Update on Writing Oops & Photo Gallery

 Just a quick note to remind everyone that The Making of Matthew Wolfe is designed to add cheer to your Holiday Season as well as to help alleviate the Covid blues. Take advantage of that 20% free read on Smashwords to see if it tickles your funnybone.

For a link to Matthew Wolfe on Amazon,  click here.

For a link to Matthew Wolfe on Smashwords, click here.

 You will also find background details on the Who, What, Where, When, & Why of Matthew Wolfe on my Facebook Author Page.

For a link to Blair's Facebook Author Page, click here.

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UPDATE ON WRITING OOPS

 I plowed through the rest of the book mentioned two weeks ago, and here's what I found:

I ended up deciding that it was a pity this author had not been a newbie in the days before indie-pub. Really good potential, but yet another debut novel published before the author was ready. Simply too many things wrong to pass this book off as anything but an amateur effort. The misuse of words continued—not typos, but out-and-out incorrect words, to the extent I continued to wonder if English was the author's second language. (An even more urgent reason to have the book previewed by an expert in English usage.) Beyond that, there was a whole slew of beginner's mistakes: incorrect titles, errors in punctuation, profanities used in the presence of ladies (in Regency society), use of modern expressions, etc., etc.

And worst of all, the plot that had drawn me to the book in the first place began to deteriorate about half-way through, moving beyond the realm of "suspended disbelief" to total incredulity.

Moral of this tale: exactly what I've been preaching for the last ten years. Do not be arrogant enough to believe you're ready until you have done something to prove yourself. Enter writing contests; find a critique group; read, read, read the best in your genre; do your research. And above all, be aware that authors don't blossom, full blown, without having grown a strong stalk, waited out the bud stage, and added the fertilizer of extensive reading and research. 

I'm not saying you have to go ten years before publishing that first indie book. But please, do not shoot yourself in the foot by publishing something that's going to put off readers from any future book you write! 

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And don't forget that somewhere around 200,000 words of Writing & Editing advice are available in my Making Magic with Words.

 For a link to Magic on Amazon, click here.

 Please note that Making Magic with Words is FREE on Kindle Unlimited.

 

Earlier this week, I was rummaging around in a box of stuff that needed to be filed or thrown out or something and discovered a couple of gems I scribbled down—who knows where or when. I have no attributions, just the words I recorded in a tiny notebook I keep in my purse. (I hasten to add I read them somewhere; I cannot claim them as my own.)

"Romance is the literature of hope."

 "A writer is a writer not because she has amazing talent. A writer is a writer because, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep on writing anyway."

This Week's Photo Gallery

 

Ganesh made it to the top shelf

 

Here's a great parody a friend shared on Facebook:

 

 

And for the most spectacular photo of the week, the Milky Way - by Stephen Harry & Neil DeGrasse Tyson

For a link to Blair's website with a list of all my books, click here. 

 

Thanks for stopping by,

Grace (Blair Bancroft)