Mystical Magical Moments

Laon: The Scene The early morning fog swirled around the base of the deep green poplar trees standing tall and majestically at the top of the rise. Removing my sweater, tying it around my waist and wiping the perspiration from my upper lip, I sighed with relief dropping to the seat. I reached into my clutch for the francs necessary to pay for the privilege of resting on the aged, scroll-worked, iron bench. The caretaker, an erect, uniformed, ‘fiftyish’ man, received the francs with stiff somewhat disapproving politeness while murmuring a short “merci”. As I caught my breath from the long climb, my gaze dropped to the ancient cobblestones at my feet. The cobblestones, a multi-colored puzzle of grays reached across the plaza to the Medieval Gothic style church. Black mildewed bullet holes still riddled the enormous stone structure. I shifted my scrutiny skyward to the Rosetta stained glass window, amazingly still intact after centuries of wars. Here at the top of the crag...

Daddy Above the huge shiny black clodhoppers all she could see was the field of green fatigues he wore. Her little bare feet fit perfectly on the tops of the boots, and he held her hands with her arms outstretched wide as they danced around the living room to one song after another -- She was never too tired after a full day of play to dance with her daddy. He smelled uniquely of aircraft oil and Old Spice, a combination she'll never forget and how Daddy was never too tired to dance with his little girl after a day of tending the F-4's that shook the ground and vibrated her innards when they roared into the sky.  

I can't make you believe how important a good editor is unless you've experienced bad editing. I'm reading several free self published books on Amazon and suddenly that point has been made crystal to everyone. I can deal with poor formatting and even a repeated word or two in a good story. What bothers me is when a story has great potential but it's marred with character flaws or plot holes. Critique partners can help or a good content editor. I'm not a punctuation purest or even a grammatical fanatic. I love Nora Roberts so head hopping, when done well, isn't going to put me off. That being said, what does bother me is... Dangling modifiers/misplaced modifiers (Learn to recognize and correct them.) There instead of their or they're (and all other homonym issues)  Flip flopping between American spellings/language and the Queen's English (Pick one-stick to it.) Blatant pov issues ( He's thinking what a sexy smile and great pecs he has? I don...

One thing I've been told is never edit while you're creating. Get your thoughts down, and then when you're finished go back and edit. That may take several passes. The first  pass may be for continuity. Make sure the places and characters' names are spelled the same way throughout, or make sure you didn't change someone's name mid-story. It happens. If your main character has blue eyes when the book starts, keep them that way or explain why they changed color. You're the author, you can fix it. Spell check doesn't check everything. Make sure the word you wrote is the word you meant.  To, two, too or assure ensure. There are more. You know them, don't confuse them. Spell check won't correct words that are spelled correctly even if they aren't the correct word. If you want the word 'and' and you forget the 'd', 'an' is correctly spelled. Proof reading aloud will catch those errors. Grammar. You say, "Ugh." ...

Do you remember the the children's story about the man who traveled to the fair with all the hats atop his head? Don't you feel like him somedays? here are some hats I'm weraing today: Mother Wife (note to self - these are in order of importance at the moment) Editor Business owner Copy writer Friend Writing partner Author Marketing director I'm retired from homemaking. What does that mean? No more cooking (unless I feel like it) The dish fairy left home (every now and then she drops by and surprises everyone) When I'm in the mood I may ride my broom through the kitchen But I don't vacuum My allergies prevent me from dusting We just got a new washing machine and I don't feel the need to test drive it I can't grocery shop - I'm always dieting - the temptation is too great to buy donuts All those hats are heavy. I had to get rid of the ones I didn't like. LOL

The Pen by Maureen Sevilla The pen has power It slides, it glides Over processed wood I feed, it leads.