How to support an author friend:

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Reflexive pronouns

Here is a great post on the use of reflexive pronouns. Check yourself 🙂

Hannah McCall

A reflexive pronoun is any pronoun ending in -self or -selves: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves and themselves.

They allow the writer or speaker to refer back to the subject later in the sentence. They therefore appear in sentences where two noun phrases refer to the same person(s) or thing(s):

James saw himself in the mirror

The reflexive pronoun is used because the subject and the object of the sentence refer to the same thing. You will find that some verbs need to appear with a reflexive pronoun:

Laura prides herself on her honesty

An intensive reflexive (or emphatic) pronoun is different. The sentence doesn’t need it to make sense:

Imyself did it
She made the cake herself

The reflexive pronoun serves to emphasise the noun phrase. This is common and not at all controversial.

However, there are objections…

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What does my blog want to be when it grows up?

If you’ve been following my blog lately, you’ll see that I’ve really kicked up my activity level. I love to write anything and everything. I’ve also discovered that you can schedule posts ahead of time on WordPress, so watch out.

I’m going to try to stick to six categories for my blog. We’ll see how that goes. These categories will be Indie Author Tips (the original purpose of the blog), Promotion of my books (I’ve gotta eat), Funny stuff, Actual writing (I’ve got the Road Kill story going right now), some type of feature (I’ve been posting information about famous crime/fiction writers, but I’ll eventually run out and have to switch to something else), Book reviews (I’m going to post books by lesser-known and famous authors and mix in some classics), and finally, I’d like to start interviewing other authors (We can learn from their journeys and struggles).

If you’re an author that would like to be interviewed, please let me know. You’ll help me launch this part of my blog and get some exposure along the way.

Like everything else I do, I’m all in with this blogging thing, so why don’t you come along and we’ll see how it turns out?

 

Wednesday Funny – New Words for 2016

I’m trying something new on my blog. Just a quick post to make you laugh. Maybe you’re having a stressful day. Maybe you need some amusement. I am pulling these from various sources, but the comments in () are mine.

These words are so joining our vocabulary in 2016!

Chairdrobe (n.): piling clothes on 
a chair in place of a closet or dresser. (Or a treaddrobe if you use the treadmill for the same purpose.

Epiphanot (n.): an idea that seems like an amazing insight to the conceiver but is in fact pointless, mundane, stupid, or incorrect. (Any presidential candidates come to mind?)

Internest (n.): the cocoon of blankets and pillows you gather around yourself while spending long periods of time on the Internet. (Or clicking several links on websites that eventually get you back to where you started)

Textpectation (n.): the anticipation felt when waiting for a response to 
a text. (Also, that sensation when your phone vibrates in your pocket and you’re not carrying a phone)

Unkeyboardinated (adj.): when you’re unable to type without repeatedly making mistakes. (Or every user I supported when I worked on a helpdesk.)

Source: viralthread.com

Authors – Do You Want to Sell Books?

Shout out to Opinionated Man on Harsh RealiTy. Check out this opportunity.

Learning from Twain

Great post about a great author. Enjoy.

Writing Is Hard Work

Samuel Clemens.

Currently my students are reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a novel fraught with controversy, yet a novel with a message of hope.  My students are slowly getting into it as I allow them to record their favorite phrases from the novel on the board as we go through the novel.

We are not reading it out loud, but students are reading silently and answering some deep thinking questions about the novel that I have written for them.  They have to respond thoughtfully, yet the biggest problem I have is that they absolutely hate reading.  This fact is a subject of another blog post, however.

I teach Huck Finn periodically, and like all great literature I usually find something new within its pages each time.  This time I found something quite extraordinary, as if Twain were reaching out of the past and teaching me something about writing.

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Amy Braun Has a Brand New Series — Crimson Sky @amybraunauthor #steampunk #horror

If you like Steampunk and/or Horror. This one is worth checking out.

Because I Like It: Thoughts on Genre and D’Agata’s The Lost Origins of the Essay

A very informative and insightful post. Enjoy.

BREVITY's Nonfiction Blog

Scott Russell Morris

By Scott Russell Morris

This semester in my introductory creative writing class, I am trying something new. I am not dividing the class units into genres, but instead, looking at “The Basics of Good Writing in Any Form” (as Miller and Paola’s excellent chapter in Tell It Slant says it.) Each class period, we’ll read about qualities of good writing, and then the students will choose structures and forms based on what best meets their projects’ needs. Though we’re only two weeks into the semester as I write this, I hope that a more fluid discussion structure will help students see the possibilities in their writing rather than the rules of certain genres.

I chose this format because my own feelings on genre’s boundaries have been slowly eroding, even quicker these last few weeks. The difference between a poem and an essay? I can’t really tell you anymore…

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Silver’s Coming Attractions – “The Road to Freedom: Joseph’s Story (The Stella Trilogy Book 3),” by Yecheilyah Ysrayl

This book looks powerful. Preorder it today.

READ THIS and GET TO KNOW MY BOOK!

Please check out this book. It looks like a good read.

ronovanwrites

You’ve probably seen me talking about Amber Wake: Gabriel Falling on other sites. I’ve mentioned it here, but not really talked about it. Well, it’s time to tell you a little so you can decide to go and purchase either the Paperback or Kindle. Don’t have a Kindle? Neither do I. I use the Kindle App for my Android tablet and my laptop. Only my son has a Kindle. That’s what happens when you’re the only grandchild.

One reason I would like people to purchase is to read the book and write reviews. The more reviews we have, the better Amazon will promote us. It’s a shame that some great books have floundered because people don’t write reviews.

Another great thing about all of the books in this series is, they are available on KDP or Kindle Unlimited for Free to read.

The third thing is I want…

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