Now this is a weird request. I waited until the candle vigil ofWorld Suicide Prevention Day,  passed as I wanted to keep that post on my front page.

I am asking if anyone would like to share a jingle, a rap or a short poem on cyberbullying. At my work we are preparing for our regular newsletter each month and the themes vary. September was anxiety and back to school ( which I was even interviewed by the Montreal Gazette!). October is dating (probably touching violence to promote awareness on unhealthy relationships) and November is Cyberbullying. We had a teleconference meeting yesterday and ME being the only one not in that Toronto office opened my mouth…again.

My brainstorming offering was how youths need to be careful not to “click Like or share” too much otherwise it would go viral. So the viral and clicking seemed to interest…

I am making this post as a public service announcement. I just want to encourage all of my fellow readers and bloggers who are Goodreads members to disengage from attacking authors on the site. In the past couple of days, I have seen several Facebook posts by authors of different genres who have mentioned being attacked by readers. ‘Readers’ are one-starring pre-released books or dive bombing every book the author has ever written with one-star reviews. Why? Because these ‘readers’ feel as if the author has made some reprehensible infraction against the world of literature as a whole *eye roll*. I know…dramatic, right? But sadly, it’s true. The internet trolls have now taken up residence on Goodreads. They are pollinating the site with their vitriol against authors and fellow readers who might support the author or their book(s). At some point, we as a community of readers and authors…

Yes!!!!

It’s time to take a look in the mirror and just feel good about ourselves! 🙂

So, this week we WILL take a look in that mirror…

The first thing most of us see when we look in a mirror are the things we DON’T like about ourselves.

Today is different. We are going to spot some things we DO like about ourselves! Yes, everyone can name a couple of things they like, trust me.

Just smile at yourself. Like your smile? I do. I love to see people smile. Not just people who have smiles that come straight out of a dentist commercial. Those look fake, I don’t like them.

I like the honest smile. The one that reaches the eyes. A smile who shows the world that there is still a lot of fun and beautiful things to discover!

A smile makes everyone beautiful.

Take…

  The Query letter. No, really–it is not an evil device of torture sent from the writing Gods just to make you suffer. Okay, well it might be, but the ability to write a good query letter is also an integral part of any writer’s repertoire.

It is difficult to write a captivating and effective query letter that will not only command the attention of an agent/editor, but also shed light on your fiction/non-fiction project and make them care enough about your protagonist/story/piece that they want to see the entire manuscript. Imagine condensing a 100,000 word book into a query letter of less than 200 words…wait…where are you going…I’m not trying to scare you. I’m trying to explain how to do this without tearing out your hair.

We are going to break the parts of the query letter down into weekly sections for the next four weeks and…

One of the most difficult things about writing dialogue isn’t just what to say, but how to let your readers know who’s talking. Dialogue tags–added phrases such as “he said” or “she asked”–can be useful, but they grow monotonous and boring when an author never varies them.

There are only so many times you can write “he,” “she,” or a character’s name in a dialogue tag.

Now, I can’t claim to be a master of the creative dialogue tag–and I don’t necessarily think it’s a good idea to be so creative that something as mundane as a dialogue tag draws attention away from the substance of the dialogue.

That’s the trick: you want something that isn’t your character’s name used over and over, and yet something that will read so smoothly it’s barely noticeable. Dialogue tags are not what you want to stand out in your writing.

That said, I’ve…

I m doing something a little different today…

The more I get to know you all, the more I noticed a lot of people have the same problem as I do.

‘And what would that be?’ I can hear you ask. Well, it’s a common problem actually and a lot of people suffer from it.

It goes under different names: Insecurity, Not Worthy, Not good enough and a lot of others like that.

Basic line: Not being happy with what you are.

Well, that’s not exactly right, some of us are actually happy with who we are, but we don’t believe others like us that way as all.

Let me tell you this:

You are all unique and wonderful people! (yes, you too) No, don’t go shaking your head, it’s true.

And yes, I know I am not a shining example myself, because I have trouble believing people actually like…

So now you have it , you have exposed your soul. Here it is laid bare

You have opened up your entire life, have a care.

Not everyone is as loving and caring as you.

If you lay your life open have a care of what unkind souls might do.

Once they get inside your head

They can check you out and manipulate anything you’ve said.

They can eat you up and plague you, spit you out and leave you dead.

OH! you must beware

They will strip you down and leave you bare.

They don’t know who you are

They don’t care, it is easier for them your mind to scar.

They will expose your secrets and sell your soul

Tell lies about you and expose your whole.

Kudos to the Canadian Province of Nova Scotia for introducing legislation to attack cyber bullying.  That is a very noble and much-needed law to help protect the vulnerable and the abused.  I applaud the attempt but, I also have real concerns with the legislation, the least of which, this is a Provincial piece of legislation, not a Federal one.

Given the number of suicides, injuries and serious life impacts that have occurred because of this issue, perhaps a real effort needs to be made to help protect.

I see failures in law start when an interpretation of a broad nature has to be applied.  In this case, who is to say what cyber bullying is?  According the legislation, the definition is:

“…typically repeated or with continuing effect, that is intended or ought reasonably be expected to cause fear, intimidation, humiliation, distress or other damage or harm to another person’s health…

Whether you plan to self-publish or try for a traditional publishing contract, your post-writing/prepublication steps begin the same way. In Self-Editing Checklist for Fiction Writers: Macro Issues, we looked at some “big picture” strategies you can use for your first round of revisions and self-edits. In this continuation, we’ll consider the smaller details, the “small-tooth comb” review, that every writer should consider before declaring a manuscript ready for the copyeditor.

As you may recall, addressing a manuscript’s macro issues includes reviewing for global details, like how the characters develop over the course of the story and whether or not the story arc works; micro issues include sentence structure and word choices.

When checking a manuscript for macro issues, here are some points (in no particular order) to consider: