
Hoebel develops his study via a discussion of each society. As you read my notes, remember that the book was written in 1954.
Eskimos lived in groups of about one hundred, which not surprisingly is also the group size paleo-anthropologists speculate that Homo erectus lived. It is considered the right size community for intimate face-to-face interactions, allows for a high degree of uniformity of their culture and language
They believe in the supernatural, though admit they don’t understand it and are content to not understand it
They have nine postulates that underlie their society, beliefs such as:
life is hard and the margin of safety small
all natural resources are free or common goods
unproductive members of society cannot be supported
Apprehension of unpredictable misfortune drives Eskimos to believe they are caused by spirits
Magic and religion rather than law direct most of their actions
Much of Eskimo law is communicated by Hoebel via examples. For example, an irritable foster-father declared to his adopted son that he wished the boy were dead. That the boy was not worth the food he ate. The youth declared he would never eat again. That night he went out naked into the snow, lay down and froze to death
TheIFugao have a similar set of postulates, including:
the bilateral kinship group is the primary social and legal unit, consisting of the dead, the living and the yet-unborn
an individual’s responsibility to his kinship group takes precedence over any self-interest
the kinship group shall control all basic capital goods and provide protection for its members and punish outside aggression against them
Capital goods may be lent at interest
A debt never dies
Rice is the one good food
By the time I finished reading the legal details of five tribes, their rationale, their unwritten rules, their easy mix of objective and subjective, I had a nascent understanding of how our earliest ancestors might have determined their laws and why. It amazes me how much time and effort Hoebel put into this research, into synthesizing the details, into sifting through the disparate threads of their culture to come to his conclusions. That thought process is arguably as fascinating as his conclusions.
On balance, I recommend this book to anyone with a curiosity about our roots and how we’ve ended up where we are today.
More on early man book reviews:
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is the author/editor of dozens of books on integrating tech into education, webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics.
Filed under: book reviews Tagged: early man
October 15, 2014
6 Tips That Solve Half Your Tech Writing Problems
You hate tech. All you want to do is write, but lately, that requires a Masters in Geekery. Your word processing tool of choice always seems to break when you are on a roll–the computer freezes, system crashes, document disappears, an error code pops up that wants you to do something with ten syllables or lose all your files. None of it makes sense and you long for the world when the worst problem was a broken pencil.
Before you say words your children shouldn’t hear, try these six quick solutions:
Is Power on?
When you’re talking to tech folk, their first question always centers around whether your computer system is getting power. Surprisingly, this is often why it doesn’t work–I know, who would guess? Clear this as a reason before moving on by making sure all the working pieces are getting the power they need. Here’s a checklist:
Are all plugs in wall sockets
Are all cables connected to the computer? An easy way to check both of these: Is the power light on the keyboard and the monitor?
Is the internet working? That has plugs too, so check those.
Are headphones plugged in?
Are you logging in under your name?
Everyone knows to confirm their password, but few people think to check the log-in name. If you set up separate profiles for family members, one of them might have forgotten to log off the last time they used the computer.
If you take your computer to work, someone might have tried to access their online or networked account through your computer and forgotten to return it to your settings. If you can’t log in, or your desktop doesn’t have files and folders it should, check to see who the log-in name is.
Try a different browser
All browsers are not created equally. I have a lot more problems with IE than Firefox and more with Firefox than Chrome. Yes, you counted right. I have three browsers on my computer because they are all somewhat quirky. If I can’t load a site in one browser, I try another. I don’t care WHY it won’t work in one if it works in another. All I care is that I got to the website. It’s become the first trouble-shooting tool I use when a website doesn’t work.
It’s not just me, either. It’s the Universe. You’ll often see suggestions on websites–Works better with the *** browser. Coding and scripts and stuff are different in different browsers, which makes them act differently on websites. That’s as technical as I can get about the reasons.
In the geek world, which browser is best is a hot topic. The only point Chrome and Firefox users agree on is they’re better than IE. Here are a few articles with more on this debate:
Now is the Time to Switch Back to Firefox
Chrome vs. Firefox
Switch computers
One other filter you can use in identifying the cause of your tech problem is to try a different computer. If it works there, it means the problem is in your system.
Repeat
If something doesn’t work the first time, do it again. Why is this so often effective? It’s called ‘user error’. You typed a password in wrong, or left a blank space without even knowing it. This is why forms always ask you to type an email address twice. It’s not likely you’d have the same typo twice. Even websites are starting to recommend this. Learn from the experts and adopt ‘repeat’ as a viable solution for tech problems.
