Showing posts with label #books #publishing creative use of language #author. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #books #publishing creative use of language #author. Show all posts

Thursday, April 19, 2018

The Gang

Our Author Gang
We are a small group of authors who write various genre books.
What brought us together on this blog:
First and foremost, our shared love for writing.
We like to "hang out" together, helping each another other by promoting each other's books, blogs, events, and doing whatever we can to support one another.
We take turns posting about our books, the rewards as well as the difficulties of publishing and book promotion, and about things we enjoy in everyday life.
We need your support, please visit our blog often, comment on our posts and share our posts.
Thank you!

Mary Anne Yarde is an award winning author of the International Best Selling Series — The Du Lac Chronicles. Set a generation after the fall of King Arthur, The Du Lac Chronicles takes you on a journey through Dark Age Briton and Brittany, where you will meet new friends and terrifying foes. Based on legends and historical fact, the Du Lac Chronicles is a series not to be missed.
Born in Bath, England, Mary Anne Yarde grew up in the southwest of England, surrounded and influenced by centuries of history and mythology. Glastonbury--the fabled Isle of Avalon--was a mere fifteen-minute drive from her home, and tales of King Arthur and his knights were part of her childhood.
Hello out there in cyberspace! I write Heroic Fantasy, Space Opera, Sword & Planet Sci-Fi, Sword and Sorcery Fantasy, Children's Books, and I also dabble a bit in Horror stories.
My fascination with the written and spoken word began as a 6th grader. I was like a sponge. I couldn’t get enough spelling, sentence diagraming, and literature. This passion followed me through junior high and high school and into adulthood.
I’m a Jill of most trades: co-owned a weekly newspaper, administrative office work, kitchen design, custom jewelry creation, wedding planning, floral design, preaching sermons, public relations and marketing, designing social media promotions, copy and manuscript editing, and now add the title author to this mix.

I became an avid reader at a very early age, thanks to my dad who introduced me to many great books. I write alternate history, romantic fantasy, magical realism novels as well as fun, educational, and bilingual books for children ages 4-12 about acceptance, friendship, family, and moral values such as accepting people with disabilities, dealing with bullies, and not judging others before getting to know them. I also like to encourage children to use their imagination and daydream about fantasy worlds.
I originally studied fine and commercial art, way back when dinosaurs walked the earth and eBooks weren't even a gleam in Amazon's eye. I started my career as a graphic artist as the sign maker at the old Nut Tree in Vacaville, California. After a stint at a print shop (ouch), I began working as a book designer for Bill Yenne at American Graphic Systems. While working for Bill, I wrote my first two books, "Ghost Towns" and "100 Medical Milestones That Shaped World History."
Hi there, Toi here. I’m the self-published author of 10 books and counting. I’m also a blogger and vlogger who loves to interview other creatives. A geek girl at heart, I’m also a bit of a techie and foodie, I was born in Texas but consider Virginia to be my home. I enjoy reading, cooking, painting, geek culture, collecting vinyl records, and spending time with my family. 
I also work as a special education teacher’s assistant and find comfort and peace of mind in chocolate, green tea, and naps. My husband and I have been married for twelve years and share our home with a tortoise named Betty and a Redbone Coonhound named Margie, who’s totally taken over the house.
Nicola McDonagh is known for her unique writing style and is the author of the unconventional sci-fi/dystopian Song of Forgetfulness action adventure series. She loves to play around with the written word and the visual image and has been a photographer, actor, director, scriptwriter and other less exciting things, (worst ever job – dishwasher in a trendy bar in Liverpool) before settling in Suffolk with her musician husband, plethora of rescued cats and chickens.
Rebecca is an award-winning author, blogger, and book reviewer. While fantasy tends to be her primary genre she also dabbles in paranormal, romance, and sci-fi. Currently Rebecca has one epic fantasy series titled The Chronicles of the Coranydas. Rebecca likes writing in the the first person as well. Her paranormal fantasy For Their Sins and her Sci-fi action/adventure Neutral Space are both written in this style.
Christina Weigand’s a writer, wife, and mother of three grown children and a teenage daughter. She is also Nana to four granddaughters. She lives with her husband and youngest daughter in Pennsylvania after a short sabbatical in the lovely state of Washington.
She received her BS in Interior Design in 1995, but after a few years of working in the industry God redirected her path with the addition of a fourth child to the family. So she returned to being a stay at home mom, but having been out in the world of school and work she realized she needed a little more, so she took several writing courses and started her second career as an author.
Rich Feitelberg is a poet and novelist, author of the fantasy series, the Aglaril Cycle. He also has four short story collections and a collection of poetry available at fine booksellers everywhere. 
Rich is an avid map collector, and student of popular culture. Growing up on a steady diet of comic books, science fiction, and fairy tales of all kinds, Rich soon began weaving his own tales at a young age. These activities continue to this day, as Rich is working on the next installment of the Aglaril Cycle, and writing more poems and short stories for your enjoyment.

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Guilty until proven innocent - Nicola McDonagh



Recently, Amazon put a warning on my book Whisper Gatherers. A Dystopian/sci-fi novel set some 350 years in the future.

They emailed me to say that they have received complaints that the book has an excessive amount of typos. Now, I use a slang-based language that often combines words to make one long one, much the same as George Orwell does in 1984 - Newspeak, crimestop, thoughtcrime, goodthink, oldspeak, pornosec, unperson, and so on.

Don't get me wrong, I think it is a good thing to have quality checks on books, but it needs to be managed correctly so that the author can make necessary changes before their book is published, not after.

I emailed Amazon to tell them that the 'Errors' they cited are not typos but are in fact intentional, and add to the futuristic tone of the book. They told me that I must make the changes they specify or they would keep the warning sign up. What gives Amazon the right to edit, and, re-write my work? If they think the book is substandard, they should not allow it to be published on their platform, yet they are happy to let me use their site to sell my book regardless of the quality.

Here is an example from the email Amazon sent me:

Error Category: Typo; Kindle Location: 1580; Errored text: nanorope,; Context: It was as light as a bub’s eyelash, as strong as nanorope, and as see-through as a raindrop when it came into contact with its owners heartbeat. ; Comments:  "strong as nanorope" should be  "strong as nano rope"

So, using their logic regarding grammar, my ‘nanorope’ is incorrect, yet words such as ‘raindrop’ and ‘heartbeat’ clearly two different words stuck together to make one, are acceptable?

Error Category: Typo; Kindle Location: 1632; Errored text: comtext; Context: A whole load of comtext appeared. ; Comments: "A whole load of comtext appeared." should be"A whole load of context appeared."
This change does not even make sense, especially since the character is talking about some text written on a computer screen, hence the word 'comtext'.

This book, Whisper Gatherers has been for sale on Amazon since 2015 without any complaints. In fact, I have received many 4 and 5 star reviews that enjoyed and recognised the quirky use of language. Here is a snippet from one such review:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a great language!
ByKata Mlekon December 6, 2016
Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase

Dystopian is one of my favorite genres and I try to stay up-to-date with the latest novels. How come I missed this one so late? I don't know!

The author created a very complex and appealing world I traveled with Adara with great pleasure. I must say the experimental English was at first hard to understand (English is my second language) but as I got used to it, I found it stunning. It helped develop the feeling of being there with the main character who narrates the story.

You can see more here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YMSP1UA

Anyway, after a week of correspondence explaining my deliberate use of language to Amazon, they emailed me to say that they have taken down the warning sign.

Maybe if they had consulted me before condemning my book, this issue would never have arisen. But it seems Amazon’s policy is to find authors guilty until proven innocent.


For more information on my books, please go to: www.thesongofforgetfulness.com







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