When you've written your manuscript, you're still not done. Even though you may have written "The End" on the final page, it's not. At this point, you have to edit and rewrite. This needs to be done before you send it to an editor to work on. While you're waiting on the editor to do her magic on your book, you can map your manuscript. Primarily, this time of Mapping Your Manuscript is not editing. This is the time when you map out the plot, make notes about the characters, track the timeline. You can even list the names of places the characters visit, roads they drive, family members they mention. You're creating what is often called your book bible. By doing this, you find errors. Most small, but sometimes big ones. Jack goes to see his sister, Lucille, at her home in Toronto. Except, wait a minute. You check your notes and find this notation: Jack's sister, Lucille, died when she seven and was hit by a drunk driver . The governor is bald, but e...

Taken in London from Gabriel's Wharf, July 4, 2012 As some of you may know, I've moved to England for the summer. This life-changing event obviously meant packing; not just clothes but writing-related packing. Far more tricky (for me, at any rate). I share with you now the highlights of what I learned. 10. Go through all your papers (both real and virtual) containing notes about your WIP so you can stuff them into your luggage. I put mine in my carry-on. The thought of them getting lost was too evil to contemplate.        9. Attempt not to judge yourself about the excess or lack of the above-mentioned notes. 8. Airlines now subject you to strict limits on luggage weight, unless you want to pay extra charges. (My thoughts on extra charges another time) This may, depending on your personal financial situation, prevent you from bringing the entire contents of your bookcase. 7. The above may be an argument for e-readers. 6. Laptops are heavy (unless you h...

Good morning, duckies! Lace up your tan shoes with pink shoelaces, because polka-dot vests are in style today. They’re the perfect attire to compliment complement today’s subject, the ill-used and underestimated ellipsis. As defined by The Chicago Manual of Style , “An ellipsis is the omission of a word, phrase, line, paragraph, or more from a quoted passage.”   Such an omission is indicated by those familiar little spaced dots called ellipsis points.   When used to illustrate suspended thought, they go by the imaginative title of suspension points. I suppose simpler can be better , but still . . . So, how do we use these points?   I could go on and on (just ask my husband), but I’ll try to finish before your coffee gets cold.   There are enough rules regarding these things that we can come back on another day for more details. Let’s start with omission and the not-so-noble art of taking things out of context.   Suppose you’re a fashion designer, eage...

To find this intersection the title alludes to, we need to think about the longevity and depth of a story: its horizontal and vertical roads. While editing a client’s manuscript, I began thinking about the two roads and how important it is for writers to travel down both in order to develop their stories. Horizontal Road , in its basic sense, is the plot. It's what happens in the story. It's the making sure that all the pieces of the story are told so that the story makes sense from beginning to end. It doesn’t mean you have to follow a chronological, literally first thing first and last thing last, progression, but you want to make sure you leave no gaping holes. Vertical Road is the depth of the story. It could be development of characters, development of setting—those things that connect readers, endear them to characters, to place and therefore make them invested in the horizontal road they travel while reading the story. As you plunge into editing your work, think a...

The other night an editing client and I traded a bunch of text messages over what to title his next fantasy novel. Since a fan of Robert Jordan was sitting by me in the room, I asked him to rattle off some of the fourteen titles in Jordan’s Wheel of Time series—but off the top of his head, he couldn’t remember a one. My ensuing search for Jordan’s titles yielded some pretty generic results. It’s no wonder they’re hard to remember. I thought it might be fun to compare Jordan’s titles to those of authors who, in my opinion, came up with more memorable titles using a similar keyword. Before Jordan’s numerous fans go all rabid on me, I want to acknowledge the substantial storytelling skills of Robert Jordan (James Oliver Rigney, Jr.), that The Wheel of Time is an awesome name for a good long series, and that I’d be more than happy to achieve this author’s sales numbers. While this post will at times compare dragons to teacups—a title should suggest genre, after all—this exercis...

