Whatever happened to the adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."? It seems these days everyone is trying to fix things or improve them only to the detriment of the users of said things.
Take for example Google and Gmail, earlier this year Google and Gmail (part of the Google family) revamped everything. The new look on Gmail was very stark and difficult to read; one had to change backgrounds or themes in order to tell where the email box started and ended. If that wasn't enough, blogger dashboards changed, again making it difficult to navigate and really read. Our eyes deteriorate over time and with all this starkness and inability to see where one line ends or begins it makes life a little more difficult. The idea behind any of these updates or improvements is to make life easier, or at least that is my understanding.
I've adapted to a couple of those changes but then Yahoo has to jump on board making changes and making things more difficult. If you belong to any of the Yahoo forums and have signed up for the daily digest as opposed to individual emails to be kept updated on what is happening in the group, you may be aware of the change in the look of the digest. Again, this change has not made things easier but more difficult. My generation has enough difficulties without adding more to the mix. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
I wonder who will be the next on board to make changes that supposed to make things easier but only complicate or worsen things. If you don't like the changes Yahoo has made to their digest, let them know. Maybe they will go back to the old version. Not much can be done to change Google's blogger dashboard or email back to the old version but it never hurts to try. Let them know that everything was fine the old way and you want it kept that way.
In writing, it is the same. If you have ways that work for you and someone suggests a new and improved way that is supposed to make it easier for you but doesn't, then you don't have to fix what you are already doing to appease someone else. If whatever you are doing is working for you and it's not broken and doesn't need fixing, then don't fix it. If on the other hand, the suggested change really does make a difference, makes things easier on you or fixes the problem areas you are having, then by all means, definitely embrace the change and make the most of it. Only make changes that are really fixes to broken ways or that will really make things easier on you.
SPECIAL DEALS: I've got some specials running through the month of July, all of which can be found over on my blog - ebooks, afghans and crocheted kindle or nook sleeves and/or tablet sleeves, pluse I've decided to reduce the cost of the chances for the red, white and blue afghan drawing to $1 each. This will be a permanent change and will be posted on both my main website and the JGDS blog soon.
See you all in the postings - E :)
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Elysabeth Eldering
Author of FINALLY HOME, a middle grade/YA paranormal mystery (written like a Nancy Drew mystery)
http://elysabethsstories.blogspot.com
http://eeldering.weebly.com
Guest Post with Sands Hetherington: How Kids Inspire Us as Writers
I am an old man and live on the edge of town with my two
Saint Bernards Dudley and Maggie. Night Buddies and the Pineapple Cheesecake Sacre is my first children’s book and another is coming
out in the fall. And now let me cut to
the chase and tell you how Night Buddies
and the Pineapple Cheesecake Scare came about.
I raised my son John as a single parent from the time he was
six. I can't remember exactly: Maybe one
night John wanted more story and I was tired of reading and suggested he invent
a buddy to go off to sleep with. Or maybe
he did it spontaneously. He was six, I
think. Anyway, before I knew it, John
came up with this red crocodile named Crosley.
I was duly charmed, and we started batting Crosley ideas around at night
and making up episodes. Crosley got to
be a real member of the family.
In many ways the thing was ready-made for me, but I did need
to figure out why on earth Crosley was red. I couldn't just dump something like that into a story without
explaining. (I was determined not to
leave the red part out; this was Crosley's trademark feature!)
It finally occurred to me: Crosley was red because he was
allergic to water! In a roundabout way,
that is. If he got any water on him, he
broke out doing the Black Bottom dance and had to go on for hours and
hours. Unless he took his antidote
pills. These stopped the Black Bottom
well enough but did have a side-effect, and you surely know what this was: they
turned him red! This was fine with
Crosley, though: "Not that I mind that part a bit. Cause when people see
me now, they know not t' get me wet."
I give John most of the credit. He invented Crosley the red crocodile and all
I did was figure out why he was red and drop the two new Night Buddies into a
situation. I like to think of John as
the writer and myself as the editor and rewrite man. John is thirty-two now and
Crosley is obviously still a member of the family.
