It's the End-of-Year Reflections Post!

The end of the calendar year signifies a particular thing to each person; it's a natural thing for people to reflect. It may mean the end of a nightmare year of bankruptcy for one person, or it may celebrate a major life change like having a baby or getting married.

It's a good habit to reflect as the year comes to a close, to learn what worked and what didn't, and to plan for the future. I like to do this personally, but in the past couple years I've been doing it for my business too. 

One of the big lessons I didn't start to learn until a few years into the business was that there is more than just working for the business. There is working at the business. Working to ensure that there will be more business, in fact—something I didn't have to think about in the first year because clients were somehow finding me. I was busy and didn't even have to try to stay that way. 

If I had to sum it up, I'd say this is the year I tried to make the best use of my time. I looked through my analytics to see what was working and what wasn't. I kept a spreadsheet of completed jobs and how much time I invested in them. I used a timer app to break down where, exactly, my computer time was spent. (I was shocked to know that sifting through and answering email was one of my biggest time sucks.) I decided to learn everything I could to make my work more efficient and to broaden my skills so I can provide a wider variety of services someday. I took some classes, and I read an awful lot of books. I'm proud to say that I'm a better editor today than I was four years ago, or even two years ago. 

The happy result of this has been that 2018 has been a year of growth, and I'm pretty excited to look over my job list and note how many new clients I've gained and where I've gotten them from. Some have become friends and others are simply clients I've enjoyed getting to know while working on their projects. It's been a lot of fun to work on a handful of nonfiction projects this year as well.

I've done beta reading for a few authors, numerous line edits and copyedits, worked on doctoral dissertation papers, and even proofed someone's website. All that variety kept me fresh.

So THANK YOU, J.T. Buckley, Marcia Caton, Ciofki, Raylene Demeester, Adam & Peggy Dresden, Darrell Haemer, Rhonda Denise Johnson, Heidi Love, Carol Mills, Kim Mower, Kristen Snarski, Jack Tyler, Kim Watt, and Stephanie Workman. You've helped to make this a great year!

Please Don't Ask Me to Read Your Book

I'm an editor for indie authors. As such, I recognize how difficult it is for some of them to get book reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, so I'm careful to always leave a review when I read a book. If it's great, of course I want others to enjoy it, and if it's terrible, I want to warn people to save their money and time.

Most of my reviews tend to be favorable because I have a general idea of what I'm picking up before I start, either from friends' recommendations or my own pre-purchase research. Even if a book is cheapie-cheap, I'll still read the negative reviews to see if they mention anything that's important to me. I don't usually bother reading very many positive reviews, partly because so many reviewers include spoilers without realizing it, and partly because I expect a book to be good. If someone thinks it's not good, I want to know why.

People on Goodreads ask for reviewers all the time. This is a dubious practice, and "officially" there is to be no review swapping (because those boil down to give-me-five-stars-and-I'll-give-you-five-stars) but still . . . authors are constantly pimping a free e-copy if someone—anyone!—will pleasepleasepleaseprettyplease review their book. (Author Gisela Hausmann has a great post, "What Authors Can Learn from Car Salesmen," that gives some great tips on how to not beg/sound desperate.)

So when people ask for reviews on GR . . . if I haven't offered (and I'm obviously very active there) then I am not interested. Why am I not interested? After all, I do love reading and I always review what I read.

Well, in a few words, here's why. By asking me to review your book, you are putting me in the position of either looking like a jerk by saying no because I:

1. don't have time 
2. saw the reviews and know I won't enjoy it 
3. know from experience that most who ask on random forums have books with numerous issues, and I will be put into the uncomfortable position of saying it out loud

Or I say yes to be polite and then am forced—because I won't say yes and then not do it—to read and pay attention to details I might otherwise not. It's weird . . . I naturally remember details of books I've chosen to read, but have to concentrate on books not of my own choosing. Perhaps it comes from the occasional assigned reading at my day job, where we are expected to discuss what we've read. If I have to read a book someone's asked me to read, I read it as an editor, and can't shut that off. This is an odd curse, but that's what I deal with.

