Category Archives: Fantasy

March 4, 2014 · 8:25 am

Hyphen help us–

You thought hell was getting that manuscript written and ready for submission. You thought the rest was going to be easy.

Oh, no, my friend.

True hell is discovered in the editing process of your manuscript. This is when you realize that (among other failings) your knowledge of how hyphenated words really work is somewhat lacking.

Oh sure, everyone agrees that a compound word is a combination of two or more words that function as a single unit of meaning. Most of us even know that there are two types of compounds: those written as single words, with no hyphenation and which are called “closed compounds”– such as the word “bedspread,” AND the “hyphenated compounds,” such as “jack-in-the-box” and “self-worth.”

But there is a third group, and they are the bane of my life–those mysterious, ephemeral denizens of the deepest corner of writer’s hell, called open compounds. These seemingly innocent instruments of torture are written as separate words–the nouns “school bus” and “decision making,” for example.

But how do I tell if it’s one word, two words or a hyphenated word?

1. Do not use a hyphen unless it serves a purpose. If a compound adjective cannot be misread or, as with many psychological terms, its meaning is established, a hyphen is not necessary.

For example:

covert learning techniques, health care reform, day treatment program, sex role differences, grade point average

2. Do use one in a temporary compound that is used as an adjective before a noun, use a hyphen if the term can be misread or if the term expresses a single thought:

For example:

“the children resided in two parent homes” means that two homes served as residences, whereas if the children resided in “two-parent homes,” they each would live in a household headed by two parents. In that case, a properly placed hyphen helps the reader understand the intended meaning.

3. We also use hyphens for compound words that fall into these catagories:

a. the base word is capitalized: pro-African

b. numbers: post-1910, twenty-two

c. an abbreviation: pre-ABNA manuscript

d. more than one word: non-achievement-oriented students

d. All “self-” compounds whether they are adjectives or nouns such as self-report, self-esteem, self-paced.

4. We hyphenate words that could be misunderstood when there are diverse meanings if they’re unhyphenated:

re-pair (to pair again) as opposed to repair (to mend)

re-form (to form again) as opposed to reform (to improve)

5. We hyphenate words in which the prefix ends and the base word begins with the same vowel:

meta–analysis, anti–intellectual

But really, unless you are a technical writer, how often are we going to use these terms? Hence, the confusion when we DO use them.

Getting it write online dot com says, “One way to decide if a hyphen is necessary is to see if the phrase might be ambiguous without it. For example, “large-print paper” might be unclear written as “large print paper” because the reader might combine “print” and “paper” as a single idea rather than combining “large” and “print.” Another such example is “English-language learners.” Without the hyphen, a reader might think we are talking about English people who are learning any language rather than people who are learners of the English language.”

Write most words formed with prefixes and suffixes as one word with NO hyphen.

Prefixes: Afterglow, extracurricular, multiphase, socioeconomic

Sufixes: Arachnophobia, wavelike, angiogram

Hooray for Merriam-Webster! One can also look the word up in an online dictionary, to see the various different ways it can be combined. Just go to:

http://www.merriam-webster.com

Now the real point of all this is that no matter how much I know when I am editing for another author, I always manage to screw up my own work amazingly well–it’s like my finger has a twitch that absolutely MUST add a hyphen! (Or a semi-colon, but that’s another post.)

Curses on the hyphen!

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Tagged as adventure, battles, books, Do you like my Tolstoy Tattoo, fantasy, fiction, humor, literature, the correct use of the hyphen, To hyphenate or not, writing

March 1, 2014 · 7:43 am

Words as Swords

Grammar is such a pain. We all speak naturally in a dialect that is indicative of where we live, and there are certain peculiarities that will emerge in our scribbles.

*doh*

I was raised by a set of parents who adored words. Long words, short words, rhyming words– my siblings and I learned words at a young age and we know how to use them and in what context.

Of course, many of the words I was taught were unique to my family, apparently, but words were important and they were celebrated.

