Author: macjam47

Today my book comes out of its pre-order bubble and goes out into the big bad world (at Amazon US and Amazon UK). Woo hoo! If you read it and enjoy it by the way, please tell someone who you think might also like it — word of mouth means life for a new book. So please share the love!

In the mean time I thought I’d celebrate my book news with a post on amazing book art — that is art made of books, not art put in or on books. Here are a few of my favourites:

This is my absolute favourite — looking past the fact that an antique book has been used (which I really don’t agree with). But the idea of making a book into lungs and blood vessels is a beautiful way to represent how important books are to life.

Giving a whole new…

When I posted my interview with Sarah Solmonson earlier this morning, it reminded me that a couple of people have asked me to put up a post on the finer points of doing an author interview. I’m not sure I would call me an expert on this topic, but I try to answer those who ask me a question, so this post is for them.

I will share my opinion here, not saying that anyone should take my words as gold, but here is what I think:

A successful author interview begins with an interesting author. I am not pointing fingers and calling anyone boring, but if you want your interview to shine, choose authors that have something to bring to the party. I like it very much when the authors I interview have a very personal interest in their story. This doesn’t mean it can’t be fiction, just…

Image from ShutterStock.

WORDPRESS READER CHANGES

You may have noticed a major update to the WordPress Reader recently.

There have been a few minor improvements since, which is a good sign. It shows that WordPress staff is listening.

• Word count is now showing for all posts. Approximate time no longer shows for short posts, but appears in parentheses after the word count for longer posts.
• It’s now possible to see who wrote the post more clearly, as a larger site icon (or blavatar—but no longer the Gravatar) appears at the top of the post followed by the name of the site.
• The age of the post now appears at the top of the post. This makes it much easier to find where we had previously left off.

DOES WORDPRESS KNOW HOW READERS FEEL?

I wrote a post on the WordPress Reader changes a few days ago when the big surprise…

Image: f3.quomodo.com/

As you may remember, I spent many of my formative years in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. One of the first things I realized upon arriving to that fair city was that speaking English for years in Greece had not prepared me for the thrill of actually communicating with the natives. Specifically, I was caught unawares of the wonderful nuances that make all the difference.

“How are you today?” I’d ask my fellow students.

“Aye, not too bad, actually” they’d reply.

“Why, what’s wrong?” I’d ask, clueless to the fact that this is a Scotsman’s understated way of saying, “I’m the happiest I’ve ever been.”

So, when I found a hilarious post on The Idealist Revolution website on the subject, I just had to share as a helpful guide to my American friends, anyone setting their scenes in the UK and anyone wanting to visit…

British English Translated: what they say and what it means

TO HYPHENATE OR NOT TO HYPHENATE, THAT IS THE QUESTION BY K J ROLLINSON

Do you know the rules that govern hyphenated words? I didn’t know when I began writing, and I relied on my ‘instinct’ or a dictionary and online information to guide me. Gradually, I came aware that there are distinct rules.

I was dithering whether to put foot or feet – when I was describing my protagonist in my latest book ‘Where Lies My Heart’ – whether to put six feet tall or six foot tall. Evidently, it doesn’t matter whether you use foot or feet, BUT the rules change, dependent whether you use feet or foot.

When it functions as an adjective phrase before a noun you use the singular form and hyphenate it – six-foot-tall. If the description comes after a verb you don’t use hyphens and use the plural form – six feet tall.