Dear stranger, basically you are asking me to work for you without being paid for it, and I have wasted a lot of time and energy doing things like this that I later regret. As a freelancer, I do a fair number of free evaluations for writers, and if they hire me, that's great, but if they don't, it's hours put in that don't pay off. It happens, and it's part of the free eval package.

Those ones I don't mind nearly as much, except for these stats—the ones who don't hire me are typically broken down into these portions: 10% are people who simply choose someone else—a better fit, for example, of a British editor for a UK writer, or those who are truly shopping around and looking for the best price, fit, and timing on the calendar—and the other 90% are people whose manuscripts are nowhere near ready for editing, much less publishing.

Those 90% still get the same thorough editing eval as anyone else, because I believe in being fair, and I want to be as thorough in my explanation as possible when I'm telling someone their book is not ready for editing. Perhaps I could be mean about it and simply tell them it's not ready, but if they don't know why, then it may never be ready. Or they'll find an unscrupulous editor who will take their money, fix misspellings and typos, and never tell them how bad the overall writing actually is.

Unfortunately, in my experience, many of the "read my book for review" people are still in the second-draft phase and don't know it because they've already gone and published. So yes, I'm being asked do work for them for free, even if they're not aware of it. I even added a (hopefully polite) "please don't ask me to read your book" portion to my Goodreads profile, because I get a slow-but-steady flow of requests that wax and wane around the timing of my posted reviews, and I always feel so uncomfortable when answering. I hate to be rude, but on the other hand, they're not exactly being polite by asking a stranger to do them a favor when there's been no previous relationship.

What are your thoughts on the "please read my book" crowd? I'm not looking for everyone to necessarily agree with me, but would genuinely enjoy your input on this one.

*****

If you like what you're reading, I invite you to fill out the "Follow by Email" widget in the column on the right. You'll get my amazing insights right in your inbox! How thrilling is that? Or you can follow me on Instagram (as easyreaderediting) for completely different content—check out all that stuff on the upper right of my page where the Instagram feed is scrolling merrily along. I also have an Easy Reader Editing Facebook page I'd love for you to like and follow. I'm on Google+ as myself (Lynda Dietz) and my "follow" badge is . . . you guessed it, right there in the right-hand column for you to click. I try to share different things in each place so  life doesn't get predictable and boring, and you never know what you'll find—or whether I'll be sharing YOUR posts, too.

Editor's Notes #20: What Makes You Stop Reading a Book? Part 2 of 2

So in Part 1 of this topic, I told you all how I never allowed myself to stop reading in the middle of a book . . . until I started reading some really horribly written stuff when I got a Kindle a few years ago.

Now that I've given myself the okay to JUST STOP, I've found my tolerance level has gotten lower with each passing year and each subsequent novel. The hours in any given day are much too precious to waste on a bad book. I read for money when I edit. I read my Bible each morning. I read and correct my daughter's writing assignments. I read for my day job when my boss gives us a book for the management team to discuss, chapter by chapter. IF there is any time left between editing jobs or assigned books, I read for the sheer pleasure of it. Needless to say, if there's no pleasure involved, I'm not going to bother reading for long.

Here are a few things that will make me put a book down and never look back (unless I'm physically throwing it over my shoulder in the trash):

