Now on EpiGuide.com

As of today, Perfect is now listed in EpiGuide! Thanks!

And a big welcome to new visitors! Hope you enjoy the webserial.

Social Media and Networking

My oh my, but aren't there just so many options?!? What is an author to do? Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Tumblr, EpiGuide, WebFictionGuide, GoodReads....how are we to manage all that and still find time to write? (Not to mention work a day job if you're just starting out!) Oh, and don't forget a website and blog.

• What is working for you?
• What sites do you use most, both personally and professionally?
• Does social media help you or drive you nuts?
• And what about good ole fashioned face-to-face networking; do you get much of that in?

Looking forward to reading what works for other writers, bloggers, and creative people out there. Just remember, while comments are eagerly sought, spam is not - so comments are moderated.

Perfect Episode Twenty-one

It's here and was published yesterday! After a long hiatus (boy did it ever take such a long time to go up the Mississippi from Saint Louis to Hannibal!) George and Anita are back and it's finally time to get off the Harmonie in the once and future riverport town of Hannibal. But George is convinced that they will have to pass through an Informateur scanner when they disembark. How ever will they do it? Find out in...

Perfect, Episode Twenty-one ♦ Boxed In

And don't worry. You won't have to wait so long for the next episode. Episode Twenty-two is written and undergoing final editing. It will be published on Friday, 14 February, 2014.

Episode Twenty-one Coming This Week

Not only have I been busy writing and editing forthcoming episodes of Perfect - Episode Twenty-five has been committed to bits and bytes and Episode Twenty-six is churning around in the space behind my eyes - but I've updated the Perfect website in anticipation of publishing Episode Twenty-one ♦ Boxed In during the last week of January 2014.

While most edits are minor code, cosmetic, or navigational changes, I have reformatted the way prior episodes are included on the website. In addition to an all episodes PDF, each episode has its own page now. Find them on the Perfect Index. Now it is even easier to read an episode and bookmark the next - to read it another time.

Now is the perfect time to catch up on Luis and Avinashika's travels away from their comfortable, familiar homes and lives, as they travel across the eastern United States many years in our future. Where are they going? Will they find Willem? Will the give up their new identities as the married couple George and Anita Winston? What will life be like in their new home? Who else will they meet along their way?

Join me in the continuing adventures of the webserial Perfect.

Perfect Returning January 2014

After a break, work is progressing on Perfect. Episode Twenty-One will be published before the end of the month with regular episodes every two weeks thereafter.

To be notified when new episodes are available, please use the links at right to follow me.

Punctuation. Rules. Creativity.

As a member of a writing critique group for three years, we often find ourselves, both as a group and as individuals, wrestling with the rules of writing: syntax, construction, and especially punctuation. When does it make sense to follow a given set of rules? Which rule set? Is English grammar really that fixed? And aren't these rules the very things sheltering real writers from the barbarians at the gate - u no wut i meen HMU l8tr

One of the many things I'm 'currently reading' (see my Goodreads page) is Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. Imagine my inward chuckle when I thought about the group critiquing this passage from Mrs. Dalloway:

“Fear no more,” said Clarissa. Fear no more the heat o’ the sun; for the shock of Lady Bruton asking Richard to lunch without her made the moment in which she had stood shiver, as a plant on the river-bed feels the shock of a passing oar and shivers: so she rocked: so she shivered.

First off, I was simply struck by the imagery used in the language. It is clear, easy to understand and visualize, vibrant. But look at how the paragraph is punctuated, with semi-colons and colons, and, more importantly to one engaged in editing, a single sentence with not just one but TWO colons! Oh my. Oh my my. Where is my red pen?

Does it not work? Is it simply old-fashioned (now)? Or did Virginia Woolf understand the use of a colon and use it masterfully? And what about "made the moment...shiver"? Moments can shiver? Oh, and there is that use of 'her': while we understand it to refer to Clarissa, the object of the clause, the only female proper name used in the sentence is "Lady Bruton."

Hmm. Hmmmmm. What comments would I write on Virginia's submission if she were a member of our little critique circle and she was working on Mrs. Dalloway? What suggestions would you make? And no, you can't say "I'd make no comments since the paragraph is simply perfect as it is," since 'no one' writes like this today. [Just an aside - ran across this blog post a couple days ago and have never really thought about cubism's influence on literature.]

Get your own copy of Mrs. Dalloway at Amazon. Or you can read it online or download a free copy of the ebook from ebooks@Adelaide.

Perfect Status

Previously the plan was to return with the next batch of episodes of <i>Perfect</i> in June. I've decided to postpone continuing the series until the fall. In the meantime I'm researching and developing the story, hoping to make it better, more interesting, and always working to improve the prose.

Don't worry, George and Anita - or Luis and Avinashika if you prefer - and Willem will return!

I'm also developing another webserial that I've wanted to write for some time. It's set in a fictional mid-market commercial bank in Texas during the 1980s and will have everything you expect from such a story: greed, lust, envy, power, intrigue, death, gossip, and, of course, money. More news on this project to come.

Hope you are enjoying your summer (or winter if down under)!