tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28868181546644765462024-03-09T18:45:58.850-08:00Scott Rhine BooksMy quest to share with others the books I write.Scott Rhinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06437848922061482346noreply@blogger.comBlogger211125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2886818154664476546.post-65666568836576983642024-02-03T20:39:00.000-08:002024-02-03T20:39:37.169-08:00AD&D Party Like It's 1999<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1Dvwdq7eb140hGHa2ysrBg40yZRKvrNYXtujup2hG9MYZjbdmPsLsPmYvyOu_j5tI3C_nMksRenvKTuDM4NK6IYLYgnkU0uC3pXAc67WXk7hUU3z5jWdPrFH8hX5Day0jr6y3AG9dbXQCRT5GEkwBAbtSBXiPgqnhN8G8dnglObCJBDodz91Mxo4Nioo/s3785/greek%20city.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2841" data-original-width="3785" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1Dvwdq7eb140hGHa2ysrBg40yZRKvrNYXtujup2hG9MYZjbdmPsLsPmYvyOu_j5tI3C_nMksRenvKTuDM4NK6IYLYgnkU0uC3pXAc67WXk7hUU3z5jWdPrFH8hX5Day0jr6y3AG9dbXQCRT5GEkwBAbtSBXiPgqnhN8G8dnglObCJBDodz91Mxo4Nioo/s320/greek%20city.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> A friend from Ukraine wanted to try this D&D game he's heard so much about, so I decided to run him in a tournament I developed back in the nineties for the ancient second edition of AD&D. To round out the group, I invited my wife and daughter who were veterans of Champions RPG and my son and his friend Andrew who play Fifth edition rules. Everyone liked the snacks, but the boys hated the old style rules. The thing people liked the best, as I remember from college days, were my maps. This is a sample of the opening of the adventure where they visit a Greek city near a wizard academy.<p></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE0DY2Ca7LbYRIpxUFWK_6maWKJ7LFDw-k-AdAezvdWAwufBxXMoibqAAs6KNLPDvuOmxkILEDzdyMDGoAUmv3XR-lwLtHbUVPxliGuZkoUmVpYOxpFl8OnDz2hSC9fdZaQwb7UrT68-JOBESMAxTHoQrYtmarxzpYG5K2JVV5x3C3UP9618L99YMIxC8/s3913/topographical.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2991" data-original-width="3913" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE0DY2Ca7LbYRIpxUFWK_6maWKJ7LFDw-k-AdAezvdWAwufBxXMoibqAAs6KNLPDvuOmxkILEDzdyMDGoAUmv3XR-lwLtHbUVPxliGuZkoUmVpYOxpFl8OnDz2hSC9fdZaQwb7UrT68-JOBESMAxTHoQrYtmarxzpYG5K2JVV5x3C3UP9618L99YMIxC8/s320/topographical.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>This is a topographical map after landing on the academy island. Since I'm never going to use the adventure again, I snapped a few key photos for the sake of nostalgia to share with people I've adventured with. I'm recycling the paper, reusing the folders, and probably selling the stack of manuals online.<div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyVih49YtyZzxkOpuha5H9GkrgFGxq5O7mzncPbsRd1V18CyIpDb_nSLR7o3OFFLasslks0pe3qYhVJ4knC_LDwLsdowZj3FNUmtfBe0fDhU_5qtCI2g6e5p09B_xxquqkhWM4cI2zRBEM_33H9PZ7_Fzs1AJLzA_TKTxITd4uvghgsJYSAvRnSTYWWvQ/s3937/dungeon%20floor%201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2809" data-original-width="3937" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyVih49YtyZzxkOpuha5H9GkrgFGxq5O7mzncPbsRd1V18CyIpDb_nSLR7o3OFFLasslks0pe3qYhVJ4knC_LDwLsdowZj3FNUmtfBe0fDhU_5qtCI2g6e5p09B_xxquqkhWM4cI2zRBEM_33H9PZ7_Fzs1AJLzA_TKTxITd4uvghgsJYSAvRnSTYWWvQ/s320/dungeon%20floor%201.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Level one of the fortress.<br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7ET-XLfHIcLKw0gDxnsNGqRIL6CNUUtABhlUdWgVEsQBpJby-zX2pJVF-l2ictIYeH138HhY1agID5ALlv0qG3zfRaGvhs4IVxSA8bcRV2eDyyz3W-X7GxK6bx4axXX8_e9HKJEr9G8EGS1HwxfvakRFCLpAbzHxLt8p9G3fGg6JCMktoPF3rl3cS2KU/s4007/dungeon%20floor%202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2729" data-original-width="4007" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7ET-XLfHIcLKw0gDxnsNGqRIL6CNUUtABhlUdWgVEsQBpJby-zX2pJVF-l2ictIYeH138HhY1agID5ALlv0qG3zfRaGvhs4IVxSA8bcRV2eDyyz3W-X7GxK6bx4axXX8_e9HKJEr9G8EGS1HwxfvakRFCLpAbzHxLt8p9G3fGg6JCMktoPF3rl3cS2KU/s320/dungeon%20floor%202.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Level two of the fortress.<br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxwG0B-91kyw1SFny6DZHqpqL1sDuCHVDeuSfkSoSazDVC7Oc_G6hiHfaJgK0uqeaTxjTPJRGUKTH5vsdGFB31vDUc9y82tkxubWlbJbB56qoGz6qXNbEdliM0QrvEh-APnvbnYsbQ4CJ_4D260kU5EdAzZIfHqk3a75M-HwiCOUkYcYEuW7lq-1dbP10/s3858/battle%20sheet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3858" data-original-width="2817" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxwG0B-91kyw1SFny6DZHqpqL1sDuCHVDeuSfkSoSazDVC7Oc_G6hiHfaJgK0uqeaTxjTPJRGUKTH5vsdGFB31vDUc9y82tkxubWlbJbB56qoGz6qXNbEdliM0QrvEh-APnvbnYsbQ4CJ_4D260kU5EdAzZIfHqk3a75M-HwiCOUkYcYEuW7lq-1dbP10/s320/battle%20sheet.jpg" width="234" /></a></div>And the ever-popular wandering monster table. The rust monsters and giant chicken were hilarious to play. The shadows guarding the iron plates in the dining hall (it's a rare supermetal in the Golden-Age Greece campaign) either drained someone or gave them white hair every time.<br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGWI0n_D3bB0xeMdfHjbeRAHdy6Nb3wUDzxmyHAF8V6pBpbJlRthYQZXaw6_WjK82Ud131eNk4Gmjgfcc9x-VSyRifcgZP68HX9SuNJr-54EAdFkeSRLuvf-7XIzubvgZlNoguUWXrvISghXLOtXBxkQcJSubCum4SDCzX1PHt8n1XiHAVJmB9zJZNvq4/s3713/impossible%20pyrmid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1897" data-original-width="3713" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGWI0n_D3bB0xeMdfHjbeRAHdy6Nb3wUDzxmyHAF8V6pBpbJlRthYQZXaw6_WjK82Ud131eNk4Gmjgfcc9x-VSyRifcgZP68HX9SuNJr-54EAdFkeSRLuvf-7XIzubvgZlNoguUWXrvISghXLOtXBxkQcJSubCum4SDCzX1PHt8n1XiHAVJmB9zJZNvq4/s320/impossible%20pyrmid.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Paging through the stack of modules I made, I found "The Impossible Pyramid" from an Egyptian tomb adventure, which occupies both the ethereal and prime material. This engineering marvel looks like it is floating and is almost impossible to pillage. One of the fighters in this adventure found a magic ring that convinced him that he was the reincarnation of the king buried here. <p></p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuXUAKqd0jj-VdlQcvKIawPbMLI_lrLv1o41kVeUXiXDaxcyrdYt9IDX8da83U6WSNz0s4WeJ18inJRURNFAk5feKRDj52f58yrXG0UTBCp8BcnRFbQBhqcJo7GSlDLhO0uM-MTC0AzGy52W15yCwETSnCxS7qhfW6O5xtKog1uKPPsOq1BS-aYnRAKbU/s3365/misfit%20city.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2649" data-original-width="3365" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuXUAKqd0jj-VdlQcvKIawPbMLI_lrLv1o41kVeUXiXDaxcyrdYt9IDX8da83U6WSNz0s4WeJ18inJRURNFAk5feKRDj52f58yrXG0UTBCp8BcnRFbQBhqcJo7GSlDLhO0uM-MTC0AzGy52W15yCwETSnCxS7qhfW6O5xtKog1uKPPsOq1BS-aYnRAKbU/s320/misfit%20city.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The Island of Misfit clerics, an oriental D&D adventure, was one of my favorite campaigns. Everyone loved fighting the pirate ship and finding the map to his treasure. This brings the party together and leads them to an island where several things are amiss, including a cult with a crystal city on a mountain top. <p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgmJV9YTpPOHB4-q82a5C6QrqP_BA7x4oruU5OErGZnodMIG7Wze9GUUAM_XE45KJnuiehispQnpoOP81rcmbdF_OxBTVf5-H_6SHlhzfP3w3MEI6xvDLnoQrVhnqvzYOE9HReEQ0BDQLAPVBFY7Ji2f4DggxDMAaAZ8K4xZFQVxKE7LHZHiOsgcGMYnI/s3889/cursed%20mask.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3889" data-original-width="2927" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgmJV9YTpPOHB4-q82a5C6QrqP_BA7x4oruU5OErGZnodMIG7Wze9GUUAM_XE45KJnuiehispQnpoOP81rcmbdF_OxBTVf5-H_6SHlhzfP3w3MEI6xvDLnoQrVhnqvzYOE9HReEQ0BDQLAPVBFY7Ji2f4DggxDMAaAZ8K4xZFQVxKE7LHZHiOsgcGMYnI/s320/cursed%20mask.jpg" width="241" /></a></div>My favorite part of this adventure was an artifact the samurai found in the trove, a willow-iron dragon mask that could grant powers when you feed it coins or gems. Yes, everyone knew it was cursed with side effects, but the player didn't care--which is why my wife makes me wear devil's horns when I dungeon master. It doesn't affect the outcome at all, but it did give me a cool opening for my magic novel "Foundation for the Lost." <p></p><p>As you can tell, this creativity shifted into writing after the nineties. The papers brought back a lot of fond memories, only a few of which involved the wailing and lamentation of the players.</p></div>Scott Rhinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06437848922061482346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2886818154664476546.post-91554960482634625162023-04-30T12:48:00.002-07:002023-05-23T09:03:21.111-07:00Should I try Kindle Vella as an Author?<p>As an author, I try to keep up with current trends, topics, and marketing methods. One of the newest is Kindle Vella a way to engage younger readers and those on cellular devices. My (now adult) children are voracious readers but prefer free serials and fanfiction available on numerous aggregator sites. My son lamented the demise of his phone because he lost the thousand browser tabs he had up to catch updates on all his favorite stories.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Three Reasons I Tried Vella</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">1. Direct Connection with Fans</span></p><p>Many people comment on the ongoing threads. I liked the idea of real-time feedback on a story as I write. Even Brandon Sanderson and Lawrence Watt-Evans have enacted similar mechanisms with their fans. Marketing only through e-mail feels cold and distant.</p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">2. Lower Upfront Cost</span></p><p>To collect the 5-10,000 email addresses I need to build and communicate to a core audience would run me around $1200 a year. Editing prices have shot up to $1200 a novel and cover costs are about $275 each, even if I didn't like the results. Copyright is not $65 a novel. With advertising for the releases, he grand total comes to about $2100 a book. The price to post on Vella is about $25 for a cover image on Etc.</p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">3. Getting in on the Ground Floor of the Next Big Thing</span></p><p>I succeeded in e-books when they first came out. This could be a great opportunity. Two years should have been enough time to work the kinks out of the platform. Right? In theory, the author gets 1 cent per 200 words of story sold, plus bonuses.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Reasons I Dropped Vella after a Month</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">1. As of January 2023, Amazon Doesn't Pay Authors for Free Tokens</span></p><p>Hundreds of people could read your story, but if they used their initial 200 free tokens, you don't see a cent. My counts of episode unlocked would be up one day and retroactively zeroed out the next. Here's the trick: authors can't prove which reads were free. You have to trust Amazon. I don't after funny business with audible and an audiobook. Even if you manage to get the unicorn bonuses, they won't pay for two months.</p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">2. Vella only usable through Kindle Devices</span></p><p>The Kindle app on my phone can't actually read Vella stories, and none of my 600 e-book fans were interested in the Vella. What about reaching new readers? The "discover" button for Vella will only recommend 25 stories, plus a list of their big money makers and a few new/trending. The scrolling search is difficult on a phone or other small device. Only two covers are visible at a time. If you read it on a PC, the episodes appear in a popup limited to 2.5" wide, not conducive to binge reading.</p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">3. No Good Way for Readers to Find You</span></p><p>Since you can't do Amazon ads for Vella, Facebook groups are the only viable was to advertise. The groups that aren't closed are composed almost entirely of new authors. The idea is that each day, you join events to read and like/follow other people's episodes in hopes that someone will do the same for you. To do so honestly takes a lot of time. In a week of effort on one group, I accrued 21 likes. Most successful authors belong to 6 such groups. Given that members of the recommended list average 10,000 likes, you would need to spend full time accumulating these for 80 weeks to show up on those reliably. However, this is completely artificial, not organic reader response. For uncrowned sagas, the ratio of likes to actual reviews is abysmal, on the order of one in 500. With e-books, the ratio between read and reviewed is closer to 1 in 25. You also have to spend real money to gain these likes, while other authors might not. Also, you are not allowed to criticize other authors' work in any way, even to tell them they have missing/duplicate punctuation or other typos in episode one.</p><p>How could readers find you organically? The initial categories like frequently updated only show two covers/titles at a time with no text. Each of the 16 categories have around 1000 entries displayed in the browsing, with the addition of 2 of the 7 tags you chose. However, the most popular categories I wrote in have far more competition. </p><p>Fantasy 11,525</p><p>Romance 15,500</p><p>These aren't ordered by any rhyme or reason I could find.</p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">4. Poor Quality for the Money</span></p><p>The presentation could be the same as the Kindle e-reader, but they use a cheaper, clunkier interface with no indentation that ruins scene breaks. The import function doesn't check spelling like the e-book upload either. The average quality of the 100+ episodes I sampled was low, filled with grammar errors and repetition. I only liked about one story in ten. Just one story so far merited a review. In that case, the author stretched a single scene over four 600-word episodes--agonizing. Even with the crowned suggestions, the cream of the crop, the most frequent rating is 3 stars. In the rare instance they complete a season, say 100 episodes 1000 words each, a reader would spend $9.70 for the raw unedited product. For the same e-book, polished, they would spend from 99 cents to $3.99.