• No edits. This is a nonnegotiable item for me. If there are grammar/spelling errors, poorly constructed sentences, misuse of words, or worse (though I can't imagine what "worse" would entail), that book practically shuts itself.
• Characters that are caricatures or stereotyped. The bad guy who has no depth because he's always bad, and not even interestingly bad . . . just "B" movie bad. The protagonist who's good at everything: sports, school, parents love him, no zits . . . you get the idea. The mysterious stranger who's not even mysterious for a good reason. The wise elderly person. The clumsy beautiful girl with low self-esteem.
• If I have no desire to read beyond the third chapter. I need to care about someone—anyone—or something that happens in those first few chapters, or I'm done. If I find myself skimming to see if it gets better, then why continue?
• Unrealistic dialogue. If an author writes a seven-year-old child into a book, that child should act and speak as a seven-year-old child, unless it's a creepy book where the child is possessed by an ancient being who speaks like . . . um, an ancient being . . . and everyone knows this isn't the way that child would normally speak. 
• Plot inconsistencies. If I am confused, I tend to think that's everyday life. However, if I'm confused while reading fiction, I'll flip back through what I've read to see if I somehow missed a major plot point. If I haven't missed anything and I'm still confused, then I'm going to assume the plot somehow went from A to C without a Point B in the middle. This happens when an author makes major structural changes from draft to draft but neglects to look at the work as a whole to see if it still makes sense. Every detail matters, and that's where a good beta reader will be indispensable prior to a book's release.
• Believability. Even the craziest fiction has to have some degree of believability or the reader will be drawn out of the story time and again. I always think of Martyn V. Halm (whose Amsterdam Assassin novels are pretty terrific and incredibly well written, by the way) talking about verisimilitude and his insistence that things at least seem like they could be real in order to keep the reader immersed in the created world, no matter how out-of-the-box that world may be.

I'm sure I have many more peeves that cause me to be harshly judgmental* about a book someone may or may not have worked hard at writing, but these are the biggest ones that come to mind easily. *Let's face it: I'm only kind and tactful if I already like the person.

What makes YOU stop reading? Do you look for things I haven't listed here? What's your number one deal breaker that causes you to shout, "Enough!" I'd love to know so I can add it to my own list of things to gripe about. And if you've read the list above and recognize something you do in your own books, then my best advice is STOP IT. Stop it and get a beta reader to politely and tactfully tell you all these same things, only for money.

I've placed a good guideline below. If you get "BINGO" from any of your manuscripts, it's time to start rewrites so others won't stop reading.

Editor's Notes #19: What Makes You Stop Reading a Book? Part 1 of 2

I don't know that I was ever formally taught this, but for most of my life, I believed if I started a book, I had to finish it. No one ever sat me down and said, "Wash your hands before eating, make your bed when you get out of it, and finish every book you start," so I'm not sure where I came up with this. (For the record, I do wash my hands regularly, though the bed-making is hit or miss, depending on whether I'm the last one awake. But . . . back to the book stuff.)

Perhaps it was easier back in the day when there were fewer books available for me to read. After all, there was no such thing as a digital book—or even a personal computer, for that matter—when I was growing up, so any books I read, I either owned or borrowed from the library.

My mother recently reminded me of something I'd said when I was very young: I was afraid of someday running out of books to read. She used to take us to the library on a regular schedule, since it was also one of her favorite places to visit, and on one particular visit, I remarked at how sad I was while looking for books because I was reading them all at such a rapid rate, I was convinced that very soon there would be no more. Our town library was pretty small, and I plowed through the children's selection in short order, followed by the juvenile fiction a few years later. By the time I moved beyond that, I had no worries about a lack of reading material.

The good thing about "those days" was that I read and reread so many favorites. I can recall certain portions verbatim, or remember where I was when reading a particular book. Much like a certain perfume can take someone back to a place or time, I can't think of Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass without picturing my large, annotated hardcover (complete with super-hip 1970s artwork) . . . a gift from a favorite aunt for my 8th birthday, along with Hans Brinker in the same format. I still have both of them, and in fact picked up similar copies of Around the World in Eighty Days, Treasure Island, and Call of the Wild at an old bookstore about ten years ago, simply because it brought back all those memories in a rush.

In more recent years, the sheer quantity of books available online caused a sort of overload for me when I first got a Kindle. All of a sudden I could have just about every classic at my fingertips, and most of them were free. I began to browse the "Top 100 Free" category with regularity and consumed fresh material at a rapid pace, finding new authors I enjoyed. However, along with those good authors came some clunkers. A LOT of clunkers. Apparently, "Top 100" means "most downloaded" and not necessarily "top quality."

