Just Ginger

  Where have I been lately ? Well, three rounds of physical therapy in less than 12 months and the pain associated with the problem ate up a lot of time and energy. On the bright side, the third time was a charm. The” last resort” physical therapist watched me walk and immediately diagnosed the problem. My gait was flawed.  Now to look at me, you would never guess any of this. I didn’t limp or anything. And two medical doctors and two physical therapists who worked with me missed it. Their consensus opinion pointed to my IT band being inflamed.  Yeah, like I’m a runner.  Anyway, I was lucky and someone told me about a nontraditional type of physical therapy. One visit with someone who specializes in whole body movement and I was on the road to recovery. I learned that my off kilter walking stressed my right side, which torqued my back, which then sent burning nerve signals to my left leg.  Weird, right? What Was Happening? My...

Oddly enough, not everyone has the same definition of what a historical novel is. Some people say a story set 25 years ago is historical enough, while others say 50 years is the benchmark. And then there are those of us who say, what’s so historical about 50 years ago? You need to go farther back in time! I didn’t know there was such a wide divergence on what constituted historical fiction until I decided to write about what makes a novel historical. All I knew was I had read an e-book purporting to be both historical and a novel, yet couldn’t see elements of either in the story. The e-book I read fell into the category of a memoir because it was based on personal experience and lacked the structure of a novel. To me, the story also lacked the feel of a historical because the characters used the Internet and flew around in jets. The contemporary feel of the story conflicted with my vision of a historical novel. A vision based on writing four historical novels. Defi...

As an indie publisher you get to call the shots as to how to label your beloved manuscript. If you hang the word “novel” on your published opus, be sure it is a novel. The act of printing “Historical Fiction Novel” on the title page when the story is not a novel and probably not historical only serves to alienate the reader. You do not want the reader to feel he or she has been tricked into buying a mislabeled book. How Do You Know If You’ve Written A Novel?   Writing comes in all shapes and sizes from a short story to a personal memoir, but each type of writing has a structure or framework peculiar to it. A short story is not a personal memoir even though they are both forms of written communications. A novel has its own structure. If your story doesn’t adhere to this basic structure, it isn’t a novel. All too often, an author will write a “slice of life” narrative, a  meandering story that  lacks the fundamental elements of a novel. Readers expect to...

We owned a computer testing company about fifteen years ago that specialized in giving Federal Aviation Administration tests and other commercial tests. Customers took the computer exams under our supervision using secure computers linked to a test database. The test database was provided by a nationally known education company who built their reputation on after school tutoring and test preparation. They had taken their pencil and paper knowledge and slapped it into some software programming. The end product proved to be a cumbersome and frustrating system for test administrators, as well as test takers, to use. One day a “from the ground up” testing software company approached us about using their test database. Once we learned about their program, we jumped at the chance to use their software to provide computer tests for our customers. The software was designed to provide digital tests, not to provide pencil and paper tests digitally. Say That Again Le...

Many years ago I critiqued a 400-page manuscript by an author who loved the word, “smirk.” Smirk. Smirked. Smirking. All the characters smirked at everything. By the end of the manuscript, I detested the word in all it’s various forms. In fact, I think this is the first time I’ve written that word in years. To this day, when I see that word in a story, I cringe. Repetition of favorite words or phrases is something I notice when I’m reading. No matter how well written the story is, overuse reduces my enjoyment. How many times can the characters “snort in disbelief” or respond “saucily” before a reader tosses the book aside for something better edited? Don’t misunderstand. We all have favorite words and phrases. They’re great when you’re drafting a new story. At this stage in the writing, it’s more important to keep the momentum going, not stop and debate word choice. While favorites are handy in a rough draft, they have no place in the final manuscript. How do you get rid ...

Dear Major Publishing House, On page 54 of best selling author’s book, Doodlebugs are Cute , there is a typographical error. Instead of the word “processed,” someone used the word “preceded,” ruining the meaning of the sentence. I’m letting you know because you don’t want the book to look like an indie published book. I wonder how many emails like this, big time New York publishing companies receive. Probably none. Probably because readers don’t feel as comfortable writing the big nonentity corporation as they do writing the indie publisher. This is just my opinion, of course, and maybe those people who email me about errors they spot in my books, or write it up in a review also write the big guys and complain about errors in the books they publish. And mention it in their review of the traditionally published opus. Then again, maybe they just feel indie publisher/writers are more approachable. I’m going to make a major confession here. I love hearing from my readers. And I ...

I’ve been watching the new USA cable television show “Complications” because it stars Jason O’Mara, who I like. According to the PR about “Complications,” he plays a disillusioned suburban ER doctor who finds his existence transformed when he intervenes in a drive-by shooting, saving a young boy's life and killing one of his attackers. When he learns the boy is still marked for death, he finds himself compelled to save him at any cost and discovers that his life and his outlook on medicine may never be the same. The show is aptly named as the complications pile up for the doctor as well as other characters. Goals and motivations are pretty well defined as the show hurtles from one episode to the next. So why am I discussing it? Because I think it suffers from a major flaw. The story is set in Atlanta, Georgia, but the none of the characters talk as if they are from Atlanta. In fact, the dialogue is so non-regional, I keep thinking they’re in Los Angeles. I’m sure the director i...