A Reader's Rant

I first noticed it a few years back; errors popping up in novels. It is a pet peeve of mine. In published books, I expect correct spelling and grammar, at least where it isn't a deliberate use by the author. When the publisher is a company that's been in the business for at least 25 years, I expect they know what they're doing and how to do it right. Surely, they know how to edit a book, especially for something as simple as spelling or grammar.

Or not.

Take this sentence from “Flirt” by Laurell K Hamilton as an example. “He smiled flashed that brilliant white smile in his tan and left me to my menu.” Say what? My first thought on reading it was, well, that's some crappy writing. But that's the thing, it isn't really. It is really lousy editing.

I've little doubt she meant to use one or the other – smiled/flashed – for that sentence. I suspect when she wrote it, she couldn't decide and simply put both in. It's logical, something I've done myself when writing a piece. That's where good editing comes in.

You could say, Ms Hamilton should have caught it. Perhaps. As an author, you can read something over and you'd swear that word simply wasn't there. You know what you want it to say, and your brain just reads it that way for you. Been there, done that. The difference? I had it pointed out to me by ... someone editing the piece for me.

Another example is “The Shimmer” by David Morrell. In the book, Morrell switches between various characters in different chapters. His main character is named Page, but he also tells the story from the perspective of a number of other characters.

In one such chapter, he is relating the conversation between two men, neither of them the hero of the piece. But suddenly, there on page 88, one of those characters is now Page. But wait! No, it is not Page. It's just another example of poor editing.

Now, I truly doubt Ms Hamilton was the only one to edit her book. I am certain Mr Morrell's book was looked at by others, most of them in the publishing industry. So why, with the possible number of readers who looked at these manuscripts before publication, does not one of them catch the error? Too much reliance on spell/grammar checker? Was it only ever looked at in digital form and somehow this affects the editing process? I don't know.

What I do know is this: every time I read one of these errors in a published work, it bothers me. Often, it ruins a perfectly good scene, throws off the flow of the story. And that really is unfortunate. It does a disservice to the reader, but equally, it fails to properly present the work or the author. Bad editing makes the author seem like a poor writer.

It should not be too much to ask for a publishing house to, at a minimum, provide adequate editing services. After all, isn't that what they get paid for? They are telling us it is. In the last two weeks, they've published articles stating that the cost of ebooks is largely determined by the cost of editing. If that's the case, they need better editors.

Given the costs of books or ebooks, the least we as readers, and frankly authors as well, should expect is a decent job of editing. Surely it is not too much to ask that they, as publishers, provide an error-free product. The pleasure of reading a good book should not be compromised by lousy editing.

It's Not Funny and It's Not News

I have made it a policy to stay away from politics and religion on this blog. But there are things I simply cannot sit idly by and allow to pass without comment. This was one of those things.

I am a proud to be a Canadian. It is, as with most Canadians, a quiet patriotism. I like our Mounties’ red coats, our simple flag, our English/French dichotomy even when it’s infuriating, and especially the land and all its bounty. I am pleased by our contributions to the world, like peace-keepers and hockey.

There are a few things that I feel deserve respect from the rest of the world, however. Most notably, I believe our military has earned that right. So it was with no little distaste and a good deal of anger that I watched this clip on a political blog I sometimes read.

Now Fox News calls itself “fair and balanced,” but there is nothing fair about that segment. The disrespect shown for our forces is nothing less than contemptible.

A little history, for those who may not know. Our forces joined the US and Britain in Afghanistan as early as February of 2002. We did so at the request of the Americans and as a direct result of the 9/11 attacks. Since then, over 110 of our people have died serving in this war.

Our military forces are not many, only 60 000. That includes the army, navy, air force, and our special forces. There are 20 000 reservists. There are nearly 3000 troops in Afghanistan now. That’s almost 5% of our forces. Meantime, we still have forces engaged in other commitments around the globe as well. And of course, our own defence needs at home.

These are hard-working dedicated men and women who are serving, not only their country, but the larger world as well. The government has never had the monies to build a state-of-the-art military, so they make do with second-hand and older equipment.

The war in Afghanistan is stretching our resources and personnel thin. The fact that one of our generals feels that our military will need a year to recover should make it clear to anyone that this commitment comes a great cost. Instead, these people feel it is the basis for derogatory and demeaning jokes.

My husband is an American. He pointed out there were likely many in the US who do not know that Canada has forces in Afghanistan. He is, no doubt, right. The average American has little reason to know of our involvement, as it wasn’t mentioned in their news or by their government overly often, if at all.

But these people aren’t average Americans. They work in the news industry. They found this little story, which I will say, was reported only quietly - even in Canada. If they did not acquaint themselves with any other facts, then as journalists they failed miserably to adhere to even the basic tenements of their jobs. If they did know and still proceeded with this outrageous commentary, they are beneath contempt.

