September 5 2013

Well, I'm still alive. It's been awhile, I know, but as the mouse said to the elephant, "I've been sick!"
Even now, I'm lying here, coughing. Strangely enough, nothing seems to stop me composing more poetry though!  The occasional bit of work proofreading, but I'm finding it hard to troll for work by buying and reading the stuff that passes for alleged 'quality writing'.
 Most of it is an insult to the intelligence, and being told by authors that they have a strong following despite my telling them of perceived errors, just brings me to despair. Timelines that run wild, chronological errors, cross-world speech conflicts, wrong spellings, none of it seems to count. As long as the emotional cripples reading it get their fix of shlock, with unreal expectations. No wonder so many people still get ripped off with internet sob stories, scams,  and phantom relationships with a faux person.
 Having seen what some authors get away with, and how good authors have to struggle for readers, I'm convinced the world is slowly sinking into the bog.  To tell an author that they have made a glaring error, and not even get the courtesy of a reply, is depressing. No one is going to convince me that they are selling so many copies of a book that it can't be emended. Especially now that I have published some myself! Correcting errors isn't hard with e-books. Or do they really think they are that good?
 I blame lowest common denominator 'social media'. I've seen what passes for insightful comments on Facebook and Twitter. . . What I want to know is this- do people really switch their brains off before they start using these forms of  media? Or don't they have any to switch on? The damage done to the language with texting, is even more incredible.
 To be watching a DVD from one of America's leading media companies, and see 'discrete' in the subtitles, when the context calls for 'discreet', is heartbreaking to me. The sort of money paid by CBS for the work, surely should ensure that the work is correct!? Or is the target audience deemed to be too stupid to know the difference? And once the DVD is 'out there', no one will do anything to correct it, either. After all, we have your money now, sucker!
Do I sound too intense? Maybe I am, but if all communication on this planet was as clear as mine, there would be a lot less confusion around. (perhaps more conflict for a while, but less confusion!)
New poems soon.  Still rhyming stuff, I'm afraid,
Free prose just leaves me cold.
Rob

Hello again, to my few readers. Sorry If I've been tardy about updating this site. My only excuse? I have been getting my first book of rhyming verses out there. This one is based on animals. "Elephants at Woomera' is now available on Kindle, for one measly Yankee dollar. I suspect it is only the first book, the rest will be about many other topics, different, but hopefully as funny.
Thank you, to all the people who have nagged, pushed, annoyed me to publish. It was all my own fault, really. If I had not been such a smart-aleck, sending various people examples of my verses, no one would have been laughing while they sent me exhortations to publish. And, it was a lot easier than I expected. So, to all the people who told me so- You were right! Thank you.

In the meantime, I have been told that my first ever raw MS proofreading has been published.  It felt strange, somehow, as I had previously only corrected books already published.  This one is not my baby, but I feel like I'm involved in the delivery somehow.

I will leave this here now, and go to the old poems, and replace them with something fresh. You've been patient, and deserve a change.

Greetings, world. It's been a while, I see, since I tried to motivate others to use my services. Sad to say, very few people seem to know I exist. My efforts have not gone completely unrewarded, but I'm not getting as much work as I'd like! I wonder, is my style too acerbic? Do people think I'm rude or arrogant? Sorry, folks! I have never suffered fools gladly. I take the view that if you want to use the English language to part readers from their hard earned, then it behooves you to spell CORRECTLY, get your tenses right, and don't change the names of your characters in the middle of your MS! Don't use quotes from Lewis Carroll  in a story set 30 years prior to "Alice through the looking glass", don't use expressions from a later Era in a different country while writing 'Regency', and, if you must throw in foreign expressions, for God's sake, GET THEM RIGHT! Unless your contempt for your readers is total, give them credit for seeing your errors. I know it's not easy, given the complexities of the language, and the various alleged 'Manuals of Style', but believe me, it can be done! I still believe that those manuals were written by vitriolic people who were just trying to destroy the original English language as a patriotic act against England! Or wanted to 'dumb it down'! A simple comma can make SO much difference to the meaning of a sentence! It's all very well for someone to say an author does not need to use one in front of 'and', but I beg to differ! But I firmly believe some authors find the argument convenient, because they DON'T KNOW when they should, or should not, use a comma! Alright, let's face it, we all make the occasional genuine 'typo', in fact I'm still guilty of it myself, I have just noticed! But to use 'breaks', instead of 'brakes'? Nope, that's not a typo, that's careless! Or worse. That's where a good, pedantic proofreader comes in. From what I've seen of late, some of THEM are too damn greedy for their own good, but let's face it, they can make a hell of a difference to the quality of the story! I personally find it discouraging to have an author tell me that they can see how good my work is, but they can't afford my very reasonable fees, or 'maybe, when I write my next book'  they may use my services.!! I'd rather they came straight out to say "We don't really care" or "Look, it's just too much work to switch my brain on", or even, just once,(!) to say  "It doesn't matter, our readers are too stupid to notice!" Oops! Did I just do it again? Come on, people! Accept that not every one is equally good at the language, and that some authors just don't give a hoot! I'm just a crusty old pedant, and your failures BUG ME! My personal failure is one of lacking faith in my own ability to use computer software. I have books I would love to publish, but I am somehow scared of the thought of losing my work in the process of formatting. I do things sometimes on my laptop, which then VANISH, only to re-appear out of nowhere when I least expect them. If only I knew how to find them again! I KNOW that they are in there somewhere, but I CAN'T FIND THEM! I keep telling myself it's a generational thing, but I think I'm going to have to face it, sooner or later. It's affecting my opinion of myself, damn it! And yet, people who can't spell, get it right! So frustrating! Ah well, one day! Enough for now.catch me later, or leave a comment.   I can take it, as well as dish it out.