What? I have a blog?

Posted on April 22, 2012 by d.e.helbling

Yes, this blog joined the ranks of thousands of other dormant, dusty graveyards of expression.  Many excuses could be applied honestly.  The short story is that I had nothing important to say.

What’s different now?  Well, since my last posting all of my organized association with other writers has been terminated.  The critique group I founded five years ago evolved down a path I found to be lacking in respect and ambition, so I left.  The critique group I joined before leaving my own decided that we “had a style” clash and that I was no longer a fit, so they called me while I was on vacation to let me know I was being ejected from the fold.  I am sure that my challenge to the founders of this group to actually write something had something to do with their decision.

I’d like to use cool and loaded words like “ronin” to describe my non-allied status, but since I also dropped out of martial arts activities, that may not be appropriate either.

So my writing will be solo, but other associations have formed … other organizations have been created or have evolved … other friendships have been formed.

And this is the nature of life.

It’s hard to say goodbye to group friends, harder still when they give you the boot or by their actions make it clear they’ve already left without saying goodbye.  The truth is that they are making room in your life … room for new people, new ideas and new events that are more genuine and more powerful than those you’ve experienced before.

 

Posted in Awesomeness, Philosophy | Leave a comment

Privishing – What Can Happen If Your Book Challenges the Powerful

Posted on March 23, 2011 by d.e.helbling

A very interesting article from Dr. A. Nyland about what can happen if you write a book that the rich and powerful don’t like:  Gatekeepers and Privishing

Check it out.

Privishing is a new scary word now in my vocabulary.

This reminds me of a line from the movie ‘Broken Arrow’:

BAIRD: I don’t know what’s scarier — losing nuclear weapons or the fact that it happens so often that you people have a name for it.

Posted in Communication, Writing Biz | Leave a comment

First post as staff blogger at SFOO

Posted on October 8, 2010 by d.e.helbling

Out of the gate as new staff blogger for Science Fiction and Other ODDysseys … ( First Post Link )

Posted in Communication, Fearmongering, Technology | Leave a comment

Who is editing those e-pubs?

Posted on October 7, 2010 by d.e.helbling

A discussion on one of the on-line critique groups I participate in has been rolling for some time in one form or another.  The subject: the quality of e-pubs.  In one of these discussions, writer Carol Kean, after recently reading several supposed professionally published e-pub books and finding error upon blatant error, asked the very pertinent question: Who is editing these things? 

It reminded me of an incident in my past which I shared with her and the group and am sharing with you now …

Some years ago I was asked to do a review of a new horror short story collection, said review to appear in a modest e-zine I edited at the time.  The request, from someone who identified himself as the president of a small press, had a pseudonym on the cover of the book.  This was clearly a thinly disguised self-published hardcopy … the “president” was also the author of the one and only book on this imprint, though he did not admit this to me at the time, or ever.  

I went through the first three stories of the book, found several errors in punctuation, grammar, even a missed word or two.  I went back to the author, make that the president of the small press, saying in effect, “Sorry, but I would rather NOT do a review of this book, since I’d feel obligated to do an honest review, which you might regard as being raked over the coals for all these errors.” I also mentioned that as for content, I saw problems with clichés, with coincidence or solution-from-the-sky endings, and with explicitly stated beat-the-reader-over-the-head moral object lessons.  I told him that I would rather say nothing than write a very unfavorable review about a new author.

He wrote me back insisting it was unlikely there were any errors in the book, nor flaws in his characterizations or plots, and he seriously doubted I had read even the first three stories.  He angrily demanded I return his copy of the book immediately, adding that the points he had made in his response to me were “not just a matter of my opion, they are fact”.  Yes, the “o-p-i-o-n” was his, too.  He then claimed he was a professional story editor and script doctor, so he “knows what he is talking about”.  He added that his editor was “positively irate” that I had made such a contention, further claiming she went back through the whole book and could not find any errors.  The author-president said that if I could prove her (his editor) wrong, he would recant the first portion of his response (the part denying there were any errors there).

 I went back to the title page of the book and found out that his “editor” slash typesetter had the same last name as he did … likely a wife, a sister, or his mum.  I concluded that editing a loved one’s manuscript should be on the order of removing a loved one’s appendix … something you should just not do for a loved one,  especially if you don’t have the training and experience for it.  At this point, I decided to go through the book from front to back: I found a couple dozen more errors in a full sweep of the book.  I forwarded the details with page and paragraph numbers and citations to him.  I got no response, ever, from the author-president, or his mum.

 I still have the hardcopy of his book, sitting on my shelf as a gentle reminder to never send any of my own work out before its time.  The author-editor’s book is still for sale on the web, nearly five years later.

He has since added another.  

What’s my point? While not all self-published works or e-pubs have this sort of Very Insolent Person behind them, the bubble of “sponsored” e-pubs is not necessarily much  different from all those completely self-published e-pubs and self-published hardcopies.  There are quite a few of us who are so eager to be read, to see our names on a publication that is, in theory, available to the masses, that we will take shortcuts, often unreasonable and quality compromising shortcuts, to get our stuff out there, to feel like we are “succeeding”. Some houses, publishing pros and semi-pros are doing their very best to screen this stuff, to ensure a higher standard for the output of their respective imprints.  I know some who are and I am guessing you probably do, too.  But many are not.  That reality is probably the best justification for us as writers to use groups like our on-line critique groups or local, in-person writers’ groups to sanity check our own quality levels.  It also means that when we critique we are assuming a fairly high level of responsibility to deliver substantive feedback, to not simply “sugar coat” our responses when delivering peer reviews.  We may well be the last editors some of these works ever see before they are launched into the Wild.