It was then that I discovered my time was more valuable than I'd realized. I'm the person who can't be bothered to waste seven minutes watching a news video because I'd rather read the transcript of it in less than sixty seconds, and yet here I was, committed to finishing an awful book that was poorly written, with the (vain) hope that it would somehow get better before the final page. That was bad enough, but when I found myself doing this for one book after another, after another, after . . . you get the idea . . . I knew I'd have to change my "finish or die" policy before it became "finish and want to die."

Since those early, heady days of "ALL the books at my fingertips!" and the resultant letdown as I read a plethora of bad ones, I've come up with a few general guidelines that help me to know when to keep chugging along and when to just chuck it and never look back. These guidelines have helped me with my editing as well, allowing me to give better advice to the authors I work with.

I'll share those with you in Part 2 next time.

Editor's Notes #13: My MS Doesn't Need That Much Red Ink

There's nothing like the feeling of writing. Letting out the creativity that's in your brain, putting it on paper (or the virtual paper of a Word doc) and honing it to perfection. Scenes are written, critiqued, and rewritten. Verbs are made stronger. Words are added to engage all the senses. You have a masterpiece on your hands.

With the confidence that can only come from naiveté, you hand it over to an editor for "a quick proof."

Sucker.

When I talk to people before doing an evaluation, I've found most of them believe their manuscripts only need a light edit, similar to the "quick once-over." I am sorry to report that most manuscripts need more than a passing glance. Indeed, copy editors can't afford to gloss over the manuscripts entrusted to their care. If we do our jobs properly, we read every word, multiple times.

The funny thing about reading each word is that it enables mistakes to be found. Sometimes there are a lot of them, and sometimes only a few, but even the most careful writer makes mistakes. It's just the way it goes.

In one of life's ironies, the writers who think they need the most help are rarely those who have the most errors in their manuscripts. Even so, the typical copy edit looks worse than it is, with all that red ink standing out so starkly against the black and white.

You'll just have to trust me when I say copy editors—well, most of them, anyway—don't take sadistic pleasure in marking up manuscripts. I know I don't. There's a satisfaction that comes from knowing I'm helping someone's work to look its best, but when there are a lot of corrections to be made, my feelings run more toward the nervous side. Will the author think I'm taking liberties that aren't mine to take? Will he resent my advice? Will she wonder if I really know what I'm talking about? Am I being too bossy?

Those who have worked with me know I'm a big fan of margin notes. I like to use the margin as an easy means of communication between me and the author. I can write things as I think of them, where they apply, so I don't have to save it all for an email summary. Sometimes I'll explain why I've changed something that may not have seemed incorrect; other times, I'll explain an odd rule, like the "sometimes hyphenated, sometimes not" words; other times I just want to show my appreciation for a nicely written passage or a funny exchange between characters.

When all is said and done, I hope the writer recognizes that I've made suggestions that will improve the manuscript. Seeing "all that red ink" may come as a shock, but as long as the author knows I have his or her best interests in mind, the red is just a little ol' lipstick kiss at the end of a soon-to-be-great manuscript.

Coffee Chat 17.0 with S.K. Anthony: Why Some Book-to-Movie Adaptations Stink!

I am SO tired! S.K. and I have been catching up after her vacation, and sitting around watching movies. To keep it from being tiresome, we've been dressing up like the characters in each movie so we're in the proper frame of mind. I was never so thankful to shower as I was when the Lord of the Rings extended version trilogy was done. And those hobbit feet prostheses made my toes sweat something fierce.

She should be here any minute, but I'm not sure what we're watching today, so I don't know what kind of costume she'll be wearing . . . or what she's bringing for me. I wasn't really crazy about my "house elf" outfit when we watched the Harry Potter movies. A dirty pillowcase? Never again, man. Never again.

SK: [Walks up from basement.] Oh hey, Lynda! I wanted to get away from the kids so I came in around two in the morning and went down to take a nap. I'm still glad I had the good sense in making myself a copy of your house keys. 