Periodically Dad would “lose his words” and what came out of his mouth at that point we were not to repeat….

I have this wealth of words in my head, and yet when I get to cruising on a tale, I inadvertently use the same words rather frequently, as if my head is stuck in a rut.

Words have power. Words can build nations and words can tear them down. “When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

William Shakespeare adored words too, and is credited with inventing over 1700 of the words we use today. He did this by changing nouns into verbs, and connecting words together that had never been used before. Some of these words include ‘bedroom’ and ‘courtship.’

Words can win a persons love, and words can destroy a relationship forever. “Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear….”

To have the chance to wallow in words all day long, and get paid for it is more than amazing, it is what I always dreamed of. I live for words, to write them, to read them — to play with them. I get to quote Shakespeare! “Cry ‘havoc,’ and let slip the dogs of war….”

Long words, short words, life is built around words.

“Without the which we are pictures, or mere beasts…..”

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Tagged as adventure, battles, books, fantasy, fiction, humor, knights, literature, William Shakespeare, Words, writing

February 26, 2014 · 9:25 am

Fantasy–It’s a Mystery

My favorite books to read are, of course, fantasy. But I love mysteries too, and guess what? The best fantasy books involve a deep mystery.

In the best fantasy tales, at the outset quests are undertaken to achieve a goal against terrible odds, and the basis of that goal could be an object with a mysterious history, or it could be to kill a despot with immense power, the source of which is–a mystery.

And then, once the heroes are made aware of the whereabouts of the object (or person) they seek, the mystery deepens. Obstructions appear in their path, things that both block and enlighten them as they overcome them. With each small victory they learn something new, some random thing that might ultimately be the final clue to removing the source of power from the evil dude’s grasp, thus ending his reign of terror.

During the process of this, the heroes grow as people. Where they were comfortable in their secure, middle-class existence, or naive but worldly street-urchins, the experience of solving the mystery and enduring the hardships to arrive at the final scene changes them, some for the better, and some–maybe not.

This also happens in a great murder mystery, or a gripping political thriller. In writing classes and groups this is called the story arc, but in my opinion, it’s just the basis of good story. For authors just starting out, StoryStarter.com has a great page.

Along the way, the questers may encounter things that don’t appear in the real world we currently live in, and for me that’s part of the fun.

I grew up in a very rural area, surrounded by deep woods. We left Seattle and moved there when I was nine. Beyond the perimeter of our property lay terrifying things–bears, wildcats–things a nine-year old city-girl has no idea of how to deal with.

Daily, my sister and I walked up a 1/4 mile long dirt driveway through the forest to the school bus. A large hill was in the center, and for the first year I lived there, I hated the place more than anything. I hated the school, I hated the bus, I hated my parents for destroying my life.

Sometimes our father would have to drive us to school, if bears were in the horse pasture that bordered our property. We would drive past, and he would point out the wonders and explain that with a mother bear and her cub in the horse pasture, we had to be very careful that morning. “They’re rare, and we’re fortunate to be able to see them once in a while. It’s just the mother will see you as a danger to her cub, so no bus for you today.”

All I knew was the woods were full of danger, and my parents apparently didn’t care, because they made me walk through them daily. I did walk through them and gradually, as summer vacation loomed, I began to see the possibilities of living in a lake-house, where there was no restriction on how many days you swam.

That first summer I discovered waterskiing, and my whole point of view about living all year round in a vacation-house was changed. Over the first few months I learned to love the deep woods around us, and to know and recognize the birds and animals who grudgingly endured our noisy, selfish presence.

This personal journey from ignorance to understanding the characters go through while solving the underlying mystery is one of the most important elements of a story. It is hard to know how a character will react to a given situation, and that is the best part of writing them.

Ross Kitson’s epic Darkness Rising series is one of my favorites, because the circumstances force the characters to evolve in unexpected ways. Jeffrey Getzin’s fabulous Prince of Bryonae and his novellas featuring D’Arbignal are also good examples of how circumstances shape characters.

