Sure kids can read, but will they "like" it?

Kids are becoming better readers, but most don't do it for fun.

“When children read well, they have a solid foundation for learning in every subject and they are able to open the door to possibilities and adventures that go far beyond their experiences.”

That’s the first paragraph in a literacy report compiled by the Ontario-based organization People For Education titled Reading for Joy and it’s a great summary of the importance of literacy. However, the rest of the report is bad news.

According to Reading for Joy, literacy scores among children Grades 3 to 6 are improving, but the numbers of those who "like to read" are significantly in decline. Grade 3 students who report they “like to read” has declined from 76% in 1998/99, to 50% in 2010/11. In Grade 6, the percentage of students who say they “like to read” has declined from 65% in 1998/99 to 50% in 2010/11.

International studies show that students with a positive attitude toward reading tend to:

• Be more successful in all subjects (including science and math) 
• Seek deeper knowledge and consequently develop deeper conceptual understandings of the subject matter 
• Be more likely to be socially and civically engaged 

This change in attitude may be the fault of educators and literacy activists.

According to the report, "It is possible that in our drive to improve the mechanical aspects of literacy, we have turned reading at home into an extension of school work. This is not necessarily the best way to increase student’s motivation to read."

The question remains, how do you lead a kid to a book (or magazine or website) and at the same time encourage them to independently "discover" the joy of reading?

Sudden Publishing, the self publishing solution company in Victoria, B.C. has the answer. Give kids books to read that are written about them. Contact us for more information on how you can create and give a wonderful gift to the children in your family.

To read the full report visit, http://www.peopleforeducation.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/People-for-Education-report-on-students-reading-enjoyment-Reading-for-Joy.pdf.

Book reviewer gives advice to self-publishers

Publishing is a learning process. With every win
and loss you get better at playing the game.

There’s a lot of similar information available for writers researching their self-publishing options. Jim Cox, Editor-in-Chief and founder of the Midwest Review of Books, has compiled a list of what turns him off when he’s asked to review a self-published book.

• Sub-standard covers 
• Interior flaws (typos, grammatical errors and *gulp* ugly, hard-to-read fonts) 
• Content categories that are flooded in the marketplace 

To overcome these potential pitfalls, Jim says it’s important for self-published authors to appear and act as maturely and professionally in every aspect of contact with reviewers, booksellers and everyone else in the publishing industry they encounter, solicit or market to. And, he says, the book has to speak for itself. It has to be flawless inside and out to compete in the marketplace.

The best piece of advice Jim gives authors is, “Don’t expect to make a profit, or even recoup your initial investment.” Your book represents a foot in the publishing industry’s door. “Expect to learn new (and hone existing) publishing and book marketing tips, tricks and techniques,” and prepare for the long haul. Publishing is a learning process. With every win and loss you get better at playing the game.

For more information about the Midwest Review of Books, click here. For more information about how Sudden Publishing can help you get your book in print, contact us.

Writers! John Cleese says check your blind spot

John Cleese: the key to creativity is to avoid interruption.

Go to John Cleese’s IMDB page and be amazed by how prolific he is. From 1963 to 2009 he has 56 credits from Faulty Towers and Monty Python to the Canadian product Just for Laughs. [Did you know he wrote the story for the movie A Fish Called Wanda?] And, of course, there are his 115 credits as an actor and 42 credits as a producer. All these contributions prove Cleese is a creator and lucky for us there’s video of him talking about creativity.

Cleese says he first knew he was creative when he discovered he could take a piece of paper, write something on it and make people laugh.

He says the key to getting into a creative state is to avoid interruption. Trying to keep “all the balls in the air” is destructive to creativity. To combat this, create a space—an oasis where you can’t be bothered. And, give yourself time—a clear block where no one is allowed to bother you.

But even if you do find this space, Cleese says you might be wasting your time.

To know you are good at what you do requires the same skills required to be good at what you do. Translation: if you’re hopeless, you’ll never know it. This is what Cleese calls “the blindspot”.

How do you check your blindspot? Show your work to honest writers and listen to them.

Sudden Publishing helps writers, visit http://www.suddenpublishing.com/ for more information. Contact us for a consultation on your story.

How texting is fuelling illiteracy

Hey kids! I hope you like wearing hats!

Anyone who loves a good book and reads regularly may find the following statistic disturbing. According to the most recent U.S. survey by the National Endowment for the Arts, the proportion of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 who read a book not required at school or at work is now 50.7 percent, down from 59 percent 20 years ago.

And that trend isn’t likely to change. Why? Texting. That’s right. Today’s youth caught in a flurry of LOLs, TTYLs and OMGs aren’t expected to muster enough sit-and-stay to consume more than a tweet at a time and that’s leading to illiteracy.

In fact, according to an article in Newsweek last month written by Harvard Professor Niall Ferguson, Americans between the ages of 13 and 17 send and receive an average of 3,339 texts per month. Teenage girls send and receive more than 4,000.

What does it all mean? It means the U.S. (and Canada) is producing a generation of illiterates who won’t be able to compete against their global rivals. And that’s bad.

