Book Review: The Girl’s Guide to Dating Zombies by Lynn Messina

The Girl’s Guide to Dating Zombies by Lynn Messina is a perfect beach read for girls looking to take a break from the dreary daily grind of the zombie apocalypse. Or any apocalypse, for that matter. Its wry humor and bald-faced discussion about making the best of a putrefied situation is unique and entertaining while simultaneously gross and slightly disturbing. If you don’t mind a little fetid flesh with your funny, then this book is most definitely for you.

Hands down, the best aspect of this book is the voice of the protagonist. You can’t help but root for her, despite both her excessive pragmatism (when managing her career) and her Bridget-Jonesian neuroticism (when dealing with pretty much any other area of her life). In fact, this duality in her personality works really well with the themes the story is exploring.

7 Erroneous Reasons Writers Avoid Using Editors

I’ll admit I’m probably biased, being a version of editor myself, but let’s be real–every author goes through a stage or a moment or a glimmer of madness wherein she questions the merit of employing an external editor (i.e., an editor who is not (a) the author, (b) the author’s mother, or (c) the author’s cat). If you are in that stage/moment/glimmer of madness, read on.

During a recent discussion about editing, another writer (who happens to be successfully self-published) told me that he “still ha[s] serious reservations about even one word being changed to suit someone else.” I do understand this concern. I think we all go through a time in our writing development where we question the accepted convention of editing, of anyone else putting their proverbial stamp on our authorial babies. I certainly did.

But in my case, the more I wrote, and the more I had my writing looked at and edited by others, the more I recognized the value in gaining outside perspectives. It quickly became clear that even uneducated editors are a prize to be treasured. Truth be told, I wish I could get more people to edit for me. The more input, the better, IMO.

If you agree with me, great! Knowing the importance of editing is half the battle. However, if you have yet to be convinced that the benefits of editing outweigh the arguments against it, then for argument’s sake, let’s address some of the reasons writers might avoid the whole editing thing.

Grammar Blip: I Assure You That I Will Ensure That You Are Insured

Happy new year, writerly readers! And what better way to kick off a bright future than by gorging ourselves on grammary goodness. Okay, okay, let’s be honest—our gorging days are behind us. We are in the treadmill days now, and will be until bikini season. So we’ll lighten it up a bit and keep it to our usual grammar blippage with a discussion on what differentiates assure, ensure, and insure.

The Problem

If you are confused about which of these verbs to use in what context, doubt not your mad grammar-ninja skillz. You are not alone. In fact, I am willing to bet that a significant percentage of people who think they know when to use each of these words correctly is actually incorrect. And it’s no wonder, really, since each of these words comes from the same Latin root word. They are very similar in meaning, and some folks even assert that they can be used interchangeably. Most grammarian sticklers, though, will ding you for using these words in the wrong context.

Book Review: Two Moons of Sera by Pavarti K. Tyler

Two Moons of Sera by Pavarti K. Tyler is billed as “all the fun of YA for adults” and I would say that this assertion is absolutely true. It has all the hallmarks of YA—adventure, exploration, reinventing family, and coming to terms with self—while still engaging a more mature audience. There are quite a few wise gems, like “Gods are of no use to you and me, Serafay, they are only for those with something to pray for.” I loved this line and others like it for its surprising illumination of character.

One of the best things about this story is its rich description of setting. The characters move through the story with sand and cliff and scratchy tree, punishing sun and cooling sea. It has the effect of making the fantasy feel real. I can easily see the landscape as the characters move through it, and it gives me a grounding in reality I need to really connect with a fantasy story.

Premise

Serafay is a girl caught between two worlds. Part Erdlander, part Sualwet, she is driven to discover who she is and if there are any others like her. When she meets a strange man with very little ability to speak after living with only her mother for company, she is intrigued and excited, keeping his existence a secret from her mother. She gradually teaches him the Erdlander language and learns what it’s like to have a friend. When the Erdlander—Sualwet war comes to Sera and her new friend Tor, she must escape or risk capture by the Erdlanders who would destroy her if they discovered her secret.