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Conclusion</span></p><p>While Vella may become a viable platform for new authors some day, it's not soup yet. I added updates every other day for a month and then stopped. By May 28th, I'll be ready to post the e-book. </p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Addendum</span></b></p><p>A month later, I still have $0 in royalties (despite several days where the dashboard briefly showed sales). However, I did get an email from Amazon saying that I have a $25 bonus which will be paid out in a couple months for my high March sales. Huh?</p>Scott Rhinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06437848922061482346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2886818154664476546.post-17906055742410823352022-12-13T20:36:00.003-08:002022-12-13T20:36:23.812-08:00Alicante, Beautiful from Mountains to Beaches<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX9iTBQdxGzle97-_o8rAKwptpjOelLkiwuRSuuvv5opimyDlwL-MonfPwbO64W7icix61TGciIPdtSb9ipcGjQBQsiLMJWMFd665zHQCWBScEZIrO5CQJN5crcDIr8a-KePKbx8uYBLmOBe4mlPftsLNkMXxVcIRhv-MbZQexLfO7GFib4OARdBRa/s4032/IMG_9997.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX9iTBQdxGzle97-_o8rAKwptpjOelLkiwuRSuuvv5opimyDlwL-MonfPwbO64W7icix61TGciIPdtSb9ipcGjQBQsiLMJWMFd665zHQCWBScEZIrO5CQJN5crcDIr8a-KePKbx8uYBLmOBe4mlPftsLNkMXxVcIRhv-MbZQexLfO7GFib4OARdBRa/s320/IMG_9997.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />The second phase of our summer vacation, we visited Irene's hometown of Alicante, and her parents showed us around. Several of the nights, we took a train into town to watch the fireworks festival at night, and celebrate her grandmother's birthday with their extended family. Still photos don't do it justice. We took hundreds of photos and movies during our stay. Here are just a few. <p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqRML-m31XyDV4jOkbklbIO3VDLUCifmpznrsEZPkkSITsLmNKJ2ViyZr3FRvEp4e-J3PkuWA_xD2L3vjopOYo5pPAytSQMqPLg4hvokkj68BIYHshlFwb8f4ahV7FF9JKXl-D5Ur0Qz51XGSmyZd5SmViO9hHUe2Dj3J54_V2ihdG5VpvhT3ncoZO/s4032/IMG_9888.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqRML-m31XyDV4jOkbklbIO3VDLUCifmpznrsEZPkkSITsLmNKJ2ViyZr3FRvEp4e-J3PkuWA_xD2L3vjopOYo5pPAytSQMqPLg4hvokkj68BIYHshlFwb8f4ahV7FF9JKXl-D5Ur0Qz51XGSmyZd5SmViO9hHUe2Dj3J54_V2ihdG5VpvhT3ncoZO/s320/IMG_9888.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>We start with paella--rabbit, seafood, spice, and rice. They make the best, with a wonderful view in the backdrop.<p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw8SHoPnZ6wYLEpIb4oUSx1AFDwCMt1c37C2bZRPFNMx0QWKdgoS8cjsssIzlfKZ9RTmKkLs8P3Dqqd5KUhD5siW4W1m7_NAjRgGqcpgYb5wt1qPF44y-mq01HdRIvkSmay6rPu9KmtvH47gxXYtD-PgZnkx5qzc8uhFBcXR5bxBMCgDoCcyMnav4L/s4032/IMG_0008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw8SHoPnZ6wYLEpIb4oUSx1AFDwCMt1c37C2bZRPFNMx0QWKdgoS8cjsssIzlfKZ9RTmKkLs8P3Dqqd5KUhD5siW4W1m7_NAjRgGqcpgYb5wt1qPF44y-mq01HdRIvkSmay6rPu9KmtvH47gxXYtD-PgZnkx5qzc8uhFBcXR5bxBMCgDoCcyMnav4L/s320/IMG_0008.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />A short drive into the mountains to see ancient fortresses where Christian kings clashed with the Moors.<p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEaPwBEIKod3tcdVBpxTc4Y0RMuB2kt6L_77PmSHgWFTX8KgRZfaFXM2nwsbTMbM7aM-mKpFfZW41sxZkz7R6tS06sPyiXsOPBb_xRzyMqgj2oQEKb-4DlYczX1m8gCeEFIkH7k6mzzzo25HMq6qKG_0m1eY290mv4DsKj0Ea6nOulR_LCf5_GaMvW/s4032/IMG_0057.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEaPwBEIKod3tcdVBpxTc4Y0RMuB2kt6L_77PmSHgWFTX8KgRZfaFXM2nwsbTMbM7aM-mKpFfZW41sxZkz7R6tS06sPyiXsOPBb_xRzyMqgj2oQEKb-4DlYczX1m8gCeEFIkH7k6mzzzo25HMq6qKG_0m1eY290mv4DsKj0Ea6nOulR_LCf5_GaMvW/s320/IMG_0057.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />We laughed and sang 80s pop tunes a lot. Her folks spoke fluent English, unlike my high-school Spanish, which was just enough to know which lane we should be in on the highway or to pay for gas and fast food.<p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3fOiJGGfuqNl1a0H2OG5aDK04PFBInqbceCjOmMbdwAH67aiFYSEdn8qkQo9G9k4CGNDSsbf36DZVpw-ZCRLO1NRHVMSNqSD9KdMGNLSmwN1XDctSFtcKi0QMSuKC4YoQTUd8lrWpVETzW_K-hloO59nnQCiMhm9B3TT53bdawJe34ieHIB-afwKA/s4032/IMG_0204.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3fOiJGGfuqNl1a0H2OG5aDK04PFBInqbceCjOmMbdwAH67aiFYSEdn8qkQo9G9k4CGNDSsbf36DZVpw-ZCRLO1NRHVMSNqSD9KdMGNLSmwN1XDctSFtcKi0QMSuKC4YoQTUd8lrWpVETzW_K-hloO59nnQCiMhm9B3TT53bdawJe34ieHIB-afwKA/s320/IMG_0204.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><br />The beach walk was full of shops, ice cream, fountains, splendid architecture, and palm trees, but I think our favorite was the playground in the shade. Here Emily caught Irene in a photo op on the stairs to a gazebo overlooking the port.<p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Kk7h4HqKt6Wlafu5iF8pm0IZewjOIQRc5MPn9_gsrr49BGWFkIBOTZp0N4J3C_HsShC5trP39K42ge6HNB_IfatQbm9E-F2znh6E_nLVhlCHPsdcd03jIdFcY5ahgpF_dSRjYsAfA7vI_6yzBEzQnrcD3mN-usziERXvR5onVw-XDswsksfwb88K/s3088/IMG_0301.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2316" data-original-width="3088" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Kk7h4HqKt6Wlafu5iF8pm0IZewjOIQRc5MPn9_gsrr49BGWFkIBOTZp0N4J3C_HsShC5trP39K42ge6HNB_IfatQbm9E-F2znh6E_nLVhlCHPsdcd03jIdFcY5ahgpF_dSRjYsAfA7vI_6yzBEzQnrcD3mN-usziERXvR5onVw-XDswsksfwb88K/s320/IMG_0301.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />Then we drove up to a scenic overlook captured a few of my two beautiful ladies.<p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZET0XXfqCKc33C-crFwP-wkGqVi6NvHJwHt8wr4Vbw6HmfJ05t2T2rDJmGYHWLhsVJXl3lplvmvxRuQMjbT8FWRwsJHcB_UIiT49eeFuj030oGBEdhcOKY_oDbbMq9Dc87nSJmLjCvN46_xeckUPeqidHz0z80xXjsp39JVrkXAK3Gcdei-c-LFmB/s4032/IMG_0349.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZET0XXfqCKc33C-crFwP-wkGqVi6NvHJwHt8wr4Vbw6HmfJ05t2T2rDJmGYHWLhsVJXl3lplvmvxRuQMjbT8FWRwsJHcB_UIiT49eeFuj030oGBEdhcOKY_oDbbMq9Dc87nSJmLjCvN46_xeckUPeqidHz0z80xXjsp39JVrkXAK3Gcdei-c-LFmB/s320/IMG_0349.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>At night, we ate in a pizzeria in the all-white stone city of Altea. Here we are in the church square.<p></p><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>No album would be complete without a candid of her parents many cats. Her mother fosters them while awaiting homes.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_ZGF6fYQFMHQ1fFJGYL1zH6qHA0BrPHvdyrf3dAkNctgAtxQdRfKmU5NCUUZgC1KdsG0nVtxtbvizPhXYzzfTkl5sUBhaFfG5AexXABEK4xFD_HvVtjQfF76Jo_x6xnmuhOJb6olVvFzSc3qzSO-SlAYNzB008_sgmk_WzJukmzMRKY-Q5URbCZ1o/s4032/IMG_5990.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_ZGF6fYQFMHQ1fFJGYL1zH6qHA0BrPHvdyrf3dAkNctgAtxQdRfKmU5NCUUZgC1KdsG0nVtxtbvizPhXYzzfTkl5sUBhaFfG5AexXABEK4xFD_HvVtjQfF76Jo_x6xnmuhOJb6olVvFzSc3qzSO-SlAYNzB008_sgmk_WzJukmzMRKY-Q5URbCZ1o/s320/IMG_5990.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Scott Rhinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06437848922061482346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2886818154664476546.post-12996438387765427132022-08-13T14:22:00.001-07:002022-08-13T14:22:43.285-07:00Valencia post lockdown<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQFdk3qDzzUhO2qNSaJwwMIHTNAyWARyp6aKFt8LRd6yU5wRr7_Ii1jiaSHN7zYEfuIgA4ksd99LJyEOZ6-Swd1wdxW4LwDFHDb05KBdiV6G04DQZ9U_O8loOgTOKGfLymSo-P9FiAl3b_G7Xxk7yxtkJZZWZK2lNfIlVhg6hKzKIG4r9iNfj7neDD/s4032/blog%200.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQFdk3qDzzUhO2qNSaJwwMIHTNAyWARyp6aKFt8LRd6yU5wRr7_Ii1jiaSHN7zYEfuIgA4ksd99LJyEOZ6-Swd1wdxW4LwDFHDb05KBdiV6G04DQZ9U_O8loOgTOKGfLymSo-P9FiAl3b_G7Xxk7yxtkJZZWZK2lNfIlVhg6hKzKIG4r9iNfj7neDD/s320/blog%200.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><br />Two years ago, we had a wonderful exchange student from Spain, Irene, who was forced to return during the COVID outbreak. This summer, for the first time, we were able to visit her and her family. Our first stop was to see Valencia for a few days, the town where she was attending university. She is fluent in English and a wonderful tour guide.<div><br /></div><div>The first day, we drove the three hours from Barcelona (only one train runs on Sunday) and found the Libere, our hotel in with an ancient exterior but modern, spacious interior. Street art was popular, but we only captured it on Pokemon Go postcards. After a brief nap to recover from 35 hours of wakefulness and waiting in line, we had a variety of tapas for dinner at a refurbished central market.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZla8afLMhbBBkFZcNFV2yIr2bD9vLXHHeMdJBfapyJZPKtrTHDyta0kK3i5LfXth0UBYPOSznbeIZeh6L7QwPMQG2J-q5souUS9CTxVl_Fwt8I6aKdO6YBG-K3M5zrMwvk0xF2ZcibVJPOxdbDOLHqPTru-MtT9deSTZI69zg4RQ6prWL3VVQMlfG/s3024/blog%202.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZla8afLMhbBBkFZcNFV2yIr2bD9vLXHHeMdJBfapyJZPKtrTHDyta0kK3i5LfXth0UBYPOSznbeIZeh6L7QwPMQG2J-q5souUS9CTxVl_Fwt8I6aKdO6YBG-K3M5zrMwvk0xF2ZcibVJPOxdbDOLHqPTru-MtT9deSTZI69zg4RQ6prWL3VVQMlfG/s320/blog%202.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />The next day, we saw the town, starting with the Queen's plaza, the mayor's palace, and the cathedral with the Holy Chalice. The flagstones could have dated back to the days of Columbus, but you couldn't swing a churro without hitting some renovation project. At the fruit stands we saw a flat peachlike fruit unavailable in the US, called a Paraguaya.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-66dly1YsR7jQhjQJXtrp7pFkZkXuxlT-SuK032Viee9zBMT9ptzLHwMmazXSJokOrhGu8CngwsFSXYYmSpwICjvAwrC636hgKNuhrycn8fOo1_NRTl4dkq_ax6wE-dd6LvdBc4yl8MEb1qr2HzZTrJyslzt1PxhPkVvgH4f0L3DNihxVOIDPAAQ4/s4032/blog%2010.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-66dly1YsR7jQhjQJXtrp7pFkZkXuxlT-SuK032Viee9zBMT9ptzLHwMmazXSJokOrhGu8CngwsFSXYYmSpwICjvAwrC636hgKNuhrycn8fOo1_NRTl4dkq_ax6wE-dd6LvdBc4yl8MEb1qr2HzZTrJyslzt1PxhPkVvgH4f0L3DNihxVOIDPAAQ4/s320/blog%2010.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div>Cheap, close parking is an issue, but you can walk or take low-cost public transport anywhere.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEllrkHJkmenIW5tkQf5DdLzle6aUFEmnjjf3rN9CzG5xfvzZN8wO4ZKg-GGKEh0Af2RBcjHeukLstTgfyWq8aEE2vXOZi0Q8EsC27kP2ZPLiN-j2LZxjb3PWzYgk6PN4EGLH8K4KZiyDsBgeUVto7ZAb21iSQRVb-ENFctprf4YCHYsiO9Vobledo/s4032/blog%203.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEllrkHJkmenIW5tkQf5DdLzle6aUFEmnjjf3rN9CzG5xfvzZN8wO4ZKg-GGKEh0Af2RBcjHeukLstTgfyWq8aEE2vXOZi0Q8EsC27kP2ZPLiN-j2LZxjb3PWzYgk6PN4EGLH8K4KZiyDsBgeUVto7ZAb21iSQRVb-ENFctprf4YCHYsiO9Vobledo/s320/blog%203.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><br /></div>However, the true crown jewel of the Valencia was the City of Arts and Sciences. They diverted a river<br /> basin prone to flooding and filled it with an elegant park and latest in architecture. The walk in the park helped to cool us in the 95 degree heat. Even the tree-shaped arches and tile work were reminiscent of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia.<div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgya9vr0oGCHbe1iuOrQLlmgNbAwIeagSC0zhc50MV1Epq17E3TS4dMtc7hq-tNGm_wkusxFPE94dIl7O8I7nmCyfS_5UtYY7a16k9ByytznbG4rPyCSvBqR208Rh8VZJOPekweNq8oYTw8HLbJv4nwfTUHVTR2AqANPVjU-HXeyd5eCx8EfEr0Ksp/s2860/blog%207.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1639" data-original-width="2860" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgya9vr0oGCHbe1iuOrQLlmgNbAwIeagSC0zhc50MV1Epq17E3TS4dMtc7hq-tNGm_wkusxFPE94dIl7O8I7nmCyfS_5UtYY7a16k9ByytznbG4rPyCSvBqR208Rh8VZJOPekweNq8oYTw8HLbJv4nwfTUHVTR2AqANPVjU-HXeyd5eCx8EfEr0Ksp/s320/blog%207.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>It felt like we were walking around on the set of Logan's Run or a Star Trek series.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8y4TTRetnWLZ7SDY5CpZJdWlqKD9qAA8bF8JAVPTwteRVtwdOWrUbTHLrk3Jz7kaTa_v7vgMG8V6d0omqSybtxqy4TkVUUANVcZO8v_g4orweGJeNoLgnMddIVZdBW0ggWULBRdgPts8rjSXAA1pL7NYvmT2M57_M12dsf5eZ_Es-LAW7yiDSNsr1/s4032/blog%205.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8y4TTRetnWLZ7SDY5CpZJdWlqKD9qAA8bF8JAVPTwteRVtwdOWrUbTHLrk3Jz7kaTa_v7vgMG8V6d0omqSybtxqy4TkVUUANVcZO8v_g4orweGJeNoLgnMddIVZdBW0ggWULBRdgPts8rjSXAA1pL7NYvmT2M57_M12dsf5eZ_Es-LAW7yiDSNsr1/s320/blog%205.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div>This structure reminded me of an Avengers movie.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKFjcjXa-cTN1PPR6sCC8SIWAhP3ZXB-Zv9jo6SeDkZWzuObLopCqDD78SXNUVWI6vxe9Y_doo1LNOAfUWDqiUlzmbvSZvyemHzKR-6wmQ6ML6QtGUniV-AYDPVF6Bj_jvVmyROrlcdgZfl5zVUOJxczMbsLacsbs4qUA2Q-_AXO7U-zEymdB0rPH5/s4032/blog%206.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKFjcjXa-cTN1PPR6sCC8SIWAhP3ZXB-Zv9jo6SeDkZWzuObLopCqDD78SXNUVWI6vxe9Y_doo1LNOAfUWDqiUlzmbvSZvyemHzKR-6wmQ6ML6QtGUniV-AYDPVF6Bj_jvVmyROrlcdgZfl5zVUOJxczMbsLacsbs4qUA2Q-_AXO7U-zEymdB0rPH5/s320/blog%206.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>I actually used this dome on the cover of the second book in my Jezebel's Ladder series.<br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic7XtR9hsy10stVpazEpl-Cn79uNEp1P0mQh_6s2hNbMZV_uvzcEevbCPLNvKPBq5qHuRCibtDt1bHuvq9neeGU6NzltaMN6cGkZcEKyGEs30J9qjIbJ7OERW-5ys74kJikBYBT7iYKnLhUIdx3MJ_oBO4TAuXeBOLdXWGXu9e3DCxIFXn3dp1KAqk/s4032/blog%208.