The Girl Who Tweaked Two Lions’ Tails by Pierre Van Rooyen

Review by Alex Canton-Dutari

Murder thrillers are not always my favourite subjects, except when the plot is very well elaborated and maintains a fast pace. Add to this good Queen’s English, which is the case in this novel.
 

“Take No More” transported me to the likes of a “CSI International” TV show. No doubts about its believability.

 

Now, on an editorial comment, I am very curious about some technical aspects or, I dare to call, punctuation liberties. For example, ‘ was used instead of “ in the dialogues. A long _____ replaced the … when writing an open sentence. Many grammar glitches appeared which makes me think that editing was rather rushed or done by just one person whose gestalt process got in the way.

I enjoyed Seb’s book. The editing did him no justice.

 

 

This Izora bonsái was planted 6 years ago when Dieguito was born. It has never bloomed.... Now It seems that it will... I'll use some magical thinking: If it blooms by New Year's Eve 2012 I'll finish my new book... if not.......
 

ESPAÑOL

Happy Hannukah.... my grandchildren are learning to play with the Dreidl... and it's fun!
 

 



Dreidle / pirinola



At the same time, they'll get their Xmas presents.... works out fine for them! Then, grandfather writing a "sexy book," Oh, boy!

 

ESPAÑOL

Felicidades en la Festividad de las Luces.... Mis nietos están aprendiendo a jugar con el Dreidle, o pirinola.  Además, recibirán los juguetes de Navidad.  Encima, el abuelo está escribiendo un libro "sexy." ¡Tremenda combinación!

It seems that traditional paper books are on the way out and e-books are replacing them.
With the former, the authors had to try to convince publishers to consider their books, which was not easy to do. Though,when it worked, a nice advance payment was a great positive reinforcement.  The latter has allowed the authors to by-pass traditional publishers and publish their works directly in places such as Kindle, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords.
I will not go into the advantage or disadvantages of the end product -- most readers complain about general quality of self-published authors' works.
Those who want to self-publish or decide to go through a middleman -- the small publishing companies -- find themselves needing to do most of the marketing.  This means that the author has to become a businessman in order to sell his wares successfully.
In Panama we have to practically "peddle" our books from bookstore to bookstore, unless one is successful enough to have them "approved" by the Ministry of Education, which will allow teachers to recommend them to their students.
Will all the above said, I now ask myself: Do I really want to write and publish for a profit?  I guess I would.  Though, can I do all the marketing by myself.  Hardly.  How to solve the connundrum?  I wish I knew.

ESPAÑOL
 

Todo parece indicar que los libros en su versión de papel están en vía de extinción, siendo reemplazados por los libros en-línea (e-books).  Con los primeros los autores tenían que convencer a las editoras tradicionales para que aceptaran publicar sus libros. Algunas pagaban un adelanto que resultaba ser un buen refuerzo positivo.  En la nueva modalidad los autores pueden obviar las editoras tradicionales y publicar sus manuscritos directamente en el formato moderno en lugares como Amazon Kindle, Nook, Smashwords y otros.

No voy a analizar las ventajas y desventajas de cada modalidad.  Aunque debo señalar que muchos lectores se quejan de la calidad de los libros publicados en-línea -- gramática, puntuación y demás.
Aquellos que desean auto-publicar con la ayuda de un mediador -- pequeñas editoriales -- se encuentran con tener que hacer casi todo el mercadeo.  Esto significa que el autor debe adoptar el papel de comerciante para vender su mercancía con buenos resultados.
En Panamá tenemos prácticamente que ir de librería en librería, a menos que se haya podido obtener la nota de "recomendación" del Ministerio de Educación, que permite que los educadores recomienden el libro a sus alumnos.
Ante todo lo anterior yo me pregunto: ¿Quiero escribir con fines lucrativos? Me parece que sería lo ideal.
Aunque no me veo haciendo de vendedor. ¿Cómo resolver este enredo?  Ojalá lo supiera.

Ghost Stories and The Unexplained by Emily Hill
Reviewed by Alex Canton-Dutari

The Thief of Todays and Tomorrows by Susan Wells Bennett
 

martes 11 de octubre de 2011

Of Beta Reads, Opinions and such / Opiniones y edición

 

No aspiring author should rush to publish.  Beta reads are important.  Of course, this is the ideal situation though it does not quite work out this way.

Most of the authors I have been meeting since I joined Book Junkies have already published, and many have received not-so-good reviews.  And, though it is true that many do have to improve, there is a small number that may be suffering from lack of literary knowledge by their critics.
For example, an author may be from a particular region in the US, where not only English is spoken in a particular way but, on top, sub-regionalistic parlance is common.  Someone not awareof this may say that the author has to improve his knowledge of English.
There is a general rule, and this I learned when I read "To Kill a Mockingbird," where the dialogues are very regional:  The narrator must narrate with the correct grammar, though the dialogues may be written as the character speaks.

The same applies to authors writing in any language-as-a-second language, though in this case there may be mix-ups between puctuation and phrase construction slipping from one language to the other.

My recommendation to authors is always to try to identify the location of the critic. Location may skew the appraisal, as well as previous knowledge of the particular characeristics of the story.

 

ESPAÑOL

Me parece que todos los autores noveles deben acostumbrarse a que se les revisen sus manuscritos.  Especialmente ahora que se están publicando en formato de e-libros, que pueden ser modificados post-publicación.

Gracias a esta nueva modalidad están apareciendo muchos críticos, no tanto sobre estilo pero sí sobre vocabulario. Aunque debo admitir que está ocurriendo más entre Anglo parlantes.  Se está criticando mucho el uso de regionalismos en los diálogos, en algunas instancias sugiriendo que el autor no conoce su idiioma, cuando es el crítico el que no lo conoce.

La regla general es que la narración debe utilizar la gramática correcta.  Es en los diálogos donde se permite la libertad de utilizar los regionalismos.   Si ponemos a un personaje panameño de 15 años a hablar como un español de la misma edad, y la escena se desarrolla en Panamá, tendríamos un resultado poco convincente.

Mi recomendación es que los autores traten de ubicar el origen geográfico de sus críticos. En muchas ocasiones las críticas negativas se dan por falta de conocimiento de los mismos.