Bernard’s Comments (group member since Jan 16, 2017)

Bernard’s comments from the Navigating Indieworld Discussing All Things Indie group.

Each author has his own way of coping with constraints surrounding him and works the best out of it.

I'm a bit like you. Although I've been retired for 11 years now, I have a lot of things to do around the house during the day. So I write when I have some free time but mostly during the evenings and late at night.

The thing is to try to keep your mind within your writing project as much as you can and it doesn't have to consist in writing all the time.

I decided to use a pseudonym which is probably mor a pen name because of the pronounciation in English of the first syllabe of my family name would sound like the first one in the word beautiful which is not the case in French. So I went for the spelling my ancestor used: Boley.

To quote this legendary song, 'What a wonderful world this is' thanks to people like you Kay.

Carole wrote: "https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

I wrote the review after I finished it sometime at the end of June 2017.- You thanked me. lol."

So sorry, I mistaked you with someone else.

Carole wrote: "Bernard wrote: "Carole wrote: "Shared- great interview. I loved your book."
Are talking about my novel or Michael's?"
Yours, Bernard- I think I read it last summer."

A review would have been appreciated considering that you liked it.

Carole wrote: "Shared- great interview. I loved your book."

Are talking about my novel or Michael's?

I did it for my novel, My Ripper Hunting Days.

https://jardinerodemerida.blogspot.com/

My Ripper Hunting Days

In my mind, writing a novel isn't writing a thesis or a dissertation where academic rules should normally be observed.

Creating a character involves, among many other aspects, having a rather good idea of the way he will speak, of his own vocabulary, his linguistic style.

My role, as an author, is building a series of scenes, casting them and letting the characters deliver what needs to be delivered, each one speaking out in his own way. It's basically what I've learned from Luigi Pirandello's 'Six Characters In Search of an Author'.

My first novel, My Ripper Hunting Days, has a first-person POV diary form. So the narrative is written in the same style the main character speaks reflecting his personality.

Being a French-Canadian, one would think French was the first language I spoke. Hélas, it wasn't.

My father decided to go study surgery in the USA where my first words were spoken. I was around 10 when we returned to Canada. I must say that learning French was more than hard for me once back in Canada, but I finally made it. One of my teachers had me read one dictionary page each day and gave me book after book to better understand the language structure, use of grammar and vocabulary.

Curiously, during my working years, everybody would tell me how good my French was and never suspected that English was the first language I spoke. As a result, I was asked to write governmental papers, prime ministers' speeches and wrote a book on water gardens.

My first novel is in English, late Victorain English and is in a diary form. So I had to read tons of books from that era to make it feel real.

We now live in Merida and, of course,I speak Spanish which I consider to be rather good.

There's also these web sites offering you some free documents and asking for your email. Once you do that, you get the free useful document, but keep receiving emails almost every day.

So there's scam and spam.

When I began my novel, I had four or five main characters in mind. The first thing I did after having an overall picture of the story I was about to write was building each one's personality, how I expected them to behave, define their past history, their strenghts and weaknesses and most particularly their inner conflict which I hide making them unpredictable to the reader. It became easier for me to then define their appearance, how the spoke, moved around, look at others.

When I placed them in a scene, they would simply act out the words I put in their mouth within their individual mold.

My Ripper Hunting Days

Thank you so much for the information and the CMYK tweaking suggestion.
I don't think the problem is limited to the blue color.

Jessica wrote: "
Hi everybody! My name is Jes Richardson and I’m a book cover designer invited here today to offer some insight, tips and tricks to help you find or make a cover that fits your budget and helps sel..."

I wouldn't trust lousey book covers comments. Comments made were these: bulletin board layout, cut and paste, filteriffic, readability, blood doesn't do this, modern knife.

The knife is an original 19th century knife the kind experts agree could hve been used by Jack the Ripper. The blood dripping is actual scanned blood drippings on a knife. The backgound images come from 1. an old Whitechapel map, hence readability was secondary for those who have a minimal knowledge of the Whitechapel murders, 2, A late-victorian era Whitechapel street again well known by most of those intrrested in JTR.

The book cover was tested with over 50 potential readers and only 1 rather negative comment which had nothing to do with those of lousywhatyoumaycallit.com comments.

Now when you have a look at the best sellers, the first question one has to ask himself is if it from one of those well known authors in which case the cover of any phone book would not have prevented them from selling their book.

The second question is how one can make a difference with his book cover. Now if you want to sell a can of tomato soup, don't go for the Cambell soup kind of label. If you need to show a potential buyer that your soup has a sort of tomato color, then you're selling your books to idiots. Just have look in the Young adult romance category and you'll find 8 out of 10 covers with this six-pack set of pecks guy on the cover. If a six pack is your idea of romance, your story better be good.
Respectfully yours,
Bernard
Oh! by the way, I've been in the communication/marketing business for some 15 years before retiring. I think I know what I'm talking about.

Wolfen wrote: "Roughseasinthemed wrote: "I think you have the right idea. Generally if the relationship is ongoing then it's reasonable to use present. If it's over, then clearly, it is past tense. "

That's pret..."

I also agree.

I would change the second 'had' verb in the sentence "I had always had problems with anger management" to avoid a redundancy. Try 'known' or 'experienced'.

Let's look at the other side of the coin. I got a 5 star review and couldn't figure out the reasons why with the comments written!!!

I think that once you've got a storyline, the second thing to do is creating the characters who will be carrying it all the way through. Each of my main characters have their own personality. I defined the way they would talk, act, their past, how they looked, the way they thought of themselves before feeding them to the lions (scenes) my story would come up with. The funny thing I felt while writing was knowing these characters wanted to take part in every single scene and wouldn't appreciate me limiting their role. A sort of 'Five Characters In Search of an Author' Pirandello play situation.

I wanted my novel, My Ripper Hunting Days, to have an anti-hero, but he had to be someone different than the usual kind we see. You know the kind of ordinary guy accomplishing things he never expected or thought he would go through and finds himself doing it. So I added a second level of anti-heroism by making him feel he had failed in his attempts to reach his goal and had him abandoning it while, in fact, he is the only one who didn't know he had actually succeeded.
My Ripper Hunting Days

Just did it.

P.D.R. wrote: "Thank you, Bernard I will have a look at your user manual but the one I've just read which came with my download only talks about how to organise your bought ebooks and how to convert their formats..."

Here the url for the pdf Calibre user manual:
https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/cali...