Tag Archives: book

Author Spotlight M. J. Webb

1 Reply

mj webM J Webb is a forty-something father of two from Walsall in England. He is a full time worker and writes in his spare time, though he would love to change that fact. So far, he has penned two novels, ‘Jake West – The Keeper of the Stones‘ and the sequel ‘Jake West – Warriors of the Heynai ‘. A third novel (as yet untitled) will complete the trilogy, though it is a work in progress, which should hopefully be finished by the end of the year.

The stories tell of the adventures of fifteen-year-old Jake and his best friend, Ben Brooker. The teenage boys from Lichfield, England discover a box in Jake’s grandfather’s attic, a box that cannot be opened by anyone other than Jake, or a member of his family. Jake opens it by accident for there are no hinges or catches of any description. By doing so, he inadvertently alerts warriors and wizards on distant worlds to its existence.

Now he is being hunted across worlds. An epic journey has begun on which his life will be in peril every step of the way and he is about to learn from his grandfather of some strange family secrets. The action is fast and furious. The stakes can be no higher. If Jake West, the new ‘Keeper of the Stones’ cannot protect them, restore them, he cannot go home and the future of our world and many others is at risk.

You can buy the novels online everywhere and you can check out M J Webb’s site at http://www.jakewest.co.uk.

jake west Trilogy pic There is a facebook fangroup called, ‘Fans of Jake West’ as well as an M J Webb author’s page. He is also on Twitter, Librarything and Goodreads.

For all fans of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings these books are a must. They are a compelling read and the reviews so far have been extraordinary. As with most self-published authors, marketing the novels has been hard for M J Webb, given his limited free time and resources. Without the power of a large publisher and a literary agent behind him, it has been hard to reach the masses and let them know about his books, though they have been very successful for self-published works. Anything to help spread the word is invaluable and greatly appreciated. Check out the great reviews on site or on Amazon. ☺

Sadie’s Top 10 Tips For Mechanical Edits

5 Replies

I’ve spent my day editing. This is a painful and time-consuming necessity for any piece of work a writer wishes to present to the literary public. I mean it. It’s necessary. Anytime I see a bio or book description in which the author claims to have written the book in a month and spent another month editing before publication, I cringe. There is almost no chance I will read that book.

I fully believe that there are people out there who can write a book in a month. Look at NANO. I do not believe that there are many people who can adequately proofread and edit 200+ pages in a month. It should take that long to find the typos alone, and it pretty much rules out the use of a professional editor (which I recommend for a book destined for publication). Since it is such a difficult thing to do I thought I might share a few of the tips that I use. I don’t mean grammar tips, like avoid the dreaded passive voice or exile unnecessary adjectives to the foul recesses of the metaphoric rubbish heap, though those are obviously important. I mean the nuts and bolts of how to find those pesky errors lurking in every lengthy work.

Of course what works best for me is going to be different from what works best for you or anyone else. This is just my list in no particular order. I’d love to hear your tips too.

1. Give it time. Don’t expect to finish your first draft and then execute a quick fix before sending it off to print. Reading and rereading and then reading again takes time.

2. Step away. This too takes time, sometimes a lot of it. Put your novel in a drawer. Walk away from it for at least a few days, so that you can look at it with relatively fresh eyes. One of the hardest things to do is keep your brain from reading what it thinks it wrote as opposed to what is actually on the screen.

3. Use someone else’s eyes. Beta readers are your best friends. It doesn’t matter if it’s a colleague with a grease marker or a professional; let someone else read it for you. Trust me, they will find the repeat words you keep looking over. It will save you a lot of time in the long run.

4. Print it. I know it feels horribly wasteful to print 200 pages. I personally print two pages to a page and double side it so that I don’t feel like an environmental criminal. But taking the work from the screen to paper forces you to look at it in a different format, enabling you to see different errors. Use coloured pens to circle mistakes, scratch notes, and draw arrows. By the end of this stage my manuscripts often looks more like abstract art than anything else.

5. Use the spelling and grammar check on your computer, but don’t depend on it. A lot of homophones and homonyms will slip right past it. Try cutting and pasting your work into more than one grammar checker. I often write in LaTex, but will paste it into Word temporarily. The two systems find different mistakes. Don’t ask me why, but they do.

6. Learn your own common mistakes. I know from experience that I frequently start sentences with ‘but.’ This is a no-no. It is simply poor writing. So I will give a piece of work at least one read in which all I look for is this one mistake. Find your personal habits and correct for them.

7. Learn your body’s optimal process. I, for example, am creative in the mornings and detail oriented in the evenings. So I dedicate mornings to new writing and the evenings to editing.

