When you work for yourself, you are the boss. But in my case, I have a different boss. She is furry, the Queen Bee of the household, and definitely in charge of me.
Meet Petunia:
If I do not pet her, she will dock my pay. She watches me to make sure I am always working and not goofing off.
The boss is always watching!
Hope you enjoyed this fun little post. Remember to pet a cat this weekend! It’s a good, soothing practice before a hectic Monday.
Have a wonderful evening, folks!
I applied for a job editing children’s books, but I didn’t get it. However, I was one of fifty-seven applicants, and I made it to the top five. My editing sample was well-received!
This tells me that my work is paying off. I wanted to share that success story with my readers today. I hope everyone has an equally successful week.
Happy Monday!
Every day, I grow in my business and my life. I think back to my first foray into the editorial world, my high school internship in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. At the time, I didn’t know anything about the world of editing or publishing.
I recall sitting down with my very first editor. I hired her to edit Taking 1960, the mystery novel that would eventually be published by Oaklight. We were in the office of the now defunct Bucks County Writer and she had a notebook in her lap. She asked me a number of questions pertaining to my goals regarding the manuscript and what particular points I wanted her to consider as she edited the book. I was fairly dumbfounded and had no idea what to say.
“Um, just edit it?”
To this day, every time I embark on a new project, I think back to how small and confused I felt sitting across from her. I admired her and wanted to be just like her—Super Editor Woman to the Rescue. When I am approached by a new client, even today, I think to myself, “What would she do?”
If you’re reading this, Super Editor Woman, I hope you know what an inspiration you were.
There are so many things to consider when you’re taking on a new job. You want to deliver a great result, but you don’t want to offend. For example, I know a poet who is extremely against the insertion of punctuation into any of her writing. When her first poem was published, she noticed that an editor had inserted a period and a comma to make the piece more readable. She was absolutely furious.
We could nit-pick all day about the definitions of style, voice, and what it means to one writer in contrast to another, but what it comes down to is that we must communicate clearly and be very aware of each move that we make. There’s such a thing as being too careful, but we have to find that happy medium.
As I grow in my business and my life, this can only serve as a reminder that good communication is essential to an enduring business relationship. It may sound simple, but sometimes it’s the simple things that escape us.
Every day is a journey. I’m doing my best, Super Editor Woman!
What is the number one thing that bothers you the most about grammar and punctuation?
We all have something. Even a good editor has something they have a particular amount of trouble with. Sometimes they have trouble with it because the times are changing around them, and their viewpoint is staying the same. In every field of study, no matter what it is, things transform with the times, and some of us are left in the dark, stubbornly saying, “Well, I liked the way we used to do it, and I’m going to keep doing it that way, so there!”
Even a single space can cause an argument.
I grew up with a typewriter. When I was a kid, we got our first green-screen word processors for free from someone that my mother worked with. I was content. While families that had more money were getting computers, I just wanted to write, so I didn’t care what the thing did as long as words came out.
I don’t remember much about elementary school. The few things that I do remember involve words, punctuation, and grammar. I remember my second grade teacher, Mrs. Charles, handing out a list of commonly misspelled words, seeing “the” among them, and thinking, What idiot would actually misspell the word ‘the’? In retrospect, I realize that a lot of people misspell that word, especially these days, on the internet, where a callous disregard for the English language seems commonplace, and “teh” is for whatever reason accepted in place of “the”. Excuse me while I set aside my soapbox.
The most important thing that I remember from elementary school was what Mrs. Charles taught me about periods.
“Children, always use two spaces after a period.” In later grades, we would be corrected on our papers if we used only one space after a period. One space was considered wrong, wrong, wrong!
Even a single space can cause an argument.
I know what you’re thinking. Some of you may have been taught the same thing that I was taught. Others may insist, “Two spaces after a period is wrong, wrong, wrong!”
I decided to delve into this debacle a while ago, to figure out why there are so many differing opinions on the issue. What I discovered was quite fascinating– at least to me– and had everything to do with changing times, and the advancement of technology. Here’s what Grammar Girl says about the two space rule:
“Most typewriter fonts are what are called monospaced fonts. That means every character takes up the same amount of space. An ‘i’ takes up as much space as an ‘m,’ for example. When using a monospaced font, where everything is the same width, it makes sense to type two spaces after a period at the end of a sentence to create a visual break. For that reason, people who learned to type on a typewriter were taught to put two spaces after a period at the end of a sentence.”