Reboot
This works more often than you’d think. Here’s why: When you turn your computer on, it goes through lots of organizing and prioritizing to get your desktop looking just the way you want it. Sometimes, that arranging gets undone by your activities. Pieces get lopped off, forgotten, like DNA mutations. Not your fault, just the way it is. The computer still works, but not quite the same.
When you shut down and restart, it closes everything, stores them away, and then brings them back out in the proper order. Be sure you ‘shut down’ from the Start button (for Windows folk), not by pushing the power button.
That’s it from my end, but check out Lifehacker and FoxNews for their list of common problems and solutions.
More on tech problem solving:
12 Spring Cleaning Steps for Your Computer
Tech Tip for Writers #60: How to Add Shortcuts to the Desktop
Tech Tip for Writers #59: Shortkey for the Copyright Symbol
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is the author/editor of dozens of books on integrating tech into education, webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics.
Filed under: tech tips for writers Tagged: problem-solving
October 13, 2014
Writers Tips #84: 20 Hints that Mark the Novice Writer
When you read your story, does it sound off, maybe you can’t quite put your finger on it, but you know you’ve done something wrong? Sometimes–maybe even lots of times–there are simple fixes. These writer’s tips will come at you once a week, giving you plenty of time to go through your story and make the adjustments.
If you believe in formulaic writing, there is no better self-help writer’s manual than Evan Marshall’s The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing (Writers House Books 1998). Not only does Marshall lay out the exact steps required to produce a publishable novel, he includes a wonderfully pithy section called “How to be your own Editor”.
Mine is dog-eared, highlighted and pretty much unreadable from the dozens of times I’ve scoured it during the editing process of my three novels. I can’t list all the hints he shares, but I’ll give you some. For more, you’ll have to buy the book:
Make sure time tracks correctly in your story
Make sure the character’s goals are clear in your writing
Make sure character behave logically in light of what has already happened to them and in light of what they know
Use adverbs sparingly. If you decide to use one, use only one
Write in the language that comes naturally to your POV character, be that formal, casual, slanged
In almost all cases, you can strengthen a sentence by removing very
Be specific. It’s not just a dog–it’s a toy poodle or a white Labrador
Use similes and metaphor that would occur to the POV character
Use the five senses
Give description in action, not narrative
Treat walk-on characters as furniture
Write in the positive. Tell what is, not what isn’t
Delete redundancies like past history, tall skyscrapers
Get rid of qualifiers like a bit, a little, fairly
Watch for circumlocution
Watch for autonomous body parts like His lips curved into a smile
Get rid of began to, started
Don’t tell reader something twice
Don’t use mitigators like appeared to, seemed to
Limit was, is, were
I wanted to share other opinions about the Marshall Plan–it comes as a guidebook (which is the book I purchased), a workbook (bought that too but didn’t use it), and fairly pricey software–but the only 2014 (or 2013) review I found was Luc Reid‘s. If you love the book like I do and are considering the software, you might pop by his well-balanced informative post.
More on writing tips for the novice:
Writers Tip #56: Don’t Repeat Yourself
13 Tips from Bob Mayer’s Novel Writer’s Toolkit
To have these tips delivered to your email, click here.
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is the author/editor of dozens of books on integrating tech into education, webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics.
Filed under: editing, writers tips Tagged: novice writer, writers tips
October 10, 2014
Book Review: Meeting Prehistoric Man
Meeting Prehistoric Man
by GHR Von Koenigswald
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Meeting Prehistoric Man (Thames and Hudson 1956) by GHR Von Koenigswald is a journey in discovery of early man as paleoanthropologists understood him circa 1950. Research was well-established in places like East Africa’s Olduvai Gorge and South Africa’s Witwatersrand, so Koenigswald traveled elsewhere in search of our roots:
to Java where a 1.8 million year old skullcap of a young boy was discovered in 1936 (Mojokerto child). The youngster suffered a violent death—the hind part of the skull was crushed by a mighty blow and in places the bones were not broken, but telescoped one over the other as is only possible with fresh bone growth. The upper jaw was also broken. Scientists speculate he might have been killed by Gigantopithecus (a pre-human species). This was followed up by Eugene Du Bois’ discovery of Pithecanthropus erectus, or Java Man, what DuBois considered the missing link but turned out to be a wonderful representation of Homo erectus.
to China where he discovered 1.8 million year old bones of Gigantopithecus, a giant pre-Australopithecus early man. This is also where the 800,000 year old bones of Lantian Man were discovered in the Shaanxi province
to South Africa where the 2 million year old bones of an Australopithecine were found in a limestone cave called Sterkfontain Cave. Dubbed Mrs Ples, this is the world’s most complete skull of Australopithecus africanus, and were discovered by Dr Robert Broom and John Robinson in April 1947.