Now, I do not extrapolate the sentiments expressed by this group to the population at large in America. This piece does not reflect the opinions of most Americans, I believe. Unfortunately, many who do view this clip will do exactly that; take this as the American stance. Was it necessary to create ill feeling between our countries, for a few fans fleeting amusement, no less?

The tragedy that is war should never be trivialized in this fashion. Those who serve should be shown the respect their courage deserves. This should be especially true between nations who are allies, who are serving on the same side, in the same war.

Should any who read this feel they wish to express their concerns to Fox News, you can do so at these email addresses: yourcomments@foxnews.com, redeye@foxnews.com.

The Rose Labyrinth

Forwith, this is my review of The Rose Labyrinth.

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Author Information: (taken from the website)

Titania Hardie is a serious student of esoteria. Creating the riddles for The Rose Labyrinth, she drew on her love of literature, history, music and myth, as well as her far-reaching knowledge of folklore and divination. She has first class honours degrees in psychology and English, and was awarded the Chatterton bursary for post-graduate study at Bristol University, where she is currently completing her MA on the Romantic Poets.
While she has written many non-fiction books and children's stories, The Rose Labyrinth is Titania's first novel, and is a fascinating departure from her previous work. Like Lucy, the novel's hero, she was born and educated in Sydney, Australia, but for many years has lived in Somerset with her husband and two daughters.


Plot Summary: (taken from the website)

Before his death in 1609, the brilliant Elizabethan spy, astrologer and mathematician John Dee hid many of his papers, believing that the world was not prepared for the ideas they held. For seventeen generations, his female descendants have held his most precious secrets, waiting for the right moment to bring them to light.
In spring 2003, Dee's many times great granddaughter, dying of cancer, was forced to pass the enigmatic legacy to one of her two sons. Diana chose her passionate, tempestuous younger boy, leaving a tiny silver key and a piece of parchment with a note: For Will, when he is something, or someone, that he is not now.
Over the long, hot summer of 2003, while seriously ill Lucy King awaits heart surgery in London, Will travels Europe seeking to decipher the clues in the ancient document, and find a lock to fit the key. It is a search that will leave him and Lucy inextricably linked, and lead into a world of extraordinary riddles and dangerous secrets.


Format:

This is a 384-page novel, divided into a prologue, 34 chapters, and an epilogue. Chapter length varies anywhere from 5 to 25 pages each. The narration is third person with the perspective shifting between the multiple characters. The ISBN of this book is 13: 978-1-4165-8460-5 or ISBN 10: 1-4165-8460-9. It is published by Atria Books, a division of Simon & Shuster.

Analysis:

I received this book at the dreary end of January, whilst my mother spent a third week in hospital. It came as a lovely surprise, since I’d forgotten all about it in the throes of dealing with the health issues at hand. And it was lovely.

The book is beautifully presented. It arrived in a hardcover case, complete with riddle cards and a hardcover copy of the novel. The artwork brings to mind medieval manuscripts and alchemical symbolism. Somewhat dreamy and evocative, combined with the plot summary from the book jacket, it provided an allure to any reader looking for mystery and romance.

The story is written in a dreamy, detailed style that is easy to read. The characters are human and easily liked. The settings are romantic and have just enough exoticism to make them extraordinary. But ... and you had to know that was coming ...

The character of Will is larger than life and draws the reader immediately into the quest. He is charming, articulate, and possessed of a joie de vive that makes one smile to read about. He is someone you are anxious to know more about. Such a great beginning.

Thing is, by chapter five, Will is dead. It is tragic, especially for the reader. Everyone, for the rest of the book, talks about Will, how wonderful he was, and how much they miss him. And you know, they’re right. I missed him too. So much so, that I lost complete interest in the rest of the novel.

The details become stultifying. There is no need for me to know what Lucy had for breakfast; it is enough to know she ate. There is also little actual doing in the story. Much of it is the characters reading or dreaming new information to their quest. Even Lucy’s kidnapping early on in the book has a precipitous anti-climatic resolution.

For those who enjoy a slow leisurely stroll in their reads, this is the book for you. The adventure is muted, the plot hinges on mental endeavours, and the romance is predictable. In fact, the major plot twist was somewhat evident to me at about chapter seven.

There is one major quibble I have with this novel, and it has nothing to do with the actual story. It does speak to the kind of read this book is however. The plot summary, as quoted above, is not what this story is really about. That blurb is misleading. Will is dead by chapter five, and although he remains an integral part of the backstory, he is not travelling Europe, looking for clues.

I originally signed on to review this book based on that book description. To find it a falsehood did not endear the story to me. It may well have had a negative impact on my interest in the book from that point onward. This is a marketing ploy and should not reflect on the author or the novel. Yet, of course, it does.


