For the last six months, this blog has been "on sabbatical," but I have posted as the spirit moved me.

All ventures have a natural cycle, and I think this blog has come to the end of it's life. (I may start others and the reviews of writers' books continues @GLHancock Reviews.

There just aren't enough hours in the day to pound the keyboard for all that I want to accomplish. That and recurring tendonitis in my right arm combine to make regular blogging a less desirable activity. I've already given up designing websites for writers. I'll leave this account open on Posterous because it houses the last year of posts. If I can find a way to integrate them into my website, I will do that eventually.

The main archive of these posts is at http://www.writers-edge.info/Blog.html and will remain available  with it's infinitely more useful Google Search feature. If you receive the posts via FeedBlitz emails, please switch to the FeedBurner service: Subscribe to A Writer's Edge by Email - I will be closing the other email service and consolidating all account with Google's FeedBurner. If I begin a new blog, FeedBurner will automatically notify you. The RSS feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/writers-edge/EElx. I'll also use that feed as well as Twitter to notify you if/when I begin a new blog or service.

My deep gratitude to all of you who have remained readers from the beginning in 2004, and to all who have joined along the way. I wish you well in your writing endeavors. You can still contact me by mail, phone and email via "A Writer's Edge" website -- writers.edge@gmail.com

Georganna Hancock, editor/writer/publisher
10725 Escobar Drive
San Diego CA 92124
858-571-5390
A Writer's Edge  http://www.writers-edge.info
Amazon Author Page  http://www.amazon.com/georganna-hancock/e/B002X0CX50

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Artists and other creatives often join together in craft guilds, so it is understandable that one would claim she "guilded" a piece of art. I don't think "guild" can be used as a verb, however. What the artist meant was that she coated the work with gold in some form, and that calls for the verb "to gild." Think of the cliché 'gilding the lily.'

To geld, on the other hand, requires little art and probably no gold at all. It is a synonym for neutering or castrating an animal. Ouch! There's a grammar error you don't want to make.

For example, "I belong to the San Diego Writers/Editors Geld."  Reminds me of a toothless lion.

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Following an experience with breast cancer five years ago, I began to have curious thoughts.They started with joy at hearing an early morning bird's song.

"I'll miss that when I'm dead," I thought. The incongruity of the idea immediately followed. It was an especially unfitting response because I am agnostic, analytic, and well-schooled in psychology. In other words, dreadfully intellectual. Wow! It was a rare utterly emotional reaction to an unmediated experience of reality.

In the time since that first "What I'll miss when I'm dead" episode, I've noticed others. Everyone else seems to be creating a "bucket list" of experiences to have before death, so I thought I might chronicle these events. I don't have a bucket list, though I've tried diligently to come up with one.

The most pervasive reaction to having cancer seems to be to take a long trip or perform some outrageous action like parasailing or climbing Mt. Everest. There's nothing left that I want to do. Really, I just don't care anymore. All those experiences seem pointless if I won't be around to recollect and enjoy them again.

So, I treasure the here and now as much as I can. Illogical as they may be, what I'll miss most---if I can---are sensual activities rather than intellectual achievements. This will come as a surprise to most anyone who knows me. Nonetheless:

• I am dumbstruck by intensely blue skies, especially with contrasting puffy white clouds -- rare in SoCal.
• The satiny slide of  great chocolate on my tongue and upper palate is orgasmic.
• A tree viewed against the sky, limbs akimbo, still astonishes the artist within.
• Fragrances that evoke nostalgic memories bring tears, especially the smell of my mother.
• The feel and odor of a warm, milky kitten is the essence of cats I loved through the years.
• Losing my Self in a mystic moment is bliss enough for eternity.

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Predicted growth of digital publishing--in four years digital sales will still be only half as much as printed book sales.

In the table below, the total numbers for both print and digital represent sales of hardbound and paperbound books in these categories: adult/juvenile/YA fiction and non-fiction and mass market paperbacks fiction and non-fiction. Future numbers are projections

Professor Albert Greco of Fordham University’s extrapolated the predictive numbers from U.S. Department of Commerce data.

Read the whole story in The Miami Herald

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Many developments on the electronic publishing front happen at a breath-taking speed. Consider the latest Amazon data showing ebooks outselling tree books (my last post). And at Amazon, the new features popping up in Author Central pages (I'm struggling to get my publications listed in Shelfari where we can add material that will show up back on Amazon books' listing pages).

