Monday, July 30, 2012

Two Must Have Books

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into PrintOn Writing


As some of you know, I am trying something different by taking the self-publishing route.  The hardest part about this process so far is the editing.  Yep, when you self-publish, you are on your own.  Sure, you definitely are going to want to send your manuscript through a few beta-readers.  But you still need a good editor.  Those are hard to find in the self-publishing world sometimes.  I recently read a wonderful book by an indie that had many spelling and grammatical errors. I emailed this author, whose response was surprising to me.  This author actually had the book edited by someone and was disappointed in what I had found. 

I think that not all editors are created equal.  To me, if I can educate myself, I would like to be the best editor that I can be.  I have found the advice in the two books shown above to be the best.  I really have enjoyed the insight that I have gained from these two references.  So, if you want to have a good editor, be one.  If you want to be a good editor, read these books.

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King

On Writing by Stephen King

Thursday, July 19, 2012

My Little Super Pooper Is Back!

I love my cats.  Recently, one of my girls had a problem.  She had diarrhea.  Sick topic to discuss, but believe me when I say that I was getting very worried.  It started about about 10 days ago.  Not only did the smell become such a gross out factor, but the worry that my little baby was ill was sickening to me as well.

As most people do, I consulted the Internet.  Luckily, there is ample information out there about cats with diarrhea.  Some of it was scary.  Diarrhea can be a very bad thing.  But I decided to try some of the little tips before going to the vet.

First, I went to the store and bought a different type of dry food.  Evidently, there is a theory that sometimes cats can become allergic to their food.  So I tried Purina One SMARTBLEND Sensitive Systems.

Second, I bought some plain yogurt.  Yes, yogurt for my cat.  Now, I went to Food Lion for this hoping I could find a small container of it.  But they only had the big container, 32 oz. size.  The reasoning for yogurt is simple.  In the digestive system, there is a flora of bacteria.  If the balance of this flora is disturbed, then the probiotic bacteria in yogurt can help.  Also, I want to add, that it is important that plain yogurt is used because cats can not tolerate a lot of sugar.  The sugar in sweet, flavored yogurts could have an opposite effect--more diarrhea.  Well, this was new to me.  I tried placing a small amount on a dish beside the food bowl.  Unfortunately, my other cat ate it and not the intended patient.  But I was slick.  I put some on my finger and wiped it on my sick baby.  She had to eat it then.  I know that sounds kind of mean, but I wanted her to eat a little bit at least.

Third, I bought distilled water and some unflavored Pedialyte.  Well, actually, I bought the Food Lion off-brand of this.  I mixed this in the water bowl.  I started with a 1 part electrolyte to 4 parts distilled water mixture.  Then I decreased the amount to 1/8 cup of electrolyte to 1 cup of distilled water.  The idea behind this is to prevent dehydration by replacing the electrolytes that may have been lost via the diarrhea.

Well, I am glad to report that she is much better.  It's been about three days now with no diarrhea.  I am ecstatic.  My little super pooper is back!

Friday, July 13, 2012

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Outliers: The Story of Success


I just read this book last week, and I have to tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed it!  I highly recommend it.  It was a fast read, too.  I just couldn't put it down.  Gladwell has opened my eyes to a very interesting subject.  If you get a chance, read this book!

Iron Man 3 filming in Wilmington!

Iron Man 3 is now shooting in Wilmington.  I can't wait for this movie to come out.  I just watched a Stephen King movie-fest on THIS.  It reminded me of how many of his movies were filmed down here: Silver Bullet, Maximum Overdrive, and Firestarter.  There may be others that I have missed.

Here is a video of some filmed stunt for the Iron Man 3 caught by our local news crew:

http://www.wect.com/global/Category.asp?C=195960&autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=7500566