Here. [Throws Lynda a bag.] Today we watch The Hunger Games. I'll be Katniss and you'll be—

ER: [Opens bag and looks in.] Feathers? Why would I need feathers?

SK: Yes, those are feathers. I thought you might like to stay alive, in which case you can be my sidekick mockingjay. I know she doesn't have a mockingjay by her side, apart from the pin, but it's not like you're a tiny bird anyway. We can make concessions. 

ER: Are you calling me fat? [Sticks out tongue while drizzling butter on the popcorn.]

SK: Stop making faces! [S.K. rolls eyes.] Fine! I thought you might put up a fuss. I guess you can be Rue instead; there's a wig at the bottom of all the feathers. This way we can both stay in our pajamas.

ER: Whatever. I don't know why I have to wear a wig and all you did was braid your hair—and steal my daughter's bow and arrows. Be careful with that thing! [Jams wig on head.] It is kind of a nice 'fro, though. I've always thought I'd look good in one. And it's better than having me dress up as a piece of coal and setting me—and probably my house—on fire.

SK: If you want, I can frizz your hair up. [Grins.] I brought these two cans: one is hairspray and the other one is black spray paint. The fumes might knock you out for most of the movie, though.

ER: Nope, the wig is just fine.

SK: It does look nice. The wig actually brings out the best features in your glasses. I'm excited to watch this movie again. It's one of the few book to movie adaptations I like a lot. They did make some changes, but I think it all worked out great. Doesn't that annoy you? When the producers of a movie make changes that really didn't need any tampering with?

ER: I hate it when producers go to the trouble of making a movie based on a great book, and then take so many liberties that it angers the book fans. I do understand that certain scenes can't be done well cinematically, but when they shuffle around the characters or add things that are not even part of the original storyline, that makes me nuts.

SK: For me, I hated how in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, they made him (Harry) look like a coward. How hard was it to keep Harry frozen, as it was in the book, when Snape killed Dumbledore? Him standing around and not doing anything—even if instructed by Dumbledore—went against Harry's personality. That detail still bugs me to this day. What about you? What are some scenes you wish producers had kept in their adaptation?

ER:  There are a few odd things that stick out in my mind. In Ella Enchanted (based on a terrific YA book, as is everything written by Gail Carson Levine), they altered the story so much that it seemed only the title was the same. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, they eliminated a key character and juggled the storyline in a way that couldn't help but affect the subsequent movies. In Prince Caspian, they created a stupid, stupid love interest between Caspian and Susan that NEVER existed in the book, and some dumb sort of alpha posturing between Caspian and Peter, which also never existed in the book. And I remember being VERY disappointed that Tom Bombadil was missing in the Lord of the Rings movies. 

Oh! And, going back to the HP movies, when Dumbledore was replaced due to Richard Harris's death, they got an actor who admitted to never having read the books, and who portrayed Dumbledore in a manner that was totally inconsistent with his character.

SK: [Nods vigorously.] So true! What is wrong with these people? I was thrown off by that Susan/Caspian hint at romance as well. One last thing about Harry Potter, 'cause I'm sure we can go on and on about it, that Dumbledore was not the Dumbledore we all know and admire. I would have loved to see Ian McKellen instead. To me he makes the perfect Dumbledore. Ah, well. Another last thing with HP: I did, however, love the dragon escape scene from Gringotts.

Anyway, back to ranting. In The Lovely Bones, I'm not sure what the heck happened. I think they missed the mark with the emotional aspect when they focused on making it more of a supernatural thing, boo! And in My Sister's Keeper . . . Anna does die and saves Kate. The fact that they changed it in the movie took away from all that emotional distress I felt with the book. Not that I want to be miserable and cry my eyes out with a movie, but that was NOT the story!

ER: Ian McKellen would have been great as Dumbledore! He’s much more subtle, and that other hack just really didn’t “get” who the character was supposed to be. I read the other books you mentioned, but never saw their movies, so I’m going to take your word for the quality (or lack of).

