Why edotirs and poorfrdeaers mghit msis a mspisleled wrod

For your edification, a curious study which piqued both my interest and humour. http://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/~mattd/Cmabrigde/ Keep in mind, a lot of morphemes (or really long words) make a difference to how well this works. Also, the trick seems to apply to skilled readers, which I take to mean those readers who do now how to spell. Presumably, editors and proofreaders know how to spell. We hope. Quoting: In it Graham says: This reminds me of my PhD at Nottingham University (1976), which showed that randomising letters in the middle of words had little or no effect on the ability of skilled readers to understand the text. Indeed one rapid reader noticed only four or five errors in an A4 page of muddled text. So, proofreaders, editors: read slowly. Very. :D

Not guilty!

Feeling guilty for having chronic illnesses is just off. It's off. It's wrong. It's unnecessary. I mean, aside from making you feel bad emotionally, it doesn't help with your physical health, does it? This is the quote that finally got through to me: From Practicing The Power of Now, one of the "how to" sections with bold print at the beginning (page 130 if you have the book): When you are ill or disabled, do not feel that you have failed in some way, do not feel guilty. Do not blame life for treating you unfairly, but do not blame yourself either. All that is resistance. My take on this: Blame pins the past and future to an illness, so you're burdened with years of whatever tribulations, pain and failure you suffered in the past and also burdened with the potential pain and suffering of the future. Blame keeps you (the spirit) smothered and feeds the pain body (I'm not referring to the chronic illness here, but a sort of egoic entity that feeds off any sort of pain, but especially emotional pain, and helps smother the spirit). Blame is resistance. Resistance isn't what the spirit is about. The spirit is freedom. Sure, I'm chronically ill, but that isn't me. It's my body. It's something that happens to a body. I was blaming myself, however. I was feeling guilty. But there's nothing I can do about this illness that I'm not already doing. So no more guilty. You know, guilty also gets in the way of creativity. Creativity is an act of freedom, the spirit. So "Not guilty!" as I said in the blog title. :-) If I can't work. I can't work. If I can, I will, and I'll accept how it goes because it's a whole lot nicer than being "guilty sick author". I'd rather be just me.

At last, the revision of Gryphon 1

It's been a year since I was able to get back to this series. I revised the last of the Bound set in September of 2007, and here it is, October of 2008. My, my. Not being able to work on this epic has been bugging me like you wouldn't believe. Gryphon One is my oldest novel in the epic. It had the most faults to correct. While I wrote it, my style change. You can see the change somewhere around chapter four. The edits involved the removal of repetitive words, not changes to the characters or plot or huge alterations in style (POV, certain types of prose choices). I did get rid of a few paras of excess backstory near the beginning of chapter two and tried to place necessary data elsewhere in dialogue. Writing is always a learning process. No matter how good you think you are getting, you can learn more. And I swear, this art form has more critics than any other. I mean, you flub a flower in a painting and it's often called style, but you can't blub a blower in writing. See what I mean? What other art form requires almost 100% perfection to be acceptable? Even 95% properly spelled words looks bad in a published story. Writers have to aim for at least 99% properly spelled words and often, veeeery often, fail to do so. This need for perfection doesn't even take into account the myriad opinions out there as to what constitutes good prose, good characterisaton, good whatever. Art is about taste. Taste is about opinion. But spelling and grammar are all about rules. What a volatile mix! Gryphon One, long overdue for an upgrade (that's what I call getting rid of repetitive words), has been uploaded to both Lulu and Memoware. This is one of the free ebooks in the series, so anyone who had the older version can upload it again without needing to contact me. When I get to Gryphons 2 and 3, however, readers will need to send me proof of purchase to get the new versions. Lulu does not give the newest version when a reader downloads a purchased novel a second time. It keeps the older version on file for that reader, so the reader can only get the new one direct from me. I believe Lulu does this to protect the reader. The logic may be that the reader purchased a certain version and should have the right to access that version in perpetuity (I'm speaking ebook downloads, here). But I'm willing to email readers the newer version at no extra cost, because I'd like them to have it. It's just, I don't know, artistic pride, I guess. I have a lit version of Gryphon 1 available, though it's not showing on Memoware yet. I suppose I should load lit versions of the Bound set on Lulu as well, but the darned storefront is getting awfully long. I keep wondering if I should sell ebooks direct from a website using Paypal as a payment method... Ok, done rambling. Gryphon one revised and available. And now I'm off for a morning nap. I don't sleep eight hours in one shot. Can't.

I just updated those links finally. Odd, but I thought I did weeks ago, but I actually only updated my site links. I think I did the blog template links, but I may have forgotten to press save changes after. There you have it. Another case of seriously absent-minded. Pizza! Suppertime. What? Seriously attention deficit. That's what you're thinking, ain't it? Middle-aged attention deficit disorder. MAADD! Maadd! Ha ha ha. Ok, not funny. Pizza!