Just this morning I read in the LNJDawson.com newsletter: 

The new Big Six (Apple, Amazon, BN, Sony, Kobo, Google) are very very different from traditional book retailers.

"Big Six" is what we used to call the major New York print book publishers, of course. The new ones are almost all digital media only.

Meanwhile, I continue reviewing print books and publishing the reviews on the Amazon Kindle platform. Available just this morning is "Review of The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl" which I souped up just for this version.

Because Amazon does not automatically add a title to one's Author Page Bibliography, I began snooping the listings with the site's search engine. I was astounded to find different listings, depending on whether you search for material by an author's name (in quotation marks) in Books > "Author Name" or with Books > Advanced Search > "Author Name." Now the resulting pages display blurbs about the author as well as a seldom complete listing of publications.

In fact, in the result for searching my name just in Books, the second listing when sorted for Relevance (default setting) provides a link to "Amazon's Complete Selection of Georganna Hancock's Books" which is the advanced search results, but not quite complete. And what do they mean by "selection?"

Here's the interesting (to me) part: on the Books search results page, the blurb contains this paragraph with individual links to the cited material:

Bestselling Books: Review of THE MAN WHO LOVED BOOKS TOO MUCH (Books Reviewed by Georganna Hancock), IRS & Writers (Be a Successful Writer!, Vol 3), Review of ARIEL RESTORED by Sylvia Plath (Books Reviewed by Georganna Hancock).

What's so great about that? It's the first time I can see which of my pubs are doing best in sales! Two of the top three are book reviews. This is as I suspected from looking at individual monthly sales reports (the only reporting KDP offers). People seem to prefer my opinions more than the information provided in my other publications. Can anyone explain this?

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Since April 1, for every 100 print books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 105 Kindle books. This includes sales of hardcover and paperback books by Amazon where there is no Kindle edition. Free Kindle books are excluded and if included would make the number even higher.

Amazon - May 19, 2011

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This has implications for all copyright proprietors as well as web site developers and site owners.

You can find it at http://www.ivanhoffman.com/uploading.html

Reprinted with permission of Ivan Hoffman, B.A.,  J.D., Attorney at Law

http://www.ivanhoffman.com

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I was just sitting around in my socks when the phone rang.  A prospective client with a novel manuscript asked about my services. The conversation went weird fast -

He:  So how do I know I won't get cheated?

Me: huh?

He:  Yeah, how do I know you won't  ...

Me:  Steal your writing?  Plagiarize it?

He:  No ... uh ...  I read about all these writing scams

Me: *brain finally engages* I write about all those scams and try to help people avoid them (chuckling). In fact, I think I have piece on avoiding scams in my Kindle Store on Amazon. You should always research someone before hiring him or her.

He:  How?

Me:  You can look at my profile on LinkedIn.com. Some people have recommended me there.  Oh, and there are testimonials on the editorial services page of my website. I'm sure any of those people would be happy to verify them. I can put you in touch with them. *smacks forehead*  Or you could just Google me. You'll see I'm all over the Internet. Or search on my name plus complaints or scams...

We concluded, and I thought I'd probably never hear from him again. A few hours later he emailed me his manuscript. He wrote:

I hope I didn't sound to blunt over the phone concerning your credentials but, I have read so many horror stories that I was only trying to be cautious. As suggested, I did do a bit of research and I feel that you are quite reputable.

Whew! I've never done a search as I suggested. I'm sure there are a few disgruntled people out there, like the ones who accuse me of rudeness in Twitter chats. In less than 140 characters, it's hard to be tactical, and Google indexes EVERYTHING including those tweets you pop off the top of your head. And the responses.

Still, I felt a little like the fox that the hen asked, "Are you going to eat me?" 

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Paul Krupin of Direct Contact PR shared the following information in a list posting titled, Getting reviews - how hard it really is... He received an invitation from an editor at The Plain Dealer, the Cleveland, OH metro newspaper to look at the paper's books section "to glean a sense of our selections in book coverage." She added, "Some 350-450 books arrive here for review consideration each week -- on a good week we perhaps mention and review 12-15 in print."