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic7XtR9hsy10stVpazEpl-Cn79uNEp1P0mQh_6s2hNbMZV_uvzcEevbCPLNvKPBq5qHuRCibtDt1bHuvq9neeGU6NzltaMN6cGkZcEKyGEs30J9qjIbJ7OERW-5ys74kJikBYBT7iYKnLhUIdx3MJ_oBO4TAuXeBOLdXWGXu9e3DCxIFXn3dp1KAqk/s320/blog%208.JPG" width="320" /></a></div></div><div>They also had a well-known sculpture garden that I've seen featured on covers. </div><div><br /></div><div>That night, we celebrated Tammy's birthday at a Prohibition-era New York themed restaurant, Voltereta.</div><br /><div><br /></div>Scott Rhinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06437848922061482346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2886818154664476546.post-49922232970812820212022-01-02T17:35:00.000-08:002022-01-02T17:35:38.295-08:00Hawaii in the Time of COVID<p>This summer, after over a year of helping people as a health-care professional during a pandemic, my wife needed a break, so I took her and our daughter on a vacation. Since my wife will be retiring soon, we wanted to see if Hawaii could be our new home. Because of the universities, modern conveniences, and plentiful restaurants, I selected various locations around Oahu for 18 days, not just the touristy places. I didn't plan too much. We decided to wing it.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Health</b></span></h2><p>The rules for what we needed for the trip changed weekly, but two things held constant while there. </p><p>1) Once we uploaded our COVID results to https://travel.hawaii.gov/, everyone wanted to see it before we could get off the plane, rent a room, or get into a car. Nobody cares about the paper card they stamp at the airport. The big green check mark on your phone is a <i>requirement</i>. It doesn't matter how long ago you took it. <i>Don't let your phone battery die!</i></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhaF2540_Wufc3B-JRYj0q5jvhZ3Qlbg2h2sPFnxIm31WLY0P7MyXuKLtVpRqIievBmCkbfWeK5_6OuY5z2ZN9WSGKCKQKpmuzU3tng9OYWd910ythSFjqdj8I2X2Fgp6f7jfMwWn7apHzes4MgGaUFRNYVLVmJJUJ9qx6zsBM8QUtYx5Ok3TW-Mor4=s4032" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhaF2540_Wufc3B-JRYj0q5jvhZ3Qlbg2h2sPFnxIm31WLY0P7MyXuKLtVpRqIievBmCkbfWeK5_6OuY5z2ZN9WSGKCKQKpmuzU3tng9OYWd910ythSFjqdj8I2X2Fgp6f7jfMwWn7apHzes4MgGaUFRNYVLVmJJUJ9qx6zsBM8QUtYx5Ok3TW-Mor4=s320" width="320" /></a></div>2) Mask anytime you set foot inside or on the bus. Even bodega managers will chase you off if you're waiting for your group in their front archway. Pack a spare mask with your sunscreen and water bottles just in case.<p></p><p>Most if your activities should be outdoors, so this won't matter often. On the left a shot from the top of Diamond Head on day two.</p><br /><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Transportation</b></span></h2><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhyPQBsn2IAZSExtEGM2DOPMHVFlul8Sh1I68YmCdzJuwM2FaMbsWJHfPaN2MQTUsQFNefO8IPsdsT_zaw4tFCn8fG65GJs4xYDH3w2hcAOIr4_pxJwx7Plr9BdfwTfwDFPJHo5-3KD5ecbgCQjf_9rnlLiVKJg2V-7sNRdc104iqkLs1f96JjTChjY=s4032" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhyPQBsn2IAZSExtEGM2DOPMHVFlul8Sh1I68YmCdzJuwM2FaMbsWJHfPaN2MQTUsQFNefO8IPsdsT_zaw4tFCn8fG65GJs4xYDH3w2hcAOIr4_pxJwx7Plr9BdfwTfwDFPJHo5-3KD5ecbgCQjf_9rnlLiVKJg2V-7sNRdc104iqkLs1f96JjTChjY=s320" width="240" /></a></div>Transportation is the biggest expense an hassle on the island. Fresh off the plane on the Fourth of July, the 8 mile trip to Waikiki Beach spiked from $50 to over $100 on Uber. Screw that. We paid $1.25 a person to ride the public bus. Once in town, stop at any ABC store, and you can travel anywhere on the island for $2.50 a day. Download the free Moovit app onto your phone to see what route to use, where the stops are, and when the buses arrive. While we waited, natives drove by with Hawaiian flags or upside-down US flags on the back, honking in protest to statehood. The stop for our hotel was a princess statue in a well-groomed park, where they polish the stone walkways daily.<p></p><p>For the last four days on the island, we rented a car. Hertz closed two hours before their website said and then yelled at us for half an hour, complain about entitled haolies and how our visits are driving up real-estate prices for them so they have to work two jobs. The bargain car of about $150 a day we reserved didn't matter. They jacked the price by $70 a day before they would let us have *any* vehicle. A car there runs more than a good hotel room, plus $35 a day to park it inside Honolulu. Avoid this. Even on the North Shore, with only one road, traffic moves at 5 mph, and there's nowhere to park.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Food</b></span></h2><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj_iV6gF50-dlHBm710VIEnQljkKXOivc-Yk3HDPX1kToSv0z-3_Cd113LFI5wBBsTvkRukAu_qbpbYbEj-zUWRy07liuoyUIarxIvVgULZiVZp6x1k9LWs54xGpg-lmW0hlhKpHL8HdvL38m0Vs82n82B0QkPRm3PT6birwvlr_zNvfSUTSDaedd7r=s4032" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj_iV6gF50-dlHBm710VIEnQljkKXOivc-Yk3HDPX1kToSv0z-3_Cd113LFI5wBBsTvkRukAu_qbpbYbEj-zUWRy07liuoyUIarxIvVgULZiVZp6x1k9LWs54xGpg-lmW0hlhKpHL8HdvL38m0Vs82n82B0QkPRm3PT6birwvlr_zNvfSUTSDaedd7r=s320" width="240" /></a></div>To make the trip cost-effective and more like what it would be living there, we decided to only eat one big meal out a day. Even the food trucks in Honolulu are pricy. For $15, you can have mystery meat in Styrofoam and a can of Coke, but for $30 each, you can have bread, linen, and unlimited refills at Cheesecake Factory. The rest of meals would be snacks from the grocery store and leftovers, so all our rooms have a fridge/microwave. Our first stop was Walmart, where we filled our backpacks with granola bars, lunch meat, tortillas, and drinks. Target has better prices on some things. In general, the farther you get from the beach, the less the same item will cost.<p></p><p></p><p>Our favorite places were a make-your-own enchilada place on the beach and the second-floor restaurant in a hotel. Both had great views while you dine if you do so before dark. Most people wait until nightfall to dress for dinner. Avoid the waits and go early. That launch place with the line wrapped around the corner isn't worth an hour in the sun. Even McDonalds can have a long queue.</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Housing</b></span></h2><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiyaW1R6N_SqOHuBlCPD9OqkDGnD-Y0SD0bnqq-PeCCC71mbOQhNYLEH6z3d_6Xk8E7sXHjBsiV-Tb7etT563xqZAH_iGH28EmlM8CfWFJwITkkLjXt7kA80K6nW4FVqDncJ2-6oRep_YGgHH7K2qqwsXpFeaBCVQjDOWX3HuBYZ46bUFm3SufkaTim=s4032" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiyaW1R6N_SqOHuBlCPD9OqkDGnD-Y0SD0bnqq-PeCCC71mbOQhNYLEH6z3d_6Xk8E7sXHjBsiV-Tb7etT563xqZAH_iGH28EmlM8CfWFJwITkkLjXt7kA80K6nW4FVqDncJ2-6oRep_YGgHH7K2qqwsXpFeaBCVQjDOWX3HuBYZ46bUFm3SufkaTim=s320" width="240" /></a></div>Don't pick the cheapest place you can find. Ours was made of cinderblock, nestled in a construction zone, surrounded by homeless camps and echoing of domestic violence that leak in the louver blinds if you don't have the deafening jet-engine AC cranked. Seriously, we had ear damage. At $96 a night, the owning hotel a block away added $25 a night in resort fees because we could walk over and get a cup of coffee, change our towels out, borrow a $2 floaty, or get a local newspaper. See left for the view out our window. <p></p><p style="text-align: left;">The midrange hotel has a view of the beach from a mile a away over the park. However, it was centrally located for walking. Breakfast always burned the whole voucher, even if you only ordered a muffin.</p><div>The high-end hotel had a great view but only two elevators for 30 floors and a limit of one family to a car. So the lines were always long to return to the room or leave. Also, a lot of amenities just didn't exist due to COVID (like the hot tub) or were limited due to understaffing (one ice machine hidden in the parking garage beside the laundry machines.)</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjt176nO7t2s3f_HJ48_qwrzj2LxhElfqKCqspKUg9Rde7x1mb9ZCASOQ62adkrJbsQOOPJGZcbvdg1FXX2rpwqIT8jo2Jx6akVeUedxW5rcWzJV0d85qsKlduWDZAUSZxkDHHsAMW5yco6DGm3sGaH0YkQKq1uMJCqgWd8Wc5ZrQsUpnFpxAuBm-GA=s4032" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjt176nO7t2s3f_HJ48_qwrzj2LxhElfqKCqspKUg9Rde7x1mb9ZCASOQ62adkrJbsQOOPJGZcbvdg1FXX2rpwqIT8jo2Jx6akVeUedxW5rcWzJV0d85qsKlduWDZAUSZxkDHHsAMW5yco6DGm3sGaH0YkQKq1uMJCqgWd8Wc5ZrQsUpnFpxAuBm-GA=s320" width="240" /></a></div>The best hotel turned out to be the one on the west side of the island at the corner of a mall. It was spacious, only three stories, with easy access to everything, great parking, and fantastic variety for reasonable food. I ate at Cinnabon and Five Guys a lot that stay. They were also 10 minutes away from the Disney beach. This was our home-base when we did our real exploration. We literally drove around the entire island (except where blocked by military bases). I tried to take a photo of mother and daughter on every beach.</div><br /><div><br /></div><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Fun Things to Do</b></span></h2><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiH-RPO4LxNjNqx6EamONweH03FwIqOB4rA8IzYJBFOc50hVI5w67X3xeJy55BPOzT0me2j2KAKfPb0w_KvIZD1LFTxeDkQBMExYOVZ-zKtOGzDFNGtozc8j4fo1vhOKVP1yN0PSYiiCQazrOgak7jVnuhAWJdI-t8Q-nGDHKK6rlz8ewYmpbWseJMl=s4032" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiH-RPO4LxNjNqx6EamONweH03FwIqOB4rA8IzYJBFOc50hVI5w67X3xeJy55BPOzT0me2j2KAKfPb0w_KvIZD1LFTxeDkQBMExYOVZ-zKtOGzDFNGtozc8j4fo1vhOKVP1yN0PSYiiCQazrOgak7jVnuhAWJdI-t8Q-nGDHKK6rlz8ewYmpbWseJMl=s320" width="240" /></a></div>My favorite activities were free. Since we walked many places, we admired the flowers and tiny birds. While touring the university, the imported mongeese were awesome. The prettiest stop was Manoa Falls. Not only was the rainforest gorgeous, but people was covered in mud afterward. <p></p>My wife went to every fabric store and Ross Dress for Less on the island. She also stood by tourist spots and offered to take photos of people with their families.<div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiInU8ugvT10xAPZ20ZZYIAVZcZwPGzm5Tktax2r_3KwaU2WXDC9VZvGPHPF8Hk-PA4PCjc-KXTkGMma56anKiqg4qZcIgM3SDwIuDDx2_lN2J0eBypdLbrhvj-c3jvjb5rwxJTWf0hSB9ODjJvxj_mTObpppyNc2_ZcxqIlQiKouLl98oLmC9XOWFB=s4032" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiInU8ugvT10xAPZ20ZZYIAVZcZwPGzm5Tktax2r_3KwaU2WXDC9VZvGPHPF8Hk-PA4PCjc-KXTkGMma56anKiqg4qZcIgM3SDwIuDDx2_lN2J0eBypdLbrhvj-c3jvjb5rwxJTWf0hSB9ODjJvxj_mTObpppyNc2_ZcxqIlQiKouLl98oLmC9XOWFB=s320" width="320" /></a></div></div><div><br /></div><div>My daughter got to learn stand-up paddle boarding and test-drive a Tesla around the city. We experienced a moment of "white privilege" at the mall when they saw my wife's "Dr" e-mail (she has a PhD in counseling) and bent over backwards trying to put us into a sportscar. The acceleration even to 30 was enough to strain my neck. I climbed out of the cockpit as soon as I could and played Pokemon Go while they had fun. The induction chargers built-in to the dash were sweet, though.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgxWk0epu2cnPkRDjX27zIIMVzf8lm53H7AHwnY2NYb_h4eWww-DbHL3igaT1kyStW74DzJguAF08Uw_eIvm0IVIawZfn5Y5PpVLVtQqGxgVJapsMVXI_0ahUgLWnQEYLgn3iP_-CDXBLw_0qgLPDRhvASFNgc8GAJP0BeXjTrLNCEL1bJbPYg3Bv2Z=s4032" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgxWk0epu2cnPkRDjX27zIIMVzf8lm53H7AHwnY2NYb_h4eWww-DbHL3igaT1kyStW74DzJguAF08Uw_eIvm0IVIawZfn5Y5PpVLVtQqGxgVJapsMVXI_0ahUgLWnQEYLgn3iP_-CDXBLw_0qgLPDRhvASFNgc8GAJP0BeXjTrLNCEL1bJbPYg3Bv2Z=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>The historical tour at Pearl Harbor was stark and a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but I think the .most startling events were the rainbows--unexpected and spectacular.</p><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Things I Didn't Enjoy</h2><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhAoUcabIw4cZKFmKFy3deWbgOver2jPytomPRaps29WSZpZv7mw1NI2lC_CG9UU3Mj8iw-36uAUXq23mSPkWd2KKlMme2Q-ppooPF4pmPbcZ3YXkzP539w6K-OWpCHUoz8czrHiqEkwmoJb01-4amzx1u1-hdkt8afSYQVFE52b6NsfHSs3TFxcR0M=s4032" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhAoUcabIw4cZKFmKFy3deWbgOver2jPytomPRaps29WSZpZv7mw1NI2lC_CG9UU3Mj8iw-36uAUXq23mSPkWd2KKlMme2Q-ppooPF4pmPbcZ3YXkzP539w6K-OWpCHUoz8czrHiqEkwmoJb01-4amzx1u1-hdkt8afSYQVFE52b6NsfHSs3TFxcR0M=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br />Every corner of Oahu had some hidden beauty. However, when summing up the extended stay, there were things we didn't like so much--deal-breakers for my migration.<p></p><p>1) How long the flight takes. It costs a lot of endurance to take that volume crammed in like sardines, and we wouldn't be able to visit friends and family on the mainland much.</p><p>2) The ever-present homeless. They're near every park or beach. In Honolulu, you can't walk anywhere without encountering a camp of them sprawled over a sidewalk. Behind our hotel, one had a dumping ground where they got rid of things they didn't want from stolen tourist bags. At sundown, you didn't dare encroach on someone's regular territory.</p><p>3) The smell of weed. We steered our daughter around the aroma an average of eight times a day. We were approached about a purchase in line at the ice cream store. The local cops have enough on their hands that this doesn't even show up on the radar.</p><p>4) Lack of beach access. All beaches are public, but getting there can be difficult. No parking and a three-foot path that's trash-strewn and a little dangerous. Adjacent property owners can be unfriendly. Some beaches have lots that fill up at 7 a.m. Others treat your rental car like an ATV. Often, you'll find vehicles that have been abandoned for years, but nobody tows them.