Inventing Reality Editing Service

Recent editing client publishes his first book

A recent editing client of mine has published his first book.

Russell Knowles’s “Sorcerers of the Silver City” tells the tale of a college science major who befriends then joins a group of real-life witches in Aberdeen, Scotland, during the 1990s. Offering insight into the mindset, skills and practices of real magicians, this is a story of growing up, of self-realization, and of actualization.

The book is available online.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

5 Great Quotations about ‘Write What You Know’

“If you are not writing something you like, no one else will like it either.” - Meg Cabot

“Write what you know. That should leave you with a lot of free time.” - Howard Nemerov

“I write to be the characters that I am not.” - Joss Whedon

“You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories...” - Anne Lamott

“Be careful that you do not write or paint anything that is not your own, that you don't know in your own soul.” - Emily Carr

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

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5 Ways to Find Inspiration for Your Writing

• What makes a person a ‘writer’? 
• Envision your success 
• Read trashy writing 
• Apply what you liked 
• To write is to progress 
• BONUS: "When you write things down, they sometimes take you places you hadn't planned." – Melanie Benjamin  

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

6 Tips to Improve Your Bookselling Efforts

• Create book club guide for your title 
• Entice readers with excerpt from next book 
• Market your book with a free unpublished story 
• Offer valuable content to increase sales 
• Add reader’s guide to end of your novel 
• Try pulse-pricing to boost book sales

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

5 Tips on Building Your Book Into a Business

• Build your book into a thriving business
• Elements of creating a successful book business
• Products/services you can build around your book
• Do self-published writers need a business plan? 
• Why self-published authors must keep records
• BONUS: "Writing is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to those who have none." – Jules Renard 

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

Commonly Confused Words About Body Functions

• Breathe vs. breath
• Nerve-racking vs. nerve-wracking
• Sight vs. site
• Touch up, touchup, touch-up
• Warm-up vs warm up

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

Four Great Writing Prompts: Escape

Good stories center on the clashing of characters’ goals and motivations. Sometimes a character’s goals and motivations arise upon achieving his dreams. Here are four writing prompts for stories that center on the motivation of dreams.

Man vs. nature
In a test of human endurance, your main character must escape the antagonist by crossing an inhospitable terrain. To give the story depth, what if the hero became a fallen figure when he joined the antagonist, but during the escape regains his true north while the final, climatic obstacle serves as a purifying moment for him?

Man vs. man
What if to escape a metaphorical prison our protagonist decides to pull a switcheroo with another inmate…only or the other inmate to realize what’s planned and attempt to foil him? With modern technology, this story may need to be told as historical fiction, though with technological advancements, it may make a great science fiction story as well.

Man vs. society
A man hacks into a secret government server but doesn’t think he finds anything interesting. Soon, however, mysterious people begin question him about a topic he knows nothing of and then a chase is on to capture him for apparently spreading information about it. Can he determine what important information that he missed during the hack while avoiding capture?

Man vs. himself
After escaping a terrifying situation (for example, a kidnapping, a hostage situation, a war-torn country), your protagonist must deal with the traumatic experience. Is the place he has escaped to any more safe than the situation that he left? Is dealing with the trauma of the experience and the loss of euphoria following the escape just as horrifying?

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

Utilize man vs. man conflict in story

When developing your story, you’ll want your characters to face a number of challenges or conflicts. One of the most basic of them is man vs. man. In this conflict, the main character finds his goals jeopardized by another individual: attempting to capture an escaped convict, an shootout with an outlaw, an argument with one’s lover.

At its basest, man vs. man conflict is just two people taking on one another, with our hero usually winning. At its best, this conflict can symbolically test competing ideas and ethical solutions. A character represents one approach to a problem while the other represents an alternative path. All too often, these representations are reduced to simplistic views of good and evil. But by showing each characters’ motivations and needs, the story’s theme gains depth while the dramatic tension soars.

A good example of man vs. man conflict occurs in the movie “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.” The story clearly revolves around two people: Admiral Kirk (the protagonist) and Kahn (the antagonist). The motivations of each are given: Khan wants revenge upon Kirk for marooning him on a planet that then underwent an ecological disaster and that killed his wife. Kirk feels a responsibility to protect the civilized universe from Kahn, a disposed dictator and product of genetic engineering he had defeated several years before. They play an extensive game of cat and mouse with one another. In the end, Kirk wins because his motivations are not based on revenge but doing what his right by others.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

Five Great Quotations about the Writing Process

“The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is you really want to say.” - Mark Twain

“I hate writing, I love having written.” - Dorothy Parker

“In the writing process, the more a thing cooks, the better.” - Doris Lessing

“Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout with some painful illness.” - George Orwell

“Writing sessions can last an hour or sixteen hours, depending on how it's going.” - Orson Scott Card

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

Editing client’s new book examines AI, sentience

A recent editing client of mine has published his first science fiction novel. Todd Hoff’s “The Strange Trial of Ciri: The First Sentient AI” asks what if a billionaire founder of a phenomenally successful social networking company discovered the secret of how to create a sentient AI ? How would you know if the AI was really sentient? What would you do if the AI did some really bad things, yet if you kill the AI your company would die too? What might a sentient AI do to protect itself? The novel is an exhilarating ride, one that will have you day dreaming on intelligence, free will, and the nature of what it means to be human. After reading it, you'll never interact with your personal assistant the same way again. The novel is available online.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.