Below are Krupin's thoughts about the editor's information and the paper's books page  (reprinted here with his permission). He warned, "the news is intimidating to say the least."

Some observations:

1. I clicked on her link and found the Book section in
Entertainment section of the website. It's not listed on the home
page at all. It's buried in the secondary navigation links.

2.. There are a team of active book reviewers in a variety of
categories. The book reviewers bio's I looked at demonstrated
that they tended to be college graduates, many of whom were
teaching on college campuses and even had degrees in medicine and
other professional areas.  I saw one reviewers with the following
qualifications: a Bachelors in English (Magna Cum Laude), and a
Doctorate in Medicine, who "practices medicine and book
criticism in Columbus, Ohio."

3. If you click on other books, other categories open, and if you
look at who reviewed the book, there may be a contact email.

4. I clicked on the first link and the category of mysteries
opened, and the book critic is Michelle Ross, CNN

5. They do appear to be open to lots of genres, but recognize
that the competition for coverage is intense and goes to authors
and publishers who have demonstrated a track record and created a
perception for quality.

6. The reviewers are tough. Some of those reviews are critical
and honest and tell it like they see it. In some categories, The
Plain Dealer reviews even identify grades for each of the books
reviewed. I saw A's to B-'s but no C's.

7. Not one web site link was provided to a publisher or author
website.

8. The Plain Dealer has an active social network of followers,
but the numbers of tweets and links to Facebook off the book
reviews is very low.

9. The Plain Dealer has a very clear focus on quality mainstream
publishers. I looked at the past 30 days and the 45 books covered
and did not identify one small press publisher.

10. A few of the reviewers seem to selectively responsive to
comments from the LA Times book reviewers. I also only noted one
review that made any mention at all of a book award. The one they
mentioned was notable: The National Book Critics Winner's Circle.

Live and learn.

Paul J. Krupin, Direct Contact PR
Reach the Right Media in the Right Market with the Right Message
http://www.DirectContactPR.com Paul@DirectContactPR.com
Blog.DirectContactPR.com
800-457-8746 (TF US) 509-531-8390  (Cell)  509-582-5174 (Direct)

Free eBook download
http://www.directcontactpr.com/files/files/TrashProof2010.pdf

To which I add, why bother sending releases and review copies to major dailies, considering the odds of getting a review and the impossibility of tying sales to any review? This is especially true for small presses and self-publishers. You're much more likely to receive a review from a lit-blogger, which may have more impact anyway.

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Hard to believe, but yesterday not one of my Tweeple wanted to win a free copy of National Book Award finalist Jean Thompson's definitive novel, The Year We Left Home. It is her first publication since 2005 and may cap her 30-year glorious career as a novelist and short story mistress. I have a first edition hardbound copy to give away, and now you who read this blog are eligible to enter to win it.

I completely enjoyed this easy read about a Midwester, Norwegian, Lutheran family coping with societal changes in the last three decades of the 20th century. Could it be because I was raised a Midwestern German Lutheran and came of age in the same period? Nah! It's just damn good reading, AND I saw my whole family in Thompson's readily identifiable characters. There was Gran and Beverly and probably my phantom sister Linda, if she'd survived. My uncle Ed is in there, too, with cousins Jane and Tom. The whole damn family!

If you were ever curious about my background -- or the lives of middle class Midwesterners -- read the review an leave a comment on it at BlogCritics. I'll give you until midnight (PDT) Wednesday, May 4, 2011 and then randomly pick a winner. Oh heck! Leave a comment if you just want a chance to win a free book!

For the copy and paste people, the review link is --

http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-the-year-we-left/

Tell 'em A Writer's Edge sent you.

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Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, Graphite, 6" Display with New E Ink Pearl Technology - includes Special Offers & Sponsored Screensavers This greeted me just now when I hit up Amazon to check my Listmania and Wishlist. How soon until it's in color and below $100?

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Children in school and many adults frequently ask the value of studying poetry.  They ask the same about philosophy, but I have no answer for that one. About poetry, though, I can say it enriches life in diverse manners. I will illuminate one way that a poem is currently providing joy in the life that is my journey.

I came across a leaf on the sidewalk. Through my mind flashed the phrase, "crispèd and sere." (I had to look up the HTML code for that e with the grave accent which makes the word pronounced as if it were two syllables.) The literary allusion -- for that is what it was -- and the image of the leaf prompted an artistic vision that was both a reminder and a possibility. It made me think of a watercolor I'd painted in the 80s, and I could "see" using the leaf as part of a new artsy-craftsy endeavor, Artist Trading Cards (ATC).

