Which Spelling to Choose?

Archaic words and spellings are difficult to judge. For instance, I was taught to write ‘aging’, which the Oxford dictionary says is fine. However, younger readers insist this should be ‘ageing’, which is also fine. So, which spelling should a writer use?

Editing

Professional editing is an additional cost for indie authors, and may not be perfect going by the number of errors in the ‘big name’ published books. I can go through a ms a dozen times until believing it is perfect. When I get somebody else to read it, they find a few more errors and poorly constructed sentences. After this, I will transfer to my kindle and read it again, and note down more problems. Then publish on kindle, and sometimes get comments that it has not been edited! Using Createspace to produce a printed version, I read the proof copy and find more errors. After making these changes to the printed and kindle versions, I hope to have an acceptable ms. Unfortunately, few people review the books on Amazon, and some comments are either unhelpful or do not match the content. One person may say ‘not enough detail’, while another will say ‘too much detail’. You can’t please all of the people all of the time.

SciFi reads

Just read a short sf story written about 1960, probably in response to fresh medical evidence linking smoking with cancer. I guessed where it was heading about halfway through, but it was still a good read, and available from Project Gutenberg. The story is about labs around the world struggling to find a cure for a new lethal virus that was produced accidentally. All children, some ethnic groups and about fifty percent of the rest of the world had already died or were dying. The cure? Smoke like crazy! Can just imagine if something like this happened for real. "Smoking only" public venues and shops everywhere.

New Website

My new website is now up and running.Inspired Worlds

Mermaids Can have Sex - now available

Wow! Sales before notification from Amazon that the book is now on sale.
Can mermaids exist? If so, how do they procreate?
The World Government renamed Earth and banned all religions, countries, customs and languages. In Year 95, Ryder prepares to leave college when alleged terrorists apparently attempt to destroy the building. While watching the terrorists die, his dissatisfaction with life highlights everything he finds wrong with Terra, as the World Government now calls the planet. Before embarking on his career as a financier, he decides to search the galaxy for a better life.
Humans have colonised the galaxy. No other life form exists anywhere. Every planet is the same as Terra. When a corrupt governor orders his death, he escapes but his spaceship suffers multiple failures. His ship crashes into the oceans of a quarantined water planet. The only intelligent life lives in the sea. These mers understand Terran, meaning humans had visited recently. Mermaid outcasts help him to survive. Yet nothing is as it seems. By discovering the anomalies of this planet, he accidentally solves Terra’s puzzle. With no means of escaping the planet, and knowing the World Government would not allow him to live, he must find the only alternative.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mermaids-Can-have-Sex-ebook/dp/B00DXMRB04/ref=pd_rhf_ee_p_img_1_T0KM

Can Mermaids have Sex?

Can mermaids exist? How do they have young to continue their species? Do they only have girls, or boys too? If so, what are they called? Merboy, Merlad, Merservant or what?
The answers are coming soon.

Free Promotion for The Life Pool

After editing some minor errors in one of my first Kindle books, I will be offering The Life Pool free from 25th to 29th June 2013 inclusive. The book now includes a preview of The Spurious Sorcerer, so this is an offer not to miss.
The Life Pool is a feel-good story with a clumsy hero. Funny and sad, but a great adventure in the first symbiotic worlds stand-alone story.
If you like The Life Pool, then be sure to check out The Spurious Sorcerer.