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I’m a writer, a speaker, and an editor. Some consider the combination to be some super being but, in reality, I am just a regular man. In other words, I write, I talk and I correct.

I began life as a writer, the proverbial newbie, who felt he knew it all and had the best novel ever written in history. That particular piece has yet to see light of day and it has been over twenty years since I first put pen to paper. In reality, it was originally hand written with a pen on lined paper. Home computers were in their infancy — can you say Vic20, Atari 400 or even Commodore 64? I saved my first electronic version of that story to a 5.25 inch floppy disk and transferred it to updated technology as it became available. The story now resides in a cloud and is undergoing drastic revisions. As a writer, we grow and learn the craft. In other words, we become skilled writers. With luck, that horribly written story should see light of day within the next year.

But I digress. Being a writer, I attended conferences and seminars, absorbing as much knowledge as I could to improve my writing. I grew. I wrote and I got published. I was making a name for myself within the local writing group. I became the vice-president of the local writing group. I continued to attend the local conference. Due to an emergency, I became friends with the local conference coordinator. She had seen me and knew my name after so many years. She asked me to assist her one year and the following year she asked me do a session on science fiction.

I became a speaker. This was a new experience. I was no longer sitting in the audience — I was the person in front. I was now the fount of knowledge for the attendees. I was the person these people sought to talk to and ask questions of. I loved this new sensation of sharing knowledge. There is a great responsibility with being a speaker. The attendees expect you to know your stuff. Don’t attempt to blue-sky (aka BS) the subject matter. Always remember, somebody in the audience may know than you.

During one of the conferences where I was speaking when I was asked to review a short story. The story was good but needed work. I offered suggestions and corrected some glaring errors. The next thing I knew, I was being offered manuscripts to edit. I became an editor.

Is there any difference between an editor and a writer? Yes. A writer puts words to paper and creates a story. An editor reassembles the words to have more impact and be correct.

As an editor, I’ve learned to write better, but as a writer I’ve learned that I am too close to my project to be a proper editor. I use a professional editor, Denise Vitola (http://www.thomas-talks-to-me.com/) to correct my work.

One of the biggest mistakes I feel many writers do is to use “that” when it isn’t needed. I, too, am a horrible abuser and delete hundreds of them from my work before I send it out to my editor. An example: He said that he was going to town. The sentence reads perfectly fine without “that” and is stronger.

Notice I said professional editor earlier? A novel needs professional touches. The cover. Edits. Most of my covers have been done by me with the assistance of professional graphic artists. My latest book, “The Secret Voice” has a cover which is a professional photograph by Edison Goodfellow (http://www.edgoodfellow.com/). With the assistance of Steve Lark (http://printedonalark.com/) I was able to accomplish the graphic lettering and colors on the cover. Yes, of course, the book was edited by Denise Vitola.

I feel being an editor has improved my writing and being a speaker has improved my ability to edit and write. How is that? During speaking engagements, I make contact with others and share ideas which then allow my mind to run rampant with even more ideas. Of course, being a writer also improves my ability to be a speaker. They say: Write what you know. I would say the same holds true for speaking: Speak about what you know. Plus, the editor in me allows me to correct both my writing and my speaking.

I guess now would be a good time to lecture about not using your English teacher aunt as an editor. Why? Simple. She will make sure your sentence structure is grammatically correct and punctuation is proper. What she won’t know is how to correct plot, storyline and scenes which makes the story solid. There is nothing wrong with using your English teacher person for this aspect to get the sentences and punctuation correct, but please, use a professional editor who knows your genre to check the story.

Bio:

My name is Bob Nailor. I’m retired from the US federal government. I was a computer geek and still do some programming yet today. One would think I should have plenty of time to write but I actually seem to have less now. So, to make sure that things work out correctly, I try to force myself to sit down and write. That doesn’t always work. Today, writing is fun and I find it relaxing. I get to visit those fantastic and strange places within my mind and well, if I don’t come back right away, there is no longer somebody behind me writing on a pink sheet of paper.

I live with my wife, Violet, in a ranch home snuggled into a small wooded acre in northwest Ohio. I have four sons and currently have ten grandchildren: seven granddaughters and three grandsons.

My interests are travel (have RV, will travel), gardening, music, cooking and reading. So where do I travel? I’ve been in 46 of the 50 states and strangely, Hawaii is one of the states I’ve visited. I have also visited two of our territories—Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands. Traveling allows me to add the ambiance to my stories and to some of the characters, also. Gardening is a bit gamey since we live in the country and have the wildlife visiting us constantly—deer, rabbits, raccoons, birds, squirrels and many others. So vegetables don’t always make it to harvest but what does is more than tasty. There are flowers, sometimes too many, to keep me busy. Music? I love New Age music and my favorite group is Mannheim Steamroller—and not just because of their fabulous Christmas albums; I was hooked on them before that. I also have created some of my own electronic music which I’ve been told is pretty good. Should I mention cooking? I love to cook and do gourmet cooking. Having worked with Boy Scouts for several years, I have taught many boys the basics of cooking beyond hotdogs and beans. I have won quite a few contests. As to what I read; well, obviously a lot of science fiction, fantasy and some Christian. Horror, romance, adventure and other genres are also great reads when they catch my attention with an intriguing tag line or cover.

Bibliography:

The Secret Voice—an Amish story set in 1961
Pangaea, Eden Lost—a Barclay Havens, relic hunter mis-adventure
Ancient Blood: The Amazon—a vampire series, 500 years in waiting
Three Steps: The Journeys of Ayrold—an Irish fantasy for today
2012 Timeline Apocalypse—the Mayan calendar comes to an end
52 Weeks of Writing Tips—tips to improve one’s writing ability

My work appears in several anthologies:

Telling Tales of Terror—essays on how to write horror and dark fiction
Mother Goose Is Dead—a collection of favorite fairy tales, fractured
Dead Set: A Zombie Anthology—a collection of unusual zombie tales
The Complete Guide to Writing Paranormal, Volume 1—various essays
Nights of Blood 2—different takes on the vampire story
Guide to Writing Science Fiction—essays on writing science fiction
Firestorm of Dragons—an eclectic collection of dragon stories
Fantasy Writer’s Companion—essays on writing fantasy
13 Night of Blood—13 amazing vampire tales
Spirits of Blue & Gray—a collection of Civil War ghost stories

Drop by the official website and the blog.