I highly recommend both these indie authors, if you are looking for high quality indie fantasy.

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Tagged as Art, books, D'Arbignal, Darkness Rising, deep mystery, fantasy, fiction, humor, Jeffrey Getzin, literature, magic, mystery, Ross M. Kitson, writing

February 22, 2014 · 6:33 am

Name that Kid

A Facebook friend of mine whose given name is ‘Tad’ remarked that he had never liked his name, that he had always felt more like a Christopher. I can totally relate! I was stuck with a not-too-goofy first name, Connie, which I never really liked, but my middle name…. To this day I can’t spell it with out concentrating really hard: Lieuettice.

In a way I understand my mother’s dilemma. Good names are hard to think up! My friend, Irene, is always hammering at me to give my characters names that don’t all start with the same letters…which I wish I had thought about earlier on in the Tower of Bones series (doh).

So lately I’ve had to resort to my handy list of Saxon Names. Or my list of Popular Viking Baby Names. “Come here, BRÖKK, my fine, strapping hero…put on this armor and at least look like you want to go out and wrestle a dragon….you and DAGFINNR can pillage the village when you’re done.”

So, my dilemma in my current work in progress is that two of the female characters have names that begin with the same letter. When I began writing the series, I didn’t realize the second character would become so important in the story–and now, three books into the series, I CAN’T CHANGE HER NAME! (bangs head on desk.)

But, instead of sitting here, wailing “Why, why why?” I suppose I should just get on with writing the story.

Note to self: Always name your character names that begin with different letters–there are twenty-six letters in the English alphabet, for the love of Tolstoy…and if we get into the Elder Futhark we can use all those lovely runes….

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Tagged as adventure, Art, battles, Elder Futhark, humor, knights, literature, Names, Runes, Tad Williams, Vikings, writing

February 20, 2014 · 8:00 am

Midnight Blues

Two days ago I woke at 3:30 a.m. with the plot of a short-story in my head. People often ask me where I get the idea for some of the more obscure things I write, and I tell them I literally dream them up. They think I am kidding, but it’s true. Some of my best stories have arrived in the middle of the night–the real trick is to get up, go to the computer and write it down.

After all these years I have learned to do just that.

My husband is used to me getting out of bed and going to work at all hours of the night. How do you sleep when your head is a television? My imagination is killing me, and since I have my main bursts of energy during the strangest times of night, I get a lot done before noon. Anything after that could be a wash-out as I might be napping in an upright position, a corpse at the keyboard.

What I do is give the tale a working title, one that will be changed to a better title later. I write down the basic plot as I remember it, and the characters.

If I had any names in the idea I woke up with, I write them down, otherwise I give them temporary names. I give the environment it’s name and write down the feelings I had of the dream environment.

Then I note every thing else I can remember about it–sounds, tastes, smells–anything that might make the story more real.

In the final outline, most of these things will be boiled down, changed to make a cohesive tale, as my dreams tend to be quite random.

This is not to say that all my dreams are worth writing about–that is absolutely not the case, although they are often hilarious and sometimes confusing.

Some of my dreams are frightening, and make me go “hmmm….”

The point is, inspiration comes to us from the most random of places. Unfortunately, some of the best story ideas have come to me while driving, and that is a real stinker–there I am on the interstate, and the best plot idea I’ve ever had is fighting for my attention, demanding to be written down–which is definitely not an option at that point!

I am no longer allowed to drive with my laptop propped on the steering wheel, go figure. I have gotten off the highway and sat in a gas-station parking lot, jotting down the idea, on whatever is available. Once it is written down, I can go on my way, and concentrate on driving with no distractions.

Unfortunately, I seldom use my handwriting skills any more–the ease of communicating via the keyboard has eroded that all-important penmanship I once received high grades for. Four months later, when cleaning out the car, I will perhaps find a napkin covered in indecipherable chicken-scratches.