SK: Exactly! I do have to say, though, apart from the little glitch that annoyed you with the LotR trilogy, it’s still by far one of my favorite set of movies to watch over and over. Umm, also the HP movies follow closely behind. I can just watch them repeatedly and obsessively. What are some of your favorite adaptions you enjoy watching?

ER: I do still enjoy the LotR movies as their own things. In a situation like that, where the movie is definitely high quality, I will force myself to ignore the inconsistencies . . . and I can always read the books at my leisure.

SK: I loved The Notebook, and even though P.S. I Love You had some differences; I did enjoy the movie as well.

ER: What have I been doing with my time? I haven’t read OR seen either of those.

SK: Both Hunger Games movies so far have made me happy and I’m looking forward to the last two. Speaking of, why must they keep splitting the last books into two films? Grrr . . . that drives me nuts. I do like the extra details though, so maybe I shouldn’t complain.

ER: It’s just a ploy by The Man to get us to pay twice for movie tickets! I’m grrr-ing right along with you.

SK: I didn’t get a chance to watch Divergent or The Fault in Our Stars yet, but I’m very much looking forward to seeing them. Now, Fifty Shades of Grey, no thank you. 

ER: Those first two are on my TBR list, and I’ve heard The Fault in Our Stars is a great movie. That last one? I can’t imagine paying real money or Monopoly money to see Fifty Shades. Is it possible to make a badly written book into a worse movie? If I want to watch someone getting spanked, I could watch movies of when our kids were little and being bad. For free, too.

Oh, and I found a poster up in my attic and brought it down to show you . . . remember when you and I auditioned for The Hunger Games movies? I can’t believe we made it all the way to the final round of cuts. At least they let us keep the promo pictures.

So what do you all think of book-to-movie success? Do you have a favorite, or one you love to hate? Let us know in the comments so we can love or hate them too!

As always:

You can find S.K. Anthony in a number of places. She's on Twitter @SKathAnthony, her website is www.skanthony.com, her Facebook page is S Katherine Anthony, and on occasional occasions, she'll be right here with me, drinking coffee and laughing it up over our latest plans and schemes. And possibly even talking about books and writing. 

You can find me here. I'm always here. 

Who Loves A Freebie? I Do!

HEY! Listen up, everyone. I know we're all bogged down with A to Z posts, but I had to sneak this one in because it's important and only valid for a limited time.

All day Sunday, April 6, Stephen Fender is offering his newest book, Traitor Winds, FREE for download on Amazon.

Traitor Winds is the first of his Origins series which takes place in the same world as the Kestrel Saga, only about a decade or so earlier. Agent Angelika Jordan is on a mission and she won't stop until she's succeeded or died trying.

Traitor Winds is space military at its best.

You can read all about it HERE in my post from when the novel was first released, complete with two great excerpts.

Stephen can be found at www.stephenfender.com, on Facebook and Goodreads, and on Twitter @StephenAFender.

Stop, Drop, and (Eye) Roll

What pulls you out of a book? Are you able to stay immersed in the fictional world no matter what happens, no matter how farfetched?

I love a good book. I love losing myself in a mythical world, becoming the heroine in an adventure, being scared out of my wits, or remembering the whole falling-in-love process.

What I don't love is when my fictional-world-immersion is brought to a screeching halt by bad writing, whichever form that bad writing takes. This can happen in a variety of ways.