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.   Last month, my husband and I were invited to participate in the Once Upon a Time art show, which gave artists the opportunity to illustrate their favorite children’s stories. Our friends at Green Horse Gallery in Manitou Springs, Colorado, hosted the show and it was a wonderful trip, returning to our old home and creative stomping grounds. We saw lots of friends, visited favorite restaurants, and enjoyed the cool pleasantness of this charming community at the base of Pikes Peak. Then it all came near to burning to the ground last week. In a horrendous firestorm that started in Waldo Canyon, just down Ute Pass from our honeymoon cabin, the wind-fueled hell fires descended not only toward Manitou Springs, but shifted east and north into the city of Colorado Springs where our families live. By the time it was controlled, 30,000 people had evacuated their homes including residents of the venerable Air Force A...

Today is my birthday. It is also the day we in the United States celebrate Independence Day, marking the end of British rule in the colonies. We hope none of our friends in the U.K. hold that against us. We're happy to remain friends. When I was a kid, I naturally thought all the hullabaloo - parades, fireworks, picnics, excitement - was meant to celebrate me. Imagine my disappointment when I found out it wasn't. My sister, however, was delighted. She had always resented the fact that my birthday had parades and hers didn't. It was one of those classic "nana, nana, nana," moments between siblings.  The year I found out the horrible truth was the year it became my turn to refuse to come out from under the bed and go to the corner for the parade. Still, this holiday always stirs my patriotic spirit. I love the parades and the fireworks, and the general air of excitement and fun that surrounds us as we picnic. I've been known to spend the entire day singing ...

This month's topic is printed books . As usual, I have some questions, which I'll answer and then it's your turn. Choose one or more of them and share your opinion. If you're only answering one, please expand. If more, please shorten. Also, only include one website URL or blog link. Questions: Are printed books obsolete? The new wave appears to be e-books, yet I have tons of friends and relatives who still prefer sitting down and turning the pages on what they call "real" books. I must admit being drawn to the covers of printed books when I'm shopping at Wal-Mart or even Osco. Some are so pretty I'm almost tempted to buy them, but I refrain. I can get a much better bargain buying a Kindle book. Also, my Kindle 3 and Kindle Touch are easier on the eyes. Do you buy paperbacks, hardcovers, both, or none printed? I usually buy paperbacks, either trade or smaller sized when they're written and autographed by close author friends. Otherwise, I g...

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.   Last month, my husband and I were invited to participate in the Once Upon a Time art show, which gave artists the opportunity to illustrate their favorite children’s stories. Our friends at Green Horse Gallery in Manitou Springs, Colorado, hosted the show and it was a wonderful trip, returning to our old home and creative stomping grounds. We saw lots of friends, visited favorite restaurants, and enjoyed the cool pleasantness of this charming community at the base of Pikes Peak. Then it all came near to burning to the ground last week. In a horrendous firestorm that started in Waldo Canyon, just down Ute Pass from our honeymoon cabin, the wind-fueled hell fires descended not only toward Manitou Springs, but shifted east and north into the city of Colorado Springs where our families live. By the time it was controlled, 30,000 people had evacuated their homes including residents of the venerable Air Force A...

This is one of those terms that could make your eyes cross, but when you come right down to it, it pretty much defines itself. Think of “nonrestrictive” as “non-essential”, which is not actually the technical definition. It’s giving extra or parenthetical information. Here’s the technical definition : Restrictive clauses limit the possible meaning of a preceding subject. Nonrestrictive clauses tell you something about a preceding subject, but they do not limit, or restrict, the meaning of that subject. Okay, let’s see an example to make it more user-friendly. The suspect in the lineup, who owns a red car, committed the crime . The sentence makes sense without the phrase “who owns a red car” and doesn’t actually “need” that qualifier. It’s not essential to the crime in this case to know he owns a red car. However, The suspect in the lineup who has red hair committed the crime is a “restrictive clause, because it IS essential to the meaning of the sentence. We know it’s not the s...