</p><p>5) Inconsistency of zoning. You can see a million-dollar mansion with barred windows right next to a trailer park, with cops putting on tactical gear to the strains of Bad Boys.</p><p>6) A general feeling of resentment against outsiders. After talking to some people on the bus, unless I could tell the locals which high school I attended, they would never accept me.</p></div>Scott Rhinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06437848922061482346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2886818154664476546.post-179160338827100372021-12-07T14:54:00.000-08:002021-12-07T14:54:01.797-08:00Beal's Conjecture Counterexample<p> I'm a math geek. Every once in a while I like to attack big problems as an intellectual workout. The problem I picked this time was known as Beal's conjecture. Why should you care? Aside from the sheer beauty of formulas and ramifications to fields like math and cryptography/cryptocurrency, it has a million-dollar prize. <a href="https://www.bealconjecture.com/" style="font-size: 12pt;">https://www.bealconjecture.com/</a></p><p>Everyone is familiar with the Pythagorean Theorem: A^2+B^2=C^2, but Fermat claimed (recently proven after 357 years of attempts) that this formula can't work for any power over two. </p><p>A^n+B^n =C^n has no integer solutions. In the process of trying to prove Fermat's Last Theorem, a mathematician by the name of Andrew Wiles determined that in the general case A^x + B^y = C^z has no solutions for x, y, and z above 3 unless A,B, and C have a common factor. The American Mathematical Society has offered the big prize to anyone who can prove or disprove the conjecture.</p><p>I found how I could take any prime and use modulo arithmetic rules to construct examples where that prime is the common factor.</p><p class="MsoNormal">2^3 + 2^3 = 2^4</p><p class="MsoNormal">3^6 + 3^6*2^3 = 3^8</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">(5^2*41)^10 + (5^2*41*2)^10 = (5^2*41)^11</span></p><p class="MsoNormal">7^3 + 7^4 = 7^3*2^3</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">11^5*3^5 + 11^5*3^5*2^5 = 11^6*3^6 ... ad infinitum.</span></p><p>If there had been even one prime I couldn't do this with, it might have been a chink in the armor. No such luck. After playing with this for a week, I became convinced it's true, and nobody will be able to find a counterexample. Why? Because in an attempt to disprove it, I made the rules even weaker. I got rid of the common exponent condition and just looked for a counterexample where A, B, and C have no factors in common but all the exponents are above three. A^x + p1^m*p2^n*... = C^z</p><p>My reasoning for this was that if I generated a few dozen weaker solutions, I could then generalize a pattern for the counterexamples, and I could finagle one that also worked in the stronger Beal case. But that's never going to happen. In the looser construct, I found<b> exactly one solution:</b></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">271^3 + 73^3*3^5*2^3 = 919^3</p>This example cannot be converted to the Beal case without increasing the power of 3 to a multiple of three. However, to do that, I would theoretically have to multiply every term in the equation by common factors, violating our rules and thus proving Beal's conjecture.<p></p><p>Of course, to make this an official proof I would have to show conclusively that this is the <b>only </b>solution, not just assert that it was the only one that doesn't overflow the integer variables on my computer and I didn't make a mistake in my programming. This is close enough for me. It adds to the body of knowledge without me having to lock myself in a room alone for months. These sorts of problems will eat you alive if you let them.</p>Scott Rhinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06437848922061482346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2886818154664476546.post-89595109031375777742021-11-02T08:51:00.006-07:002021-11-02T08:51:38.124-07:00Should I Try Pubby<p>Pubby is a website where authors rate each others’ books.
Membership has a monthly fee, but it bypasses Amazon’s stricture against paid
reviews. Is a good idea to join? The short answer is: in moderation and in
limited circumstances for a limited time.</p>
<h2>Why I Tried</h2>
<p class="MsoNormal">Indie authors should never pay for reviews. First of all,
Amazon would remove your account. Although, a few Vine Voice reviewers hit me
up for payment, but nothing happens to them. Second, nobody would believe the
honest reviews you do have. While browsing on Amazon, few people will buy a
book with under ten reviews, and some advertisers won’t help you until you
reach that threshold. Normally, my mailing list of fans can provide 5 to 20
starter reviews, depending on how good the cover is and how close the new novel
is to my normal style. If those fail, things get ugly. Sending out personalized
invitations to 500 reviewers may get me another 5 reviews, but new reviews risk
knocking off earlier unpaid reviews—three steps forward and two steps back.
Giving away a hundred e-books on Goodreads doesn’t do much. I got one Amazon
review and 4 Goodreads ratings. The read-to-review bulletin board hasn’t
yielded results in a couple years. I won’t give away free copies on Amazon
again to spur reviews. If you get a competing author or an offended customer
who gives you an early one-star on Amazon, your book may never recover. Even
free, it counts as a verified purchase and weighs as much as 8 older reviews
from bloggers. What can an Indie author do in these circumstances?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Trading reads on a site like StoryOrigin is slow. I think I
received six reviews for two books in the few months I belonged, and half were
from Amazon.uk. One caused Amazon to remove a previous free review. My net gain
was two reviews for three months of effort, not a great payoff. The site was
valuable for meeting other authors and growing my mailing list. Although, site
membership is now $10 a month.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">What’s left? Desperate to repair my books that started with
a bad cover or an early one-star, I turned to the Pubby website.</p>
<h2>The Price</h2>
<p class="MsoNormal">You get a free 10 day trial membership and a few points to
spend. You get more points by reviewing the books of other authors on the site.
I would recommend the trial membership to anyone with a few caveats. Though
some are free, most books are only available to select if you belong to Kindle
Unlimited or pay for them on Amazon. If you want reviews for your books to have
full Verified Purchase weight, you have to pay Pubby an extra fifteen bucks as
a one-time fee. The Kindle Unlimited option is another ten. Why would you want
this? Because Amazon purchases from Pubby reviewers can actually earn you more
than your subscription fees, and reviews don’t vanish due to the mysteries of
the Almighty Amazon Algorithm. Anecdotal evidence has informed me when under ¼
of reviews are verified purchase, old ones can slip off when new ones are
added. I opted to get both options and continue for two months at the limited
10-book level at $17.99 a month. For a beginner without a mailing list, it’s a
no-brainer.</p>
<h2>Summary</h2>
<p class="MsoNormal">The site interface is crude but navigable. In theory, you
can gain as many reviews as the work you put in, taking out two books at a time
and waiting six hours after purchase to post a review. In practice, they will
only allow 10 reviews per week, and your progress is limited by the speed at
which the moderator confirms reviews (up to ten days). In case Amazon someday
ends up invalidating all those reviews or the books themselves, I didn’t choose
my best-rated/most-reviewed novels. Over a span of 64 days, I spent $205 (61 to
Pubby and 144 for buying other authors’ novels) and got 57 reviews, with an
average outlay of $3.60 each—a financial bargain.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Most of my novels only needed 2 or 3 reviews to repair a
stain or boost them to the noticeable level. For books already rated below 4.0,
I started cautiously to see how the community would react to them. Reviews for
free copies were half the price (1500 vs 2500) and counted for less than
verified. Amazon only allows 7 free reviews a week. Though I got a three-star
for my lowest ranked older book, it didn’t sting or make an impact, and I
stopped when I reached ten reviews. These novels didn’t change ratings at all,
just count. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The only permanent and
significant ratings gains came because of volume and purchases</b>. I’ll talk
about my larger scale experiments later.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Though the Pubby-written reviews averaged two lines and were
vague, about a third of them were thoughtful and deeply appreciated. A few reviewers
obviously didn’t even crack the book or read the summary; their reviews could
have applied to any work of fiction. A little resentment leaked through from
other people who felt forced to read the books of others because they began
with the phrase “normally I don’t read this kind of book.” So much so, the word
“normally” now appears in my keyword list for reviews for “It Takes an Oni.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Because verified reviews and longer books are more expensive,
I gave more reviews than I received. For the 60 reviews I provided, I started
with nice things above the More click line and then limited negatives to the
worst four problems. I gave points for formatting, editing, meeting the promise
of the genre, and whether I liked it or not, with examples. Fourteen of them
had serious formatting issues. Forty-two of them had persistent grammar and
punctuation issues. Most fiction authors I could contact through Goodreads (those
I was giving 4-5 stars and wanted to help) admitted that they had no editor and
no wish to spend that money. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Reviews
from kind peers are no substitute for a professional product</b>. If I couldn’t
say anything nice, which happened about three times, I put it back as soon as
possible, returned my payment points, and got my real money back from Amazon. Of
the eight organic paid novels I rated a three-star, one author gave up
collecting reviews afterward. Another removed their book from Amazon entirely.
However, half of my critical reviews became the top review for that book, so
others thought they were helpful.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The biggest cost to me was time, an average of four hours
per book for reading, add one each for note-taking, spreadsheet-accounting, and
e-mails to remove website obstacles. That’s over 300 hours of effort, something
I wouldn’t have time for unless I was between projects.</p>
<h2>Fairness</h2>
<p class="MsoNormal">The ratings sci-fi books receive on Amazon (sampling several
authors) are typically about half a star higher than Goodreads. The ones I
received on Pubby averaged 4.587, about .25 stars higher than my usual Amazon
rating. Then again, when I had a choice between which of the ten novels on my
shelf I would submit for the next review, I spent my hard-earned points on my
best, most popular, and most sale-worthy novels first.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Books with fewer than 30 reviews and actual organic
participation didn’t seem to be significantly skewed by the Pubby additions.
However, fifteen of the books I reviewed relied solely on Pubby (fewer than 5
Goodreads reviews and over 30 Amazon). Those averaged 72 reviews with 4.458
stars (standard deviation of .19). We have no clue whether those were realistic,
and my ratings also fell inside that narrow band. The outliers were more
credible, giving some indication of quality range; however, 102 ratings that
averaged 4.8 with no 3-star reviews doesn’t seem authentic. Even Jim Butcher’s
latest triumph, “Battle Ground” (same star rating) had 4 percent of its ratings
3 and below. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Someone in cycling
competition would call performance like this sus</b>. Since a quarter of those authors
who received bad reviews dropped out before reaching the 30 mark, this might
affect the average rating curve.</p>
<h2>Hidden Benefits</h2>
<p class="MsoNormal">Keep track of every review you have on Amazon before and
during the experiment. If one of your Pubby reviews vanishes mysteriously, they
will refund the points you paid. Second books in a series are notoriously hard
to collect reviews for ahead of time, but you can get them done here! An epic
fantasy book from a decade ago received favorable attention, which let me know
I’d underestimated it and encouraged me to spend more effort on the series. If
I have one paid review a day, the position on my genre list goes way up from
1.5 million to 2000, which adds a little respectability too.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The text you place in your book description often ends up in
reviews, so choose wisely. Once you add a book, it’s there forever. You can
also pay extra to have your book reviewed by people who rate your genre or your
books higher than average, which we’ll come back to later. Children’s books
were easy to review, but many weren’t suitable for Kindle.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The biggest hidden
benefit was seeing how good my cover is by how fast people snap up the title
after I request a review</b>. If it’s a couple minutes, you have a winner. If
it takes a day, invest in a replacement. I could tell how good a novel was by
how long it took on average to go from “reading” to “review awaiting approval.”