If I don’t toss it with the rest of the litter, which is the smart option, I will take it to my office (the infamous Room of Shame) and go over it with a magnifying glass, like Jean-François Champollion trying to decipher the Rosetta Stone.

Nine time out of ten I give up, frustrated; one more glorious idea gone forever, shot to hell in the world of the ephemeral.

Why is there never a translator of obscure texts around when you need one?

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Tagged as adventure, battles, Dreams, fantasy, fiction, Glorious ideas shot to hell, humor, literature, My head is a television, romance, writing

February 17, 2014 · 9:46 am

The Bitter Pill

One of the most confusing things about being an indie author is pricing your book. Quite honestly, if you price it too high–I probably won’t buy it unless you are my dear friend (don’t worry Tad Williams, I will sell my car to get your next book.)

For me, anything over $4.99 is too high, and $2.99 is the perfect spot. I love those $0.99 books too!

I am sorry, Mercedes Lackey & James Mallory–your publisher has priced you out of the ballpark for me–I read four to six books each week and will not be able to pre-order The House of Four Winds for my Kindle. In fact, at that price, I will have to wait until the paperback turns up at my local second-hand book store.

In a recent post discussing Hugh Howey‘s report, Author Earnings: the Report, on her excellent blog, The Militant Writer, Mary Walters boiled it down to manageable chunks and made a great many good points. One in particular is of great interest to those of us trying to choose a publishing path, and who may be wavering between going indie, or remaining on a traditional path. She writes:

Readers are not buying traditionally published e-books as frequently as they are indie published e-books, because indie-published books cost less. Therefore, traditionally published authors are getting read less often, and are making less money per book sold than indie authors are.

This is important news for traditionally published authors.

It is also important news for major publishers, who are going to lose their authors if they don’t smarten up.

We won’t go into the impact all this is having on good literature, but Howey believes that the data suggests that “even stellar manuscripts are better off self-published.”

Speaking as an author this is sad, because I am like everyone who writes a book, secretly hoping to get picked up by a big publisher. On so many levels that would be a great honor, to have my work recognized by an industry I have always respected. But when I look at this conundrum as a reasonable human being, no one wants to be tied the wheel and sold into eternal serfdom for the rest of their writing career. No one wants to be forced to write stale sequel after sequel, just because the first book rocked and now the series brand is a guaranteed sale for the publisher. Where is the joy of creativity in that?

This is where each author must make a key decision regarding what we will commit our energy to: Will we court the favor of an industry that has much to offer us, but expects to be paid in more than their pound of flesh? Or will we soldier on, trying to find that sweet-spot that Hugh Howey has found, and perhaps hit the big time through our own efforts?

I choose to follow in Mr. Howey’s footsteps. I haven’t been that successful yet, but what I earn is mine. I am the captain of my ship, and if I fail to navigate the shark-infested waters of publishing, at least I have given it my best effort. I will continue to price my books as reasonably as I can, and hope that with persistent efforts on my part, their sales will gain ground.

The harsh truth is that the big publishers are rushing to publish manuscripts by big name authors that are just as poorly edited and just as abysmally plotted as those in the $0.99 bin at Amazon.com. How many paperbacks have you bought, gotten halfway through them, and said, “This is s**t!”… ?

I would rather pay less than $12.99 for that privilege, thank you.

I find that traditionally published books are fraught with problems just as frequently as not, and it pisses me off, because the big publishers LOUDLY proclaim their quality is superior, when time has proven it is not necessarily so. This is why I go to the secondhand bookstore for the traditionally published books, and haunt the Kindle store, looking for the indies.

There is gold out there in those inexpensive Kindle books, and I am vindicated every time I read a true gem. This is why I blog about the books I love on my Best in Fantasy blog–an attempt to bring attention to the many amazing books that entertain me.