CONTINUING SERIES - 18 Stories! 15 Authors! Talk About A Project! The Corner Cafe: A Tasty Collection of Short Stories is riding high in sales, after a spectacular performance at its first freebie weekend on June 9 and June 10, 2012. The book is ready, but the work's not over. Dani Greer, owner of The Blood-Red Pencil, along with Morgan Mandel, Helen Ginger, Maryann Miller, Shonell Bacon, and Audrey Lintner, all contributors to the collection and members of The Blood-Red Pencil, are sharing our ongoing experiences with you about the project in this series. Perhaps, what we've discovered will aid you in your own endeavors.  Helen Ginger Today is Helen Ginger's turn to share. She's a busy gal, being one of the collection's editors, plus a two-story contributor to  The Corner Cafe . Helen's "One Last Run" depicts a skiing couple on a black diamond run in a blizzard. Her "Gila Monster" reveals an unexpected possibility concerning a b...

In the case of e-books, Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a type of technology, also known as a digital lock, employed by publishers to control how an e-book is used after it has been purchased. But digital copy protection has been around in software and gaming circles for much longer than in the publishing industry, and it is from these sectors that the greatest criticisms, and lessons learnt, can be found. Firstly, the point of DRM (and the benefits of using it) is to protect your e-book from unauthorised sharing, copying, or resale – in other words, it protects your copyright. Or does it? According to critics who have been through the same issue in the gaming and other software industries, DRM is ridiculously easy to crack (i.e. hacking for negative purposes), and is also a target for crackers who enjoy the (albeit apparently slight) challenge of disabling a digital lock . The worse news, however, is that once the digital lock on your book has been cracked the file is usually ...

Fact: The publishing industry has charged into the technology arena—full speed ahead. Fact: If writers don’t jump on that technology bandwagon, they may end up eating its dust. Fact: Not all writers are tech-savvy, and some still reside in the medieval world of manual typewriters. Fact: Some of us believe that “Twitter” is short for “twitterpated” (think Bambi), only birds “tweet,” Facebook must have something to do with a book cover, “Fan Pages” are just for movie stars, “WordPress” is a new publishing house, and “Pinterest” is a misspelled word. In other words, the world of technology is overwhelming with a capital “O.” Since eating the dust of that technology bandwagon doesn’t help us market our books, we need to be creative in our thinking. Option 1: We can forge ahead, plunging into all the above with great zeal and educating ourselves to get up to speed on the latest and the greatest. Option 2: We can take a course—or a number of courses—at a local college to catch up on...

Can we writers stay abreast of technology? Not alone, we can’t. We’re too busy keeping up with that other huge demand on our time. What was it? Oh yeah—our writing. But if we each learn a little something, then network, we can help each other along. In that spirit of sharing, New York Times bestselling author  Jonathan Maberry  ( The Wolfman ,  Patient Zero ,  Rot & Ruin ) gave me permission to post a fun application of technology I picked up from him at his monthly Writers Coffeehouse held near Philadelphia, PA: author talks by Skype. Used for almost a decade by geographically challenged families as a work-around for long distance charges, this video conferencing application is now inspiring authors (among more than 660 million other registered users) to explore its uses. Last year I participated in an author reading in Connecticut alongside the real-time visages of Skyped authors reading from Israel, India, and California. I recently le...

Unlike Kathleen, who posted last week about audio books, I have never embraced that technology. Maybe, like she said, it's because I don't process well audibly. Even when I was in critique groups where we read aloud for comments, I would have a hard time focusing if the reading went beyond seven to ten pages. I have tried to listen to audio books when my husband and I traveled. He seems to be able to focus better and always enjoyed the books. I would find myself glancing out the window at the passing scenery and my mind would go somewhere else. Then I'd realize I missed a whole section of the story. My husband would have to catch me up when we stopped for lunch. So it was a huge surprise when we decided to listen to the audio version of my book, One Small Victory when we took a recent trip, and I was able to stay with it the whole time. That may be due in part to the fact that I was driving and couldn't gaze out at the scenery and start thinking of some other sto...