The second book in the series (the one coming out this fall)
is called Night Buddies, Imposters, and
One Far-Out Flying Machine. It
features John and Crosley, is much longer, and introduces a bunch of new
characters. My favorite part is the
fantastic flying machine that I really can't talk about here. I hope you'll check it out, though, and
thanks again for inviting me in.
Sands Hetherington
About the Book:
Night Buddies and the
Pineapple Cheesecake Scare is the first in a series featuring John, a young
city kid who isn't ready for bed yet, and Crosley, a bright-red crocodile who
shows up in his room to rescue him and take him on an adventure.
Night Buddies is
an astonishing and inventive adventure with unforgettable cast of characters that
will make you laugh and win over your heart. The book has lots of thoughtful,
multi-layered twists, giggles, and perils -- things kids can relate to and
enjoy.
Publisher: Dune
Buggy Press; One edition (June 1, 2012)
ISBN-10:
0984741712
ISBN-13:
978-0984741717
Get a sneak peek of the book at http://tinyurl.com/7xxl8qw
About the Author:
Sands
Hetherington credits his son John for being his principal motivator. Sands
raised his son as a single parent from the time John was six. He read to him
every night during those formative years. He and young John developed the Crosley
crocodile character in the series during months of bedtime story give-and-take.
Sands majored in history at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and
has an M.F.A. in creative writing and an M.A. in English from UNC-Greensboro.
He lives in Greensboro.
The World of Ink Network will be
touring author Sands Hetherington’s nighttime adventure for kids, Night
Buddies and the Pineapple Cheesecake Scare published by Dune Buggy Press
all through July and August 2012.
You can find out more about Sands Hetherington’s World of
Ink Author/Book Tour at http://tinyurl.com/6vgevbh
To learn more about the World of Ink Tours visit http://worldofinknetwork.com
Would You Make a Good Reviewer?
There are so many reasons for becoming a reviewer, but for writers it's almost mandatory. While you probably won’t make a fortune writing reviews, you can earn reasonable money doing it, it is an excellent way to hone your writing skills, increase your understanding of what makes for good writing if you are that way inclined, it adds depth to your own pleasure to evaluate what you would be reading, listening to or using anyway, and you can get a whole raft of high quality review copies including autographed first editions, galleys, pre-publication releases, and promotional material. In addition, it is both enjoyable and valuable from a publicity point of view to have an impact on the choices other people make. In other words, if you’re a top reviewer, you will be the ‘go-to’ resource for information on what is and what isn’t worth buying, and therefore gain credibility and visibility for your other projects.
There are some qualities which differentiate a good reviewer from a not so good one. The following qualities are the key to being a good reviewer.
- Do you have the ability to follow through? This is critical. If you agree to review something, or request a review copy, you have to produce through or you will rapidly lose credibility. Even if the book is awful, or virtually unreadable, or the product difficult to use, you must produce some form of review, or at least return the item with a polite note, clearly explaining why no review will be forthcoming. This doesn’t apply to items sent to you on spec. If you haven’t agreed, or requested an item, you aren’t obligated to review it, although a polite response is always appreciated.
- Can you work quickly? Reviews generally need to be timely. In most cases, they relate to recently released items, and if a review isn’t produced shortly after release, or after a performance, etc, your readers may not be as interested and the value tends to diminish. No one wants to read old news. That said, there is always a call for reviews of classic or quality material.
- Can you write well? Regardless of what you are reviewing, a review is a piece of writing in itself. It needs to be clear, concise, entertaining, informative, critical, and well written.
- Are you critical? You have to be able to accurately assess the value of an item you are reviewing and that may include digging deeply into the work. If you are too nice to say anything critical, or reluctant to probe, your reviews won’t provide readers with the information they need to determine whether a work is for them.
- Are you constructive? The ability to write with tact is important for a reviewer. A nasty review with no constructive comments or examples of where something can be improved is worse than a lukewarm review which is not critical. Immature vindictive does not make for a good review and isn’t helpful to either the author or the reader. A reviewer needs to be able to express both positive and negative aspects of a work in a professional, thoughtful, and specific way, without causing libel or being ungenerous.