To Europe
to Sussex Forger and Lascaux Cave
More recently, Gran Dolina in Spain has been a site of an 800,000 year-old shelter inhabited by Homo antecessor. These representatives of early man present some spectacularly “modern” characteristics, particularly its face, together with other traits which are similar to those of Homo ergaster.
to East Africa where a plethora of early man’s bones have been found over time. These include:
Turkana Boy (1.6 million year old Homo ergaster. This early man had no apelike reliance on trees. His narrow pelvis and barrel-like chest emphasize bipedalism. A narrow pelvis in females implies a constricted birth canal, limiting the amount of brain growth before birth, and prolonging infancy, as in modern humans. A reduced digestive tract indicates a diet containing more meat and tubers.
Nariokotome Boy–the 1.6 million year-old skeleton of a 10-12 year old individual (generally considered male). The teeth are unworn. Shovel-shaped incisors. S/he was 5’3″ (168 cm) and may have reached 6’0″ (183 cm) at maturity. His/her cause of death is unknown but there are no signs of trauma or toothmarks that might be due to death by a predator. S/he may have died from septicemia following an infected jaw, and fell face down into a shallow swamp at Nariokotome, on the western side of Lake Turkana, in Kenya. Omo River at that time was flowing in a huge braided stream over the area. The specimen is considered by some as ergaster, but to most as erectus. The relative completeness of this specimen led to many influential ideas about this species.
Chellean Man—1.2 million year old fairly complete braincase (size approx. 1050 cc) of Homo erectus discovered
Pinhead—800k year old Homo erectus skull found in Olduvai Gorge.
Some of my favorite quotes from this book include:
Man did not address his inquiries to the earth on which he stood until a remarkably late stage in the development of his desire for knowledge. And the answers he received to the questions ‘Where do I come from?’, ‘What is man?’, although they made him poorer by a few illusions, gave him in compensation a knowledge of his past that is vaster than he could ever have dreamed. For it emerged that the history of life was his history too.
As late as 1650, Archbishop Ussher of Ireland said that our earth was created on Oct. 4, 4004 b.c.
Today, hippos are confined to Africa, but as fossils they also occur in Europe, India and Java.
A single discovery may change the whole state of affairs
To judge by the thigh bones, Peking Man was about five feet two inches tall in the case of the male with the female some five inches less
After all this, there could be no doubt that the orangutan, which is today confined to Borneo and Sumatra, was originally a native of China as well.
the region of Borneo was somehow connected with Asia. Java itself lay beneath the sea until towards the end of the Tertiary.
As an aficionado of early man, I found this book highly readable, detailed enough to learn from without the complicated jargon that only a PhD in paleoanthropology can understand.
More on my early man:
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is the author/editor of dozens of books on integrating tech into education, webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics.
Filed under: book reviews Tagged: early man, research
October 8, 2014
Amazon accepting submissions from authors ($1,500 advance on offer)
Somehow I missed this, but my dear efriend Dianne didn’t. I’m reposting her blog on this. I know a few people who should get submitting!
Originally posted on Dianne Gray author:
This morning I received an email from Amazon. Iâm not a US citizen, nor do I have a U.S. bank account and U.S. social security number  â but Iâm sure many of you out there do, so take a peek at this.
*******
Dear Author,
Thanks for subscribing to receive updates on Amazonâs new publishing program! Weâre excited to announce that weâll be opening for submissions in a couple weeks.
Weâll be welcoming submissions for English-language books in Romance, Mystery & Thriller, and Science Fiction & Fantasy genres. Any adult with a valid U.S. bank account and U.S. social security number or tax identification number is eligible.