8. Remember your purpose. The point is to fix errors not add content. If you come up with some fabulous new arc to follow, make a note to address it later. Stay on task.

9. Start at the end and read backwards. My high school English teacher told us this. It really works. It forces your mind to address the word before it instead of the word it expects to be there. Some people also suggest actually turning the paper upside-down. But I have never tried this.

10. Let the computer read it to you. My husband first suggested this to me, and it is ingenious. You can often hear mistakes you keep reading over. On my computer I just have to convert it to a PDF, open it in Preview, go to Edit and then Speech. voilà

So there you have it, my top ten tips for manual edits. I do every one of them more than once for every manuscript. It is a really slow process, but it is worth it in the end. So what do you do?

The Weeping Empress is FREE to download on Goodreads

1 Reply

I’m trying to drum us some reviews for The Weeping Empress. Now, don’t get me wrong. I am more than thrilled with the ones I’ve recieved so far. Check these out:

5/5* “I really liked this book and really liked the characters. Chiyo, Muhjan and Senka have such chemistry. They kept me coming back for more.” Iris – Amazon

5/5* “Forsythe creates a new and strange world, rich and complex in both it’s characters and history. It calls to mind those tantalizing and complete worlds created by C.S Lewis and Tolkien. As with a C.S. Lewis novel, Forsythe transports us into this alternate universe from a real and modern timescape, giving the reader just the right amount of believability to step into the reluctant heroine’s shoes. Though Chiyo finds herself in what, to her, is a nightmare, the escapist in all of us, will find her story intriguing and irresistible. A fabulous read!” Heather – Amazon

5/5* “A very well written and engaging book that is impossible to put down. It’s the story of a woman’s survival in adverse conditions, and the price of that survival. The characters are well developed and interesting. The story moves fast, and the twists and turns are surprising. It has a little bit of everything – the development of friendship, love, violence, betrayal, and loyalty, and the endurance of the human spirit. I’d recommend this book to anyone.” Karen – Amazon

“What? A woman, seemingly happy in her modern day life as a mother and a wife suddenly awakes to find herself transported back in time, to a place unfamiliar where emperors ruled in castles, where one defended with swords and people were looking for a savior. Not a book I would typically read nor want to pick up, however it was sitting in my nook as a free download and I needed something to read, so I went for it. I was pleasantly surprised by how addicted to the book I became. The writing was crisp and the characters engaging. Toss in battles, heartache, triumph, loss, strength, a bit of mystery and you have ‘The Weeping Empress’.  Overall a good read, I would actually give it 3.5 stars!” – Diana, Goodreads

5/5* “The Weeping Empress is a hard hitting, manga-like epic fantasy. What it lacks in warm-fuzzies it makes up in determined action. The main characters come across as sharp and vivid, and the ending is truly chilling.”- googlebooks

5/5* “This is a worthy read. From the very first page you, like the main character, are thrown into the action, keeping you interested in what happens next. The characters are relatable, despite the fictional setting, and the ending leaves you wanting more. Anyone who likes a strong female lead, untenable situations and a little titillation will love this book. I know I did and will definitely read another one of Forsythe’s books.” Barnes & Noble

4/5* “Totally unexpected storyline, Very enjoyable and unexpected story. A pleasant read.” B&N

5/5* “Excellent. Thoroughly engrossing.” B&N

Plus, two people have given it 5* on Lulu without leaving reviews and one person gave it a 4* on Goodreads without a review.

Not bad right? It makes you want to run out and read it right? The problem isn’t the quality of the reviews. How could it be. I’m tickled pick with the response so far. The problem is that there aren’t enough of them. I need more, MORE, MORE! <Insert Mwuhaa-ha-ha style laughter here> Seriously I need more readers. For this reason I have made it free for download at Goodreads, or you could read it here. There is a reader widget on the The Weeping Empress page.

I know the market is flooded with free ebooks. I swear sometimes I feel like swatting them away like flies, and mine is just one more in the swarm. But look up. Look at those fab reviews (and I didn’t cherry pick them, thats all of them). This isn’t a thrown together saga of sappy teen romance designed to take advantage of the urban/paranormal fantasy lovers. This is a real story worth your time, even if I am saying so myself. Again, scrollup.

So follow this link: The Weeping Empress is FREE, hit the download button, make a quick cup of tea (or sake if past 4:00), and settle down for the ride. Then go back to this link (its the same, don’t bother following it yet), and write the review you think it deserves. Alternatively this link  (Amazon) and/or this link (B&N), and/or this link (google books), or any other one really. So what are you waiting for, hop to it. 🙂 

If you are a book blogger and want a physical copy leave  comment or hit the email button in the upper right corner (it’s the orange envelope) and shoot me a quick request.