Addendum: How do you spell ebook / eBook / e-book?

Being a writer and editor is a contiuous learning process. Over a year ago, I posted a blog on "How do you spell ebook / eBook / e-book?" My prediction at the time was that the natural language trend would lead us to simplify the spelling to ebook.

I recently invested in a copy of the 2012 AP Stylebook, also known as "The Journalist's 'Bible,'" to use in editing my work newsletter. (Now that I have the book I realize how sorely I needed the reference.) In working my way through the pages, I found the below instruction on the topic of electronic books:

"e-book The electronic, nonpaper version of a book or publication, sold digitally and commonly consumed on an e-book reader or e-reader, such as Amazon's Kindle."

As much as I would like to consider myself ahead of the curve, I plan on listening to the grammar authorities and using e-book.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have another "See entry in..." to track down. The 2012 AP Stylebook is strangely mesmerizing. If only it didn't come with the risk of paper cuts. I wish an e-book version was available for my new Kindle Paperwhite.

Pink Snowbunnies and the experience of writing versus having written

I'm still curled up like a cat in my virtual windowsill, basking in the brief glow of having my flash fiction story published in the Pink Snowbunnies anthology, as I watch the responses roll in. We even have our first review! I have relished this sense of accomplishment through my non-fiction publications, but this time the fun is multiplied through sharing with 19 other authors. As contributors to a humor anthology, we continue to be anything but serious about the project. The jokes are still flying. This doesn't hurt either:



In the midst of this glow, the essence of a quote by Dorothy Parker came up in a writers' discussion on Kindle Boards: "I hate writing; I love having written." Responses were varied. Some agreed with Dorothy, preferring the post-writing stage that involves anything from editing to book promotion. Others straddled the divide by saying, "A bit of both." Most of the authors participating in the discussion echoed my own thoughts.

I love writing, but I hate starting to write. There are so many other worthwhile things to capture my attention—caring for my family, playing with my toddler, reading, and the list goes on—that I often dread pulling myself away to write. When I make myself sit down and write, the first few words, sentences, or paragraphs are a struggle, and then something magical happens. Like the endorphins from my wistfully-remembered exercise high, a soaring state of mind kicks in. The words flow. The process of writing becomes pure joy and I resent the intrusion of reality forcing me to stop.
Having written is also a great feeling. The little voice telling me that I need to write is momentarily silenced. I experience a sense of mental lightness and accomplishment. Being able to share my thoughts and stories with others takes the fun to the next level.

What I am finding that I do not like is the act of re-writing and self editing. Even though I enjoy editing others' writing, plodding through the mechanics of my own writing is a struggle. I think of new ideas and twists that I would like to incorporate, and then I second-guess myself. Is it too much? Cutting is hard, even though I know that it will enhance the story. I finish an article or story, and then I learn something new that leads to the realization of how much better it could have been.

Writing is both a chore and a passion. The point is to keep moving forward and to enjoy the growing and learning experience along the way. With that in mind, it is high time that I stop procrastinating and get back to the work of rewriting. More color will spread across my Work in Progress bar in the coming weeks.

I might re-write Dorothy Parker's quote thus: I hate beginning to write; I love writing and having written.

How do you spell ebook / eBook / e-book?

My last blog presented an unexpected challenge. How should I spell the shortened form of electronic book? Is it ebook, eBook, e-book, Ebook, E-Book.... The possibilities continue, but after writing a few versions they all begin to look like gibberish.

Unlike "it" and "it's" or "your" and "you're," all of the spellings mean the same thing. In my online reading, I mostly encounter three forms: ebook, eBook, and e-book. So which is it? As a writer with plans to release a book in electronic format, I really should know.

I tend to eschew the hyphen and capital in favor of ebook, but what do the experts say? Dictionary searches, including the New Oxford American Dictionary on my Kindle, show a preference for the spelling e-book, though some also list ebook or eBook as alternate spellings. The Chicago Manual of Style also favors e-book. News results tend to be split between ebook, eBook, and e-book, with the occasional E-Book or Ebook spelling.

That said, Amazon sells Kindle eBooks, Google has an eBookstore, and Barnes and Noble has an eBook store. Sony also calls them eBooks. Maybe the electronic book sellers have it right.

