|
Welcome
My name is Linda Lavid and I write books, stories, articles. I've been published by others and by myself. I write contemporary stories with characters who mess up but keep going. My fiction has mystery and relational elements. Not just romance but the angst between child/parent, friend/friend. My articles are on writing and publishing. I give seminars on all of the above.
More info can be found below. Thanks for the visit!
Books: Click on sidebar for excerpts, reviews and on-line stores. Sale prices: my bookstore.
Thirty-day return policy is offered on all books purchased from this site.
E-Books available below.
News:
Paloma Meets Kindle
Spots Blind: A Collection of Short Stories is available as a free download in PDF or TXT. This compilation includes eleven stories. Summary: You can't always see what's coming. Trajectories are often misinterpreted, minimized, denied. On the other hand, someone could be blocking your view, on purpose, with malice. No matter what, something's heading your way...Download: PDF or TXT
Coming this summer from Full Court Press. . .
Publishing Tips: Weekly Strategies for the Independent Writer, is a year’s worth of tips in bulleted format on the following topics: Writing, Editing, Publishing, Using a Website, and Marketing. The layout of this book mirrors the dilettante role of every publishing writer where everyday we do a little of this and a little of that. In today's world writing and publishing is a dynamic process: craft builds, technology morphs, markets explode. Still, no matter where you are on this continuum, Publishing Tips will provide valuable and useful information to you, the inveterate, dreaming CEO of one: the independent writer.
If you'd like to be informed when this book is available, please email me: linda@lindalavid.com.
Writing Tip: Transparency is a common
buzz word that denotes clarity, the ability to be seen through. Great actors
have this gift. When they perform, who they are in real life seeps into the
background and a new persona shines through.
In many ways every artist strives for this: to be pure expression
separate from him or herself. Writers are no different. To achieve transparency,
keep your ego at bay by avoiding: an agenda thinly disguised, haughty words
meant to impress, any other egocentric ramblings that point to you and only
you.
Editing Tip: Editing
is not writing more. Editing is evaluating, cutting, honing, tightening,
polishing. If you’re “editing” a 100K manuscript and ending up with a 150K
manuscript you’re still writing – not editing – as well as adding copy that
will need editing. Editing is less of an art than writing but still demands
enormous skill. Left-brained and analytical, editing is precise and no
nonsense. We hate to cut words, sentences, paragraphs, pages, chapters. We
worked so hard on that clever obscure phrase, that insightful repetitive
interior thought, that runaway scene of pure inspiration. Sorry. They got to
go.
A Poem: Would you love me
if I whispered secrets
in a moonlit room,
then asked for forgiveness?
Would you love me
if I poured an elixir,
blood-red and thick,
then drank to your health?
Would you love me
if I quoted the Bible
chapter and verse,
then prayed for a miracle?
Would you love me if I
promised,
begged,
sacrificed,
got down on my knees?
In all the ways possible, would you ever love me?
Recent Thoughts...
E-Books, Boom or Bust?
Kindle is out and sales are heating up, but how hot? Mum’s the word on details, but the buzz remains. Specifics: Amazon’s Kindle is an e-reader that holds 200 e-books, 19 newpapers and almost 400 blogs. Got enough reading material? Although estimates indicate they’re selling 40K units a month at $350 a pop, who’s buying? I don’t know anyone yet. But I live in Buffalo. We’re a meat-and-potatoes kinda place. No matter how wonderful this e-reader is, the price is not cheap. Heck, even laptops are less expensive. Still, like most electronic gismos, the cost is sure to go down.
Another concern is the actual number of books available for download. Publishing companies are scrambling to digitize back list books. But will there be water water everywhere and not a soul to drink? Surveys indicate that 82% of book readers prefer paper books. No surprise. Toss a book in your pocket, briefcase, purse and you’re good to go – no batteries, no cords, no online connections, no worries the device could be stolen. While most downloads cost $4 to $10, add that to the expense of the reader and you got some serious cash outlay. Especially when the public library is within walking distance.
Recently, I became convinced that e-book downloads were terrific for the international market where the cost of shipping books is prohibitive. So I uploaded two of my books to LuLu and one to Amazon’s Kindle. Uploading a PDF file to Lulu was seamless, quick and easy. The upload to Kindle was problematic. The PDF conversion was a mess: text hither and yon, weird spacing, dropped lines. Apparently, this is not unusual because specific directions followed that if the manuscript needed further formatting, it should be downloaded and reformatted in HTML. Huh? Anyways, I converted the PDF to Word and resubmitted. The file still had problems but paled to the PDF upload. I was able to make the corrections but it took another hour. Clearly some bugs remain.
In any event, Amazon is spearheading a movement, but will they be the only ones? Apple, Microsoft and any other computer-savvy company could take on the charge. Not to mention the other e-readers who have been schlepping around for the past ten years. Meanwhile online Barnes and Noble no longer offers e-books. Odd.
The end game? Stay tuned. This could be another revolution a la Gutenberg (they scoffed at moveable type, metal letters too) or end up like helium airship travel. Ka Boom.
More:
I'll be teaching a five-day seminar "On Self-Publishing" at the Chautauqua Institution during Week Nine, August 18 through August 22. Register. Taken from Chautauqua website, Week Nine's topic: will mark the celebration of Darwin's 200th birthday as well as the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species. The public debate surrounding his theory of evolution seems to have diminished little in that span of time. This week we will focus on all that has followed, including the scientific, social, religious and legal ramifications of Darwin's work. In addition, this year marks the 250th anniversary of the 1758 publication of Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus' system for giving Latin names to animals, indeed, cataloging the natural world. We will consider the legacy of that important work as well.
I offer Free One-Hour Seminars in the Western New York area. Topics include: On Novel Writing, On the Short Story, On Mystery Writing, On Self-Publishing. Also available for interviews, book signings and discussion groups. For more information please email me.
My links page is always being updated with sites to help independent writers.
Thanks for visiting. Any questions/comments? Love to hear from you.
Besitos,
L.
email: linda@lindalavid.com
|