- Are you confident? Do you have the courage to make a clear judgment, and to back up that judgment with specific instances.
- Are you knowledgeable about the particular subject you are reviewing? As a reviewer you will need to know a reasonable amount about the class of items you’re reviewing. For a book reviewer, that will mean having a reasonable awareness of literature and particularly the genre you’re reviewing in. For a reviewer of children’s items, you will need to know something about that age group and their capability. Music reviewers need a reasonably broad and extensive awareness of music. Without this general knowledge, your assessment won’t come with the weight of experience that makes your judgment so valuable to others.
- Are you honest? Honesty is one of the most important qualities for a reviewer. You must be honest in your writing, in your judgments, in your criticisms. Honesty is a reviewer’s stock-in-trade – it’s the backbone of what you do when you look closely at something and begin exploring why it is of value.
If you have the above qualities, there's no reason no reason not to begin adding reviews to your websites, blogs, or even just on Amazon (with a link back to your own book of course). The piece above has been excerpted from my newly revised (now in its second printing) book The Art of Assessment: How to Review Anything. Grab a copy now for the full kit on becoming a well-respected reviewer. I'll look forward to reading your reviews!
More Plot Possibilities...
Writer’s block? Try one of these:
·
Change of scenery: write a scene that takes
place at: a park, the beach, the forest, the country fair, a theme park, the
mountains, a relative’s house…
·
A Big Contest/Big Game/Big Prize is announced.
Your character wants to enter, or maybe is convinced to enter by someone else…
·
Your character goes swimming.
·
Your character is called into the boss’s
office. (Or, if writing a children's book, the principal's office.)
·
A stranger asks your character to do him/her a
favor.
·
Your character sees someone in trouble.
·
Someone your character knows is in the news.
Who? Why? What is your character’s reaction?
·
A fire breaks out. Or an earthquake. Or a
tornado.
·
Your character sees a ghost.
·
Someone has been reading your character’s private journal/diary.
·
Someone breaks into your character’s house. Why?
Do they steal anything?
·
Your character gets caught red-handed.
·
Your character does something he/she knows
he/she’s not supposed to do.
·
Your character tells a lie.
·
What is the very worst thing that could happen
to your character right now? Make that happen! How is your character going to
get out of it??
Dallas Woodburn is the author of two award-winning collections of short stories and editor of Dancing With The Pen: a collection of today's best youth writing.
Her short fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize three
years in a row and her nonfiction has appeared in a variety of national
publications including Family Circle, Writer's Digest, The Writer,
and The Los Angeles Times. She is the founder of Write On! For Literacy and Write On! Books Youth Publishing Company
and is currently pursuing her Master's degree in Fiction Writing at
Purdue University, where she teaches undergraduate writing courses and
serves as Fiction Editor of Sycamore Review.Why Your Submissions are Rejected
1. An opening image that did not work.
2.Opened with rhetorical question(s).
3. The first line is about setting, not about story.
4. The first line’s hook did not work, because it was not tied to the plot or the conflict of the opening scene.
5. The first line’s hook did not work, because it was an image, rather than something that was happening in the scene.
6. Took too long for anything to happen (a critique, incidentally, leveled several times at a submission after only the first paragraph had been read); the story taking time to warm up.
7. Not enough happens on page 1
8. The opening sounded like an ad for the book or a recap of the pitch, rather than getting the reader into the story.
9. The opening contained the phrases, “My name is…” and/or “My age is..."
10. The opening contained the phrase, “This can’t be happening.”
11. The opening contained the phrase or implication, “And then I woke up.”
12. The opening paragraph contained too much jargon
13. The opening contained one or more clichéd phrases.
14. The opening contained one or more clichéd pieces of material. (The most I counted in a single submission was 5.) Specifically singled out: a character’s long red or blonde hair.
15. The opening had a character do something that characters only do in books, not real life. Specifically singled out: a character who shakes her head to clear an image, “He shook his head to clear the cobwebs.”
Have any of you received anything similar or different reasons?