Ah-ha! Not only did I learn how to type on a typewriter, but I’m sure that Mrs. Charles did, too. And so did my other teachers in elementary school, middle school, junior high, and high school. So, naturally, I have been using two spaces after a period ever since. When I surf the internet reading about this subject, I see a number of claims that using two spaces “adds to the work”, but if it comes naturally to you, how is it “work”?
I find it extremely difficult to type anything other than two spaces after a period. This is all fine and dandy– let’s face it, it is a purely subjective issue in many ways– until, of course, the stubborn two-spacer heads to a publisher, or, much like yours truly, edits for a living.
Oh, dear! I’m an editor. No matter what your argument concerns– spacing, straight quotes or curled, whether to place a period after an ellipses, or what font to use –you have to go with the times and accept whatever procedure is most common in the publishing world today. I will have to train myself out of “typewriter mode” and “get with it”, as it were.
Readers: What grammar or punctuation-related issue do you find most difficult to deal with, or adapt to?
The cover page and the body of the novel
The first sentence is the most powerful. The best blurb is the shortest and the most succinct. The greatest query letter grabs you by the collar and shakes, hard. Preparing a manuscript for submission is probably the most nerve wracking experience there is, next to waiting several months for an answer.
Having worked in acquisitions, I can tell you that your submission will be thrown out the window—figuratively and perhaps literally—if you do not exert a degree of professionalism. The following are general guidelines for your manuscript. I will discuss blurbs, the synopsis, and the query letter in other posts.
Rather than follow these to the letter, make sure that you carefully review the publisher’s guidelines before submitting your manuscript.
Remember to:
Double-space your submission.
Use font size 10 or 12. You don’t want it to be too small or too big.
Make sure that you have a proper cover page.
The pages should be numbered: page numbers on the bottom right is fine.
The font should be readable, either Times New Roman or Calibri. I prefer Times New Roman.
Don’t:
Do not use any fancy fonts. It may look good to you, but the publisher will not like it.
Your cover page is just a cover page: it doesn’t have to be gorgeous. No images, no fancy fonts, no pretty colors.
The “no fancy fonts” rule also applies to chapter or section headings. Cursive may fit your Romance novel, but let the publisher decide how they want the font in accordance with how they print their books or release e-books.
Generally, a section break is indicated with ***. This is subject to change depending on the publisher. Just don’t use anything else. Some examples of what not to do include:
)O(
+ + +
@@
~ ~ ~
I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Simplicity and professionalism is key.
How do I make a cover page?
The first page of your manuscript should be your cover page. Use a page break to make a nice blank page before your first chapter. In the top left hand corner of the blank page, input the following information in size twelve or size ten font, depending on the font size you use throughout the book.
Name:
Pen name:
Genre:
Words:
Address:
Phone number:
Email address:
Toward the middle of the page, input the title and your name (or the name you are publishing under). When I prepared Taking 1960 for submission to publishers, I kept all this information left-aligned. You want everything to be simple, basic, and to the point.
To sum it up:
Simplicity is key
Always follow publisher guidelines
Every publishing house is different
Most importantly: Be professional in your presentation!
Point of view in a story or a novel can be tricky. Chances are, if you are writing a novel, then you have come across some kind of problem with point of view in the past. Point of view (or PoV) is the perspective from which you are writing.
Before we delve deeper into this topic, allow me to present a brief overview of PoV. This article will concentrate on the three most common points of view– First person, second person, and third person.
First person can be very difficult to write in, although many authors manage it well. My first short story, “For I have Sinned“, was written in first person. This PoV was essential for the atmosphere that I wanted to create.
In first person point of view, we write directly from the main character’s perspective. This PoV is obviously very limiting.
Here is an example of first person point of view, taken directly from my short story, “For I Have Sinned“:
I touch the tender area around my eye and feel the scratch on my cheek; David’s cheap wedding band had sliced my skin the night before.