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Tagged as adventure, battles, books, Hugh Howey, indie publishing, literature, Mary W. Walters, publishing, self publishing

February 3, 2014 · 6:39 am

Mortality and Wine

Left Behind —

The twisty path that life takes us down sometimes brings us into the circle of a person we can call friend. We may meet at the home of a mutual friend, or we may meet in a writing group. Over time we get to know and like them. We look forward to seeing them; indeed, we expect to see them at certain parties, as if they were the underpinning of the entire event.

When they are suddenly taken from this life with no advance warning, you are stunned, feeling as if you were ambushed by their death.

Perhaps it was a close friend, or maybe it was a person you were only beginning to know well. Either way we are faced with a disconcerting feeling of being left behind—not that we wanted to die, but rather that we didn’t want a person we cared about to leave without us.

When a parent, a spouse, a sibling or a child dies, there are no words to describe the pain. The same goes for the death of that friend who is your other half, your ‘bestie’, your brother-in-arms.

The friend who would help you bury the body.

That loss is a tearing, shattering pain time may ease, but which always leaves a scar. Every person handles this experience in a different way. Some of us become better people through surviving a devastating personal loss, and some do not.

The death of a friend who is more than simply an acquaintance, yet not intimately tangled in your life is a different kind of loss.

It’s one we will all experience, and perhaps it’s not as profound as the loss of your best friend, but it is no less shocking and disconcerting. That death is experienced differently than if he were a friend who is a close family member.

He is someone we had known only a few years, a friend we were only beginning to really know. He is someone who is in many ways a mystery although we regularly met at parties and social events. He is someone with whom we have enjoyed long conversations over wine and cheese, shared risqué jokes, and laughed at the incongruities of life.

We had only started to walk the road of life together, only begun to know him as a traveling companion, and suddenly he is gone.

When a friend who is not yet close to you dies, a hole is left in your life, a hole filled with possibilities, packed with the prospect of what your friendship could have grown into, given more time and more parties.

Although it’s comforting to know that he touched more lives than just ours, it’s hard to realize we’ll never talk about wine with him again, never see him standing in that spot he always claimed in Nancy’s kitchen, never see him and his little dogs again.

Never hear him tease, “Vegan chili is an oxymoron,” as he serves himself at the buffet.

It’s hard to imagine him going alone into that unknowable frontier we must all eventually pass into, hard to imagine him letting go of this life when he was so vivid and filled with energy and passion for his art the last time we saw him. I will never pour a glass of wine again without thinking of our good friend who loved the craft and the art of wine-making so much, and whose wines were the source of many happy moments for many more people than just me.

His many friends are now feeling the same sense of loss and confusion I am feeling. My heart goes out to his close family and to our dear friends Michael and Nancy, intimate friends of his who are stunned and bereft; loved ones who still can’t believe he’s gone.

Patrick—our glass will always be half-full, because of the joy and companionship of good friends like you.

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Tagged as adventure, Art, battles, books, Death, Friendship, Grieving, Life, Loss, vegan lifestyle, Wine, writing

January 30, 2014 · 6:52 am

Philosophy and Crafting a Tale

The Buddha once said, “We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.” I believe this to be true, and try to live my life accordingly. I am a basically happy person.

I think a certain amount of my personal philosophy finds its way into my writing. It’s only human nature to want to make the world to fit your idea of what is good and beautiful. In my worlds, good people always find themselves in bad situations, but through the drama, heartache and violence, what I hope to express is the beauty of life, the emotions that are experienced when joys are contrasted against sorrows.

If you have never felt hunger, you can never understand what it is to have plenty. In the same context, if you have never known sorrow, how can you know joy? The contrasts of life are the flavors, the textures that give it meaning.

The Buddha also said, “There has to be evil so that good can prove its purity above it.” This is a fundamental truth for all writers of traditional fantasy fiction when devising plots, one that J.R.R.Tolkien understood quite clearly. After all, what would have been the point of Frodo and Sam going to the depths of Mordor, suffering the hardships they endured if not to destroy the One Ring and negate the power of Sauron? And why would they do this, if Sauron was not the embodiment of evil?

