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ENTER CONTEST
Created by a former teacher motivated to help other aspiring authors on their individual paths to discovery, Tales2Inspire® fulfills its promises and much, much more.
Edition: Third Edition
Subtitle: Do-it-yourself editing secrets
Author: Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Publisher: Modern History Press
Available on Amazon
ISBN: 9781625996001
Reviewed by Deborah Lynn Stanley, originally for Amazon
Today I am sharing the third edition of my favorite self-editing book. Carolyn Howard-Johnson is a consistent source of encouragement for the writer’s journey!
Carolyn’s delivery style, always down to earth and illuminating, is headache prevention. Believe it or not, though I think we have all been surprised, grammar rules change over time and may not apply to fiction. In this third edition she has labored to clear up misconceptions and annoying style choices you may run into from the publishing world.
Carolyn has taken this opportunity to reorganize and add helpful new material for self-editing that may assist us in being better partners for our editors.
The following additions stand out to me:
* A chapter for word-lovers and poets.
* Quick review of word processors.
* Spotting Scams: A list of dos and don’ts to help avoid publisher and agent scams.
* What to know about custom dictionaries.
* A list of twenty-one of the nation’s best editors tell their pet peeves.
* A lot of grammatically correct things that annoy publishers.
* Help to increase self-editing skills to catch what formatters and editors might miss.
* Making Word Work for You and the Appendices you’ll love.
The Goal of the book is to equip writers, both aspiring and accomplished, with the best self-editing skills for successful publishing.
I recommend this book. It’s refreshing and empowers the writers' journey. I was not required to write a positive review, I receive no compensation, and it was my choice to write this review.
Learn More About the Author:
Carolyn Howard-Johnson has published widely—from traditionally to alternatively, from journalism to fiction. She taught for UCLA Extension’s world-renowned Writers' Program for nearly a decade, speaks, and has national TV and radio appearances and commercials to her credit. She was awarded Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment by members of the California Legislature. Her hometown's Character and Ethics Commission honored her for her work on promoting tolerance, and the Pasadena Weekly named her to their list of “San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen” for literary activism. Learn
About the Reviewer
Deborah Lyn Stanley is an author of Creative Non-Fiction. She writes articles, essays and stories. She is passionate about caring for the mentally impaired through creative arts.
Visit her My Writer’s Life website at: https://deborahlynwriter.com/
Visit her caregiver’s website: https://deborahlyncaregiver.com/
"Mom & Me: A Story of Dementia and the Power of God’s Love" is available:
https://www.amazon.com/Deborah-Lyn-Stanley/
& https://books2read.com/b/valuestories
TITLE OF BOOK: Victim: A Feminist Manifesto from a Fierce Survivor
AUTHOR: Karen Moe
REVIEWER: Daniel Gawthrop
REVIEWER’S BYLINE: The British Columbia Review Publisher and Editor
ASSURANCE TO SATISFY COPYRIGHT LAW:
X Yes, I have received permission from the reviewer to reprint their review in its entirety.
REVIEW:
For any new author seeking a large audience for a polemical work, the self-declared “manifesto” is a risky undertaking. Driven by the urgency of singular purpose, a manifesto in the wrong hands can result in the most artless of writing: self-righteous, tone-deaf in its didacticism, utterly lacking in irony, or all three. In a book title, the word “manifesto” combined with “feminist” and “victim” calls up all sorts of red flags that will turn off certain readers: one might well assume that what’s between the covers will be drearily predictable and all too depressing.
Now fifty-five, Moe says she was emotionally incapable of writing this memoir until now. And that’s a good thing, for Victim is a much better and wiser book than it would have been had she published it within a short time of her terrifying abduction. As a memoir charting the author’s decades-long recovery, Victim is a rich and soulful testament to the power of human resilience that redefines the meaning of victimhood itself. It confirms the power of art as a source of healing while offering rape victims a time-tested roadmap for recovery, self-empowerment, and—in response to reactionary political events like the overturning of Roe vs. Wade—resistance.
A Wish For Home
(Secrets of Bliss Valley Book 1)
Jo Ann Brown
March, 2021
Love Inspired Pub
Women’s Fiction
Reviewed by Elise Cooper
A Wish For Home by Jo Ann Brown is a wonderful read. It delves into love, forgiveness, and second chances, something every reader can relate with. The heroine, Lauren, must reconcile her anger and resentment toward the Amish community for shunning her parents but also must deal with the boy who bullied and tormented her as a young teenager.
