Monday, December 21, 2015

Tuesday Tips and Tweaks


This week author Margaret Fieland, joins us with her tip. Margaret Fieland has been around art and music all her life. She is an avid science fiction fan, and selected Robert A. Heinlein's "Farmer in the Sky" for her tenth birthday.
She also has a new release out today.

Margaret’s Tip on Editing

When proofreading, I always go over everything at least twice. If the piece is short enough, I go over it twice without finding an error before I pronounce it clean.

Why? Experience. I worked for many years in the computer field, starting out in the bad old days when there was nothing but mainframes and the commands needed to run a job through a computer were arcane to say the least. After a near-disaster – I left a comma out of a command line and ended up deleting all of our source code – I made it a habit to go over everything more than once. I discovered that while I might go over something once and skip over all the errors, I was unlikely to do so twice in a row.

Blurb for Rob’s Rebellion

Colonel Rob Walker always does his duty, even when it means risking shaky relationship with his family. When he's ordered to bring the treaty negotiations between the Terran Federation and the Aleyni to a successful conclusion, he's determined to do just that, even when both sides would rather he fail. How can Rob pull off a miracle and avoid a war, one where both sides could be destroyed?



Excerpt from “Rob’s Rebellion”

Colonel Robert Walker led the squad of Federation Guard soldiers as they marched down the shuttle ramp and surrounded the unfortunate Major Reynolds, who waited on the blackened surface of the spaceport landing field.

Rob gazed across the port. The sands just beyond the black-paved surface of the field glittered with reds and blues, and the mountains, five miles distant, loomed purple. A fresh breeze blew the cinnamon scent of the flowers that clustered around the buildings. The beauty of the landscape contrasted with his sour mood. He was ordered to arrest the commander of the Federation base and take control of it, here on an alien planet where the native Aleyni would just as soon see the entire base drop into a hole and disappear. "Major Reynolds, you are accused of high treason and are remanded to the planet of New Oregon for trial."

A worried frown creased Reynolds' forehead. Rob was empath enough to realize Reynolds was uneasy. But Rob's message requested Reynolds meet him when the shuttle landed, nothing more. His unease, growing since he'd accepted the assignment, increased again. Was the major guilty of treason or not?


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Thanks Margaret, for dropping by and sharing that great editing tip.


Don’t forget to check back next week for another author’s tip or tweak.

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