My book “It Takes an Oni” almost always came back with rave reviews the next
day, whereas few people wanted to finish my genetic-engineering hard science
fiction in five. On this site, you can tell quickly which of your products are
marketable, where you should invest future efforts, and where you should cut
your losses. A word of caution, any novel over 70k words will be considered
“long” by this audience and make garnering reviewers more difficult. </p>
<h2>Hidden Costs and Pitfalls</h2>
<p class="MsoNormal">The word count in the book description page Pubby gives you
is often wrong, especially for nonfiction. They don’t care. Don’t bother to
email the site; just put it back because they aren’t paying you enough.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Often, nonfiction people game the system to a ridiculous
level. They put themselves in an obscure subcategory that they’re really
nowhere close to the subject matter to just to get higher on a chart with less
competition. Please don’t commit fraud like this. I deducted a star and called
it out in the reviews. If I could have complained to Amazon, I would have.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In one case, a person reading my book didn’t post a review
in the week after, so the site put my on the market again at no cost to me.
Unfortunately, someone grabbed it that normally doesn’t read sci-fi and rated
it a 3 with a one-line review: “This looked like it would be a fun read, but
not really. At least for me.” This was absolutely no help, with no specifics. Did
they stop after the first page?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I tried to be super nice my first month—reminding myself of
a young bride who won’t fart in front of her husband for the first year. I
wouldn’t take a book assignment if I couldn’t post an average rating a four. In
nonfiction, logical errors and misinformation from non-experts abound. Some writers
only have one title and post it nonstop over a hundred times. As a rule of
thumb, a book on Amazon will have about half the number of organic reviews you
see on GR. If they only have three on GR and over 100 on Amazon, it feels like a
sock puppet. I didn’t feel right lying to people about these and tried to avoid
them. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The worst side-effect of perpetuating
these is that Amazon detects common purchasers, even from Pubby</b>. With every
review you ask for, you risk being lumped in with them because people who
bought the sock puppet also bought yours. If you’ve ever downloaded your own
book during a free day, you could infect yourself by touching this social
network.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 171.0pt;">After receiving my the three-star
review “not for me”, I stopped caring and became more honest. When I read a nonfiction
book that lied on several levels and lacked basic formatting and editing, I
issued my first two-star rating. Once the average score I posted dropped below
four, the number of options I had to do reviews on dropped sharply. Why? People
pay extra points to get the friendly reviews. The ones remaining were usually a
lower quality, with no editing. As I gave more 3s, even though I kept the rules
about starting positive, I was excluded by genre after genre and my review
approvals slowed ever more so I couldn’t request reviews as often. By two weeks
into my second month, I could only see nonfiction candidates once or twice a
day. Since I wasn’t a woman of color into Raki massage subscribed to Kindle
Unlimited, the options were even scarcer, only travel books or nothing for days.
I was forced to drop out 10 days before my last month completed.</p>
<h2>Case Studies for Larger Review Counts</h2>
<p class="MsoNormal">What about the two special cases where I gathered more
reviews? My medical thriller “Preconceptions” started with 3 reviews (2 fives
and a one-star), sitting at around 3.5 average. Either readers didn’t like the
topic of eugenics/near-future genetic engineering and the rules governing
science, or I didn’t wrap it attractively enough. Once I accrued 7 mor reviews
so it met the minimum 10 threshold, it had risen to an average of 4.1 with a
believable bell curve. My first Book Barbarian sale last April only sold 15
copies. The second sale in mid-October with a comparable venue only sold 8. In
a light-bulb moment, I figured out that email/social media sale venues don’t
show the number of reviews, only the cover and a short pitch. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Having a hundred reviews doesn’t matter if
my book isn’t marketable</b>. A sale can get you noticed on the first page of a
genre where reviews matter, but only if you can garner enough interest on day
one to make the leap. Pubby can’t help a novel nobody wants.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Lastly, I did a larger scale test for “It Takes an Oni,” my
supernatural heist novel with a new cover. It started at 5 initial reviews (all
five-stars) and actually went down to a more realistic 4.7 by the time it
reached my goal of 30 reviews. It sold 51 on its opening sale in March,
including my own mailing list. However, I hoped that seeing a sharp new cover
and a lot of reviews would sway more of my existing fans to try it. If this
happens, I could reach the fifty review mark organically, and Amazon might send
a few emails on my behalf. At the very least, bloggers might be more receptive.
The sale Halloween week sold over 100 copies, more in two days than the
previous year! It also encouraged two additional organic reviews by the third
day.</p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p class="MsoNormal">I got my money’s worth on this experiment but won’t be able
to repeat it with my next book. Not only would I have to pay $25 a month to go
from ten to eleven novels on my shelf, but <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">once
you’re completely honest, you’re no longer welcome on the site</b>. Therefore
for future novels, I have to make sure my book is marketable, has a good cover,
and is supported by my base fans before I post it to Amazon.</p>Scott Rhinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06437848922061482346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2886818154664476546.post-13248266206633486052021-01-25T11:27:00.001-08:002021-01-25T11:27:11.990-08:00Preconception Cover Reveal<p> This past November, I wrote a 48K word medical thriller about a breakthru in treating common genetic disorders ethically before conception. It poured out in three weeks. As a result, I spent seven weeks rewriting it, but <i>Preconceptions </i>has more symbolism and raw feeling than any book I've written in the last decade. The main character is a gentleman journalist with few clues about the topic, ala Sam Spade. Other than the main invention, a tool to detect the rapid cell division as an egg tranforms into a baby, everything in it is as scientifically accurate as I could make it. It will be on sale for 99 cents for the first few weeks in order to stimulate reviews.<a href=" https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TX6R2Q4" target="_blank"> click here for Amazon page</a></p><p>I'm very pleased with the way the cover came out:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN5gQ5BgtOszt0_fRUaVgMTrEvA1v9F825WpFpFw54TGYB4icZLbRLUINP9SVxlv4zoXgcwxagUM4LXa-LOa4j3tKBMFYK4DtpoFf4jCMNt-iny8QQef68FtqjJ_SYbkP9F_1F5_vdOao/s405/preconceptions+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="270" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN5gQ5BgtOszt0_fRUaVgMTrEvA1v9F825WpFpFw54TGYB4icZLbRLUINP9SVxlv4zoXgcwxagUM4LXa-LOa4j3tKBMFYK4DtpoFf4jCMNt-iny8QQef68FtqjJ_SYbkP9F_1F5_vdOao/w266-h400/preconceptions+web.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Scott Rhinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06437848922061482346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2886818154664476546.post-61487464143614639212020-07-14T19:02:00.011-07:002020-11-10T13:22:09.539-08:00It Takes an Oni: Sample<h1><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT6ieI2ckKvfo2y5bf2A8gS2WbmCs_EQ93IzvPJJSE2FeEG0WF8moIzD12-GhNB2ZuMbxHfSIw_ACVXs_uQ18TUWtQd4h998uvBFA_nIV_Mm_MHiHP38-XxbZ261f_sPVbAEjtiy6_MUA/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1365" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT6ieI2ckKvfo2y5bf2A8gS2WbmCs_EQ93IzvPJJSE2FeEG0WF8moIzD12-GhNB2ZuMbxHfSIw_ACVXs_uQ18TUWtQd4h998uvBFA_nIV_Mm_MHiHP38-XxbZ261f_sPVbAEjtiy6_MUA/" width="160" /></a></div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: medium;">An interesting monster…<br /></span></span><span style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;">For a hundred years, he’s stolen art and gems from around
the world, and he can look like anyone. Now Solomon Oni has taken a commission
to rob something of devastating power from the Smithsonian’s religious artifact
vault. His only friend, other than a magical tattoo artist and the odd djinn,
is a young misfit witch named Morgan. When supernatural thugs threaten her, he demonstrates
just how much a former servant of the underworld can do to punish the wicked.
Sometimes it takes a monster to catch a monster. Fans of </span><i style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;">Oceans 11</i><span style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;"> and </span><i style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;">Beauty and the
Beast</i><span style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;"> will enjoy this fantasy adventure.</span><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;">Here's chapter one:</span></div></h1>
<h1>
Nothing could go
Wrong</h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Give a man a mask, and he’ll tell you the truth.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
—Oscar Wilde</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><p class="MsoNormal">I’ve been called many things—monster, abomination, and thief—but
I prefer the Japanese term Oni. Like them, I could reshape my face to look like
anyone I want. However, instead of working to punish of the wicked, I became
the wicked.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">On Memorial Day, I wore the face of
Solomon Bourne, a fortyish mouse of a man who dressed like a bank clerk from <i>Mary Poppins</i>. Because my parents never
gave me a name, I could choose any I liked. This identity came from the
children’s nursery rhyme, “Solomon Grundy, <i>born</i>
on a Monday.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">I climbed the stately stone steps
of the Maryland Smithsonian office and tugged on the door. I feigned surprise
when it was locked. Then, I held up my ID from the Knox Vault Company toward
the security camera.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">A hefty guard limped over from his
desk, powdered sugar from a donut staining his solid-blue tie. Donut-stain was
an ex-football player from <st1:state w:st="on">New Jersey</st1:state>
with a bad knee. I knew his name, everything about him down to how much he owed
on his Suburban, but I couldn’t think of the guards as people today if I was
going to do my job.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">He recognized me the way people did
the moving boxes in their basement that they never opened. “Why are you here? Don’t
you know what today is?”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;"><i>My
big score</i>. I tapped the tickets in my left vest pocket. “The comic-book
convention?” I asked with a faint British accent. The success of any magic
trick is based on staying in character and selling the lie.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">“It’s a federal holiday. The place
is closed. You don’t need to be here to open the vault.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">He was referring to Dangerous Religious
Artifacts department, so named because the <st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region> government could never admit
that magic exists. Built in the <st1:city w:st="on">Lincoln</st1:city>
era, the DRA was the most secure facility in the country. I’d been here as
Bourne every time they opened or closed the vault for the weekend. But on a
holiday, there were only four guards in the entire building instead of the normal
ten. I had arranged the perfect way past the defenses. My client would be
pleased.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">I pulled an authorization form out
of my doctor’s bag. “That’s why the company wants me to drain the tanks today.
With all the arrests and artifact seizures this year, you have record levels of
dark Kirilian radiation.” That was the polite 1970s term for black magic that
would melt your eyes out for even looking at it. “Wouldn’t want any of that
stuff <i>leaking</i> out, would we?”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">With a sigh, he let me in. Officially,
this facility was storage for overflow Smithsonian exhibits, and the workers
rotated the items in the lobby to keep up appearances. The current display had
to do with Watusi ceremonial dress, but the wooden staff in the mannequin’s
hands wasn’t Watusi; it was Northern Chinese. I couldn’t read the runes to be
more precise. <i>Not my circus, not my
monkeys. Bourne wouldn’t know the difference, so I can’t say anything</i>.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">While Donut-stain radioed his boss
in the control room, I signed the logbook in front of a surly African-American woman.
She must have started her civil service career in the TSA because she had me take
off my leather sandals first. Then she patted me down thoroughly. In the
process, she failed to notice that I had removed the prints from the pads of my
fingers.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">“Pass your bag through the scanner.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">I had latex gloves, tools, Chiclets
gum, and a dozen other suspicious devices in my kit, but the only thing that
raised an eyebrow was the plastic box of medicated wipes in my jacket. “It’s
for hemorrhoids.” I didn’t say <i>mine</i>.
The container had a gel-filled false bottom the exact size and shape of the
gemstone I was here to liberate. I used a gel because I didn’t want anyone to
rattle the container and find the cubic-zirconium replica.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">“It’s okay. He always carries
them,” said Donut-stain.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">I’d included them in my identity
since the beginning, making the prop invisible.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">She grimaced. “Proceed to the elevator
on the left. You must be escorted at all times.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;"><i>Yeah,
but they never follow me into the bathroom</i>. I had tested the switch
technique on a smaller item. I could toss the container out the narrow bathroom
window and walk out scot-free. Within a minute of the drop, my associate Elaine
would pass by walking her dog and scoop it up in a plastic baggie.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">Another side of beef in uniform
stood at attention beside the elevator. They both had six inches on me, but with
my superhuman strength, I could knock them out if I had to. The trick was to
get away with the crime without leaving evidence that anything supernatural had
been involved.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">Bored by the holiday closure, guard
two did something unheard-of. He asked me a social question. “How about that
Polish soccer game last night?”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">He meant the FIFA tournament, but I
didn’t own a TV. However, I didn’t want to reveal a personal fact that they
might use to track me later. So I touched the hearing aid in my right ear.
“Pardon?”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">Soccer guard averted his eyes. It’s
a trick I learned. People avoid looking at what they perceive as disabilities.
It makes them uncomfortable and leaves fewer witnesses for me. I can lip-read
for other reasons.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">The guards put their keys in on
either side of the ancient elevator and turned them simultaneously. Donut said
to Soccer, “The people downstairs like that he can’t listen in on secrets about
m-a-g-i-c.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">“How did it happen?”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">“Testing one of their vaults with
dynamite. Long story. His family has been in this business for generations. His
grandfather met Jesse James.” A good legend grows with each telling.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">The doors opened, and I stepped
inside. The elevator had two buttons. I hit B. In twenty minutes, I would be holding
the thing I’d worked for two months to steal.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">As the doors began to close, a
woman’s voice called from the lobby, “Hold the lift!”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">When I saw her long, white hair, I
pushed the Close button frantically. It didn’t help.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">Soccer guard put his foot in the
gap.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">I froze in terror. <i>What is she doing here? She’s supposed to be
attending law school. <o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">Delilah could expose everything. Her
undergraduate degree in history made her an outstanding researcher and
archivist, and her minor in psychology had sharpened her ability to unearth the
truth from obscure clues. If I weren’t working for a god, I would’ve run away
then and there. However, the Drinking God always enforces oaths; he’s touchy
about that. <i>She won’t recognize me if I
don’t speak. This can still work</i>.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">Slightly out of breath from the run,
the gorgeous blue-eyed Nordic woman passed over credentials from the pocket of
her business jacket. “Delilah Theowin, <st1:place w:st="on">Salem</st1:place>
security.” Most witches lived in <st1:city w:st="on">Salem</st1:city>,
the private dimension that Lilith got in the settlement for divorcing Adam.
“I’m here to suspend the wards for the special opening today.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">Donut-stain frowned. “Why not
Agnes?”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;"><i>My
sentiments exactly</i>. Agnes was a half-blind bureaucrat and let me get away
with anything. If the heist went south, I couldn’t choke Delilah unconscious
and look myself in the mirror again.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">“The theonic radiation in the DRA
is a concern, so they brought me in as a specialist. I’m skilled in handling
sacred items.” Witches referred to lethal levels of raw, undirected magic from
another realm as “theonic,” leaving the nature of the god unspecified. She didn’t
use judgmental terms like dark or evil, even though her last scrape with the
supernatural had permanently bleached her hair corn-silk white. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">“Yeah,” said Donut, glancing at me.