Read the full article here to learn more about how texting makes you stupid.

The difference between a long story, a short story and a short-short story

Isaac Asimov knows.

100 Great Science Fiction Short Short Stories

In his introduction to the anthology 100 Great Science Fiction Short Short Stories (Avon, 1978), Isaac Asimov gets to the point about why some stories are better short and why some short stories are better short short.

In science fiction, experience seems to show that long stories have an advantage over short ones. The longer the story, all things being equal, the more memorable.

There is reason to this. The longer the story, the more the author can spread himself. If the story is long enough, he can indulge himself in plot and subplot with intricate interconnections. He can engage in leisurely description, in careful character delineation, in thoughtful homilies and philosophical discussions. He can play tricks on the reader, hiding important information, misleading and misdirecting, then bringing back the forgotten themes and characters at the moment of greatest effect.

But in every worthwhile story, however long, there is a point. The writer may not consciously put it there, but it will be there. The reader may not consciously search for it, but he'll miss it if it isn't there. If the point is obtuse, blunt, trivial or non-existent, the story suffers and the reader will react with a deadly, "So what?"

Long, complicated stories can have the point well-hidden under cloaking layers of material. Academic people, for whom the search for the point is particularly exciting, can whip their students to the hunt, and works of literature that are particularly deep and rich can elicit scholarly theses without number that will deal with the identification and explanations of points and subpoints.

But now let's work toward the other extreme. As a story grows shorter and shorter, all the fancy embroidery that length makes possible must go. In the short story, there can be no subplots; there is no time for philosophy; what description and character delineation there is must be accomplished with concision.

The point, however, must remain. Since it cannot be economized on, its weight looms more largely in the lesser over-all bulk of the short story.

Finally, in the short short story, everything is eliminated but the point. The short short story reduces itself to the point alone and presents that to you like a bare needle fired from a blowgun; a needle that can tickle or sting and leave its effect buried within you for a long time.

For advice and development of your long, short or short short story, visit http://www.suddenpublishing.com/. 

Fiction Faults Checklist

Ray Nelson, science fiction writer

Ray Nelson is a science fiction writer and inventor born in New York in 1931. Over his writing career he published dozens of short stories and 10 novels.

His short story 8 O'Clock in the Morning was turned into the comic book story Nada, and Nada was made into the paranoid cult classic movie They Live in 1988. He is also famously (or infamously) credited with inventing the “propeller beanie” when he was in high school.

Nelson compiled on his website a checklist of fiction faults from his perspective as a reader, but he didn’t stop there. He also added tips and suggestions on what to do about them.

To mention a few of these faults / tips, Nelson says, “In the beginning, I do not like premature flashbacks.” He suggests, “Don’t tell me about the past until I am worried about the present.”

He also says narration in the present tense is tricky to use. “Though some modern writers use it, they pay for it in obtrusiveness. Stick to the simple past tense unless you have very good reason not to.”

As for characters, Nelson says he doesn’t like “A passive protagonist who is, at best, a spectator and, at worst, a professional victim.” He says, “Select someone more suitable to be a protagonist, or give your present protagonist some spunk.”

Nelson also underscores the problems with “dream endings”, showers of trivia and clichés. Check out the entire list, here: http://raynelson.com/fictionfaults.html.

Reading fiction helps you evolve

A new essay by UofT professor Keith Oatley on the Literary Review of Canada's website argues that fiction allows readers to improve and evolve by subconsciously connecting with the lives, decisions and conflicts of fictional characters.

From the essay:

"Stories were the very first simulations, designed to run on minds thousands of years before computers were invented. If we are right, then just as pilots’ skills dealing with unanticipated events improve when they spend time in a flight simulator, so people’s skills understanding themselves and others should improve when they spend time reading fiction."

Read the full essay, here.

NEWS: Self publishers aren't hopelessly naive fools! Who knew?

Here's an interesting post about the state and future of publishing:

"Since starting this blog, I've been startled by the volume of people who have contacted me about self-publishing. And these are not the people the publishing industry would have you believe they are. These are not egocentric idiots with all the grammatical skill of a mentally deficient teenager. Neither are these hopelessly naive fools who are going to get taken by the next scammer to come along.

"In fact, some of these people are authors who have been put in print by the legacy publishers."

Read the whole thing, here: http://blog.prodigal.ca/a-sudden-explosion-of-self-publishers-104

New office in Victoria, B.C.'s Chinatown

Sudden Publishing recently opened up shop in Victoria, British Columbia's historic Fan Tan Alley specifically Suite 300, 3 Fan Tan Alley.

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about the alley:

Fan Tan Alley is an alley in Victoria, British Columbia's Chinatown. It runs south from Fisgard Avenue to Pandora Avenue in the block between Government Street and Store Street. It was originally a gambling district with restaurants, shops, and opium dens. Today it is a tourist destination as it contains many small shops including a barber shop, art gallery, Chinese cafe and apartments. It is most famous for being the narrowest street in Canada. At its narrowest point it is only 0.9 metres wide.

For more information about Sudden Publishing and our services, please visit http://www.suddenpublishing.com. 

Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories

Great cover art.

Roald Dahl’s Book of Ghost Stories is a collection of 14 ghost stories as chosen by acclaimed writer Roald Dahl. [From Wikipedia: Roald Dahl (1916 – 1990) was a British novelist, short story writer, fighter pilot and screenwriter. Born in Llandaff, Cardiff, to Norwegian parents, he served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, in which he became a flying ace and intelligence agent, rising to the rank of Wing Commander.]

I read the first six stories: W.S. by L.P. Hartley, Harry by Rosemary Timperley, The Corner Shop by Cynthia Asquith, In the Tube by E.F. Benson, Christmas Meeting by Rosemary Timperly and Elias and the Draug by Jonas Lie.

The stories are solid as ghost stories go. My hang up is ghost stories don’t have pop! A third to half the story is concerned with how the ghost came to be a ghost, the other half sets up the main character to somehow get caught alone with the ghost. Most times the character doesn’t know the ghost is a ghost until the predictable “reveal”.

In The Corner Shop, no shit, the last paragraph reads:

“Oh, now I understand!” She exclaimed. “You mean Bessie’s father! But Bessie and I are only step-sisters. My poor father died years and years ago.” 

You mean the creepy old man in the antique shop, w-w-was … a-a-a … g-g-ghost! SHRIEK!

But as Dalh puts it in the introduction, I good ghost story should, “give you the creeps and disturb your thoughts.” The stories were vaguely tired, but as a read I couldn’t help imagining some interesting things.

Read the book if only for the intro. In 1958, Dahl was commissioned to collect 24 short ghost stories and write one of his own for a new television series called “Ghost Time”. Apparently this series was supposed to compete with the likes of The Twilight Zone, which was launched in 1959, but it was never made it past the pilot stage. Ghost Time was scrapped by producers because they felt the story the pilot was based on would offend Catholics—a target demographic.     

Whoops.

If you want to write a book, contact Sudden Publishing at http://www.suddenpublishing.com/.

Everyday vs. Every Day

While editing a customer's manuscript, we came across a common mistake. Often there's confusion between using the word "everyday" and the phrase "every day".

The phrase "every day" is an adverb that modifies or further describes a verb. For example:

He writes a short story every day.

"He" is the subject, "short story" is the object, "writes" is the action or verb, and "every day" is the adverb that modifies or adds specific detail to the action. In this example, "every day" could be replaced with "daily".

The word "everyday" is an adjective that modifies a noun. It means "ordinary" or "normal". For example:

It's okay to wear everyday clothes to the book launch.

Editing and writing coaching are just two of the many publishing services Sudden Publishing offers. Visit our website at http://www.suddenpublishing.com/ for more information.  

The Voice of the Night by Dean Koontz

The Voice of the Night is the second of Koontz's books I've read in the past couple weeks. The first was Brother Odd, part of the "Odd Thomas" series.

The Voice of the Night has a well-developed main character, Colin, though falls into some of the traps of the "shy, skinny, brainy and bespectacled 14-year-old", including the essential overactive imagination and sci-fi addiction.

Narration is third person.

Dialogue

Koontz uses rushes of alternating dialogue without attribution:

"Is she taking good care of you?"
"Sure."
"Are you eating well?"
"Yeah."
"You're still so skinny."
"I eat real well."
"She's not much of a cook."
"She does okay."

This technique keeps a fast pace and it's clear who's talking; however, it's a tennis match which may lead to a reader skimming rather than digesting the content. It's like eavesdropping on a conversation in fast forward.

Conjunctions

Koontz, also uses the conjunction "for" in a number of instances instead of "because".

"When the telephone rang, he had to run into his mother's room to answer it, for he had no extension of his own." 

The book was written in 1980 and is a modern theme. Using "for" as a conjunction gives the passage an older feel which doesn't fit with the overall language of the story.

Notable Descriptions

Describing the family of Roy, the villain:

"There was a peculiar stiffness in the way they talked among themselves, as if they were reciting lines from a script they hadn't learned very well. They were so formal. They almost seemed ... afraid of one another."

Describing the shooting of sea gulls with shotguns from the deck of the Erica Lynn fishing boat:

"The guns fired and the gulls burst apart in the sky. Thousands of tiny droplets of blood sprayed up like beads of molten copper ..."

Cheese ...

Describing Colin's first movie date with classmate Heather:

"Sitting in the cool theater, in the velveteen shadows, in the pale, flickering light cast back by the screen, holding his girl's hand, he thought he knew what heaven must be like."

Interesting Words (a.k.a. Say what?)

rictus 

rictuses, plural
Noun: A fixed grimace or grin: "Ned's smile had become a rictus of repulsion".

reconnoiter
Noun: An act of reconnoitering.
Verb: Make a military observation of (a region): "they reconnoitered the beach before the landing"; "the raiders were reconnoitering for further attacks".

References to Other Books

The narrator refers to the 1951 sci-fi novel The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein as "great". Also, refers to John Campbell's Who Goes There? and Theodore Sturgeon's The Professor's Teddy Bear as "pulsing with a rich vision of evil" [paraphrased].