An interesting Google Awards Experiment, by Richard Adams, on What Spelling of "Ebook" Gets the Highest Response? concluded that Ebook and ebook get a similar number of click-throughs, but eBook received less than half the number of click-throughs. Adams' conclusion:

When using pay per click advertising, if your ad contains the work "ebook" never spell it as eBook

Like e-mail becoming the more popularly spelled email, I suspect that the spelling of ebook is still evolving. For now, I plan to stick with my personal preference, ebook. It's simple to recognize, easy to type, and to the point. What is your preferred spelling?

Self-Editing Leads to Second Guessing

My progress with my novel rewrites has been slower than I anticipated. This is only partly due to the extra demands from my sick toddler. I spend a lot of time second guessing my choices. Do the cuts that I made yesterday enhance the story pacing, or did removing them pare it down to colorless banality? I understand better why Heinlein said, "You must never rewrite."

I am reading Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, by Dave King and Renni Brown, as I mentioned in my blog on The Bibliophile's Wonderful Dilemma. Despite learning valuable information, writing instruction books tend to be a bit dry. I think that is partly because writing instruction applies mechanics to art. I tend to write largely "by ear," letting the words and ideas flow without paying close attention to the nuts and bolts of writing. That doesn't mean that I ignore grammar and usage. What happens when my fingers first meet the keyboard is mostly the result of my instinctive understanding of English, developed during my upbringing, fostered by my education, and embellished through reading. I probably pay a bit too much attention to grammar, thanks in part to my English degree, but mostly I write the way I speak.

Today I found a glimmer in the midst of my showing versus telling angst. "Allowing your Characters' emotions to steep into your descriptions also lets you use description more freely. When your descriptions simply convey information to your readers, they interrupt the story and slow the pace down. To avoid this, many writers pare description down to a bare minimum, often leaving their writing sterile and their pace overly uniform. When description also conveys a character's personality or mood, you can use it to vary your pace or add texture without interrupting the flow. The description itself advances the story" (Location 613). Now, instead of cutting description to move the story along, I can focus on making sure that the description advances the story. As a visual person, this makes me happy. I have pictures to paint from my imagination.

The first few chapters are the learning curve. I am hopeful that my rewrites with gather momentum as they progress.

Book Cover and Draft Blurb

Today was a banner day on the path toward publishing my first novel. My book now has a cover!

(Click to view a larger version.)

Working with Streetlight Graphics was painless and quick. The artist, Glendon, combined all of the elements that I requested, readily incorporated changes, and presented me with two different designs. The winner is above (and at right, but you can't zoom in on that one).

In honor of the cover, I created a Work in Progress page for my book information. You can check there for a quick update on my rewrites, via my progress tracker. I will also edit the page with changes to my blurb; it still needs work. Below is the draft version.

Draft blurb: Jackie Davenport graduated with a M.A. in Journalism, dropped an abusive boyfriend, and landed a coveted job writing for the Houston Chronicle. Her assignment is small: travel to the oil refinery in Sundown, Texas to research high gas prices. The outbreak that obstructs her research is more than “just the flu.”

Unable to merely observe, Jackie becomes a catalyst in local containment efforts, but influenza jumps outward, escaping local and national containment measures to cause a pandemic. At her sister’s sickbed, Jackie must choose whether to trust a man she had tolerated only for her sister’s sake—brother-in-law and absent-minded physicist, Preston Black. Trust is not something she does well, at least not since her self-image was smashed along with her heart.

To stop the flu pandemic from sending the population to the brink of extinction, journalist Jackie Davenport must uncover the truth behind the government's secret time travel experiment. As Director of the experiment, is Preston friend or foe? Humanity’s future hangs on Jackie’s courage and ability to convince with the scoop of a lifetime

Please comment with blurb suggestions and edits.

Book Rewrite Progress Tracker (v1)

I just spent the afternoon working on rewrites for Dormant. So far it hasn't been nearly as painful as I feared, but I have a long way to go. I suspect that it will become more challenging to maintain story pacing as the weight of the book unfurls behind me. (It's always hard to cut material.) To keep my motivation going, I will post and update this tracker as I make progress through the manuscript. I plan to create a dedicated tracker location on this blog when I have my book cover. This is to get me started.

2/34 chapters
Not much color in the progress bar at this point, but it will happen. I have five months to go.

