Some reviewers know how hard their words can hit, or how high their words can lift. Some don’t. Some know that their audience includes one human person with a particularly focused attention, some seem not to know. Or don’t care. The empathy that can imagine your self as your target is not automatic or available to all.
Comment Note
Click on the "Comments" link on the second line. You'll be prompted for name and email, at the bottom of the post.Picture Note
Right-click any picture to open full-size image in a new tab. Click again to zoom in. Use back arrow or right-click to return.November 2024 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Search Mystery
Posts
- Three books — free for 5 days in March.
- Three books — free for 5 December days.
- All three books — free again — briefly.
- FREE EBOOKS, FOR 5 DAYS FREE
- Free is good — 3 books, 5 days.
- Ghost Walk
- Red Hot EBOOK Mysteries … again … for 5 days FREE!
- Blueberry Chronicles, 2020.
- I could a feather unfold
- Seasonal affect.
- It’s Life Only.
- Flutterby.
- Viewscape.
- Afternoon Colors.
- Passages.
- Chunk of a chapter, WIP: Just Rewards
- Glory Varieties.
- Another great giveaway.
- Sometimes I have a great notion.
- The solstitial thickness of peak green.
- Water under the bridge, the new old wall, and the green grass grows.
- The axes of political love. And hate.
- One shoulder, completely replaced.
- Pants around their shoes.
- Dear to us.
- Scene from the middle parts of “Just Deserts.”
- Musing reviews and a giveaway.
- Uninvited share.
- For sale, but for you, free.
- Far left.
- Middle left.
- Left in the woods.
- Leavings.
- Gold bug.
- Specimen from “Just Deserts.” Work in progress.
- Lichen on logs.
- Before frost takes them.
- Worktable dressing.
- October rose.
- Breakout.
- Two days more to be free.
- Flowers, writes, and leaves.
- Free fall.
- Falling in place.
- Leaves not grass.
- Walking the perimeter.
- Shared fruits.
- From the hot room, in the conservatory of the Biltmore House.
- Chance encounters.
- Funny fruit.
- July mystery giveaway.
- Unstoppable summertide.
- Recidivist.
- Extravagance.
- Flora near, mostly not native.
- Lone ranger.
- Chlorophyll abetting breath.
- Full bloom along every wall.
- Trees waking.
- Groundlings.
- Human intrusions rise and settle in.
- Rocks and a hard place.
- Special offer, April foolproof.
- The awakening.
- Agent secrets, possibly.
- Upcountry, Madison.
- And, it’s a wrap. But wait, there’s more…
- Some assembly required.
- Out of house, out of mind.
- Fallen.
- The season flows.
- A flit of piques peaks peeks.
- The Monarch and the Black Snake.
- Clockwork.
- Autumn weeds.
- Transition signs.
- Sidewalk sales.
- Fallen into dance.
- Deadheads.
- Final fruits.
- Working blooms.
- Table flowers.
- Flower surround.
- Easy living, flora.
- Fauna & fungi, living easy.
- Typing to the end.
- Free for the discriminating reader.
- Walk on the tame side.
- Blooming yard.
- Rows to hoe.
- Yard work and yellow wort.
- Tra la.
- Blooms and bird calls.
- Surge.
- Eats, shoots, and leaves.
- Spring back, fall forward.
- The boys in the band are giving it away.
- Snow dusted cusp.
- Moss invasive.
- Waking.
Tag Cloud
amaryllis asheville asheville ballet ballet bloom blueberries calycanthus clematis dahlia doe ellen and geoffrey fletcher ellen and geoffrey fletcher mysteries fall fit to curve flower flowers free free books fungus ghost walk gladiola grass hay heart attack hornbeam kindle leaves lichen little fishes marigold mint mushroom mushrooms mystery nutcracker pansy pollen poppy porch quartz racoon rose snow spring summerRecent Comments
- Bud on Musing reviews and a giveaway.
- Bud on Scene from the middle parts of “Just Deserts.”