1. The obvious: mispeelings, badly grammer, and punct'uation issues. Ugh. That even hurt to type. I'll bet it hurt to read, too. "Then" and "than" are not interchangeable. People don't "shutter," nor do they keep their eyes "pealed" for danger. Your girlfriend's "bear" arms are not sexy, trust me. I see it once? I hope it's a typo. More than once and I'm closing the book.
2. Characters who don't stay true to their personalities. A tough-as-nails FBI agent melts into a puddle of goo when her apartment is broken into. A young girl gets pregnant, has the baby and raises it alone while putting herself through medical school, and yet falls right back into the arms of the deadbeat boyfriend as soon as he comes back to town, years later, even though he's still a jerk. A tough guy suddenly can't make a decision, eat, sleep, or work because a hot girl came into his life for one night and disappeared. A snotty teen who is suddenly comfortable with the geek gang at school because . . . oh, I don't know why. The list goes on. People change, but they don't change instantly and it should actually look like a struggle if they're trying.
3. Impossible scenarios. Two people "in love" have a misunderstanding and somehow, one of them manages to move out of town without the other knowing it—in a small town where everyone knows everyone else's business (and everyone assumes, of course, that Person A knew about Person B moving away SIX MONTHS AGO). Two people hate each other for decades but get locked in a building of some type overnight—implausible enough—and suddenly realize they love each other deeply after eight hours of conversation.
4. Emotionally abusive/stalker behavior portrayed as intense love. Sorry folks. Not love. Not even close to love. This is even worse when it's in YA novels and intense jealousy and controlling behavior are played off as protectiveness. Don't teach young girls this is what to look for in a relationship.
5. Finding "true love forever" . . . at age eleven. When characters fall in love only to have circumstances separate them, and then meet up after twenty years apart, I expect those characters to be older than thirty. I can't count how many NA books I've read that employ this plot line.
6. Too much street slang. It's dialogue. It's "real." It's gritty. I get it, I do. But if the dialogue is so slang-y that I can barely decipher it, I'm quitting. I want to read, not struggle with a foreign language. What's the point of being so "real" that nobody knows what the heck you're talking about?
7. No research done by the author. If you're writing about high school kids, know that the football captain doesn't have practice in April. iPhones don't "snap" shut. People in Victorian times didn't use phrases like, "Oh, crap." Someone who is failing every class with a month of school remaining is not likely to graduate on time. Children in medieval times didn't make parchment paper airplanes during playtime. Well . . . maybe DaVinci did, but that's why he was a Renaissance man and not stuck in the Middle Ages.

I've seen all these things and more (in published books), and they've jarred me out of a book as effectively as my alarm clock drags me from sleep.  The only way to survive is to follow the drill:

STOP reading.

DROP the book.

ROLL your eyes and move along.

Coffee Chat 6.0 with Author S.K. Anthony: Blogging from A to Z

"A" you're adorable, "B" you're so beautiful, "C" you're a cutie full of charms . . .
"D" you're a darling and "E" you're exciting and . . . um . . . [Stops, counts on fingers.]
A, B, C, D, E, F, G . . . Oh, yeah.
"F" you're a feather in my arms . . .
"G" you look good to me, "H" you're so heavenly—

Oh, hey, everyone! You're probably wondering why I'm singing the Alphabet Song. Or maybe you're wondering why I can't remember which letter comes next. I'm actually practicing the opening song for the upcoming Loudermilks concert. Not gonna lie, we're doing all the classics.

Mornin', S.K.! How's it going? Have some coffee to jump-start your day.

SKA: [singing] C is for coffee, that's good enough for me. Oh, coffee, coffee, coffee starts with C!

Oh, hey! Good morning! Are we done singing, then?

ER: Do you happen to know the Alphabet Song? 'Cause I know the Alphabet Song. All the way to the end, even. [Mutters.] . . . with a little pause here and there . . .

SKA: Yes, yes I do. I don't even have to read and cheat to sing it—from A to Z, I know them all! I can even write them down backward if you want. Look, Z, Y, X, W—

ER: I know them all too . . . except I have to take off my shoes and socks to I can point to my toes once I run out of fingers to keep my place. I call in one of the kids after I reach the 20th letter.

SKA: Um . . . X, W, V—

ER: Wait, hold up a minute. [Pulls socks back on.]

SKA: Why are you stopping me? Don't tell me you have some other alphabet challenge in mind. Or do you?