-------------------------
A native Montanan, Heidi M. Thomas now lives in Northwest Washington. Her first novel, Cowgirl Dreams, is based on her grandmother, and the sequel, Follow the Dream, has recently won the national WILLA Award. Heidi has a degree in journalism, a certificate in fiction writing, and is a member of Northwest Independent Editors Guild. She teaches writing and edits, blogs, and is working on the next books in her “Dare to Dream” series. Small Towns
Small Towns
One of my favorite things about the
4th of July in the USA is small town parades.
Everyone has a part, everyone has a chance to feel special, and
everyone’s gifts are appreciated.
One
year I went with a friend to a parade in her hometown. Old vehicles lead the way with mustangs,
corvettes, model Ts, farm tractors and vintage fire trucks. There were mostly men driving and they smiled
and waved and gunned their engines. The
parade continued with school bands, VWF groups, Boy Scout and Girl Scout
troops, SPCA dogs, and truck drawn floats.
Bringing up the rear of the parade was a horse contingency, which was a
good place to put the horses. As I waved
to the men riding the horses, I did a double take; they were the same men that
were driving the cars at the beginning of the parade. I smiled and waved all the harder.
I learned some things that day: sometime in
life we have more than one role to play and each role is important; in big
events, it is the little people that make things happen; and when you smile and
wave there is a good chance those around you will smile and wave back.
What do you enjoy about about your hometown? Can you fashion a story around it? Can it be your setting? The people your characters?
Martha Swirzinski, M. A.
www.MovementPlus.com
www.WholeChildPublishing.com
How Much is Too Much in YA Books
So who doesn’t swear or cuss on occasion? Right? It’s part
of our current culture. Everyone does it—increasingly so and harsher as we go
along. Swearing has increased in movies, television shows but especially books.
When I was a teen reading Lord of the Rings or anything written by Ray Bradbury
there wasn’t a single cuss word anywhere. Teens then were cussing up a storm
when gathered in groups and such.
But it wasn’t in our literature nearly to the
extent it is today.
This begs the question: Is all of that cussing really
necessary?
Sarah Coyne, professor of family life at Brigham Young University analyzed the use of profanity in forty young adult books on the best seller list. Thirty-five of them had at least one swear word. On the average there were thirty-eight instances of cussing, with one book containing nearly five hundred uses of foul language.
Is that really necessary to become a best seller with teens?
The argument is the author is reaching for authenticity and grit. But there are
plenty of books with grit and reality that don’t make us feel like we need a
shower to rinse off the stench after reading them. Look at The Hunger Games
Series. Could a story get any grittier or more realistic? How much cussing did
you hear from Katniss or Peta? During the final battle with Lord Voldemort, did
Harry Potter let loose a stream of expletives?
In my humble opinion, cussing is a cheap way out of finding
a creative way to express oneself. And it cheapens the book as well.
Here's something interesting Professor Coyne discovered:
The characters doing the swearing tended to be of higher
social status, better looking and have more money than their non-swearing
counterparts.
So what does that say to the preteens who are forming their
ideas of who they are and who they will become as adults? Everyone knows kids
who read, tend to do so about three to five years above their age level. I’ve
seen Fourth Graders reading the Twilight series. None of MY children would ever
have read something like that at age nine, but I saw it when I was
teaching. And the kids who were allowed to read material years ahead of their maturational level, refused to read age-appropriate, excellent literature, thereby missing out of a whole world of good books.
The problem with today’s young adult books is a reader doesn’t
know what they’re getting into until they’re knee deep in the mire. This goes for swearing, sex and violence. Ever try to stop a teen from 'enjoying' something which contains sex, foul language or gore? Of course an allowance is made for the genre bridging the innocence
of middle grade books and adult-level reading. But how much is too much? How do
we protect the sanctity of innocence until a young adult is ready to become an
adult if what they’re reading reveals all?
As an author of Picture Books up through Young Adult, I feel
the need to protect my young readers from what they’re seeing in movies and
television, hearing in the lyrics of their music and experiencing while playing
their video games. Teens aren’t allowed to remain innocent and naiive anymore…and
I think it’s a shame on our society.
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