“I heard something about that.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">I’d brought this on myself by spreading
the backstory too far.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">From a long line of witch priestesses,
Delilah had a rare resistance that had been strengthened by the tattoos all
over her body. With their aid, she could pick up cursed items, absorb, and
redirect the harmful energy. Instinctively, my eyes went to the ward spiral
visible through her white nylons. <i>Don’t
stare!</i> With great effort, I raised my chin to be a gentleman.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;"><i>Stay
in character, and this will all work</i>. I stepped to the back of the elevator
car to hide as Donut-stain escorted her in. <i>Why
is he starting to take an interest in his job now?</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">Her hair smelled of lavender, just
like it had ten years ago. With her heels, she was an inch taller than me. She
said one word, and I knew I was doomed. “Morgan!”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">The ten-year-old girl came galloping
through the lobby like a wild horse, her wavy black mane flowing unbound. Small
for her age, she made up for it with attitude. She wore a private-school
uniform with a pleated skirt but no shoes. She’d removed them for the security
search but never bothered to put them back on.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">Her mother growled, but the infraction
didn’t merit an argument in front of people she worked with.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">Donut-stain frowned. “Hey, this is
no place for kids.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">Delilah pushed the down button.
“Yeah? Well, nobody told me her new school would be closed today, and she’s
been banned from the only suitable day care. Anger issues.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">“Mr. Mask?” said the girl, gazing at
me with her chocolate eyes.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;"><i>How
did she recognize me with implants and surgical alteration? </i>Despite having
a mouth like a truck driver, this child was the most dangerously smart person I
had ever met. I tried to reason with her, putting a finger to my lips.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">The doors closed with glacial
slowness again.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">Donut-stain said, “He can’t hear
you, kid. He’s deaf.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">“She’s talking to her imaginary
friend,” explained Delilah.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">Morgan opened her mouth to
contradict them both, but I took a chance and signed, “Play along. I can’t
talk, or your mother will know my secret.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">Her eyes grew huge. “I understand,”
she said aloud. Then slowly, she signed back. “How am I understanding?”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">“Magic.” I was vague on purpose. You
don’t tell a little girl about mommy’s nasty deal with an elder god.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">Her mother smiled at the girl’s “pretend”
sign language and chatted with the guard.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">“I suck at magic.” Morgan made a
gesture that she shouldn’t have known for several years. “I’ve been thrown out
of three schools. Can you help?”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">I recognized the symptoms from
other crossbreeds. “Then those schools suck. They only know how to teach people
to <i>do</i> magic. You <i>are</i> magic. You have a rare and precious gift. You can speak any
language the person you’re with knows.” Other abilities should manifest as she matured.
“Some of your anger may be due to the disconnect between what people are saying
with their mouths and the truth that their body language is revealing.” My
mother had been an oracle, and personal information sometimes popped into my
head when I met people. The talent came in handy when planning a new job. Hacking
people is easier than cracking safes.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">“I’m a bloody unicorn,” she
muttered aloud. Her face lit up like I’d given her the keys to her own life.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">“Language!” her mother said sternly
without turning.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">The elevator stopped, but our signing
conversation continued as Donut led us down the hall toward the head
archivist’s office. “Are you my guardian angel?” Morgan asked, pointing toward
my sandals.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;"><i>They
don’t have a word for what I am. Not a nice one</i>. “Not an angel, but I watch
over you whenever I can.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">Her mother pointed to a row of
chairs. “Sit!”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">Both Morgan and I obeyed
reflexively.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">Harrison Tweed stepped out of his
boss’s office, the holiday replacement. This buffoon was everything I hated in
an Ivy League bureaucrat—attractive, oily, and fond of claiming the
accomplishments of others. “Hello… I’m the security officer, the acting
supervisor at this site. Whom do we have the pleasure of meeting?”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;"><i>Pompous
ass. </i>I shouldn’t complain. His incompetence made my job easy.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">Donut made introductions.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">Harrison actually kissed Delilah’s
hand before he took her into the office to sign some forms.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">I whispered, “Call me Pepe Lepew.
Mwah.” I kissed the little girl’s hand.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">Morgan burst out in a fresh round
of giggles.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">“You two know each other?” Donut
asked.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">“What? You mean do I break into her
house once a year and leave her presents, while she puts cookies out for me?
That would be creepy.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">Covering her face, Morgan held in a
snicker. That’s exactly what we’d been doing. When she turned three, she’d left
her favorite platypus plush doll in a hotel. I had tracked it down with my divination
skills and returned it, but she caught me in the act. To buy her silence, I’d
taught her how to tie her shoes. Her mom was a righty while Morgan was a lefty
like her no-good absentee father.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">The guard took out his phone and
pulled up a video of some sporting match. I used his moment of disinterest to
transfer the Chiclets into my jacket pocket.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">She signed, “Why are you here?”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">“To rescue someone.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">“Who?”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;"><i>The
most powerful genie of his age, trapped in a vault</i>. I made a locking
gesture over my lips.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">“Angel stuff. Got it.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">I wanted to hug her, but that would
get me arrested for other reasons. Instead, I asked, “What happened at the day
care?”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">“I don’t know what the big deal is.
I took a nap during some boring movie, and one of the other kids woke me up,
screaming that I was a freak. So I washed his mouth out with hand sanitizer.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;"><i>She’s
glowing in her sleep again</i>. “You can’t do that.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">“They didn’t have any soap.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">“You can’t sleep anywhere but in
your own bed! I warned you.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">“Why not? Normal kids do.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">“I agree it’s not fair,” I replied.
“For now, you have to trust me.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">The manager’s door opened, and <st1:place w:st="on">Harrison</st1:place> frowned at the guard. “Take the child to the
break room. Buy her something with sugar. Just keep her out of our hair.” Then
he gestured me inside.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">Access to the vault area was
through the back of the manager’s office.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">I glanced down the hall toward the exit.
Delilah could lose her job for what I was about to do. Watching her cry about
that would be hard, but facing a berserk god would be worse.</p><p class="TransitionStars" style="line-height: normal;">****</p><p class="MsoNormal"><st1:place w:st="on">Harrison</st1:place> narrated the whole
experience as if he had designed it. “The DRA repository is surrounded by three
feet of reinforced concrete on every side, with alternating meshes of silver,
cold iron, and electrum to prevent access from supernatural forces. Recently,
Knox has installed blockers for cell phones and ground-penetrating radar.” To
be fair, the Knox Ultima mark 7 was an impressive piece of craftsmanship that
filled the entire wall. The brushed-titanium fittings and pearlescent
midnight-blue paint job wouldn’t be out of place on a Jaguar. Not many people
could see the faint wards woven beneath the lacquered surface. The <st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region> government
had spoiled the effect by installing fluorescent fixtures in the seventies. “The
glassy substance around the perimeter is eog, a living aetheric material that
absorbs any magical attack and transfers it to a storage array in the floor.
It’s wand-proof. Inside, we maintain a self-contained environment so tight it could
be used to store smallpox. The only way in or out is through this seven-layer door.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">Just to throw him off his smug
stride, I pointed to the two-foot plus sphere in the left corner.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;"><st1:place w:st="on">Harrison</st1:place>
rolled his eyes. “Oh. That’s the night depository. It’s how agents drop off
dangerous items after hours.” The top quarter of the ball had been cut out like
a Pac Man mouth with a pivot rod through the jaw. He demonstrated by lifting
the lever at the bottom to show how the contents could be dumped onto the other
side of the wall.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">“Like a mailbox,” Delilah said.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">“We catalog and shelve them the
next morning. To drain the energy sink, we’ll need to open that impenetrable
door.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">She smiled at the dramatic flair.
“I’ve read the specs, sir. It’s a simple three-person lock. Mr. Bourne turns
off the antimagic sponge. I suspend the wards, and you turn the combination. If
you don’t mind my asking, why is he here instead of a federal employee?”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">“Ah, well… one of the Special Branch
geniuses invented a dimensional-gate detector last Halloween, and we’ve been
busy rounding up artifacts ever since. Unfortunately, this storage facility
isn’t rated for such a large influx, and our last two specialists passed out.
Mr. Bourne’s disability has reduced the effects of aetheric resonances.
Besides, losing a contractor doesn’t impact our safety reports or insurance.”
He said the word “contractor” with the same distaste as “cockroach.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">The first collapse had been a
fluke, but I’d arranged the second with chemicals. I relied on the collapse fallacy
for my plan B. If nobody gave me the time I needed to switch gems, the chewing
gum in my pocket contained blood caps. I could fake internal bleeding. While
they ran outside the cell-blocker radius to call an ambulance, I could do the
deed.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">Delilah frowned at the idea that anyone
was disposable.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">Tapping his watch, <st1:place w:st="on">Harrison</st1:place> prodded me to do my part. The nondisclosure signing
and tour had put us behind schedule. The vault timer only had five-minutes
remaining in the window where the combination would work.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">I opened the access panel and
worked the override levers and knobs like an eighties kid with a Rubix cube. I
wasn’t as dexterous as one of those teens, but I was a great deal stronger.
Mechanical devices respect that about me. I twisted the final valve into the
off position and nodded.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">“That’s your cue, Miss Theowin,”
said <st1:place w:st="on">Harrison</st1:place>.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">Delilah pulled a delicate Sterling
silver rod from her purse, slashed downward, and uttered the release phrase.
When that didn’t work, she cleared her throat and repeated the incantation.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">“We don’t have all day, miss. Are
you sure you’re qualified for this?”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;"><i>Nope,
that was the spell to reveal asshats</i>. Undoing wards required the precision
of an orchestra conductor and the brains of a calculus instructor. He had
neither. Delilah flipped through her manual, looking for the part of the
formula she might be missing. I had seen others perform this ceremony enough
times that I had spotted her mistake early on.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">Mr. Sphincter tapped his right wingtip.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">During the third try, her voice and
hand were shaking so much that she botched it worse than a first-year student. <i>Three minutes</i>. We didn’t have time to be
delicate, so I let go of the valve and cleared my throat. Using my hands, I
formed a hollow circle and moved it in an arc over my head.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">She slapped her forehead. “You’re
right. I didn’t adjust the equation for the phase of the moon. Let’s see…that
results in a revised angle of—”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;"><st1:place w:st="on">Harrison</st1:place>
snapped. “Just do it, you stupid woman!” Only he didn’t use the word “woman.” The
slur was hard to pretend not to hear.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">Delilah’s eyes sparked with
dangerous fire. She wanted to spend the last few minutes of my window reaming
him out.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">It might have been worth the loss
of the gem to watch this, but an explosion near the elevator knocked us off our
feet. White dust rained down from the acoustic tiles.</p><p class="MsoNormal">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.3in;">As I helped the witch to her feet,
I realized someone else had figured out that today would be ideal to rob the
vault, but Delilah had blown the timetable. Such precision meant an inside job.
I began to suspect <st1:place w:st="on">Harrison</st1:place> of being more than
a jerk, though I couldn’t open my mouth to warn her. My best hope was that
these thieves were professionals. I could still rescue the gem and use their heist
to mask my own crime.</p></div>
Scott Rhinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06437848922061482346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2886818154664476546.post-28702124124091382412020-05-06T10:44:00.001-07:002020-05-06T10:44:07.148-07:00Classic Space Opera for FreeFellow Indie author Craig DeLancy has a free novel this week. His series reminds me of the snark in the old Retief books and the alien races ring true to classic Flinx space opera.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Well-Furies-Predator-Space-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B00AR7GLZO/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=well+of+furies&qid=1588786764&s=digital-text&sr=1-3">Click here</a> to pick up a copy!<br />
<br />
<img alt="Well of Furies: Predator Space Chronicles I by [Craig DeLancey]" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51INyqVZ8pL.jpg" /><br />
<br />
<br />Scott Rhinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06437848922061482346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2886818154664476546.post-52063988832575517202020-04-27T17:52:00.001-07:002020-04-27T17:52:56.168-07:00Opening Salvos<br />
I analyzed first sentences and first pages from 566 common-domain and free novels to better understand what makes a good book beginning. From
a publishing/programming standpoint, we’ll call a page 250 words. Clearly, math
tools won’t write the perfect opening for you, but it can, like spell-checking
your resume, prevent readers from dismissing you before getting to the end. I
don’t know what ideal is, but I can look at the bell curve of hundreds of
attempts and tell you what the bottom 5<sup>th</sup> percentile looks like.<br />
<h2>
FIRST SENTENCE</h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The first sentence should ideally grab your reader and
demand attention. I’m not talking about using an exclamation point. The best
ones set the tone and character without the reader realizing how much you’ve
communicated. Often, they state a theme that the book is going to prove. I only
saw one “it was a dark and stormy night.” I wish I could give good and bad
examples below, but copyright restrictions prevent that. I can relay
observations. The average grade level is 7.4, although applying the Gunning-Fog
reading level to just one sentence isn’t reliable, so we’ll need other
indicators.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One thing you want to avoid is proper-noun soup where you
bombard the reader with long, foreign words until they give up. The samples averaged
1.3 names per opening sentence, with a record of 9 names. Statistically, anything
over 3 is excessive. If you have a military space opera, though, you can safely
make it four because those readers are accustomed to ranks being part of the
name.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How long is an average first sentence? However long it
takes. I’ve seen them everywhere from a one-word expletive to 112 for “Le Mis”.
However, if I cut out the few ancient tomes over the 100-word level, we’re left
with a pretty consistent average of 17 words, plus or minus a 10-word standard
deviation. Thus, if you take more than 32 words to grab your reader, it’s
probably too much. For hard words (3+syllables), they averaged only one
occurrence, with that usually being part of a name or an adverb. Having over 3 hard
words should be a red flag unless you’re writing a medical thriller. What about
commas, another sign of complexity? Of sentences I scanned, exactly half had
any. Use one if you need it. The 8 eight percent with more than two are
probably risking their audience, and the guy with seven is daring them to
leave.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What should this opening sentence be composed of? First, I
will examine the verbs used. The most common, by far, were forms of IS. Note
the exponential curve, where SAID appears half as often. The remainder of the
top achievers were all action (total 33%+), sensory (8%), or recall (5%) verbs.