“Two of my children are adopted. About two years ago my son’s birth mother reconnected with him through his adoption agency. She was looking for him for a long time. It was wonderful to see the connection they made and to see how the family came back together. I am fascinated with those who are adopted and how their birth family finds them.”
The book opens with Lauren driving her 1966 VW Beetle through her old hometown of Bliss Valley Pennsylvania. Now part of the English world, she no longer goes by the Amish name Laurene, wanting nothing to do with the Amish community she belonged to. She planned on just driving through it on her way to Lancaster to meet with developers who want to build a casino. Unexpectedly, Lauren gets caught in an ice storm and hits a pothole that damages her car. At the local garage she must deal with the mechanic, Adam Hershberger, the boy who bullied her all those years ago. Life’s circumstances have changed him considerably. Now a widower and raising a four-year-old daughter, Mary Beth, he regrets how he treated Laurene. But she must also come to grips with her past and is helped by her Great Aunt Sylvia Nolt. To make matters worse, she is also dealing with the fact that she was adopted, a bombshell her parents just laid on her.
“Amish romance is incredibly popular the last five to ten years. Writers of this genre realize that the simpler and quieter life of the Amish is attractive. Of course, there is the illusion that the life is simpler. I live in a small town and have Amish neighbors, so I understand that feeling. But when I lived in larger cities, I realized you do not know your neighbors. Readers of Amish stories also like the sense of community and how the Amish want to keep the family and community together. I live in Lancaster County in Pennsylvania. There are casinos here. One is being built in the city of York. Because they pay taxes the Amish can go to meetings and have a say.”
The other piece to the story is a gripping mystery. Someone is starting fires at Amish homes, a serial arsonist. Since Adam is a volunteer firefighter, he intends to find the person behind the fires. Although he and Lauren are reconnecting and having some romantic feelings toward each other they must overcome the past and the present, where he resents her for encouraging a casino in the area.
This summer I searched for stories that would help make sense of the upheaval we are facing. I read three books that were wildly different, Lydia Yuknavitch’s novel Thrust, Sharon Heath’s novel, The Mysterious Composition of Tears, and Dick Sclove’s nonfiction book, Escaping Maya’s Palace—an analysis of the madness of modern civilization based on a close read of the Mahabharata. What they had in common was to take seriously what Ursula Le Guin calls the “carrier bag of fiction” (and I would add of nonfiction stories). Le Guin says, “I would go so far as to say that the natural, proper, fitting shape of the novel might be that of a sack, a bag. A book holds words. Words hold things. They bear meanings. A novel is a medicine bundle, holding things in a particular, powerful relation to one another and to us.” Nonfiction stories can also be carrier bags of essential medicines…
Sharon Heath’s Mysterious Composition of Tears is a sci-fi/magical realism story set in the future that has physicists grappling with climate change. Heath incorporated…work on the precautionary principle in this fictional setting by describing scientists taking seriously the possible negative consequences of extremely novel technologies. I wonder when some future scientist might read her novel and change her approach to incorporate precaution. Medicine!
NAME (AUTHOR OF BOOK):
An Anthology of stories collated by author/editor Lois W. Stern
GENRE OR CATEGORY:
Non-fiction anthology of short stories
FORMATS:
Paperback, Kindle
NUMBER OF PAGES
230
ISBN-13 : 978-1505558166
ISBN-10: 1505558166
PUBLISHER:
Self-published by Tales2Inspire viaAmazon.com
AMAZON LINK:
https://www.amazon.com/Tales2Inspire-Diamond-Collection-I/dp/1505558166/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=Tales2Inspire+Collection&qid=1669911629&s=books&sr=1-4
REVIEWED BY:
Dr. Karen Hutchins Pirnot
YOUR BEST REVIEW:
The short story continues alive and well, and Tales 2 Inspire ~ The Diamond Collection - Series I. The overriding factor which struck me while reading Tales2Inspire ~ The Diamond Collection - Series I was that these writers were living, breathing people with relatively ordinary backgrounds. At the time of their experiences, they were everyday people struggling to understand their own circumstances. No one was paying them millions of dollars to act on the silver screen or to throw or catch a ball on a field of athletic play. Rather, these were ordinary people who faced challenges that came their way. What made them courageous and/or heroic was that they did not back away; they did not cower in the face of adversity. They accepted what was not asked for and they made their way through to moments of personal victory.