It only takes 15 minutes to complete a submission. Here are the things that you should prepare to successfully submit your book:
Complete, never-before-published manuscript & book cover image - Weâre looking for 50,000 words or more in Word format and a book coverâ¦
View original 252 more words
Filed under: Book contests, publishing, writing Tagged: Amazon
October 6, 2014
Writers Tips #78: 8 Writing Tricks You Won’t Read Anywhere Else
I got these suggestions from an internet class I never signed up for. One day, they began arriving in my inbox, bit by bit for the full term of some college’s semester. Students submitted stories for grading, essays for peer review, questions to a discussion board of fellow-students. The anonymous professor had a down-to-earth approach to teaching that made sense to me. I found myself looking forward to her tips, then I copied them into my ‘How to Write’ folder. I’ve saved them all these years, and now I’ll share them with you.
BTW–If you’re the writer of these ideas, please send me a note so I can give you credit.
THE POWER OF THREE
Three items in a series, separated by commas that create a poetic rhythm or add support for a point, especially when the items have their own modifiers.
“In those woods, I would spend hours (1)listening to the wind rustle the leaves, (2)climbing the trees and spying on nesting birds, and (3)giving the occasional wild growl to scare away any pink-flowered girls who might be riding their bikes too close to my secret entra nce.” (Todd, college freshman)
THE SPICE OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
Non-literal comparisons add “spice” to writing and can help paint a more vivid picture for the reader. Include examples of similes, metaphors, hyperbole, onomatopoeia, personification, symbolism, irony, alliteration, assonance, etc.
“When we first moved into the house on Orchid Street, I didn’t like it. My room was hot, cramped, and stuffy as a train in the middle of the Sahara. And the looming skeleton-like gray and white frame of the place scared me.” (Teri, grade 7)
THE EFFECTIVENESS OF DETAIL
Add vivid and specific information to your writing to clarify and create word pictures. Use sensory details to help the reader visualize the person, place, thing, or idea that you are describing.
“It’s one of those experiences where you want to call a radio station and tell your problems to some guy who calls himself Dr. Myke, but how isn’t more of a doctor than your pet hamster is, one of those experiences where you want to read a sappy Harlequin novel and listen to Barry Manilow with a box of bonbons as your best friends, one of those experiences where you wouldn’t be surprised if someone came up to you and asked exactly what time yesterday you were born. Yeah, one of those.” (Ileana)
THE BAM! OF REPETITION
Repeat a symbol, sentence starter, important word, etc. to underline its importance.
“The veranda is your way only shelter away from the sister in bed asleep, away from the brother that plays in the tree house in the field, away from your chores that await you.” (Leslie)
THE POTENCY OF EXPANDING THE MOMENT
Take a moment that you would ordinarily speed past, and develop it fully to make your reader take notice.
“But no, I had to go to school. And as I said before, I had to listen to my math teacher preach about numbers and letters and figures…I was tired of hearing her annoying voice lecture about ‘a=b divided by x.’ I glared at the small black hands on the clock, silently threatening them to go faster. But they didn’t listen, I caught myself wishing I were on white sand and looking down at almost transparent pale-blue water with Josh at my side…I don’t belong in some dumb math class. I belong on the beach, where I can soak my feet in caressing water and let the wind wander its way through my chestnut-colored hair and sip Dr. Pepper all day long. “ (Shelly)
THE SURPRISE OF HUMOR
Whenever possible and appropriate, inject a little humor to keep your reader awake.
“He laughed? I’m nothing. I’m the rear end of nothing, and the devil himself smiled at me.” (Andrew)
THE ORIGINALITY OF HYPHENATED MODIFIERS
When you connect two adjectives or adverbs together with a hyphen, it lends an air of originality and sophistication to your writing.
“She’s got this blond hair, with dark highlights, parted in the middle, down past her shoulders, and straight as a preacher. She’s got big green eyes that all guys admire and all girls envy, and this I’m-so-beautiful-and-I-know-it body, you know, like every other super model.” (Ilena)
SKILLFUL USE OF REPETITION: THE FULL-CIRCLE ENDING
When you include an image or phrase at the beginning of a piece of writing and then mention it again at the end, it gives your piece a sense of closure.
Beginning:
“Hey you, with the green and neon-orange striped shoelaces, you who always pulled my old frazzled white one in math. Hey you, who always added your versions of ‘art’ to my math problems for Mrs. Caton’s class so that 9 x 7 = 64 turned out to be a train with Puffs of smoke and two boxcars and made me get an 83 instead of a 93 since Mrs. C. doesn’t count locomotives as correct answers.”
