My personal opinion.

Morning all.

 I wanted to share some more of my thoughts with you about how i write and why but events have overtaken me somewhat.

I appear to have succeeded once again in upsetting a member of our American audience. I don't know how but he has taken offence at a simple bit of horseplay. Now it seems he wishes the conversation to degenerate into verbal abuse. I don't do that.

For those who might have witnessed the conversation on facebook i should say i do this simply to promote my book nothing more. Those who chose to view my posts do so because they wish to, but if there is anything in the content anyone dislikes then simply close me down i won't force my opinions upon anyone. This individual took offence to a remark meant as a joke, he took it the wrong way and now appears to prolong the conversation. I don't, i think the whole thing is ridiculous.He also appears to think i am some sad lonely individual, far from it i do not sit here every day alone i have a life which i am very comfortable with. Anyway i thought i would set the record straight as for our friend well his thoughts are his own personally i don't desire to hear them anymore.

As for my day it has been long and tiring. i finished the drive today then spent an hour or more down the plot picking another 20lbs of beans, while my daughter finished picking the last of the soft fruit came home laden down with the stuff now Mrs P has to find room in the freezers for it all. Now i am going to do some more writing before an early supper and bed for a worn out out spoken writer.

 Until another day
D


Tuesday 20th August

 Morning All
Well here we are on a damp grizzly overcast morning in southern England. The day has started and I wonder where i will be taken? Certainly yesterday was a roller-coaster sort of day, first of all I must thank Jenni for her latest review of Dead Men Lie which you will find posted on both this blogsite and the website. I always said I would share good, bad and indifferent reviews with you, my readers. Jenni's wasn't that bad not really, but she brought up a discussion, once again, which appears to rage throughout writing land and that is editing.

  There are as many differing views on this as there are books for sale. Some awful errors slip through to publication, we must all have our own tales of mistakes both spelling and grammar which appear in even well known tomes by well known authors from well established publishing houses. I know I have seen some howlers, like the author, a distinguished author whose book was sold with duplicate pages littering it. Such errors are unforgivable from professional publishing houses yet how many times are they admonished, how many readers go on their websites to complain or point out the errors of their ways? Not many if the truth be told.  Do the authors feel aggrieved that their work has been maligned and portrayed in such a slipshod manner or (and i hate to think this of any author) do they forget the book once the commission cheque arrives on the doormat? Are they that cynical? It makes me wonder for such books remain in print, they are seldom withdrawn and reprinted yet everyone feels it is there right to pick up on the smallest mistake in a self published book.

No i am not criticising my latest review, it was most helpful, and I for one appreciate being told if there are glaring errors, my god my editor and myself have argued long and hard over issues like commas and upper case letters. We have taken revisions to the printers so many times it has become a bit of a standing joke. But at the end of the day we are but human beings, fallible human beings at that. We become so accustomed to the story our brains register what should be there not what is there we become word blind. Are we fools or unintelligent? Certainly not but we have sat in front of a computer, for maybe a year, writing, agonising researching and rewriting a book to the best of our abilities. Some like myself cannot affords to spend hundreds of pounds employing copy editors (lets face it from the evidence I have seen they allow as many errors through as we amateurs) So we rely on gifted family friends to peruse our work. Then we place it in the public domain and, low the critiques appear. As I have said and I reiterate I will take on board all corrections that need correcting but what galls me is (and this hasn't occurred to me as yet) a reader from the other side of the pond, speaks of spelling mistakes like Odour when they point out there should be no U in the word.

So many books are in print this way i can only conclude that the English language is being Americanised. Perhaps deliberately, perhaps surreptitiously. perhaps this change occurs simply because spell checker, which is an American tool after all, tells the uninitiated to do so. Which is why when these points arise I have them checked out by English teachers, who tell me that in most cases so far I am correct. After a question or exclamation mark, the next word begins with a upper case letter as the marks in question are in effect full stops. This might be contrary to what our cousins have been taught and what spell checker says is correct but I think it looks and reads far better.

There you are, my little moan, now I await your responses which I am sure will come in thick and fast and will differ to each other more often than not.

Until another day enjoy the day my friends because no one knows what lies ahead of us.      
D