What About Those Errors I Missed

So I've written a manuscript for a mystery, and it's a pretty good story, if I do say so myself. However, some readers of published books take perverse pleasure in finding errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation. And they also love to let the author know they found them. Plus any writer who wants to have their story read by an agent or editor knows that it is important to have a clean document.

So you make full use of your word processors spell check and grammar check features. And you read and reread as you look for errors and tweak your story. Now it's ready. Or is it? I had done all of the above plus critique partners and friends had read it, but there was that niggling feeling that I should do more.

My solution, I used a professional proofreader. Now I was lucky and I have a friend who did this for a living for many years and she agreed to go over my manuscript for me. But even if I hadn't had that good fortune, I would have hired someone. Proofreaders are out there for hire and they are worth the cost.

I sent my manuscript off to my friend, and very shortly, I got a file back with all kinds of little red squiggles on it. I expected errors, but had no idea how many were really there. Most of them were things I knew were wrong the minute I saw them; I had just missed them. Some of the errors were changes in punctuation usage over the years since I took grammar in college more years ago that you want to know, and a very few were things I didn't know. My friend had given me lots of work to do on the manuscript.

So I pulled up my document and I started reading through it again. I made sure I corrected the errors she had indicated, but I also took this opportunity for one more read through of the story. I tweaked a sentence here and a paragraph there. It took a lot longer than I expected, but it was also rewarding as I knew that my book would be the better for it.

It's now ready or at least as ready as I can make it with the help of a professional. And I'm now ready for the next step. I'll be contacting Create Space soon to work out the details of my contract with them. I'm expecting the book to be available by early fall.

Nuno Felting

Ok, I told you that one of the reasons for setting up this new blog was to share my passion for fiber with you. My latest joy in the fiber world is Nuno Felting. Nuno Felting is combining fiber with fabric - usually silk - by a felting process that uses soap, water, and agitation. There are a couple of ways that you can cause the agitation: Rolling the fiber/fabric sandwich in bubble warp and then rolling like mad or patting it and rubbing it with your hands. Since, I'm a touchy-feely kind of person when it comes to fiber, I like the patting, rubbing technique. The pictures below are of a few of my recent Nuno Felting projects

This scarf has merino wool, an alpaca/silk blend, and some silk sari waste felted to a piece of silk gauze. The dark brown is the alpaca/silk blend. The darker gold is the merino and the sari waste, and the lighter gold is the silk. For this scarf, I put the fiber on both sides of the scarf.

This piece uses a sandwich technique. There is a layer of silk. On top of that I placed some pieces of lace, some handspun yarn, and some metallic threads. On top of those, I placed a solid layer of merino wool all across the piece. Then a second layer of silk was placed on top. All of it was felted together to make a piece of fabric that could be used for clothing, household items or any other sewing project that you chose. The lighter color in the picture is the lace; the wiggly pieces are yarn, and the small shiny spots are the metallic threads.

This scarf has merino wool placed on just one side of the scarf. It is hard to see in the picture, but the merino is placed in a cross hatch pattern across the silk.

This scarf again has the merino patches on just one side of the scarf. The lovely variation in the colors was obtained by mixing dye colors and because the wool and silk react to the dye differently.

A New Adventure

Starting a new blog is like facing the blank page of a new novel. There is a whole world out there to consider and discuss.

So why a new blog when I have a perfectly good one at http://fiberinparadise.blogspot.com? Well, partially because I'm starting on a new adventure of self-publishing my mystery, "Murder Spins a Tale" and I wanted to take you on that adventure with me. And, also, because I wanted a blog that centered on my mysteries and my fiber passion.

The advent of print on demand has changed the landscape of the printing and self-publishing industry. Now instead of a writer needing to print five hundred or a thousand books which they then have to store while they market them, they can have their books printed at the time their customers want them. There are numerous print on demand publishers out there. Two of the largest are Lulu and Create Space. After considering my options, I decided to go with Create Space because they are part of the Amazon family of companies and the books they publish are automatically available over Amazon.

I decided to self-publish for two reasons: First, I realized that if I sold my book to a mainstream publisher, I would need to abide by the timeframes of their contracts. This would not be an issue if I wanted a career writing mysteries. But I really don't. I'm retired and I like to set my own schedules and priorities. Self-publishing lets me do that. Second, the mainstream publishing market is very difficult to break into. I have enough faith in my book that I believe it would have been purchased eventually. My rejections have all been very positive - just not positive enough for a purchase. But I got tired of waiting and telling friends and family that it would be available some day. So we start the grand adventure of self-publishing.

Luckily, I have a good friend, Linda M Au who can help me along the way. She has just published her book, "Head in the Sand" with Create Space. It is a very funny book. Look for it on Amazon.

I hope you'll enjoy following me on my adventure. And remember, by being here, you'll be first to know when "Murder Spins a Tale" is available on Amazon for your purchase.