- Bud on Scene from the middle parts of “Just Deserts.”
- Bud on Spell Cheque
- Sibyl Smirl on Spell Cheque
- Wren on The awakening.
- Bud on Agent secrets, possibly.
- Bud on Agent secrets, possibly.
- bail bondsman san antonio on Free! Free at last!
- lavern madeiros on Surreality reigns: Asheville Ballet costume funds raised.
- Von Schriitz on Pretty is.
- Tim Mealey on Blair reflects.
- AN Grisano on Argument from geometry.
- Marcelino Suoboda on At the tips.
- G Pino on die-a-virgin-tickle-itis
- home page on By its cover
- home page on Mississippi blooming.
- serie stream on Heart Attack
- streaming serie on Petals and pistils, pedals and pistols: stories from the wild.
- Amberto Loke on First free offer of 2015, undoubtedly the best one so far.
- mara max ita on First free offer of 2015, undoubtedly the best one so far.
- Diego Alred on First free offer of 2015, undoubtedly the best one so far.
- Ivana Brown on First free offer of 2015, undoubtedly the best one so far.
- Alberg Gobbon on First free offer of 2015, undoubtedly the best one so far.
- Justin Wray on Justify the ways.
- Bud on Ghost Walk
- Bud on Spell Cheque
- Bud on Now the puzzle’s out of the box.
- Bud on What Sebelius should have said.
- Bud on A bee’s got to do: playing with flowers.
- Bud on Petals and pistils, pedals and pistols: stories from the wild.
- Bud on What Sebelius should have said.
- Bud on Mystery
- Bud on What Sebelius should have said.
- Bud on Recursion
- Bud on Recursion
- Bud on Recursion
- Bud on What Sebelius should have said.
- Bud on Recursion
- Bud on What Sebelius should have said.
- Bud on Recursion
- Bud on Status update.
- Bud on Around the house, while the query letters fly, out and away.
- ZoeBu on What Sebelius should have said.
- Todd Mcleay on Ghost Walk
- ULYS on What Sebelius should have said.
- Sylvester on Spell Cheque
- D. Almond on Now the puzzle’s out of the box.
- joan swanson on What Sebelius should have said.
- Tracie Breton on A bee’s got to do: playing with flowers.
- LGrimes on Petals and pistils, pedals and pistols: stories from the wild.
- Farmer Rick on What Sebelius should have said.
- Alison Baughan on Mystery
- jo d eager on What Sebelius should have said.
- erenst baumann on Recursion
- sherri on Recursion
- R Hutt on Recursion
- mag diehl on What Sebelius should have said.
- rosemary on Recursion
- Morris on What Sebelius should have said.
- alejandro lyon on Recursion
- Myrti Croll on Status update.
- moten e on Status update.
- Antonio W on Mystery
- Bud on What Sebelius should have said.
- Bud on Blair reflects.
- Bud on Mystery
- Bud on Mystery
- Bud on Sage advice: everything but the squeal.
- Bud on Connection
- Bud on Recursion
- Bud on Narrative alive.
- Bud on Heavenly blue.
- Bud on Mystery
- Bud on Justify the ways.
- Bud on Recursion
- Bud on Recursion
- Bud on Sun’s in the notch.
- Bud on Recursion
- Bud on Mystery
- Bud on What Sebelius should have said.
- Bud on Spell Cheque
- Bud on Recursion
- Bud on What Sebelius should have said.
- Bud on Spell Cheque
- Bud on Recursion
- Bud on Recursion
- gregg on Mystery
- ifa pagano on Blair reflects.
- Ward Orlandi on What Sebelius should have said.
- Ramon Itausing on Recursion
- Aleisha on Recursion
- lin_vallecillo on What Sebelius should have said.
- bridget marcotte on Spell Cheque
- Caitlyn Oliver on Recursion
- Grady (Simone) on Spell Cheque
- Leonie on What Sebelius should have said.