ER: I'm not going to ditch the original singing idea, because I know you've been practicing pretty faithfully for the concert and all. And I won't make you say the alphabet backward while standing beside your car, touching your nose with your index finger. But I heard about something cool and wanted to run it by you to see if it's legit. It's called the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Know it?

SKA: I sure do! I was a chicken last year and didn't join, but this time I went ahead and signed up as soon as I saw the first post about it on Alex J. Cavanaugh's blog. For anyone who doesn't know about this, it's (and keep in mind, I'm taking this directly from their site): 

The brainchild of Arlee Bird, at Tossing it Out, the A to Z Challenge is posting every day in April except Sundays (we get those off for good behavior). And since there are 26 days, that matches the 26 letters of the alphabet. On April 1, blog about something that begins with the letter "A." April 2 is "B," April 3 is "C," and so on. You can use a theme for the month or go random—just as long as it matches the letter of the alphabet for the day.

How fun is that? I'm so excited to be a part of it this year and I'm already thinking of what I'm going to blog about. I'm hoping to get the posts set up before March comes around so I don't run around like a mad woman . . . at least not more than usual. 

ER: Well, there's no point running around like a not-mad woman. It's exhausting. So April's the month, eh?

SKA: April will be an awesome month, I can feel it. I'm even happier that I have a couple friends facing the challenge with me—you included, Lynda.

ER: I've got to admit, I'm psyched about it, too, and just a little bit terrified. I've started thinking of my A to Z topics, but—well, you may not have noticed this, but I tend to go on a bit long in my blog posts. What if I can't keep them short enough? Do you have any advice for me? And do you have a theme for yours yet?

SKA: Based on the little I know about it, but also based on time and how busy everyone will be, I would suggest not going over 250 words. 

ER: But—but—I'm ITALIAN!

SKA: I know, I know . . . that's a challenge in itself for you, but imagine how quickly you'll be done with your posts. My advice is to write one of your regular ones, split it in three . . .

ER: . . . or eight . . .

SKA: . . . and then fix it up to match the day and letter it corresponds to and you'll be done in no time. 

As for my posts, I think, and I'm not sure yet, that I'm going with words and expressions I've made up. I do call myself "an official make-stuff-up-er" on my blog, so I thought I'd give an insight as to what that's all about. Apart from making up whole books, that is. 

If that doesn't work, I might just choose desserts and goodies I'm currently staying away from, and salivate all over my blog. What do you have in mind for a theme?

ER: Mmmm . . . desserts . . .  

Ahem. For my posts, I think this first time out, I'll stick with what I know and give some tips for writers from an editor's viewpoint. I might suspend my Editor's Notes for the Mondays in April, since there will be posts going up every day that relate to editing, anyway. 

Who knows? If this works out well this year, I'll look forward to something more creative next year! Bucket list, places I've never been, favorite foods that could kill me if I ate them often enough . . .

SKA: That is awesome! Editor tips work for me. We haven't completed this challenge yet and I'm already looking forward to next year's. The creator of this is a genius! Now I wonder who else is joining us, and if they have their themes set up.

If you're reading this (and I think you are), share your A to Z plans if you're participating. We'd love to support you throughout the challenge and cheer you along. Well . . . if we're not too tired and too full from all the dessert-eating . . .

ER: Desserts . . .

SKA: Before we go, we'd like to remind you that our Share the Love Giveaway ends next week. If you haven't entered yet, what are you waiting for? Do it. Don't be scared; we don't bite. David Hasselhoff might, though. We're not sure. Still, be a daredevil. Enter and share! Also, be on the lookout for another Facebook Flash Giveaway on Sunday!

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You can find everyone in the following places:
S.K. Anthony: www.skanthony.com
Easy Reader Editing: you are here. :)
Raymond Esposito: writinginadeadworld.com
Stephen Fender: www.stephenfender.com
Debra Ann Miller: debraamiller.blogspot.com
Sisters Baking Company: www.sistersbaking.com
Sarah YourBetaReader: yourbetareader.blogspot.com