These all make sense because they set the tone/mood for your scene and pull the
reader in—except begin/start, which stood out as weak and could have been eliminated
to make a better opening. People tend to die, fall, or awaken much more in the
first line for the sake of drama. They also stare rather than look.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-border-insidev: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 480;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.45pt;" valign="top" width="79">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Verb<o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
% line ones</div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
% first</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
page</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.45pt;" valign="top" width="79">
<div class="MsoNormal">
is</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">11.9</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
9.1</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 2;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.45pt;" valign="top" width="79">
<div class="MsoNormal">
said</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
5.3</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
6.0</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 3;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.45pt;" valign="top" width="79">
<div class="MsoNormal">
know</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
2.6</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
2.6</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 4;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.45pt;" valign="top" width="79">
<div class="MsoNormal">
come</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
2.3</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
1.9</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 5;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.45pt;" valign="top" width="79">
<div class="MsoNormal">
stand</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">2.1</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.9</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 6;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.45pt;" valign="top" width="79">
<div class="MsoNormal">
begin</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">1.8</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
1.0</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 7;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.45pt;" valign="top" width="79">
<div class="MsoNormal">
sit</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">1.8</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.8</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 8;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.45pt;" valign="top" width="79">
<div class="MsoNormal">
see</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
1.8</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
2.0</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 9;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.45pt;" valign="top" width="79">
<div class="MsoNormal">
go</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
1.4</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
1.2</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 10;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.45pt;" valign="top" width="79">
<div class="MsoNormal">
make</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
1.4</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
1.6</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 11;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.45pt;" valign="top" width="79">
<div class="MsoNormal">
take</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
1.4</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
1.3</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 12;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.45pt;" valign="top" width="79">
<div class="MsoNormal">
die</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">1.2</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.4</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 13;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.45pt;" valign="top" width="79">
<div class="MsoNormal">
stare</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">1.1</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.3</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 14;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.45pt;" valign="top" width="79">
<div class="MsoNormal">
think</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
1.1</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
1.2</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 15;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.45pt;" valign="top" width="79">
<div class="MsoNormal">
wake</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">1.1</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.3</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 16;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.45pt;" valign="top" width="79">
<div class="MsoNormal">
fall</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">0.9</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.5</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 17;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.45pt;" valign="top" width="79">
<div class="MsoNormal">
hear</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.9</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.8</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 18;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.45pt;" valign="top" width="79">
<div class="MsoNormal">
glance</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.8</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.3</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 19;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.45pt;" valign="top" width="79">
<div class="MsoNormal">
look</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.8</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">1.5</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 20;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.45pt;" valign="top" width="79">
<div class="MsoNormal">
remember</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.8</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.3</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 21;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.45pt;" valign="top" width="79">
<div class="MsoNormal">
believe</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.6</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.6</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 22;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.45pt;" valign="top" width="79">
<div class="MsoNormal">
check</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.6</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.3</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 23;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.45pt;" valign="top" width="79">
<div class="MsoNormal">
feel</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.6</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.9</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 24;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.45pt;" valign="top" width="79">
<div class="MsoNormal">
move</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.6</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.3</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 25;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.45pt;" valign="top" width="79">
<div class="MsoNormal">
wait</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.6</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.4</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 26; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.45pt;" valign="top" width="79">
<div class="MsoNormal">
watch</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.6</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 48.15pt;" valign="top" width="64">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.4</div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What also speaks volumes are the five common words in the
rest of the novel that we never see in the first line: get, seem, keep, try,
and happen. I’ve found that I can replace almost all instances of the overused
word “get” in my writing with stronger/more specific ones. I suspect the same
may be true of some of the other passive ones.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Did any sentence pattern establish itself as dominant? Not
really. Not even all the sentences were complete. In the span of an entire
novel, I see few patterns occur more than .5 percent of the time. The most
common are usually: </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
SV<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>SVAN<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>SVN <span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>SVJN </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For opening lines, I saw these in lower concentrations plus
few others, mainly with AJN instead of S and a wide variety of prepositional
phrases. The range is so extreme and sparse that I could make no further generalizations.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
SVRSVANPAN<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>AJNVJ
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>AJNVJPANPNPO <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>JNVJN<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>SVJPN</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
SVPJN<span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>SVPAN<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>SVPN</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The next thing to examine is the difference between the
parts of speech in the first sentence when compared with all the others in a novel:
no profanity or interjections to speak of, fewer pronouns, contractions, verbs,
and objects. When you think about it, proper nouns have to be used before the
pronouns or objects that represent them. Contractions should only be used in
dialog, so those should occur less often. The increased prepositions tended to be mostly
“of” or “in.” Adjective counts fluctuated based on style and genre, but they would
remain fairly consistent throughout a given novel. Openings use more
prepositions, articles, and proper names to compensate for the missing parts. (see
table)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-border-insidev: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 480;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 134.6pt;" valign="top" width="179">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Part Of Speech</div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
% First</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sentence</div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
% Other</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sentences</div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
First </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Word %</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
by Type</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 134.6pt;" valign="top" width="179">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Prepositions</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">14.5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
10.7-11.9</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
5.5</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 2;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 134.6pt;" valign="top" width="179">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Articles/his/her</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">14.7<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
10-11</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">22.7</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 3;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 134.6pt;" valign="top" width="179">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Nouns</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
13.5</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
13.1</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
7.3</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 4;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 134.6pt;" valign="top" width="179">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ambiguous(noun or verb)</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
13.5</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
14.3</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
5.2</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 5;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 134.6pt;" valign="top" width="179">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Adjectives</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
8.9</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
7.0-8.7</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
6.1</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 6;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 134.6pt;" valign="top" width="179">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Pastp verbs</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
5.1</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
5.2</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.9</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 7;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 134.6pt;" valign="top" width="179">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Proper nouns</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">5.0</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
2.9</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">19.5</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 8;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 134.6pt;" valign="top" width="179">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Adverbs</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
3.2</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
3.4</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
3.2</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 9;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 134.6pt;" valign="top" width="179">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Subject (he/she/it/you)</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
3.1</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">6.1-8.5</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">17.8<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 10;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 134.6pt;" valign="top" width="179">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Gerund</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
2.9</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
2.4</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 11;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 134.6pt;" valign="top" width="179">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Is verb</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
2.7</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
2.2</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 12;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 134.6pt;" valign="top" width="179">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Clause</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
2.5</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">3.6-4.3</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
4.1<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 13;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 134.6pt;" valign="top" width="179">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Other verbs</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
2.5</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">3.1-3.5</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.6<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 14;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 134.6pt;" valign="top" width="179">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Conjunctions</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
2.35</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
2.4</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.9</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 15;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 134.6pt;" valign="top" width="179">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Help verbs</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
1.9</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">3.5</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 16;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 134.6pt;" valign="top" width="179">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Contractions (N plus V)</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
1.2</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">2.0<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 17;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 134.6pt;" valign="top" width="179">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Objects</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.8</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">1.3</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 18;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 134.6pt;" valign="top" width="179">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Said</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.7</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">1.8-2.3</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 19; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 134.6pt;" valign="top" width="179">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Interjection</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0.0</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">0.2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .9in;" valign="top" width="86">
<div class="MsoNormal">
0<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Zeroing in on the very first word, we can see that two-thirds
of the opening sentences start with a strong article, proper noun, a subject, or an
adjective. A good choice of subject is usually I or we. The word “it” leads to
meandering passive voice, but this may be the Victorian tone the author is
trying to set. The use of “he” or “she” as the opener immediately begs the
question for the reader—who the heck are you talking about? Even when the title
of the chapter explains who the author is referring to, having to go back and
deduce the information hacks me off. Beginning with a verb, conjunction,
gerund, or interjection is not normal unless it is a past participle used as an
adjective or a command such as a forceful “don’t” inside dialog. I would go so
far as to say that spending your first word on a conjunction is a complete
waste, as is beginning with the vague adverb “there,” or a padding word like
“actually.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why is this important past the first few seconds of reading?
Well, the rules for clarity and creativity for the first sentence apply to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">every chapter and scene break after that</b>.
When readers put down and restart your book, it will likely be at one of these
breakpoints. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve stopped an Indie novel
because they began every scene with the name of the main character. Boring!
It’s like flipping a coin that always turns up heads. By the third time in a
row, you’re going to know something is wrong. Only it’s worse for proper names
because the odds for repeating them three times at random would be one in 400.
With hundreds of scenes in a novel, it can happen, but it shouldn’t be the default.</div>
<h2>
FIRST PAGE</h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By contrast to the opening line, the first page smoothes out
to an average reading level of only 6.1 (down 1.3 grades). The average sentence
length is also 2.1 words shorter than the opening sentence. This tells me that many books overextend a little on the first sentence
trying to shove all the info-dumps in. This happens for Indie as much as
traditional publishers. About all I can say with certainty is that if your
first page is above grade 9.5, you should simplify it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What lessons can we apply from what we learned from the
first line? If you start three paragraphs in a row with the same word or type
of lead-in (name, article, gerund, or relative clause), people will notice,
especially since paragraph beginnings stand out on the first page.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You should avoid introducing too many characters right off
the bat. When you do, give them unique names that don’t look or sound alike, so
we know who is who. How many new character/place names is too many on the first
page? The average was 8 +- 6 unique
names. If you have over 17 different uppercase names on page one (not counting
ranks and titles), think hard about trimming. My personal record was 24, where
two people were discussing Dwarves (which I capitalized to denote the race) and
their favorite Sean Connery movies. So these rules of thumb have
exceptions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How long should we wait before starting dialog? The graphs were
bimodal on this one, with 12 percent of them jumping in on the first sentence.
The rest of the books waited an average of 190 (+-40) words, setting the scene
carefully before anyone speaks. Thus, unless your main character is stranded on
a desert island, you should have some sort of dialog before the top of page two.
But some of those quotes I spotted were air quotes or nicknames. To compensate,
I tracked how far to the first <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">flowing</i>
dialog, where one quote ends and another begins with no tags in between. One-third
of my samples never achieved this feat! Now, most of these were due to the
samples being short stories or only 20 percent of a book, but several were because
newbies hadn’t mastered the technique. I came to the conclusion that if the
author didn’t have flowing dialogue by the 30K word mark, it probably had occurred
by accident. Without these outliers, the average distance to flowing dialog was
1051 words +-1122, somewhere between pages 1 and 10. The threshold for starting
too late is around page 15 (3750 words). I may use that as one of my metrics
for whether to buy an e-book from the sample.</div>
<br />Scott Rhinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06437848922061482346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2886818154664476546.post-61111437880132656562020-03-19T17:31:00.002-07:002020-03-19T17:31:56.649-07:00Best-Edited Free Books on AmazonIn my last post, I processed 212 published e-books with my PREEN 3.6 editing tool. One of the numbers I obtained was the EEK score, or estimated errors per kiloword. It's a composite score, telling me how difficult a given manuscript will be to edit/read. The lower the better, but it never gets to zero because the remaining "errors" were intentional or too trivial to bother with (like eliminating all repeated words or asked vs said comments). My own books average a score of 2.5. I recommend not publishing a book until it's polished below 10. Above a score of 16, I stop reading because the frequent mistakes make the story impossible for me to enjoy. I've seen a 49, a 37, and several 26s. I could instantly tell how much effort an Indie writer put into having the manuscript professionally edited. Below are the best score of the books I rated, something to be proud of.<br />
<br />
SCORE TITLE<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";">10.08 Atlantis Ship<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";">10.07 Warship<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>9.96 Trilisk Ruins<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>9.85 Inheritance (FV)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>9.81 Into the Unknown<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>9.76 Renegade Star<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>9.56 Someone Else’s Daughter<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>9.38 Schism8: The Green Ones (FV)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>9.32 Back Worlds<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>9.31 The Breakers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>9.28 The Gamma Sequence<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>9.10 Quantum Tangle<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>8.94 Viable Hostage<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>8.70 Do No Harm<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>8.66 Star Shroud<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>8.64 Hidden Deep<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>8.45 Black Obsidian<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>8.38 A Killing Truth<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>8.05 Passage at Arms<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>8.00 Heart of Darkness<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>7.90 Of Metal and Magic (FV)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>7.79 Silver and Superstition (FV)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>7.73 Cost of Glory (FV)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>7.40 Rose Red (FV)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>6.03 Dragon’s Maid (FV)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>5.15 Snapped<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br /><br />
Note that FV refers to Fiction Vortex titles. This company has access to a beta version of my tool, which results in quality improvement you can measure.Scott Rhinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06437848922061482346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2886818154664476546.post-24883410870163770462020-03-19T10:29:00.002-07:002020-03-19T18:21:11.478-07:00Unpack your AdjectivesIn the movie <i>Amadeus</i>, one of my favorite scenes is when the king criticizes one of Mozart's pieces for having "too many notes." I feel this way every time I'm in a crit group and someone complains I have too many adverbs (and her boyfriend's story had exactly the same density). In beloved classics, I've seen everything from 33 to 87 adverbs per thousand words. It takes exactly as many notes as necessary to achieve the desired effect. However, with all my work on editing software, I know that there is a definite threshold at which adverbs become <i>noticeable</i>--around 50 instances per thousand words. I don't require a hard limit when I'm making my final pass on a story, but it's a signal for me to thin the number of excess adverbs in dialog tags, places where I start three sentences in a row with the same type of word, and reduce the instances of my top three addiction words (currently just, still, only). Thin areas where people may object. Think of it like hair--everybody needs it. You just need to have it properly styled to fit your personality. A rock star will have a different expectation than a drill sergeant.<br />
<br />
I said all that to ask if there is a similar threshold for adjectives because I count them as part of the statistics for the prototype I did for Fiction Vortex/Story Shop. Editors call too many lurid adjectives being "purple." Looking down the list on one book, I discovered my use of the word "whole" 88 times was an affectation, which could be eliminated with no loss of meaning in many cases.<br />
<br />
Running the tool on over 200 published books (25 of my own, 25 from Fiction Vortex, 13 Andre Norton, 125 free Kindle, and 23 classics from the Guttenberg Project), I found a definite recurring value. Modern writers across genres average 52 adjectives per thousand with a standard deviation of 7. For those of you who aren't math majors, a deviation is enough of a difference from the average to warrant docking you a letter grade. So, if you have 60 adjectives per thousand, you should look it over, and at 67, you're as purple as Barney.<br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
This number is not hard and fast for many reasons. HP Lovecraft had eldritch beasts and all manner of queer folk, topping out at 77 for <i>Dunwich Horror</i>.<br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">old 50</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">some 45</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">more 39</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">great 33</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">much 20</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">any 19</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">such 18</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">strange 18</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">certain 17</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">black 16</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">kind 15</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">big 14</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">monstrous 14</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">another 14</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">dark 12</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">ancient 12</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">cold 11</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">terrible 11</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">deep 11</span><br />
<br />
In fact, narrative-based epic fantasy that has longer paragraphs and less dialog will necessarily rely on more descriptive words to convey setting and tone. Some action-heavy sequences are the same. You use the tools you need. Hemmingway had journalistic training, so he was a minimalist. He chose every word for maximum effect. But it bears noting that the Victorian epics like Jane Austen with 600-word paragraphs <i>intend </i>to be baroque and overly detailed--that was the style. So a friend who has a Victorian superhero story with lots of Steampunk battles or a <i>Three Musketeers</i> styled courtly romance, intrigue, and sword fights can expect to average 61+-9 adjectives per thousand. However, <i>Dunwich </i>is purple even for these genres, and movies made from his work tend to be over the top. But that's why his fans like them. If people went to see <i>Kill Bill 2</i> and it didn't have as many dead ninjas as <i>Kill Bill 1</i>, people would ask for their money back. The point of a tool is to see if what you have on your canvas is what you intended.<br />
<br />
Since I was collecting stats, I threw paragraph length into the mix. I saw everything from 93 to a thousand words in the classics. But modern novels average <span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">165 words +- 36 (expecting the range 129-201). If you are outside this range, it should be by conscious intent. All the books I wrote before 2010 were over the 200-word boundary, but this was the Ancient Greek or Tolkien style I wanted to emulate. However, at 250 words, your paragraphs are a page long and your reader may need some white space, and it can feel like a flogging (<i>Moby Dick </i>details on the whaling industry). More importantly, you should vary the lengths over the course of a novel so you don't bore your reader or wear them out. Also, make the length appropriate to the mood. Action passages should be brief and have punch. I remember reading what should have been a thrilling escape through the wilds of Canada and saying "Another two-page description of mountains?"</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The last statistic I examined was the percent of the novel told through dialog. This was the most variable of them all. The </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">average was 31 +- 12 (expect 19 to 43). However, my YA novels and team books have more. This wasn't a place where I could make any rules. </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Seven percent dialog seemed natural for a novel about survival alone on an alien planet. <i>Call of the Wild</i> and <i>Robinson Crusoe</i> are
both 3 percent, whereas <i>Sherlock Holmes</i> is 75 and <i>Time Machine</i> is 87. There doesn’t
seem to be a wrong answer for the average, as long as you keep things interesting and give adequate descriptions of each new person and place.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Editing sofware can be a valuable tool to improve the quality of your writing, but in the end, the artist and reader have the final say over whether the components used achieve the desired effect.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>Scott Rhinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06437848922061482346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2886818154664476546.post-59484521898831611702020-02-14T08:23:00.002-08:002020-02-14T08:36:16.840-08:00Working the System for a Scholarship EssayMy last entry was about working with my daughter on college. This one is about working with my son last year. He didn't want help on any class but Calculus for his associate's/PSEO, but he did need help applying for a ton of scholarships. This one was my favorite because it was for a structured payment purchasing company. We worked it over together like a game. The company provided the topic, and they were hoping for reasons for people to use their service. They weren't expecting a scientist to ask them how many cents they pay on the dollar. We didn't give them what they wanted, but I sure got a laugh from the movie references. Did I mention that Pierce is a John Oliver fan?<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
STRUCTURED PAYMENTS ESSAY<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If I had both a $2.5K monthly payment and $50K in debt, the
first thing I would do is declare Chapter 13 bankruptcy immediately. The
payments are protected under this mechanism. Why? Even someone with an average
credit rating would pay 11 percent interest for a $10K consolidation loan, but
I doubt someone with that much debt could swing a bigger loan on favorable
terms. I would pay $3000 for a good lawyer with a high success rate and promise
to pay back the principal amount in four years, costing me only $1104.17 out of
my $2500 a month. As long as I had the lawyer, I’d have him draw up a will to
make sure my sister got the money if something happened to me. People my age
don’t normally think of that sort of thing, but one of my cousins lost
everything when her fiancé died in a motorcycle accident because he didn’t plan
ahead. With the proper strategy, even if you lose, you win something.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why wouldn’t I cash in and get a pile of money upfront? RSL
has offered me $373K today. My grandfather is fond of saying that the only real
way to make money is to start with other people’s money. I also learned from
“The Producers” that properly managed, a Broadway flop can turn more profit
than a hit. Instead of paying thousands a year plus for medical insurance and
another $6K in deductibles, I could get it for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">free </i>if I’m broke. Unlike my hard-earned savings, which FAFSA will
penalize me for, as a student in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region>, any debt is now an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">asset</i>. If I applied to the University of
Minnesota, I could get an average total gift of $10,444. Since my plight
probably came with a really good hard-luck story, I could leverage that into
another $2K a year in outside scholarships and guaranteed loans for 19K over
four years. Why more debt? Because Uncle Sam pays the interest for me until six
months after grad school. If I die, the government pays it all!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If it costs me $109,876 total for my STEM degree at U of M,
including room and board, that means $539.58 a month left over. If I invest
that in SMTFX the Minnesota Tax-Free Bond Fund, I am historically guaranteed
4.62 percent totally tax-free, which will not affect my broke status on FAFSA.