Note that this story is also written in present tense. I will touch on present, past, and future tense in another article. For now, before I get you thoroughly confused, we’ll continue with PoV.
In second person point of view, it is as though the author is speaking directly to the reader. This PoV reminds me of the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books that I used to read when I was a kid. This PoV is seldom used.
Here is an example of second person point of view:
You walk down the dark corridor, reaching for the gun in your holster. You hear a strange noise and you startle, your heart pounding in your chest.
In third person point of view, multiple characters can tell the story. This PoV is much less limiting than the other two, and is the most common. Most problems enter the picture when one point of view changes too quickly to another point of view. I’ll explain that in a moment.
Here is an example of third person point of view, taken from my novel, Check Out Time:
Naomi stared down at her feet. She wasn’t really listening to the pastor. She couldn’t help but think that it was a little silly that someone who didn’t really know her mother was leading the ceremony.
The biggest mistake that writers make is suddenly switching from one PoV to another. I personally made this mistake because I was thinking of how I was seeing the story in my head. I was thinking of it as though it were a movie, and I wasn’t considering how it would come across to the reader. I had this problem with Check Out Time.
I had one chapter toward the end of the novel where the PoV switched several times between Naomi and two or three other characters. I did this because I wanted the reader to see how everything that was occurring was interrelated. Instead, I only succeeded in confusing my editor, who would become engrossed in one point of view, only to be suddenly ripped away, and thrown into a completely different point of view.
Here is an example of a confusing switch from one point of view to another:
Robert looked lovingly at Alice and took her hand. “I love you,” he said. She smiled and kissed him, being a woman of action, rather than words. They strolled across the lawn and toward the sidewalk.
He looked on with pride, content to see his son so happy. It was a beautiful day, and they were a beautiful couple. Ned walked back inside, and shut the door.
Imagine that Ned had absolutely nothing to do with the entire chapter, other than the fact that he was standing in the front yard surveying this romantic scene. I think it’s an issue of atmosphere. The writer wants to paint a full picture of what is going on, and they want to include everything, thinking that it will draw the reader in. This can also be an issue of patience; the author may be trying to show the reader too much at once. For whatever reason, the author wants the reader to know that Ned is proud of his son, Robert.
On the contrary, this confuses the reader. Suddenly, we are left wondering, “Wait, I didn’t realize Robert had a son!” A split second later, we are thinking, “Okay, um . . . Ned was standing there. But where did he come from? Everything was from Robert’s perspective, and now all of a sudden we are looking at everything from Ned’s point of view. Huh?”
There are more subtle mistakes to be made, of course. Regardless of how the mistake is made, it often involves the author writing from one character’s point of view, and then doing one of two things:
a.) We are suddenly and without warning seeing everything from another character’s point of view, such as in the above example.
b.) The story shifts to another point of view very briefly, perhaps for only one sentence or one paragraph.
For example, in one scene, we are with Don and Lacy while they are having dinner at Duffy’s, and all of a sudden there is this brief interlude that is something along the lines of, “Uncle Bob picked up his phone and called Lacy, but he was disappointed when no one picked up.” End chapter.
You don’t even need to bring Uncle Bob’s perspective into it. Maybe Lacy picks up her phone at some point during dinner and says, “Oh, dear, Uncle Bob called. He must be trying to figure out how to use the DVD player again.”
Basically, point of view can be tricky, but it doesn’t have to be. Your first step in mastering the art of PoV is merely understanding it.
The best advice I can give any writer when they are struggling with their story is:
Put it down and give it a rest. Walk away for a while. Let it go for as long as you need to. Come back to it when you’re ready, and re-read your work from a subjective point of view. This can take a long time, but it is worth it. If you think you’re having a problem with point of view, be sure to look for the common signs: frequent shifting between perspectives, short scenes set in another location and from another point of view, and confusing switches of any kind. Ask someone else to read it, and see if they spot anything that indicates an issue with point of view.
Further reading:
Review Coming Soon!
Can a childhood pact affect the lives of three adults?
Love and betrayal surrounds the lives of lifelong friends Lanie Rhodes, Grant Bennett, and Dane Voight. Years ago, they made a pact to remain together as friends forever. The boys also made another secret pact that same day—to never vie for Lanie’s love.