In the end, I expect the reading public is either going to become more intelligent and discerning in their own screening of such content sources or, more likely, they will make rather broad generalizations that will have a net negative impact on this publishing channel.  Regardless, we are probably all going to be judged by the company we keep.  This is perhaps the very best reason to take our own most excellent as-yet-unpublished masterpieces and make a real effort to find some other more traditional publishing channel … i.e. to NOT self-publish.

Though my thoughts on this have not changed much in the last five years, this is still just my opinion.  At some point, I might also get tired of sitting on and resubmitting all those unsold, unpublished short stories and novels and put mine out there, too.

Posted in Markets, Writing As Art, Writing Biz | 2 Comments

Ergo Explorations – What To Do When Your Wrists Won’t Write

Posted on September 9, 2010 by d.e.helbling

A discussion came up in an on-line writing group regarding what to do about painful human-keyboard contact.  It would be inappropriate to recreate that thread here without the permission of all involved, but here’s a tweaked version of my own recommendations. 

If you have overcome all the mental and logistic blocks to getting your writing done, but have to face pain at the keyboard, problems with wrist fatigue, carpal tunnel syndrome, strange tinglings or outright pain in your digits, etc., I would strongly suggest a multi-pronged attack:

1 - Get a Medical Assessment

Make sure you don’t have an injury or illness that is causing the pain.  Pains in the extremities could indeed be carpal tunnel, or they could be something else.   If your problem is not related to injury or some form of repetitive stress, it could be from shingles, gout, or a vast array of other ailments, some of them hard for even the pros to diagnose.  Unless the source of the problem is completely obvious, get a qualified medical expert to assess your state of well-being in this regard.  If they have advice to offer and the advice is not completely ludicrous, try that advice before prescribing your own solution.

2 –  Get and Use an Ergonomic Keyboard. 

A good example is the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000.  This will make a HUGE difference in wrist fatigue for many individuals over the long run.  And you can probably make the mental adjustment after as little as one day of use.  The example keyboard is a USB device, so you can plug it into ANY laptop (any made in the last 10 years anyway), as well as any desktop PC or even your MAC.  I know the ergo keyboard choice is a nearly religious topic among computer users, but the objections to trying this are rather weak.

3 – Upgrade Your BorgWare

Borgware?  I’m talking about any artificial stuff that goes onto the outside of your body to help get you through the day.  If you have wrist braces, whether they are the ultra-cheap stretchy bandage, the $20 Ace specials from Rite-Aid, or the megabucks models from your local orthopedic clinic, check that yours are the best for your type of ailment, that you are using them correctly, and that they are in good shape (they can wear out).  I use an off-the-shelf brace from the Ace “Tek Zone” line, found at my local Rite-Aid or Walgreens for about $18, and it works wonders on my wrist. You may have special needs here and advice or prescriptions from your doctor or physical therapist.  If what they provide does not work, get them to fix it or set up you to get another.  If at all possible, find a way to make your insurance pay for it, because that is what it is there for.

4 - Try Voice Recogntion

Voice recognition software has come a long way.  There is the “free” variety that comes built-in with the last couple of Microsoft Windows releases.  I specifically recommend Dragon Naturally Speaking.  The “entry level” Dragon version 10 software can be found for as low as $100 as a boxed set that includes a suitable microphone/headset.  This technology has really matured.  You can reasonably expect to achieve better than 96% percent accuracy after just a couple of hours of “training” (reading canned paragraphs) and use.  You can use this to put text directly into your word processor program.  I have used it with MS Word (from ’97 to 2007 versions),  OpenOffice Writer, Celtx, even “VI for Windows” (yeah, for some things VI still rules).  And you can usually use it to “drive” the computer, i.e. to launch other programs and switch between them, though that is a bit more complicated.  The higher end versions add still more functionality.  This solution is not for everyone, but if you are psychologically flexible enough to get over the initial weirdness, you will find this can be an awesome tool.  You can even use it to feed your dictations, i.e. to play your tape recordings to your computer and have it transcribe them for you.

 4 – Do an Ergo Check on Your Workspace

Your desk, keyboard height, monitor height, chair height and tilt, etc., all interact to form your total ergonomic environment.  If the wrists are the Sore Spot, you can start with chair and keyboard heights, wrist angle to keyboard, and work out from there. A lot of this you can determine from on-line research.  But you may also be able to tap into your medical insurance to get professional advice, even an on-site (at home or work) ergo assessment by a suitable professional.  If your insurance won’t cover it, you may be able to contract an ergonomics pro to consult with you at a less-than-doctor-visit rate, perhaps even via email by sending them some critical measurements of your workspace.  There are also local classes in ergonomic office setup available at some local college campuses.

 5 – Explore Dietary Influences

In other words, consider saying goodbye to the cow, or at least the solid parts of her in your refrigerator.  When my joint problems in my wrists and elsewhere were at their worst, I was advised by a friend to try reducing my red meat intake.  As a major consumer of hamburger and steak, this was quite an adjustment for me, but I did try it.  The results after a couple of weeks without beef were simply astounding.  I still eat the occasional t-bone or hamburger, but as a treat, not a regular meal.  I have replaced about 85-90% of my previous beef consumption with chicken or fish, and it has made a huge difference.

 I am no professional ergonomic specialist, dietition, or orthopedic expert … I am just a professional person who uses his computer to make a living, and who has had to make “adjustments” to keep working at times.  Your mileage may vary.  Anything that represents a substantial change in your personal habits should be sanity-checked by someone with training and experience.  If you are on a budget or one of the Uninsured Masses (I have been there), there are still cheap and free solutions you can pursue.  It is your environment.  Own it!

Posted in Writing Tools | 2 Comments