Identity Crisis: Choosing a Book Title

My book is going through an identity crisis. Pulling my manuscript out of long hibernation has its benefits. Titles and names are not my strengths, and it shows. I didn’t see it before, but I now realize that not only does my novel need a new title, but in several cases my characters have also outgrown their names.

Book Title

As mentioned in a previous post, I need a new title. I really like Crude Awakening, but I wish there weren’t several other books with similar titles. That the other books are primarily nonfiction is at least some help, but it is also the reason for my reservations on a title that would otherwise be perfect. These are the result of brainstorming with fellow writers who are, mostly, much more talented in the title department than I am. I have included the more tongue-in-cheek suggestions to keep things fun.

• Sundown
• Near Sundown
• Before Sundown (But most of the story happens after Sundown—the town, I mean.)
• Sundown Flu
• Deadline
• Time Release
• Dormant
• Pandemic
• Viral
• Resurrected
• Jurassic Yack (*groan*)
• Terminal
• Incurable
• Time Pandemic
• Even Dinosaurs Get the Flu (Brilliant! *lol*)
• Time Kills
• Killing Time
• Deadline at Sundown (Too much like a Western?)
• Time’s Up
• Time’s Up at Sundown (I’m not such a big fan of apostrophes in titles.)
• Dead Crude
• Deadline Crude
• Crude Deadline
• Dateline: Pandemic (I prefer to avoid the colon, unless a subtitle is necessary.)
• Crude Lies
• Crude Exposure
• Under Pressure (The Queen song springs to mind.)
• Virulent
• The Source
• Surviving Time
• Carrier
• Time Strain
• Time in a Bottle (Anther song)
• Crude Deception
• Crude Timing
• Suspended Time
• Crude Awakening
• Texas-T and the T-Rex (*lol*)
• Drilling for Trouble
• Refining Time
• Refining Death
• Refining Lies
• Pandemic Time

It helps to see them in a list. I even came up with a new idea. Please vote in my title poll. (Expired)

Character Names

I reworked character names in a fun brainstorming session with my friend/sounding board, a.k.a. hubby. It helps to say names out loud. I also did a few searches on popular baby names by year, based on the character’s age, and name meanings. Meet my main character.

Newbie science journalist, Jacqueline Nicole Davenport, doesn’t feel she lives up to her elegant name. She prefers the snappiness of the nickname Jackie. She is quick to throw out an interview question, and then she mostly keeps her mouth shut; you learn a lot by listening. Just don’t push her too far.

And my most important secondary character.

Preston James Scott, PhD, physicist and director of a secret research project in time travel, doesn’t worry much about his name one way or the other. Preston answers readily to his given name, Dr. Black, or Director, as long as you let him get on with his research. "Exactly. Have you seen my glasses?”

Beginnings: I am a writer because I am a reader.

I grew up at home with books. My parents’ bookshelves were wonders to explore. I flipped through history books and National Geographic magazines, looking at the pictures and imagining the places where they were taken. Our bedtime ritual included one of my favorite times of the day—story time. My siblings and I memorized the stories, leading to family legends of how we would correct Dad or Mom if they happened to “accidentally” skip a word or page.

My passion for reading bloomed when I learned to read. While I fondly remember Dick, Jane, Sally, and Spot, my first real book was Little House on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. As my reading advanced from stumbling phonetic deciphering to fluency, I forgot the words and lived the stories. My imagination painted exciting adventures with Laura Ingalls, Tom Sawyer, and so many other new friends from my books. My imagination took me around the world and back in time. I was in love with reading.

As I devoured books, I soaked in the English language and began to appreciate the rhythm and flow of words for themselves. I dabbled in poetry, wrote my secret thoughts in journals, and eventually tried creating my own stories.

My schooling enhanced this exploration of the written word. By the time I reached college, I had discovered the joy of research and a knack for document writing, editing, layout, and design. At work, I use these skills to craft web pages, brochures, and publications. I feel a deep satisfaction with each completed and posted web page or newsletter, and a real pride in my work, but I crave more creative outlet.

Years ago—more years than I like to admit—I turned that creativity to writing my first novel. Then life happened and I let it distract me from my goal of seeing my manuscript published. Now I am unearthing my book from its long repose on my hard drive. My goal for 2011 is to finally re-write and edit my novel for distribution on my beloved Kindle. Publication as an ebook is only the beginning.