Book Review: Farsighted by Emlyn Chand

Farsighted by Emlyn Chand is an intriguing blend of YA story elements—part paranormal romance, part mystery, part contemporary hard-luck coming-of-age. I know it’s hard to imagine that a book that includes all that could still be tightly woven and thematically consistent, but Emlyn has pulled it off. Each scene is lean and suspenseful, and momentum is never sacrificed, even when plot twists are explained.

Another unique slant is that the protagonist is blind, and the story is defined by that blindness. His disability supercharges his other senses (a key point in the premise, but we’ll get to that), so much of the narrative emphasizes descriptions of smell, sound, touch, and even taste, all of which are richly written and heighten the reader’s connection to the story.

But he still can’t see, which means we as readers can’t see, and that created (for me, at least) two fascinating conditions that permeate the entire book.

DON’T PANIC: 10 Dos and Don’ts for When Someone Else Has Already Written (and Published) Your Novel

It’s happened to me twice now. I’ve gone to a bookstore or some kind person on the Internet has informed me that there is another book with a premise exactly like mine that has ALREADY BEEN PUBLISHED. *Cue wailing, rending of garments, and gnashing of teeth* In fact, it happened to me again just a few weeks ago.

After calming down from my epic bout of hysterics (which took days of abject misery and was no fun at all for my family), I managed to gain a modicum of perspective. In the event that this authorial tragedy will someday happen to you, dear reader, I wanted to share that perspective. Perhaps it will lessen the blow.

Interview with a Book Designer

Huzzah! My book-designer friend has graciously contributed another post’s worth of scrumptious nuggets of designery wisdom. Behold!

Q: You’re a book designer? Cool! So you illustrate book covers?

A: Nope. Unless you want your covers to have stick figures and obscure doodles on them. Sometimes the client provides cover art, or an illustrator is hired to create cover art, or I might generate cover art using stock photography. When I’m hired to design the cover for a book, my job is to do research to make sure that the cover will be both attention-grabbing and also accurately convey the book’s content; arrange all of the elements on the cover (including the spine and back cover, and the flaps if there is a dust jacket); revise the cover until it gets the publisher’s approval; and work with the printer to make sure it comes out right.

Hyphen-Nation: The Great Masquerade

Today’s post marks the last (at least for now) installment of our hyphenation investigation. And what better way to end than with a masquerade ball? (What can I say? I’m a girl.) There are two topics left that often fool people with their fancy disguises: words hiding behind prefixes and verbs posing as nouns. But after reading today’s post, you’ll be able to see through their grammatical glamor to the hyphens (or lack of hyphens) beneath.

Book Review: A Line in the Ice by Jamie Craig

A Line in the Ice by writing team Jamie Craig is a unique paramilitary fantasy/science-fiction romance that harkens back to golden-age sci-fi motifs used by Andre Norton, Ray Bradbury, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. By that I mean that this novel has a fantastical element to its science nature—semi-sentient alien race of gentle giants, sacred alien texts capable of opening rifts into other dimensions via ritual, and idyllic worlds populated with allusions to Shakespeare.

It’s tricky trying to put my finger on what it is exactly about this book that gives me that same flavor I felt when reading Cat’s Eye and the Martian Chronicles. I guess it’s the characterization of old-school, stalwart heroism that makes me think of my earliest introduction to science fiction, as well as the almost fanciful rendering of alien species (both evil and benevolent), that seems comparable.

The story also incorporates more modern elements (such as a close third-person perspective, strong female leads, and steamy sex scenes), and the blending of the two ideas, modern and classic, is what makes the story unusual.

En Dash vs. Em Dash: A Book Designer’s Take

I am over-the-moon ecstatic to present my first ever guest post by a good friend of mine and expert book designer Rachel Tobie. She’s my go-to person whenever I have a question related to book design, from front cover to flap copy to headers, footers, and justification. For more information about this design diva, check out her website at www.racheltobie.com. And now, without further ado…

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My name is Rachel, and I’m honored to be here today as a guest writer for M.E.’s blog! I’m a book designer who also loves to write and edit. M.E. has already written multiple magnificent posts about hyphens, so she’s invited me here to start a discussion about dashes. Specifically: en dashes and em dashes. As a book designer, one of the first things I do when designing a manuscript is to use the “find/change” feature to check dash usage.