Conclusion:

This is a lovely book, in presentation and in the actual writing. It is a slow soft read, with dreamy overtones. The characters are alive and easily liked. Perhaps this is more an autumn read than a spring novel; a book to curl up with a cold winter’s night. Whatever the case, it is a well-written tale about not much of anything.

And yes, I do still miss Will.

Words

I enjoy words. I like the way they feel on the tongue. The sound of them and the effect of them fascinate me. I like etymology and even just pieces of words.

And today, I found one of particular delight.

Nubivagant. Pronounced “noob – e- vay- gant”. A thoroughly lovely word. It means moving through or among clouds.

Finally, a true descriptor of how I feel on my foggiest fibromyalgia days. Those days when I struggle to make myself understood from within a maddening blanket of thick cloud.

I feel nubivagant today, I shall say. And those forced to deal with my drifting, zombie-state will know immediately what they are in for.

Luckily, today is not such a day. The sun is shining and I am clear-headed.

If you too like words, I highly recommend checking out Save the Words, a website put together by Oxford University. Help save a word from extinction.

Ten True Things about Me

Morningstar asked me to take part in this meme. So for her, here are ten true things about me.

Ten True Things About Me

I am passionately soul-deep in love with my husband. I am the luckiest woman to have found a man like Buffalo.

I enjoy food. Luscious fruits and vegetables, steamy soups and stews, and spicy meats are works of art. I find the act of cooking – or baking for that matter – to be a creative endeavour; and I’m good at it.

I am a wordsmith. I enjoy writing, the feel of words and the pleasure of a well-crafted tale. I equally enjoy reading others’ works, especially fantasy, mystery, thrillers, and adventures.

I am organized, perhaps too much so for those who live with me. I am often called on by family and friends to help them get things in order, though. Even my jobs usually involve getting things in order and keeping them that way.

I am a geek – computers, gadgets, software, sci-fi, goth, even steampunk – love it all.

I do not have many friends but those I do have are lifelong and precious to me.

I enjoy travelling, especially on the back of Buffalo’s Harley; wind in my hair, sun on my skin, free and just a little wild.

I can take a decent photo – at 70 mph from the back of that same Harley.

I am a political junkie – much to my husband’s dismay. I enjoy watching the play of roles and circumstance unfold on the stage of soon-to-be history.

I have fibromyalgia. I have had for most of my life but I make every effort to not let that define me or limit (as much as possible) what I do or try in this life.

Devil Bones

First, my apologies to both Scribner and Mini Book Expo. The delay in posting this review should not have happened. However, I must plead extenuating circumstances as I found myself without an internet connection for the past three weeks.

That said, let us move on to the book, a much more interesting story.


Devil Bones by Kathy Reichs

Author Information: (taken from her website credentials)

Kathy Reichs's first novel Déjà Dead catapulted her to fame when it became a New York Times bestseller and won the 1997 Ellis Award for Best First Novel. Her other Temperance Brennan novels include Death du Jour, Deadly Décisions, Fatal Voyage, Grave Secrets, Bare Bones, Monday Mourning, Cross Bones, Break No Bones, Bones to Ashes, and Devil Bones(August 28, 2008).

From teaching FBI agents how to detect and recover human remains, to separating and identifying commingled body parts in her Montreal lab, as a forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs has brought her own dramatic work experience to her mesmerizing forensic thrillers. For years she consulted to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in North Carolina, and continues to do so for the Laboratoire de Sciences Judiciaires et de Médecine Légale for the province of Québec. Dr. Reichs has traveled to Rwanda to testify at the UN Tribunal on Genocide, and helped exhume a mass grave in Guatemala. As part of her work at JPAC (formerly CILHI) she aided in the identification of war dead from World War II, Korea, and Southeast Asia.

Dr. Reichs is one of only seventy-seven forensic anthropologists ever certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. She served on the Board of Directors and as Vice President of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and is currently a member of the National Police Services Advisory Board in Canada. She is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.

Dr. Reichs is a native of Chicago, where she received her Ph.D. at Northwestern. She now divides her time between Charlotte, NC and Montreal, Quebec.

Plot Summary: (taken from the back of the book)

In a house under renovation, a plumber uncovers a cellar no one knew about, and makes a rather grisly discovery -- a decapitated chicken, animal bones, and cauldrons containing beads, feathers, and other relics of religious ceremonies. In the center of the shrine, there is the skull of a teenage girl. Meanwhile, on a nearby lakeshore, the headless body of a teenage boy is found by a man walking his dog.

Nothing is clear -- neither when the deaths occurred, nor where. Was the skull brought to the cellar or was the girl murdered there? Why is the boy's body remarkably well preserved? Led by a preacher turned politician, citizen vigilantes blame devil worshippers and Wiccans. They begin a witch hunt, intent on seeking revenge.

Forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan -- "five-five, feisty, and forty-plus" -- is called in to investigate, and a complex and gripping tale unfolds in this, Kathy Reichs's eleventh taut, always surprising, scientifically fascinating mystery.

Format:

This is a 304-page novel, divided into 39 chapters. Chapter length varies from 5 to 9 pages each. The narration is first person The ISBN-13 of this book is 978-0-7432-9438-6 and the ISBN-10 of this book is 0-7432-9438-6. Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Shuster, publishes this book.

Analysis:

I have been a happy reader of Kathy Reichs since I read her first novel, Déjà Dead. The characters are complex, well rounded, and just flawed enough to make them interesting. Her plot lines flow and the science is a fascinating glimpse inside a number of disciplines.

Devil Bones is a great Halloween tale. It has all the necessary elements of voodoo ceremonies, cauldrons, beads, feathers, and bones, skulls and even a headless torso. There are devil worshippers and Wiccans, Christians and politicians.

As always, Kathy Reichs’ writing flows smoothly and makes for an easy read. As always, her characters are complex and varied. Altogether, a decent book … decent but not great. In fact, the book seemed a bit choppy. Truth is, I could see this as a movie or maybe a TV show.

And that’s the problem with this book, in a nutshell. It would be a great TV show script. The scenes do not flow together as they should in a book; they take time out for commercial breaks. The characters and situations are a little too contrived for reading but would make for gripping scenes. All told, it would have been an excellent Halloween episode on Bones.

Conclusion

Kathy Reichs is currently working hard at producing that TV show. Bones is enjoying great success and not surprising as she brings the same brilliant story telling to the show as she has to her books.

That said, this book suffers for her TV success. The characters show no new development. The story is a little too contrived and the wrap-up too neat and tidy. So for me, a decent read, just not great. But, yes, it would be a great episode of Bones.

Yoga for Fibromyalgia

Author: Shoosh Lettick Crotzer
Publisher: Rodmell Press
ISBN-10: 1-930485-16-6
ISBN-13: 978-930485-16-7

Author Info: (taken from the website)
Shoosh Lettick Crotzer has been teaching yoga since 1974 and now specializes in working with students with special needs. She has a masters degree in diagnostic education. In 1994, while teaching for the National MS Society, she founded the production and distribution company Mobility Limited and wrote and produced the video Yoga for MS. In 1997, she wrote and produced Yoga for Arthritis in partnership with the Arthritis Foundation. She has given workshops and made presentations on yoga and arthritis at international rheumatology conferences.

Format:
The book is divided into four parts with a foreword, a resources list, and an index. The first part is a general bit of information about fibromyalgia. The second part is a thorough description of the recommended yoga poses. The third part offers some guidelines and yoga sequences to practice for particular aims such as upper body pain relief or reducing fatigue. Additionally, she provides a beginners sequence and a more advanced sequence. In the fourth part, she offers some thoughts on sleep, nutrition, exercise, and psychological well-being.

Analysis:
“Move, breathe, and relax to improve your quality of life” is the tagline of the book. This is an accurate summary of the book’s goals. Those with fibromaylgia know that there is no cure and the author clearly states not to expect miracles in following her advice. The goal is a simple and gradual improvement in the quality of life you live.
The exercises and yoga poses the author recommends are simple to learn with or without an instructor. They involve easily managed stretches and many have both a seated and a standing position. Along with the poses, the author has thoughtfully provided some visualization and relaxation techniques to further enhance the efficacy of the exercises.
Much of the advice in the fourth part of the book is basic, common sense thinking. That said, the information can serve as a timely reminder of better practices and habits. Ultimately, of course, it comes down to the closing lines of the book. “Then it is up to you. Only you can make time to play, rest, and enjoy your life.”

Conclusion:
This is a well-put-together book that offers some simple basic exercises and ideas for improving the quality of your life as you deal with fibromyalgia. The different poses and stretches are explained in detail and often both seated and standing poses are illustrated. The author even offers useful suggestions for incorporating these exercises into your everyday life.
The book itself is written in plain English, no grandiose or exotic terminology to learn. The author does not patronize the reader; instead, she uses clear concise writing to fully explain her philosophy and instructions. Altogether, it was a pleasure to read, especially the visualization techniques. Just reading through them was a relaxing experience.
I cannot, as yet, speak to the success of following the recommended routines. Having fibromyalgia myself, it seems reasonable that there are benefits to the program as the author sets it out. Certainly, the sleep/nutrition advice is worth taking. Now, if only the book came with a dose of discipline to ensure one followed through on the techniques taught.

Links:

The book: Yoga for Fibromyalgia

Review written for: Mini Book Expo