Winston Churchill did not say “I have nothing to offer but vermeil, moiling, delacrimation and sudorification.”
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…why people keep having contests for self-published books where the prize is a REAL PUBLISHING CONTRACT WITH A REAL PUBLISHER!!!!!!!! YAY!!!! HERE’S YOUR CHANCE!!!! WIN THIS, AND YOU, TOO, CAN BE A REAL WRITER!!!!! This is like throwing a show-n-shine for hand-built hot-rods where the prize is to have your car ripped apart by a “real” car Continue reading Can Anybody Tell Me… In some uses, you can use couple without of: They are a couple. In others, you cannot: I will list a couple of examples here. Here’s the key: replace couple with pair, and see if you need of: They are a pair. NOT: They are a pair of. It Continue reading Mini-Rant o’ the Day: “Couple” I’m getting a little tired of hearing all the same old sad, irrelevant arguments brought to bear in the defense of piracy. Piracy isn’t really stealing, because the so-called victim of the piracy never loses anything. Piracy isn’t a violation of copyright law, because you’re making a copy for your own personal use, and that’s legal. Copyright law Continue reading A Rant on Copyright vs Piracy (wherein I lose my civility) Back in the olden dayes… It was fairly common to see a note in the back of the book that read something like this: A Dark and Stormy Night at the Morgue was set in 12-point Baskerville Old Face and printed on 80-pound 100% linen rag stock. So my questions are: Whatever happened Continue reading Typographical Data in Books (or: A Tale of Long, Long Ago) As all three of my regular readers know, I have a list of what I call “the basic tools of the writer.” These are (in no particular order) spelling, punctuation, diction, syntax, and grammar. I periodically get emails about one or another of this list, typically doing one of two things: either telling me what Continue reading The Importance of Diction What do you call a short story, a novella, or a novel? I had an interesting discussion some time back with another self-publisher. Not a fiction author, to the best of my knowledge; he was writing cookbooks, but that doesn’t really change anything. I told him I had written nine novellas, and that I liked the Continue reading Is 80,000 Words Really a Short Story? False. (Yet another reason to hate Shakespeare) I can’t tell you how much I hate it when an illogical, inaccurate phrase becomes a common saying, or acts as a phrasal template for all sorts of things, as this one does. (And let’s not even go into that whole glisters/glistens/glitters thing, ok?) All men (women, people, cars, bloggers, Continue reading True or False: “All That Glitters is Not Gold”? I regret to announce that as of this date, my work will no longer be available on Smashwords. This is due to the steamroller effect of requiring an absolute and inflexible adherence to what are given as guidelines, but in fact constitute a set of rigid rules covering all aspects of book design and layout. The Continue reading My Work Will No Longer be Available on Smashwords |
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