Stationery or stationary?

/ notesfromadustylibrary / Leave a comment

These can be confusing, so a quick way to remember is E for envelope. That way you will know that stationEry refers to things you’ll need to write and send letters – envelopes, paper, pens, stamps, etc.

The other one, stationary, means not moving.

Now, here’s an offer I’ve developed just for you.
For one week only, September 21-28, 2021, when you book editing or coaching you will receive 25% off the entire thing!

You write a lot of words, so you know that savings like this can add up quickly. Contact me to find out just how much you can save!!

You can book as much or as little as you like. Could you use a hand getting started or finished? Do you need someone to bounce ideas off? Are you looking for clarity on direction? Whatever you need, when you need it!

If you book a day or half a day, you still get the 25% off. Wow!

I know you have something that could benefit from a little expert help so why not book now and get this deal while it’s still good?

Thanks for reading.

Christine – Guest blogger

http://www.bespokewriterchristine.com

bespokewriterchristine@gmail.com

Progress

/ Ben Lucas / Leave a comment

Received my upcoming book, The Smoke Eater, from a Beta Reader.

The Good News

Looks like I have a greenlight to proceed with additional edits. The comments weren’t as bad as I thought. Actually, I have a renewed sense of accomplishment with my project and I’m feeling confident that my readers are going to like ti.

Nearing the Finish Line

I hope to get my book to market sometime after Halloween. Stay tuned.

Remembering 9/11

/ Ben Lucas / Leave a comment

9/11 has affected everyone in the world. The biggest impact it had on me was
insight into our world.

When I was working the UAE I showed up on site one day and was kindly welcomed
as a new employee. This was in 2005 and my first overseas job in Oil and Gas.
The HR lead, an older Arab gentlemen, (great guy too), profusely apologized to
me for five minutes on how horrible 9/11 was.

This made me really uncomfortable, but others over there shared the
sentiment. I went to the Middle East thinking that there might be a grudge between my race
and theirs. What I found was a sense that so many people who were foreign to me
wanted unity.

Check out this link here for an excellent post on the Killzone Blog today by
Steve Hooley.

https://killzoneblog.com

Imply or Infer?

/ notesfromadustylibrary / Leave a comment

While at work one day I overheard my boss on the phone asking “Is that what she’s inferring?” I knew she meant implying, but I didn’t want to embarrass her by correcting her.

So, in order to save you any potential embarrassment, here’s the difference:

To imply is to hint at something – “He implied that he had his doubts.” (Past tense: implied)

To infer is to make a conclusion – “From what was written, I was able to infer that it was more political than it seemed.” (Past tense: inferred)

​

An easy way to remember these is the speaker (or writer) implies; the listener (or reader) infers.

Try not to mix these up as that can really make the narrative stumble.

(Want more? Contact me as outlined below.)

Christine – Guest blogger

http://www.bespokewriterchristine.com

bespokewriterchristine@gmail.com

Happy Labor Day

/ Ben Lucas / 1 Comment

Story Empire

Hello, SEers! It’s Labor Day in the US. From all of us here at Story Empire, we’d like to wish all of our hard working friends a happy and restful day.

Happy Labor Day

And now, we leave you with a few inspirational quotes about work:

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” —Confucius

“A man is not paid for having a head and hands,but for using them.” —Elbert Hubbard

“Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.” —Aristotle

“Whatever you want to do, if you want to be great at it, you have to love it and be able to make sacrifices for it.” —Maya Angelou

“Though you can love what you do not master, you cannot master what you do not love.” —Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“If you care about what you do and work hard at it, there isn’t anything…

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Traditional vs. Independent Publishing

/ Ben Lucas / Leave a comment

I’m having second thoughts about publishing my book independently. Was thinking about trying to go traditional publishing.


What would you do? And why?

The book I have in mind is The Smoke Eater which is about 88,000 words – getting ready for the final polish.

Synopsis

Reid Harris is a firefighter who has seen better times. Still healing from his last act of heroism, the marks of third-degree burn have impacted his emotional and physical wellbeing. With a crippling injury on his right leg, and living with post-traumatic stress, Reid is still desperate to keep working in the only career he ever knew. To keep his life on track, Reid travels to Azurbar, in the Middle East, where he doesn’t have to pass any physical or mental tests.

But on the day Reid travel to the desert, all hell breaks loose. Reid witnesses a shocking event that provides a common taste of what life is going to be like. Threats of violence unleash in a ruthless tirade never seen before in this once peaceful country raising the tensions to their highest levels ever. The terrorists, from the Persian State, don’t see eye to eye with the royal family. Reid’s path will intersect that unknown adversary who is bent on disrupting the Azurbar way of life.

Even though Reid knew he would endure tough times, the mental trauma inside him spikes. He struggles with an Azurbaree national who threatens Reid’s safety, while his alcoholic mentor isn’t coping well with the steady rise terrorism. Reid is stationed in a facility that the terrorist continuously target—BuHasa—one of the biggest oil and gas facilities in the world.

The Smoke Eater is a thrilling novel about adventure, survival and redemption; while exploring foreign Oil and Gas industries that few people know.

Even got a cover

More Genre Clichés

/ Ben Lucas / 1 Comment

This is suck a great post today on Story Empire.

Story Empire

Ciao, SEers! Last time, we talked about clichés in horror and how to fix them. This time, we’re going to look at stereotypes in two more genres and ways to turn them around.

Mystery

  • Title of the book is “the character in the place (often vantage point)” i.e. The Woman in the Window
    • Solution: Find something more appealing to name your book. Often a word or line in the text will pop.
  • Bad guy sees the voyeur investigating what they saw
    • Solution: This is overdone. If you want to have a voyeur, don’t let the villain see the voyeur. Let the voyeur approach the villain. Maybe the voyeur is worse than the villain and blackmails him or becomes inspired by him and becomes a supervillain.
  • Washed up grizzled alcoholic detective who lost someone and comes out of retirement to solve the crime even though competent cops can’t
    • Solution:…

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