- ashelyscarberry on Mystery
- tiffany & jamie seekamp on Recursion
- cathern copley on Sun’s in the notch.
Trackback: foakleys
#1 by Sitevist on 9 May 13 - 2:28 am
Quote
Excellent website. A lot of helpful information here. I am sending it to several pals.
#2 by https://katomcouponcodes.com on 2 May 13 - 5:18 am
Quote
I’m impressed, I must say. Really rarely do I encounter a blog that’s both educative and entertaining, and let me tell you, you have hit the nail on the head. Your idea is outstanding; the issue is something that not enough people are speaking intelligently about. I am very happy that I stumbled across this in my search for something relating to this.
#3 by retro rings on 12 April 13 - 7:07 pm
Quote
You have remarked very interesting points! ps decent internet site.
#4 by source on 7 August 12 - 10:05 pm
Quote
If you dont mind, exactly where do you host your webpage? I am searching for a very good host and your webpage seams to be quick and up just about all the time.
#5 by Aidê on 19 July 12 - 7:03 pm
Quote
nice site you got here! very informative. highly recommended!
#6 by Anastácia on 16 July 12 - 8:02 pm
Quote
your blog has some interesting stuff.
#7 by Evelyni on 16 July 12 - 11:37 am
Quote
wow, very interesting, keep sharing these things with us, please.
#8 by Denice on 15 July 12 - 12:38 am
Quote
well done.
#9 by Sibyl Smirl on 30 June 12 - 12:19 pm
Quote
Okay, I just posted a 5-star review on Amazon.com (that is, I did, assuming that it passes the censors.) It was a little long for their Guidelines, 357 words plus title (one word), quite laudatory and all truthful — I had to acknowledge the errata in the version that I saw, while pointing out that with e-books that might be fixed before the next downloader saw it, but also that writing and errata are two separate things. At least one previous reviewer there was unhappy about that too, so I could hardly completely ignore it
#10 by Sibyl Smirl on 28 June 12 - 9:56 pm
Quote
Actually, I hadn’t seen your lovely long reply before I wrote the comment to the “reviews” post– I had the awful feeling that the post _was_ your reply to me! I get into trouble on the net quite a lot by what people see as “accentuating the negative” or “If you can’t say something good, don’t say anything at all.” I see them as truthful, and I usually do try to say the good stuff too, but apparently I don’t, in general, communicate as well as I used to think that I did. So I got the notion that your post about “reviewers” was one more of the same. I have little self-confidence, but at least, finding out very late in that I have Asperger’s (which you misspelled with a b once in “Heart Attack”) is a comfort that I’m not just a “bad person”, but “Different, not Worse”.
You hit it squarely that I must have read an earlier version — I checked my Amazon.com e-mails, and I got “Fit to Curve” on May 6, then it sat in my Kindle for a while while I read other things. It hadn’t occurred to me that you might have already fixed some of what I saw. That 10% that I remarked on as being practically perfect should have been a clue that fixing was still in progress. I’d sure like to read the newest revision, but Amazon.com always tells me when I re-order something, that I’ve already got it, and it’s very, very difficult to communicate with a human there. Computers are always correct!
I do love your (good guy) characters. I hope that “Little Fishes” is also about Geoff and Ellen? I’d be happy of a reconnection to Honoria, too. And you’re getting better as you go with the real writing. That subtle introduction to the bad guys at the beginning of “Fit to Curve”, letting the reader inside their heads and private actions to see the rottenness at the core, while not actually hinting that they’re the criminals, was really neat. I’m still wondering about James and his “deals with the devil” temptations, though.
