Fiction and Non-Fiction

Month: December 2020

November Recap

November could easily be a cut-and-paste from the October recap because most of it was spent on the edits to Thieves in the Temple, which went on sale on Amazon, Kobo, Apple etc., on December 5th

I added a couple of chapters, and combined a couple more and by the time I finished the last read through, I think I could probably read the story aloud from memory.

One of the most valuable tools during this editing exercise, apart from the inevitable editorial red pen has been the application Pro-Writing Aid. It does a much better job of spell-checking than Word, and also flags the correct spellings in the wrong context – form instead of from – that sort of thing.

Most importantly for me though is the long term block I have when it comes to using commas. No matter how much I study the rules and correct application, they still appear in the wrong place. Pro-Writing Aid is excellent for catching those mistakes. A word to the wise, though. Word has a different view on the correct application of commas, and will “argue” with the changes you make in Pro-Writing Aid.

November finished up with a lot of thought about what comes after Thieves in the Temple. If you’ve browsed the rest of this site, you’ll have an idea :). The next novel is Death at a Wedding, and that will be followed by Murder of a Dead Man

I’ll keep you posted on progress

A Publishing Challenge

About a month ago, Dean Wesley Smith announced on his blog that he was starting a publishing challenge: publish 70 pieces of his own works – written and edited in the next year to coincide with his 70th birthday. A couple of weeks after that, he issued a challenge to the rest of us: publish 52 pieces of our own works in 2021. As a partial rebuttal to the potential naysayers, Dean asked the rhetorical question for those who completed the short story challenge – how many of those 52 stories have you published?

I completed the challenge: 52 stories in 52 weeks, and I’ve been reasonably diligent in getting them out to magazine editors. Not so diligent at getting them up online. Dean’s question could have been directed right at me.

So.

Challenge accepted!

Of course there’s more to putting a story online than just converting to ePub or mobi. There’s covers, copy, categories, and pricing!

The timing is excellent because with Thieves in the Temple so close, these are all areas where I need to become more proficient. Although trying to find cover art is nearly as much a time-sink as doom-scrolling through the news.

I’ll keep everyone updated on progress in the monthly recaps, and yes, I know I owe you the November recap. 

Stay tuned.

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