Build your working vocabulary (Not!):

Abecedarian insult “Sir, you are an apogenous, bovaristic, coprolalial,
dasypygal, excerebrose, facinorous, gnathonic, hircine, ithyphallic,
jumentous, kyphotic, labrose, mephitic, napiform, oligophrenial,
papuliferous, quisquilian, rebarbative, saponaceous, thersitical, unguinous,
 ventripotent, wlatsome, xylocephalous, yirning zoophyte.”
The Superior Person’s Book of Words, by Peter Bowler, 1985

The Write Tips

            I read as much as I write, but my reading is far better onemight say. That being so, I'd like for my writing to excel and reach out andgrab a reader who will sing my praises to the blue sky's and eagerly await mynext novel.
            So I dream on.
            I tend to study all the writing tips that appear in thenewspapers, magazines, and study what successful novelists have to say.
            I've come to a conclusion. One that I learned as a teenagerfrom my primary doctor. Dr. J. J. Whitsett told me over and over as I left myteens and settled into my adult years something I've always remembered.
            I continually asked him questions on how to maintain ahealthy body. When I was eighteen years of age I came home from my freshmanyear at the University of Texas, severelyanemic. My hemoglobin was so low he wanted to put me in the hospital, butdecided that we'd try liquid iron for three months.
            That brought up my count and I had energy. Energy I was notaware that I lacked. I started with books and pamphlets on health and irondeficiency anemia.
The more I read the more it echoed in my head what Dr. Whitsett toldme.
            It is so very simple and I'll share it here.
            Consider this, in one week, month or year, an item will appearin our newspapers, magazines and TV.  This item will be extolling the virtuesof a wonderous cure-all ointment, pill or liquid that will make us healthy,happy and rich. With our minds so saturated with this info, we clean out ourcupboards and fill it with the new, safe stuff.
            Time will pass. It always does and soon we hear, threetimes over how we've been poisoning our bodies with the heretofore healthystuff.
            Now, I'm using the above as an example, but it can beapplied to every level in our lives. One day we hear that X is good for us.  Wego out and we fill our cabinets with X. With this accomplished, more timepasses, lots of it and we discover that X is not good for us.  We need Z. Onceagain our minds are saturated with some special or horrible information and itgoes on ad infinitum.
            Think how we banned eggs from out diet and now we can enjoyour eggs with out guilt.
            Writing hints are the same.  It depends on our voice, ourtopic and the rhythm that is natural to us. 
            I've applied thistheory to my writing.
            Just last month a new list of tips on improving one'swriting appeared in one of the magazines I read. The article compared a longopening sentence from one of our literary treasures. The sentence could haveseveral drawbacks, one being, the reader may never get to the period.
            On the other hand, there's Herman Melville's classic: 19thCentury Novel, Moby Dick.
            "Callme Ishmael." was the opening sentence. Can't get much shorter than thatexcept in the Bible.
          So, for me, I consider the flow andrhythm of the words. That may not make me a good writer, but I enjoy myrelationship with my keyboard.
          I've got to go load the coffee pot andcheck on Perry Mason, who's in the other room. Goodnight Mr. eMachine.
By: Pauline Hallard (7-11-2012)

LOOKING FOR HOUSTON WRITERS

Our group is currently interviewing potential new members in the Houston Area.

If interested email d9_dun@hotmail.com.

Don't try this at home:

Opening sentences are supposed to be short, pithy, and grab the reader's attention.  Nobody told Charles Dickens that when he began A Tale of Two Cities:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way — in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

(Thanks to Ken Hoffman, who reminded me of this clunker in his Houston Chronicle column, 6/14/12

The art of writing may not have changed much since Dickens' day, but the craft surely has.
Compare this list from Bleak House with the contents of your desk:

 a long list of items retailed by the legal stationer Mr Snagsby, together with
 “office-quills, pens, ink, India-rubber, pounce, pins, pencils, sealing-wax, and
wafers ... pocket-books, almanacs, diaries, and law lists; string boxes, rulers,
inkstands glass and leaden pen-knives, scissors, bodkins, and other
small office-cutlery”.

from "World Wide Word", June 9

A friend just asked me a question, and I think the answer may be of general interest to this group:

So here's the situation: my sister is using photos, sketches and other media to create the images we are going to use. We want to know, can she use any images off the internet if she edits them? What kind of images can & can't she use and, to what percentage does she need to alter them if she uses them?
***

Unfortunately, my best answer is a (somewhat) expensive one: consult with a lawyer who specializes in intellectual property.

The basic rule is that copyright attaches to any expression (but not to the idea behind it) as soon as that expression is reduced to a tangible medium -- and that includes images reproduced on the internet.

The copyright holder may prevent any reproduction of that expression, including derivative works, or collect damages for unauthorized copying.  So if I took the famous photo of Marilyn Monroe on the subway grate and made a charcoal drawing based on that picture, Iwould probably be quilty of infringement.

The exception is that one can copy part of a work for the purpose of "fair comment":  the use for some social purpose like criticism, satire, political comment, etc. and that does not interfere with the commercial use of the original. The key case is that the Supreme Court held that the Boyz2Men version of Roy Orbison's "Pretty woman".

If you use all or part of someone else's expression without permission, you run the risk of being sued (a very expensive undertaking, even if you win) and of being held liable -- or even criminally guiilty -- of infringement.

Additionally, if your work includes a recognizable image of a real person and if you have not received that person's permission to publish it, you may be liable for violating the rights of privacy or publicity.

Have I scared the shit out of you yet?  Good.

Two or three hundred dollars to consult with a good lawyer might be the best investment you ever make.  The Houston Bar Association  has a good referral service.

SteveBerry’s 11 Rulesof Writing
(in Houston Chronicle, 5/29/12)

1. There are no rules.

2. Don’t bore the reader.

3. Don’t confuse the reader.

4. Don’t get caught writing (or, Don’t allow your authorial voice to intrude where it doesn’t belong).

5. Don’t lie to the reader (although it’s OK tomisdirect).
6. Don’t annoy the reader (with excessive punctuation and the like).
7. Writing is rewriting.

8. Writing is rhythm.

9. Shorter is always better.

10. Story never takes a vacation.

11. Tell a good story.