#11 by Sibyl Smirl on 27 June 12 - 7:40 pm
Quote
My intent was not to give pain, but to be helpful. I did say first that it’s a very, very fine novel, and much better than I could possibly write. Nobody’s perfect, everyone has blind spots, and can’t proofread his/her own work because no matter how many times through, if they can’t see it when first setting it down, they probably can’t see it the tenth time through. But a published work should be as nearly perfect as possible: hence the need for a good proofreader, that is, one who _notices_ and _remembers_ how things should be spelled. Spellcheck just can’t hack it. It only knows that there _is_ such a word, spelled thus: it has no idea that the word is used ridiculously in the place of one that _sounds_ the same. The reader is jolted right out of the world that he or she has moved into in the head, every time something like that hits, and when it happens on every page, or even more often, it’s outright painful. With a _bad_ story or novel, one never is able to enter the world in the first place. I don’t know much about the world of e-books, but it seems theoretically possible that errors could be easily fixed, but then I don’t know about the world of business contracts in that context at all.
The new word for “Heart Attack” is Trouper/Trooper.
I love the characters and the description of characters. I definitely want to see more of Harris. Where might it be possible to read the rest of “Ghost Walk”?
#12 by Bud Crawford on 28 June 12 - 12:19 am
Quote
Your comment was a source of pleasure, not any pain involved. Thank you, again, for taking the time to make it. I think you may have thought the new post I sent up the same day I replied to you was also in response to your note. It wasn’t. You said nice things and gave constructive criticism.
In the other post I was thinking about reviewers who are neither nice nor constructive. In all avenues of expression reviews matter, for fiddle-players or ballerinas or story-tellers. But in the e-book world, for a new writer, they can have a life-and-death character. Readers cruising for somebody new to try haven’t got much to guide them, and there are thousands of titles in every genre. A positive review or two, 4-5 stars in Kindle Land, and a random stranger is far likelier to take a chance on you. A negative review or two, 1-2 stars, and it’s far less likely. Reviews are scarce, for new titles, most books struggling to break out of the pack have none, one, or two. So a reviewer can have an outsize effect on a book’s chances.
In some of the negative reviews I’ve read, empathy is absent. It’s usually not: I didn’t get this one, or this isn’t the kind of book I like. It’s more often: this is garbage, its only good quality was that it was short. Whenever somebody is purely dismissive, contemptuous, hostile, you wonder if they realize they’re doing damage, personal and commercial.
Now, there are lots of lousy books, and it’s fair to say what you think. And maybe, even though an author has months, maybe years, of work invested, maybe a given work is so bad the world would benefit from that author giving up her effort.
But those books won’t find readers, they aren’t harming anyone. My own inclination is to leave them be, composting slowly away, and devote my reviewing effort to pointing up work that I do like, including in my appreciation a mention of any addressable flaws. What would tempt me into negativity would be a book I disliked that had lots of good reviews. Don’t beat up on the weak, but on the undeserving strong. Can’t remember my mother using those words, but I hear them in her voice.
Leaving that, I think we are entirely in agreement about the importance of copy editing and the incapacity of spell-checkers to flag incorrect homonyms. I was only saying that it’s hard work and takes time. And that I was sorry I hadn’t done a very good job of it.
The process of fixing things is theoretically easy with e-books. You download the existing file from Amazon (as an html document) make your changes, upload the new version (html, again). Wait a few days for it to go live, then see whether you got your fixes done or introduced a host of new errors, having accidentally lost paragraph indents, perhaps, or added text in a font that codes punctuation differently.
One thing does occur to me. If you downloaded Fit to Curve a relatively long time ago, a year, say, you might have one of my first attempts. I did three revisions, while fighting with Kindle formatting issues. Each pass cleared embarrassingly many typos.
Maybe the troupers in Heart Attack are actors impersonating cops? Only the most alert readers will know? Sorry.
Ghost Walk is finished, but not cleaned. It’s been read only by a few of my most tolerant family/friends, for overall story sense, not for typos. Just to get a little help with any large-scale lapses.
I am currently writing Little Fishes, about 3/4 through. When it’s done, I’ll do the revision on Ghost Walk, and put it up. I like Harris, too. It will be a few months, maybe plus another month for better proofing. Half-a-million words to wrangle amoung the four titles.