MORE ABOUT LOIS W. STERN
After twenty years as an active educator, Lois continued to pursue her love of writing, soon becoming co-editor of a popular Long Island web-zine. As she created and authored her column Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives, she began to solidify her special niche of investigative journalism, and put those same talents to work while writing Sex, Lies and Cosmetic Surgery, for which she interviewed over 100 women about some of the most intimate aspects of their lives. She followed up with her second book, Tick, Tock, Stop the Clock. Getting Pretty on Your Lunch Hour to address many of the less invasive paths to beauty.
Tales2Inspire began a whole new chapter in her life.
Visit her website at: https://www.tales2inspire.com to learn about her he Tales2Inspire® books, contest and ghostwriting services..
MORE ABOUT THE REVIEWER:
A clinical psychologist until retirement and prolific author. (See more about thus reviewer following this review, below)
YOUR FAVORITE LINKS:
www.twitter.com/tales2inspire2
wwww.facebook.com/tales2inspire
ADD THIS ASSURANCE TO SATISFY COPYRIGHT LAW:
X Yes, I previously received permission from the reviewer to reprint their review in its entirety.
REVIEWER’S BYLINE
Clinical psychologist, author
BOOK COVER
Dr. Pirnot has worked with children and their families through the Department of Human Services, the Juvenile Justice System and in private practice. Until her retirement she treated special needs children as well as those with transitional life issues. Dr. Pirnot established a thriving private practice in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, but eventually relocated to Sarasota Florida to be close to her family. A prolific writer, she has published over forty books, many of which reflect her personal experiences in and out of private practice. Several titles include: Nothing Left To Burn, a journal of sorts, detailing her experiences with her husband during his slow decline with Alzheimer’s disease; Benny and the Butterfly, the story of an eight-year-old boy, unable to use his hands, who used a laser device affixed to his head to make pictures on the computer; The Blue Penguin, a great lesson to young readers that it is okay to just be YOU! The Ghost of Gasparilla: A Silky and Sly Adventure, is an imaginary tale of an old offshore shipwreck and the adventures and courage of the children who discover it; Just a Common Lady, a story of the weathering process of tragedy and opportunity. When not writing or gardening, Karen takes great pleasure in her grandchildren and the many projects and adventures they share,
SERIES TITLE: Tales2Inspire
AUTHOR: Anthology of authors of contest winning inspiring stories
AUTHOR'S WEBSITE: https://www.tales2inspire.com
GENRE: Inspirational, non-fiction personal stories
AGE / INTEREST LEVEL: 14 +
PAGE COUNT: 236
PUBLISHER: Independently Published
REVIEWED BY: Ellen Lenox Smith
REVIEW:
Feel Inspired and Add A Smile to your Day
LINK: https://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/amzn1.account.AF3GIOZ5BOE6DTVHDYOMDPBOGBFQ/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_gw_tr?ie=UTF8
Reviewed by Ellen Lenox Smith for Amazon.com
Mrs. Smith has enjoyed a long and distinguished career, predominantly in the field of education. The last position she had before needing to resign, due to health, was teaching middle school social studies. Presently, she is a Rhode Island ambassador for the US Pain Foundation as the Co-Director for Cannabis Advocacy, on the board of both the US Pain Foundation and the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition (RIPAC) as media coordinator, appointed by the governor to the ATEL Program, (Adaptive Telephone Equipment Loan Program), is appointed on the Medical Cannabis Oversight Committee representing patients, helps with media exposure for the five-year-old EDS RI Support group and brings in speakers to educate the group and recently was selected to represent patients on the Oversight Panel in RI that will oversee the medical marijuana program. She was a staff writer for National Pain Report and 1000 WATTS Magazine before their shut down, was a former staff writer for Pain News Network and with her husband, speaks out to educate others about her condition and pain management. Some places she has spoken to are the FDA, Brown Medical students, Blue Cross nurses, and physical therapy students in RI and Ct along with speaking at the EDS national conferences. She is also the author of two books: It Hurts Like Hell!: I Live With Pain-- And Have A Good Life Anyway and My Life as a Service Dog! Mrs. Smith is a resident of Scituate, Rhode Island with her husband, Stuart. They have been married for 49 years! They are proud parents of four adult children and three grandsons and two granddaughters. Ellen is also an organic gardener and prior to her disability, was a master swimmer and high school swim coach.