Ending:
“Now Justin still sits behind me in math with his neon-green and orange striped shoelaces and pulls on my old white frazzled ones. He still draws zombies on my homework, but he hasn’t dumped another pitcher of Kool-Aid on me – – not yet at least. Oh, and by the way, in case you’re wondering, his first words when he opened his eyes were, ‘It was James Kenton who hid your clothes and made you walk around in a chicken suit…I’m not that mean.” (Liz)
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Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is the author/editor of dozens of books on integrating tech into education, webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics.
Filed under: homeschool, words, writers, writers resources, writers tips, writing Tagged: good writing, writers resources, writing tips, writing tricks
October 3, 2014
Book Review: Deadly Deceit
Deadly Deceit
by Mari Hannah
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Given a choice (assuming no new Jack Reacher novels are out), I will choose a police procedural as my weekly reading. Since L.J. Sellers won’t write enough Detective Jackson novels, I have been forced to cast a wider net. I ran into British Detective Chief Inspector Kate Daniels, the star of Mari Hannah’s “Deadly Deceit” thanks to my good efriend, Rebecca Bradley. This is Hannah’s third of four books about a Northumberland-based team of crime stoppers trying to unravel a triptych of seemingly unrelated crimes–a fire that killed a father and his infant son, an old man who collapsed in the street and was robbed of his life savings, and an old woman who died in a hideous multi-car pile-up–but the autopsy showed she was killed first, likely for her million dollar lottery ticket. The plotting is fast, tight, and unpredictable, but it’s the way Daniels thinks that makes this story a stand-out.
This is a character-driven story, centered around DCI Kate Daniels. She is honest, hard-working, scrubby when necessary, strong in her opinions but open-minded to those of others. She has a tight circle of players who contribute to her detecting skills and each is better than the other. She’s obsessed with her job, career-intense, but the story is real enough to show how despite Daniels’ best efforts, her personal life (in the form of a partner she’s madly in love with but who may not square with Daniels’ career) spills over. It’s intriguing to listen in as she addresses each decision.
Another piece I love about this series is the very British way it is presented. Here are some snippets:
didn’t answer straight away
bit of a break
Dixon kept shtum
a thought occurred that really wound Daniels up
picked up her clobber and left the room
clued-up detective
it’s a dog’s breakfast if you ask me
Overall, a fascinating story. Now I’m waiting for the fifth in the series. Mari? How’s it going? Can I get you coffee?
If you’re looking for more on Mari Hannah, here’s Rebecca’s interview with her. And for news of the series being opted for pictures, check out Mari’s blog.
More book reviews:
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughterâs journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is the author/editor of dozens of books on integrating tech into education, webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Todayâs Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics.Â
Filed under: book reviews Tagged: detectives, murder mystery, police procedural
October 1, 2014
Top Ten Marketing Tips for Your Ebook
This post is for Alex Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writers Support Group. Click the link for details on what #IWSG means and how to join. You will also find a list of bloggers signed up to the challenge that are worth checking out. The first Wednesday of every month, we all post our thoughts, fears or words of encouragement for fellow writers.
This month is the one year anniversary of this group. Instead of an insecurity, we’re sharing tips on writing, publishing, and marketing. Here are my top ten tips on marketing:
Spend a few minutes a day working on the cover bio – “He divides his time between Kabul and Tierra del Fuego.” But then get back to the work of writing. (credit: Roddy Doyle)
When do you start marketing? When you run out of words to write in your book.
Nothing says ‘marketing’ like spray-and-pray: Post to blogs, Twitter, Pinterest, FB, LinkedIn. Comment on other people’s blogs, tweets, FB stream, LinkedIn discussions. Do this a lot!
Marketing is like Groundhog Day. Every morning, wake up and do everything under #3. And then repeat.
The key to marketing: Get to the part quickly where readers give a s***. They don’t like to waste time.
Marketing is baby steps. Doing something–(see #3 and #4)–anything–lessons the panic of wondering “What the f*** do I do now?”
If speaking nicely about yourself feels like choking on a chicken bone, get over it. It’s like the Heimlich Maneuver–it must be done or your book will die.
When trying a new marketing approach, be a tad on the wildly optimistic side.
Who hasn’t found a room s/he can’t dominate? Pick that room. Share your good news.
The shortest distance between two people is a good laugh. Remember that when you’re marketing.
More humor for writers:
Do You Really Want to Try to Earn a Living as a Writer?
Inspirational and Humorous Quotes–Part I
Jacqui Murray is the author of dozens of books (on technology in education) as well as the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. In her free time, she is editor of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.
Filed under: humor, marketing, writing Tagged: iwsg