First, the literary allusion. I knew the phrase was part of a poem and the sense I felt about it was gloomy. The word "gloomy" prompted a title, "Ulalume." I hauled out some classic poetry books and, on a hunch, looked up Edgar Allan Poe. There it was, right in the second line:

Ulalume by Edgar Allan Poe

The skies they were ashen and sober

     The leaves they were crispèd and sere;

     The leaves they were withering and sere;...

and so on and on for many morbid lines about the poet's lost love, Ulalume.

Coincidentally, I am cutting old watercolor paintings into ATC bases and backgrounds. One was perfect for the leaf, providing a good contrast:

The leaf is from a tall Eucalyptus tree, and it's normally smooth edges are insect-eaten into a pleasing pattern. I had to soak it in water (remember, it was crispèd and sere) to flatten it before gluing it to the watercolor paper. A little graphite enhanced shadows of the vague shapes of stones already on the card, and I pronounce it minimalist and done.

I shudder to think how one-dimensional life would be without connections, memories of pieces of literature that teachers forced on us, and the ones I read for pleasure, never knowing when they will return, haunting and bringing delight.

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Avoid Writing Scams (Be a Successful Writer!)

Want an international thrill? Here it is in the U.K. The piece is equally applicable for writers in most countries. Only the names of real life regulatory organizations might change. For example, do any African countries have a business group like the Better Business Bureau? Can people in China even see this post? 

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Amazon editors' picks for the best books of the year are:

1. "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
2. "Faithful Place: A Novel" by Tana French
3. "Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War" by Karl Marlantes
4. "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption" by Laura Hillenbrand
5. "The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration" by Isabel Wilkerson
6. "Freedom: A Novel" by Jonathan Franzen
7. "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" by Stieg Larsson
8. "To the End of the Land" by David Grossman
9. "Just Kids" by Patti Smith
10. "The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine" by Michael Lewis

I'm currently reading one similar to Stieg Larsson's series set in Sweden. All I can think of is the interminably gloomy PBS series on "Mystery" about a single, male Swedish detective driving around the barren countryside. Except, in ICE PRINCESS it is winter:  deadly cold, snowy and icy. Not a good read when one is depressed.

Someone send me some humor!

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No foolin' -- welcome to our new sponsor. How appropriate, too. The Executive Pens Direct people are purveyors of fine writing instruments and other items to delight the writer's heart. They are in the UK but ship worldwide for free! I couldn't believe it when I noticed that in their header. Click on it and you will find the message below:

ALL STANDARD/GROUND SHIPPING IS FREE ON ALL ORDERS TO THE UK AND WORLDWIDE!

This is not the company whose pens I reviewed previously, nor have I received any merchandise from them, so this is not an endorsement, although ... if they have a spare Montblanc lying around they'd like me to try out....No, I've never touched one of those legendary instruments, either, so I wouldn't know one from a blancmange!

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Unbeknownst to me on Monday, BlogCritics.org published my review of the fantastic book by Priscilla Long, THE WRITER'S PORTABLE MENTOR: A GUIDE TO ART, CRAFT AND THE WRITING LIFE.

You can read the Blog Critics review or a variation in my @GLHancock blog that also displays in my Amazon Author Page.

Yes, I rave about the book and had nothing negative (well, hardly) to say about it. I'm convinced that if I had read it about 50 years ago and followed Long's advice, I would have been a successful novelist. Early. Unfortunately for the girl that I was, Long's book wasn't published until 2010.

Fifty years ago, I was 17 and off to college. I was keeping a journal by then, tired of twelve years of daily diary-keeping. For a year I even majored in English, and I took all the creative writing courses Northwestern offered in the early 1960s. I don't think I learned much in them, except that analyzing poetry takes all the joy out of reading poems. Oh, and two of the professors discouraged me from trying to write short stories or poetry.

But Long's book is not only for creative writers, it's for all kinds of writers and writing. The goal of her work is to become a successful, paid and published writer. Much of her thinking echoes the advice I've dribbled out in this blog for the last six years, but she says it so much better and all in one publication.

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