Revisions Cave

"Efficiency is doing better what is already being done." Yes, folks, the revisions cave is real! I've been in deep edits for my upcoming mystery novel the past couple of weeks because I received an editorial letter. In the author-editor-agent panel I attended at the California Crime Writers Conference, Leslie Karst mentioned that she's received an editor letter of eight to ten pages. Thankfully, my own spanned only two pages (single-spaced, though). Her advice was to make sure … [Read more...]

A Little Help from my Friends

Seuipeih: poor in knowledge or skill; sloppyA famous politician named Wohng Ngon Sehk (A.D. 1021-1086) wrote a dictionary. In it, he split the character "wave" into its basic literal strokes, breaking the word down into "skin of water." His contemporary, Sou Sik, a man of letters, disagreed with him. According to Wohng's rules, Sou argued, the character "slippery" would then be viewed as "bone of water." Sou believed that Wohng had been sloppy in his etymology.A writer can be sloppy after … [Read more...]