2021

Fill your e-reader

eBook & Paperback Sweepstakes! (2) Winners of eBook "Gift Baskets" of ALL ebooks Other Winners of individual ebooks or paperbacks (randomly selected) You need great books to read in the new year. And you could win them—free. Including The Bones of the Earth, Book One of the Dark Age series. Don’t wait another second! Time […]

Happy holidays from The Written Word

It’s the time of year to share hopes for peace, health and happiness for all. And as the new year approaches, I wish you all health and success in every venture you pursue.  (And if it’s a new book, contact me with any questions. I’ll do what I can to help.) And before I forget, […]

Why is COVID-19 different?

Or, The Weaponization of Stupidity People believe what makes them comfortable.  When I was about 11 years old, I saw in a book that newborns can distinguish shapes and shadows. Many of my classmates believed humans are born blind. When I mentioned what I had read, not only did I get arguments, but anger. So […]

Independent book review of A Heart so Wild

By Raine Thomas It wasn’t from page 1 that I hated Callan Murphy. But by the third chapter, I could not stand him. A professional hockey player, recruited by the expansion team, the Atlanta Siege. Everyone in the hockey world knows how talented, how capable he is. What he could do on the ice. If […]

Passive voice should be avoided by writers

Things writers do to drive me crazy, part 3 I’ve advised against using the passive voice before. Sure, there are places where it’s warranted. (See what I did, there?) But those are rare.  To clarify what passive voice means, let’s contrast it against the active voice: Active: The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy […]

Thanks for your support

Together, we crushed it!  Through August, I joined thousands of cyclists across Canada in the Great Cycle Challenge Canada. We biked to raise money for the Hospital for Sick Children’s campaign for research into improved treatments and cures for children’s cancers.  I originally planned to cycle 200 km, and raise $500. Well, I was getting close to […]

Things writers do to drive me crazy, part 2

Last week, I wrote about a common problem in many manuscripts: unnecessary details. This week, I move on to another common error: shifting point-of-view in fiction, also known as Head-hopping This term describes text that jumping between characters’ points of view (POV).  Let’s take a look at this, adapted slightly from a recent project to […]