Grant and Lanie have secretly been pining for one another since they were children.
Now grown up, they finally admit their feelings for each other and what ensues is a twisted tale of deception as Dane does everything he can to stop them.
The story weaves around this uneven love triangle. What will happen to the pact? Will friendships be destroyed? Will lovers emerge?
“You go first,” I said.
“All right. I missed you so much these past six months,” he offered.
“I already know that; that doesn’t count.”
“But I don’t think you know the extent or how.”
“Okay . . . how then?”
“I don’t ever want you to be away again.”
“Grant, work will always cause one of us to travel for extended—” and he put a finger over my lips. I suddenly felt the urge to wrap my tongue around it.
“No, Lanie. I don’t ever want you to be away from me; never again. I missed you terribly.”
“Um, terribly?” God I was so lame. I stared into his eyes. The heat between us became intense. It was almost like electricity was crackling between us.
“Lanie, do I have to spell this out for you?”
“Yes, please. Spelling, definition, and then use it in a sentence.”
And then he just kissed me. It was a soft, gentle kiss that sent a shock wave from my lips right to my girliest of girl parts. When he pulled away, not very far away, he just stared into my eyes with something that was not looking at me like a sister. What was he searching for?
“Could you please spell that again?” I murmured. He relaxed and laughed softly and kissed me again, this time allowing his tongue to brush across my bottom lip. I was melting.
It took everything not to pounce on him and do all the naughty things that were suddenly running through my head right there on my porch.
“Use it in a sentence, please.” I whispered with my eyes still closed, my head still tilted.
“Of course.” And he crushed his lips to mine, pulling my body against his. I was lost in him. His tongue began swirling with mine and my head began swirling, too. We remained in this sentence, which was slowly approaching a paragraph. I didn’t care, I would have been happy kissing a novella with him.
When our lips finally parted, I wasn’t sure what to do next. “Would you like to come in?” I sounded like a complete idiot.
“Lanie, I’m not sure this is right or wrong. I just know it’s what I want. But I want to go very slowly. I don’t ever want to hurt you or ruin things between us. Maybe not tonight. Promise you understand.”
I raised my right hand and stated, “I promise I understand.”
And then his lips were on mine again. I reached up and curled my fingers into his hair and drank him in. I wanted to pull him inside to see where this would go, but I had promised. So I released him.
About the Author
Christie A.C. Gucker lives in NJ with her husband, two daughters and a menagerie of pets. Being a mother is one of the greatest joys of her life. She has worked in the advertising industry for over 20 years as a degreed artist, but also works in the fine arts, especially sculpting out of stone or snapping photographs. Christie is also a singer and musician, and can be found singing on a few CDs.
After the death of her father, Christie searched for something to fill her desire to make a mark in this world. Her love of the arts and creativity allowed her to search for a new medium, which she found with a pen instead of a brush. Being an avid reader her whole life, and with her family cheering her on, she decided to take her shot, and began writing.
Fascinated by the supernatural and sharks, Christie studies both avidly. You’ll be sure to find something spooky lurking somewhere in her stories. Her greatest joy is sitting on a beach with her family while surf fishing, flying kites or building sandcastles with her girls.
Get your copy direct from the publisher.
This is one of those things that makes me worry about humanity as we know it. Bear in mind that this is a blog post based purely on the opinion of someone on the outside looking in. This is not a review, but merely my professional opinion on the subject. I have never actually read this book, and I don’t plan to in the future.
I found this book on Amazon by accident. It’s called Literary Fails: Totally (sic)!: 101 Crazy Query Letters Sent by Writers in Their Quest for Publishing Fame. I clicked the “look inside” button on Amazon and read a few of the first entries. Here’s a bit about the book from the website:
LITERARY FAILS: Totally (sic!) has been a work in progress for several years. These handpicked 101 excerpts, selected from tens of thousands of actual query letters received by Martin Literary Management were sent by severely “misguided individuals” in their desire to become commercially published authors. Each section of the book and many individual letters are accompanied by fabulous original artwork in pen and ink. Every quoted letter in this book is verbatim, right down to the misspellings, the word spacing, and the typos.