In the Lord of the Rings trilogy, we have one of the most enduring works of modern fiction. It is an epic quest where through it all, we have joy and contentment sharply contrasted with deprivation and loss, drawing us in and inspiring the deepest emotions. This use of contrast is why Tolkien’s work is the foundation upon which modern epic fantasy is built.

If I can create a tale in which the reader experiences the full gamut of human emotion, I will have done my job. The longer I am at this craft, the more I see that the rest of my life will be a training ground, teaching me new things, and widening my writing horizons everyday. With each thing I have written over the years, my work has evolved. Because the universe follows certain fundamental laws and nothing is static, my work and that of all dedicated craftsman-authors will continue to evolve.

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Tagged as adventure, Art, battles, books, fantasy, fiction, Frodo, human nature, humor, J.R.R. Tolkien, literature, Lord of The Rings, Mordor, mythology, Samwise, The Buddha, writing

January 28, 2014 · 6:35 am

William Morris, Tolkien, and Modern Elves

Pauline Baynes’ map poster of Middle-earth published in 1970 by George Allen & Unwin and Ballantine Books.

Lately I have been ‘guru-ed’ to death on various different writers forums by a few indie authors, whose own work is a great deal less than stellar, harshly criticizing the quality of writing of everyone from J.R.R. Tolkien to Robert Jordan.

Some people–I wonder, do they even read the comments they write? I am going to tell you straight up: Tolkien did NOT use too many words in The Hobbit, and the movie was not better. Tolkien was Professor of Anglo-Saxon Studies at Pembroke College, Oxford, he invented the elfin language and as such, we may be assured he had a moderately good grasp of the English language, and the literature of his time.

He wrote in a lyrical style, with descriptions and side quests, things that enthralled avid readers like me who understood how to set aside a day to just to enjoy a good read.

The movie, while it is awesome, exciting and great fun, bears some relation to the actual book but certainly does not chronicle it. In the book for starters, Legolas was not a character, he did not have a love interest, and neither did Kili. If you read the credits at the end of the movie, you will see it clearly says “BASED ON” the book, The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.

The problem with the book is not in Tolkien’s writing. It is in the eye of the beholder who never learned patience, or appreciation of a well-told story.

Fortunately, we now have an emerging generation of young women who consider “Pride and Prejudice” to be their favorite book of all time, and this gives me hope. Pride and Prejudice is about manners, yes–but it is also about that intrinsic thing all great novels consider, the search for self, and underneath the trappings of fantasy, the elves and goblins, so is the Hobbit.

That quest to discover who we are and what we are capable of is what drives Bilbo to keep going, even in the face of terrible events. I have hope that if Jane Austen’s work is once again considered to be popular reading among young people, then the love of a beautifully crafted tale will never entirely disappear and the true appreciation of Tolkien’s great works will once again be celebrated.

What I frequently see in these forums see is an aggressive type of person who criticizes but lacks an understanding of what he/she is ranting about. They claim to be in writing groups, but if they are, I feel sorry for their fellow writers. These people are the carrion-eaters, the ones who will pick an author’s work to the bone, and casually dismiss it, destroying a fellow authors sense of self-worth.

What a person who writes fantasy needs to know is what the masters of the genre wrote, and what made their work classics. In other words, stop looking AT the words as disparate parts that you could write better, and read them in context. You might be surprised at what you will find!

Even Tolkien had inspiration for his works, and he freely admitted he was a great devotee of the work of William Morris, an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and English Arts and Crafts Movement. He loved Morris’s prose and poetry romances. Tolkien’s own work follows the general style and approach of Morris’s work. The Desolation of Smaug as portraying dragons as detrimental to landscape, has been noted as an explicit motif borrowed from Morris, just as countless fantasy authors borrow the modern concept of Orcs, Elves, and many other high fantasy motifs from Tolkien.

