Normally, I would have a digital dictionary installed on my computer, but when my work computer was upgraded a few months ago, I didn’t reinstall the program on the new system. For about two weeks, my office is packed up and I’m working in a temporary location while the floors…
Category: General
Not about writing or reading; more generalized information.
I attended the Public Safety Writers Association 2011 Conference in Las Vegas this weekend. The attendees are not only authors of mystery, suspense, and thriller, many of them are also current and former law enforcement officers. Sitting among defense lawyers, prosecutors, retired military officers, firefighters, and others who really have…
I admit that I have long been skeptical of “self-publishing” in the print industry. The value of good editors and the supports provided to writers by traditional publishing houses is difficult to overstate. Yes, I realize the huge publishers are gatekeepers, selecting a handful of writers to promote, but they…
One of my colleagues has been working on a novel for decades. Yes, decades. Another writer I know has revised a script for at least a decade. I have piles of unfinished and neglected ideas, some two decades old, but I don’t have completed works that I have rewritten or…
I have been reading The Birth of Satan, a history of Satan in the three major monotheistic faiths and the rise of Satan as a literary and artistic character. The authors emphasize the Christian and Jewish traditions, since those have had the greatest effect on the mythology of Satan in…
I advise avoiding pronouns when possible because most writers “tangle” the text. Though the writer knows what is intended, the readers end up confused. I’ve wasted too much time as a reader trying to determine what “those” and “these” were replacing in a paragraph. Other languages can still create their…
I read many books on typography. Currently, I’m finishing a collection of essays and journal articles on typography. The articles date back to the late nineteenth century, with a particular concentration on two time periods: the 1920s and 1980s. The collection is: Heller, Steven, and Philip B. Meggs. Texts on…
I read a fair amount of non-fiction. My interest in human nature, a good thing for any writer, leads me to read texts on history, religion, philosophy, and psychology. Unfortunately, most non-fiction depends on readers being interested enough in the information to ignore the structural deficiencies of the text. This…
I have decided I want to purchase a copy of A Reader’s Manifesto: An Attack on the Growing Pretentiousness in American Literary Prose by B. R. Myers (0971865906). A Reader’s Manifesto: An Attack on the Growing Pretentiousness in American Literary Prose I am not a “literary” reader, at least not of those vapid…
The Tameri Guide for Writers provides writers, students, teachers, and others with our thoughts on how to best create, edit, and format written works for general audiences. Our visitors range from published novelists to Fortune 1000 companies. Most content on the Tameri Guide for Writers website deals with creative writing…