Monthly Archives: May 2011

Self Publish–Editing

31 May 2011
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You can’t have too many editors when you are getting ready to self publish. But the caution is that you can pay big bucks and still not get the job done. Big name publishers have experienced editors in each area.

What is “getting the job  done?” I have found that someone who is a voracious, fast reader may give you great suggestions for fixing your plot but will miss the typo errors, like “in” for “on.”  Spell check doesn’t highlight these, so the brain of a fast reader makes the correction without consciously recognizing it.

If you are working in an area that you are not completely familiar with, say quotes in Spanish, get a native speaker of the language to proof read.

Initiation to Killing

26 May 2011
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It was 1943. Jon Lippens had just turned 16 and was trying to evade the Germans’ drafting of young Belgian men into the German army and sent to the Russian front.

He had been interrogated for three days by the Belgian Resistance (the FFI) group run by ”Major Jim.” If he were accepted, they would help him hide from the Nazis. The final test would come that night. He was given a rifle and led with other FFI members to a basement. He had been warned that he would be expected to obey an order that might be difficult for him to execute.

In the basement he stood shoulder to shoulder with nine other men holding rifles. Three “collaborators” were stood with their backs against the stone wall. 

“Ready, aim, fire.” There was a roar of guns.  All three traitors were shot to death and left bleeding in the darkness.

This was the justice necessary by resistance groups all over Europe. They had no prison to lock up those working with the German occupiers, so their only choi9e was to kill them. A tough choice for a young man. His hatred of the Nazis and their brutality helped.

Self-Publish

24 May 2011
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Any new author who wishes to sell her book realizes in this new publishing world that ultimately only the author will be able to get her book sold. An author (even those who have an agent and publisher) will eventually realize that she must take an active role in selling her book. (more…)

Engineer’s Guide to Alligators

17 May 2011
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Hunting Alligators
The three of us, Ed Bennett, Brad Bishop and I, had gone to Jamaica during the Christmas vacation to “sell advertising” for The Yale Record, a magazine the editorial staff claimed was a humor magazine. They were producing a spring vacation edition. If we could convince the merchants in Kingston that half the Yale students would be coming to Jamaica, we might sell advertising.
Bennett stood in the back of a john boat holding the single shot rifle. This was the moment after five hours in the swamps of Jamaica we had anticipated. He had the rusty weapon aimed, most of the time, at the bobbing head of the alligator in the water. His sandy brown hair hung over his forehead and round cheeks. I couldn’t see how he would see to get a shot off. (more…)

WW2 Belgian Resistance

17 May 2011
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Jon Lippens was thirteen years old when the Germans invaded Belgium. When he became fourteen years old, the Germans drafted him into working in a steel factory. He didn’t like the idea of helping the Nazis and requested a transfer to the  Red Cross Rescue Service.  He was surprised that  the authorities (The Germans) approved the change. The job was working in the rescue of people from daily Allied bombing and searching for those killed in the bombings. Digging out bodies and gathering body parts. It was a gruesome job, but it made him feel useful. (more…)

New York Times E-books

16 May 2011
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I have done a study on the pricing of the twenty-five best selling fiction e-books listed in Sunday’s New York Times. The pricing is not shown so the results of my study are from Amazon.

My media consultant, Christine Rose, has suggest that the price of my e-book novel is too high at $9.99. So, even though I am not on any best seller list, I though I would see what price it took to get on a best seller list.

Of the twenty-five listed, all except two are priced from $7.99 (seven) up to $12.99 (seven). The two others are the number one best seller at $4.17 and the twenty-fifth at $0.99. The lowest ratings were three stars for #four and #five. These two are selling at the high price of $12.99.

The question is: Does the $0.99 price help get “Saving Rachel” on the best seller list? It probably does, since the book is only rated at three and one half stars. But a high price doesn’t seem to drive away buyers. However, I am considering lowering my price. I don’t expect this to get me on the best seller list.

High Speed Trains

12 May 2011
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ENGINEERS GUIDE TO
A HIGH SPEED TRAIN SYSTEM

Imagine a mag-lev train running from Chicago, to St. Louis, Oklahoma City, Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, finally looping down to Houston and then back to Chicago through those same cities. It would move at 300 miles an hour and never stop. (more…)

Self-Publish Editing

10 May 2011
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I figured that I would have four or five typos or mistakes in my novel, Amour et Vengeance.

But even though I had nine people, four that I paid, one head of an english department, and two more professional editors, there were many more than just four or five mistakes. And more are pointed out each day. Having two foreign languages didn’t help.

Before you release your work to print, have it edited, reviewed, studied as much as possible, etc. The e-book version can be changed easily. The printed version is permanent. Unless you go into the second printing.

Dreams

9 May 2011
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Engineer’s Guide to Dreams
It was a typical autumn day. Crisp and cold. We had not yet turned the thermostat from cool to heat. The Texas Rangers had just won their first World Series Game.
Marlene fed me candy from her Halloween bowl.
“Here’s some Hershey’s chocolate. How about some Reese’s peanut pies?”
She handed me one after another. I ripped them open and stuffed them in my mouth. She wouldn’t stop. (more…)

WW 2, Bicycles in Paris

4 May 2011
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Gege’s family in Paris during the German occupation (1940-1944) used public transportation (subway & trains) or bicycles throughout the four year occupation. No gasoline was available for automobiles, even though some private and commercial vehicles were converted to gazogene. The engines were converted to burning charcoal or compressed natural gas.

Gege went everywhere which her bicycle but locked it up if she left it parked on the sidewalk. One evening at a concert she didn’t lock her bicycle and it was stolen. Bicycles were rationed like everything else, so a replacement was expensive, if available.

Her father’s bicycle had replacement tires made of wood blocks wired together. Imagine how it would be to ride with wooden tires on cobblestone streets. With leather in scarce supply, shoes were made with wood as well.

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