The modern image and mythology of the elf as he is written into most of today’s fantasy has been directly modeled on the elves of Tolkien’s Rivendell, whether the author knows it or not. Even the elves we find in the onslaught of urban-fantasy-romances are created in Tolkien’s image.

So, now that I’ve had my rant about internet writer’s forums and the bad apples who occasionally haunt them, you’re probably wondering what I find that is good out there? A great deal more good than bad, actually. There are an incredible number of people who are willing to be helpful to aspiring authors, and who regularly share good information. The following is a list of good forums you might want to look into.

Writers Digest

Writers Cafe

Absolute Write

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

I’ve had a lot of fun on these forums and I learned a great deal. I never respond to Trolls, because acknowledging them encourages them to think they have power. How you handle them is up to you. Do your homework, research the great literature of your genre and write because you love it.

Ah! like gold fall the leaves in the wind, long years numberless as the wings of trees! The beginning of the Quenya poem Namárië written in tengwar and in Latin script, by J.R.R. Tolkien.

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Tagged as adventure, Art, battles, dragons, Elves, fantasy, fiction, George Allen & Unwin, J.R.R. Tolkien, literature, Pride and Prejudice, The Hobbit, Tolkien, William Morris, writing

January 24, 2014 · 7:30 am

Telling the Tale

I am so excited–Tales from the Dreamtime has made it into print, and is halfway through the process for being made into an Audible Book through Amazon’s ACX services. We should have a finished product before the end of February. The narrator is a wonderful reader, Craig Allen, and the way he reads my work is perfect–he instinctively understood what I was thinking when I wrote it.

There is a sense of having “made the grade” in hearing your work read as an Audible book, and a feeling of wonder. Did I really write that? Wow! It’s actually kind of good!

I’m quite pleased with how well the novella translates to being read aloud. My reader has had very few questions, and that is entirely due to it’s having been professionally edited. Irene Roth Luvaul was the editor on that book, and she is awesome, as are all the gals at Eagle Eye Editors. I actually have three manuscripts in editing with them right now–Tower of Bones is finally getting the Eagle Eye Treatment, which it should have had in the beginning. This is how you learn.

The original editing on Tower of Bones was a labor of love by my friends. It is a great example of a typical indie production, and while it’s not unreadable in its current state, it has too many words. The story has potential for greatness, and Maria Johnson at Eagle Eye is bringing that out. I have developed a leaner style of writing since that book was written, and Maria is cutting the fluff.

Also at Eagle Eye, Huw the Bard has been under the knife–the fabulous Carlie Cullen, who edited Forbidden Road is putting the polish on Huw. With this kind of continuity, I will be able to develop my author name into real brand, with as good a product as I can possibly offer.

When the good ladies at Eagle Eye are done with me, all my books will be as high quality as any published by a large publisher. This is what I have been working toward, getting my work as professional as is possible. Sometime being an indie means you were flung into the deep end of the pool, but eventually you do learn a few things.

My raw manuscripts are not really very literate. Oh, I do the best I can, but like all authors I tend to use certain phrases too often, adore clichés, and of course, there are those pesky typos that require correction. Also, in the course of my writing frenzy I stick a comma in anywhere I pause, apparently. (snorfle.)

BUT the real story today–grandma is gonna kick back and play her game, all day, and no, I don’t need any fresh air , thank you. The most awesome thing ever–Square Enix re-released Final Fantasy X, this time for the PS3, and it has been remastered. Not only that, they have created a sequel to it, Final Fantasy X-2, and released them together in a package that has been getting rave reviews.The direct sequel to Final Fantasy X, the game’s story follows the character Yuna from Final Fantasy X as she seeks to resolve political conflicts in the fictional world of Spira before it leads to war. This will be the next purchase from Amazon, since Grandma LOVES gaming as much as she loves reading.

But right now, Grandma is replaying Final Fantasy XII, so she has to go now. I will never stop playing this game–I love the characters so much. The story line is deep and rich, and the personalities of the characters are multidimensional.

Don’t touch that controller, that’s mine.