As far as I can tell, this book has no actual literary merit. It appears to be some agents having fun at the expense of inexperienced writers. I am reminded of my first job in acquisitions, and the first few times I was faced with particularly horrid query letters or messy submissions that failed to follow guidelines.
I remember someone much older and wiser than I calmly reminding everyone in the room: “No matter how it looks to us, these people care about their writing. They made mistakes, but confidentiality is important. This should not stray beyond these doors.” That wasn’t the exact words, but it was fairly close.
This brings me back to the aforementioned book. Basically, the question that comes to mind is, what were they thinking?
Even if they fail to mention names, this seems to me like a completely unethical project, put forth by those who ought to know better. No, I am not a literary agent. I am an editor. But there is a certain responsibility that comes with any position.
First and foremost, a professional should respect the dignity of any client who comes to them looking for help, no matter how inexperienced the client is. To me, this book seems to laugh in the face of that special professional relationship between agent and client or editor and client.
Readers, what do you think? How do you feel about an agent publishing a book like this? Does it go against the grain, or is it just another step in the ever-changing world of publishing?
Review coming soon!
Elizabeth is a small-town Kansas girl who has grown up under her domineering father’s shadow. When she finds out that her father has denied her hand in marriage to the town’s most eligible bachelor–a man she’s long secretly desired–she snaps. Her father punches her for the last time. She realizes she has no future and with stories of suffragettes, women’s rights, and voting in her head, vows to be free.
She escapes to New York City where she meets Margaret. Margaret believes in the right to vote for women and engages Elizabeth to join in the National Women’s Party activities.
Operation: Opera House is underway. In a month’s time, President Wilson is due at the Metropolitan Opera House to give a speech. The NWP hopes that a peaceful protest will convince the president to gather congress in order to ratify the 19th Amendment.
As they prepare and plan, Margaret shows Elizabeth how to live and love. Under Margaret’s sensual touch, Elizabeth begins to heal from numerous emotional wounds. But on March 4th, 1919, their “peaceful protest” becomes a riot on the streets of New York.
A riot ensues in Elizabeth’s heart as well when her former flame shows up in the city.
About the Author
Tara Chevrestt is a deaf woman, former aviation mechanic, writer, and an editor. She is most passionate about planes, motorcycles, dogs, and above all, reading. That led to her love of writing. Between her writing and her editing, which allows her to be home with her little canine kids, she believes she has the greatest job in the world. She is very happily married.
Tara also writes as Sonia Hightower. Sonia writes the racy stuff and argues that she was here first. She just wasn’t allowed to be unleashed until the last year.
While Tara and Sonia continue to fight over the laptop and debate who writes the next book, you can find buy links, blurbs, and other fun bits on their website, or their Facebook page.
Buy Votes for Vixens on Amazon today. This book is wonderful! There will be a review posted soon– keep checking back!
Review coming soon!
By the age of twelve, Ashley Rae had survived incest, child abuse, and the deaths of both her biological parents. Born to Baptists but raised by Buddhists, Rae found peace and healing on a Pagan spiritual path while obtaining her college degree and starting the career of her dreams.
Rae thought the hardships in her life were over…until she lost her job, started a new relationship, and found out she was pregnant with another man’s child all in the same week. Terrified of cesarean surgery, Rae vowed to give birth to her child at home – but first, she had to find one.
Alternately haunting, humorous, and heart-warming, Not My Mother: A Memoir follows Rae over a nine-month quest to break her family’s generational pattern of abuse and victimhood in order to become for her unborn child the mother she had always wanted for herself.
“From the moment Dad rushed us through the dark living room, too quickly for me to see her body, I’d been looking for my mother. Even after her funeral in Virginia, I kept looking for my mother. She came to me in my dreams and told me it had all been a mistake, and she wasn’t really dead at all. I’d wake up and jump out of bed in a hurry to continue our conversation, then freeze and fold in half, hyperventilating as reality hit me.
“At twenty-two, I had not yet explored how the violence that I couldn’t remember witnessing affected my life and my relationships. Ike died when I was five. Mom hated him. His mom loved him. I, on the other hand, had never given myself permission to have feelings about this man who’d loved me and killed my mother. Until I saw him staring back at me through my mirror in the flickering light of a white candle.”