Warning, all my links to FB and WCP need updating

Marci has been working hard as heck to move Wild Child and Freya's Bower over to a new server, so my links on the sidebars with all the nice book covers are not good links, not just now. I'll update them soon, but the basic links are (still are): http://www.freyasbower.com/ and http://www.wildchildpublishing.com/

Resigning

Well, my health pretty much did me in. I couldn't keep up with the editing. Last Friday, I resigned as an FB/WCP editor. I spent my computer hours this week going through files and emails to track down the most current copies of everything and I uploaded them to the FB editor forum for the other editors to choose. My authors were contacted about the resignation. Some answered the email. A few did not. Either way, I'm still availalbe to answer questions, forward emails to the boss, or whatever else that needs doing aside from editing. I put this off for more than a month. I hung on despite knowing long ago that I wasn't keeping up. I hope my authors will forgive me. It was time to admit it and pass the work along to those capable of sitting down at the computer for longer lengths of time than me. I'm not out of the loop entirely. I'll be doing cover art, one cover at a time so as not to overwhelm myself. I already have one cover to do. The last few days have been migraine and back pain hell. I had to cancel a session with a student wanting English tutoring this morning. Thank God today wasn't a kennel day. I'd have been limping home after. So there it is. My latest in the publishing adventure. Yes, I will still write. No, I'm not writing just now; not even editing my old stuff right now. My mind needs more settling time. My mind feels like a million particles in a tornado just now. Very little ability to concentrate on anything to do with words. Pictures come easier, hence covers. Best wishes to all my authors who were so patient with me and understanding. I hope to see your stories published soon. And to my bosses and fellow editors, you're all wonderful. Thank you.

Star Stepping: An Anthology of Fantasy & Sci-Fi Tales

This anthology is available on the Wild Child Publishing site. For interviews and websites of the authors, please visit Debbie Mumford's blog. Contents: Beneath and Beyond by Debbie Mumford Archaeologist Erin Carstedter is a no-nonsense kind of gal. If something can't be defined by scientific method, it doesn't exist. Erin's beliefs are about to be tested by a ruin beneath the polar ice cap. What Erin discovers in those icy depths will challenge her thinking...and change the world. Read excerpt. That Old Sweet Smell of Deception by Martin Owton An ancient dragon tempted out to war for the first time in centuries finds the world greatly changed and dragons a rarity. Does an enemy wizard hold the key to saving dragonkind? Read excerpt. Fatal Wager by Andy Heizeler Read excerpt. A Pixie Story by Joe Miller Mike awoke to find himself in a strange land. To then find himself surrounded by a whole hoard of pixies, each one with an arrow aimed at his heart, one could hardly guess how things would turn out. Read excerpt. The Honorable Lady by Kim Knox Royal officials are vanishing and Evia-ben-Thiak doesn't intend to be one of them. As a high-ranking member of the court, she fears for her life. So, she takes the only option open to her. She hides on a boat sailing to her home-island. However, the boat is not the sanctuary she hoped for. A friend from her childhood, the now-feared sorcerer, Makovik is also onboard. To be seen with him could end her career; have her thrown in the deepest dungeon. But more than that, she finds he has a plan. And his actions will change her life forever... Read excerpt. Wakinyan's Valley by Debbie Mumford In a post-apocalyptic world, Mark Whitehorse and his friends search for a safe haven where they can raise their families. When they stumble across a hidden valley, they believe their search is over. But the valley is already inhabited. Will the band of survivors find refuge...or something else entirely? Read excerpt. Storms of Light and Shadow by Patrice Sarath Some gifts are better left unopened. Read excerpt. Under a Full Moon by Tom Fowler A weretiger wizard immune to the lunar cycles suddenly finds himself caught in a painful transformation -- one he suspects was caused by someone else. Can he stop it before he becomes a rampaging monster, and can he find the man who did this to him? Read excerpt. Casey by Noelle Sterne An ordinary junior high school boy, Casey suffers the trials of a teenager until one day his life is changed forever. Read excerpt. Bastet by R. S. Pyne Captain Kai Brenhin Righa of the corsair fighting ship Raven is quite happy not being human. The transition came without warning, a blessing from a stowaway with the face of an ancient Earth Goddess and a strange sense of humor. Now Bastet is back and she needs a favor. Read excerpt. Nana Genevieve by Julie Nordeen As science creates robots that behave more and more like humans, how will we know when they cease to be our creations and become self-aware beings of their own? Nana Genevieve knows. And she'll make sure the world understands...if it's the last thing she ever does. Read excerpt. The Tie That Binds by Debbie Mumford Twin brothers Cameron and Kyle McClellan have always shared a psychic bond. Though the adult men lead very different lives, when career military officer Kyle is wounded in Iraq, Cameron's ability to decipher their special link may mean the difference between his brother's life and death. Read excerpt.