I will, however, spring for one share of Proctor and Gamble stock because they
send out great coupons with the quarterly report, and I’ll need them. And if I
couldn’t get that much aid, I could start at Brigham Young’s Hawaii campus
until I proved myself. With annual tuition and fees of $5400, one Pell Grant
would cover that. Hawaii would be a hardship, but they have great telescopes!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At the end of four years, I would have none of my original
debt, $28,584.57 in the bank, and only $19K in loans. Note that I didn’t have
to work a day so far. With this degree, I could get a job making $114K easy.
However, I won’t pay my loans off yet. I will attend a world-class grad school
in Astrophysics at Ludwig Maximilian University—for free. Tuition doesn’t cost
a dime, but living expenses are about 800 Euros, or $912 a month, including
medical coverage. Now my profit has increased to $1558 a month. By the time I
graduate, I can work as a physicist wherever I want in the $130K salary range.
I will also have $70,704.66 in bonds. I now elect to pay off my loans and
improve my credit score. Instead of taking a 20 percent discount on those 6
years of payments and sacrificing $36K, I turned the debt into over $50K of
free money and medical benefits—a net gain of $170K.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Once I find my dream job (with medical insurance), I would
be ready to cash in at RSL. Why? Because my settlement isn’t really $720K in a
bank. It’s probably more like $350K in a stable 7-percent annuity. I can manage
a better return on my investments than that. With the same discount rate RSL
offered before, I could realize $298,400. After buying a plane ticket home and
a year-old hybrid for $14K (so someone else takes the first-year drop in
value), I would still have $37,704. I would set aside six month’s salary in
bonds as an emergency fund. I plan to take a vacation each year with the
interest. A guy has to have some reward for all this hard work! </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What should I do with the remaining $271,104? I could invest
all of it in growth stocks because, without dividends, they wouldn’t show up as
income until I cashed them out. If I give them as a gift (say to a spouse or
children), I pay nothing. My Dad says to keep wealth like an iceberg, mostly
hidden under the surface. I would start with funds like AMAGX, which performs
well even in down times, and something trendy like Netflix. I would also invest
in unglamorous things people must have, like Waste Management. After the 24
years left in the settlement, at a modest 11 percent, I would have about 3.5
million in investments. But that’s a long time to wait for my big payoff.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What if I wanted to live better sooner? Since I’m single, I
could buy a duplex house and rent out the other half. I won’t get stuck with a
thirty-year mortgage where you pay three times the price of the property.
Instead, I’d form an LLC and pay cash through a lawyer for a flat fee, which
saves a bundle on closing costs. I’d use that savings to reduce the purchase
price and lower my tax assessment. From my recent experience, people also take
less when offered guaranteed cash now. That means I could buy a house worth
$300K. Rent would bring in an estimated $1250 to $1500 a month. It should pay
my property taxes, house insurance, repair bills, lawn care, snow removal,
Internet, and utilities while being a tax write-off. Extra rent would pass
through as a capital gain at a lower taxation rate, but depreciation over 27.5
years will bury $11,000 a year. The profits should net me more than enough to
pay for my gas and groceries. Even if I lost my job or the stock market
crashed, I would be covered. With all my recurring expenses taken care of,
almost everything I earn at my physics job, minus taxes and my share of the
healthcare, can all go toward investments. That’s $77,750 a year of disposable
income. With the same 11 percent assumption, this method outperforms the
“invest everything” model after only five years. After 16 years, I’d have the
same 3.3 million plus a house. I could improve the performance by maxing out my
401k at 6 percent salary pretax for the first few years and getting any company
match.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But I would definitely want to retire before my oldest child
reaches 17. I’ll sell the child the family duplex for a dollar and claim the
loss on my taxes. Then I could rent it back from him so he shows a paper loss
as well. That way, we wouldn’t have the income to report on the FAFSA. College
will probably cost a fortune by then, so every cent will count. I should be
able to spend the rest of my days in comfort, relaxing while my financial
decisions pay off. I’ll get a library card and crack open a good book. If my
children ever need sound financial advice, I’ll be right there for them to ask
me.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
Scott Rhinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06437848922061482346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2886818154664476546.post-75629467191597285612020-01-31T17:39:00.002-08:002020-01-31T20:34:10.619-08:00Wight PrivilegeMy daughter (age 15) is taking a film appreciation class for college credit, and as a project, she has to outline a film. She chose horror because it has well-defined rules and tropes. The rough arc she sketched was that the workers on a certain cruise ship are monsters and they eat the gradually eat more passengers over the trip. The table-ready passengers are inept and cannot defend themselves, rather like Wall-E. Three stumble across the meat-packing room. In the end, those who know the secret die in different ways to demonstrate their unsuitability for the gene pool. She came to me because she didn't know what to call it or how to flesh it out from the outline.<br />
<br />
Ah, I felt like Christopher Marlowe when Shakespeare approached him for advice at the bar. We discussed back and forth.<br />
Me: are they zombies who just each the brain, or vampires who just drink the blood?<br />
Em: no. they eat the whole person. It's their buffet.<br />
Me: Hmm... that would put them in the ghoul/shinen gaki catergory. Investigators would notice the bad breath. What's the theme? Why doesn't the captain put a stop to this?<br />
Em: they only eat really annoying people. Like that woman who got caught smoking marijuana and playing her TV too loud at 3 am--the one we never saw again after day three of the cruise, and everyone cheered.<br />
Me: Or the drunk rich guy who spilled his chilled champagne bottle all over the stone dance floor on New Years' Eve. Ah... so your theme is to make the audience cheer the monsters because they're striking back against smug white privilege. That's your name then: Wight Privilege. Wights are a vague British flesh-eating fairy. They could be like the Morlocks in <i>Time Machine</i> who eat the upper class Eloi like cattle.<br />
Em: The second group of people eaten could be the group at port who came back from their tour half an hour late, making the whole ship wait. The captain explains to anyone who asks that they missed the boat and all their belongings leave the ship at the next stop. But someone sees the blood.<br />
Me: The old person with the heart condition who has to be evacuated by helicopter. He's so drugged no one will believe him.<br />
Em: Now we know the real reason the decks were closed and nobody was allowed to watch or film from their balconies.<br />
Me: I'm so proud of you, planning justifiable and neat mass murders.<br />
Em: And because it is on a cruise ship, there aren't police to stop them.<br />
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Here are a few photos from our cruise.<br />
New Years' Eve at sea:<br />
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Rainbow Falls:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlNzYU5p66BMw-kCwBTXWewlLDuE3mUNIkxlZi1VSSIdjFg74ZWOQzjIJzEax7gvGxup27AvCN3aIcn__Jm-st4I90mYZhq0G88JJXfkCptwXVmqVs3Jjp_uszm-gtAEn6bIMnjEZbNfo/s1600/IMG_0842.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlNzYU5p66BMw-kCwBTXWewlLDuE3mUNIkxlZi1VSSIdjFg74ZWOQzjIJzEax7gvGxup27AvCN3aIcn__Jm-st4I90mYZhq0G88JJXfkCptwXVmqVs3Jjp_uszm-gtAEn6bIMnjEZbNfo/s320/IMG_0842.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Ukelele practice:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl_cNZ-UtRabg8KQzTEU9XTTI8TMJgQUpvWQqq0ESv32Oqd4UV2GAC9lSG054ne9l3rzNakAXjPuy0hXo7jwnfNVlmT3pKudFtEIDbgIm1enOMLARxocksnDe35FIuZScBQB1s1ZCbY0c/s1600/IMG_0916.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl_cNZ-UtRabg8KQzTEU9XTTI8TMJgQUpvWQqq0ESv32Oqd4UV2GAC9lSG054ne9l3rzNakAXjPuy0hXo7jwnfNVlmT3pKudFtEIDbgIm1enOMLARxocksnDe35FIuZScBQB1s1ZCbY0c/s320/IMG_0916.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Hula:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE9rPMqPRfqnRWwtkVC6L1XRzFmqZSFmrh7vJCIrhrrlsys57wnuR1Ay19pH4DkYgVjOptI3nHmWzzwQTZXlJEP8__862VtGah5ZoYANjUfkwAus7oz_2lli_KnmrL9vikOpC8-kCrs1Q/s1600/IMG_0920.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE9rPMqPRfqnRWwtkVC6L1XRzFmqZSFmrh7vJCIrhrrlsys57wnuR1Ay19pH4DkYgVjOptI3nHmWzzwQTZXlJEP8__862VtGah5ZoYANjUfkwAus7oz_2lli_KnmrL9vikOpC8-kCrs1Q/s320/IMG_0920.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />Scott Rhinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06437848922061482346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2886818154664476546.post-83116665005617759412019-11-30T10:43:00.000-08:002019-12-06T09:36:06.684-08:00Signs that a Car-Rental Place is Planning to Rip You OffI've traveled a lot for business, kids' college shopping, and vacations. I've been angered and ripped off by a lot of places but never as blatantly as at a rental place this month in Orlando. Normally I try to just let stuff like this go; however, I don't want anyone else falling prey to these guys. If you see any of these signs and you haven't run a credit card or signed your contract yet, WALK AWAY! I wish that I had listened to my instincts at any point on this journey. It felt like I was living through a John Oliver investigation without the laughs or even a cute dancing squirrel.<br />
<br />
ELEVEN SIGNS TO FLEE BEFORE YOU SIGN<br />
<br />
1. They are the low bid in the area every time by exactly a dollar--and you've never heard their name before. Everybody runs a special that's the low sometimes, but would you trust a mom-and-pop store that underbids Walmart every time? No. The big guys make money from economies of scale and repeat customers. Someone like this often relies on other methods for profit. Don't think you're more clever than someone who does this for a living and can grab the bait and run without getting caught.<br />
2. You call their 24-hour helpline or the front desk of their only location and can't get a person. In fact, the robo maze hangs up on you or redirects to a voicemail box over half the time. Real companies provide customer service. Scams want to dodge complainers.<br />
3. The company only has one location that only services the airport, not locals. This is also the only place you can drop off and wait patiently for a ride back to the airport. They have your credit card number, and you can't sue them in small-claims court unless you want to come back for it. Local users would keep the company accountable and make sure they were motivated to maintain a good name in the business. If you'll note this example even the sign is peeling, an indication that they don't spend resources to maintain their site or products. This is the very definition of a warning sign. The bottom half of the sign looks fine. Have they been forced to change their name recently?<br />
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4. They don't share a van with the other six companies on the same block that have a common transport. Other bus drivers refer to them as "the white-panel van with the magnetic sign on the side." They are an hour late for your scheduled pick up when the other companies show up every fifteen minutes. Other vans have twelve people while yours only has two. Sounds like the start of Rocky Horror Picture Show, not your Disney dream vacation. When you arrive in Florida, you're renting hours of good weather and daylight. Don't waste a moment.<br />
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5. The cars on their lot all have some kind of damage--scratches, dents, and paint on the interior ceiling. (Bridal shower party where they were painting their nails? It can't be Home Depot delivery when no local access is allowed.) So what? That means you save money. Right? Wrong. It means they collect exorbitant fees for that damage and then POCKET that money without maintaining their products. Next time someone gets a bill, it could include BOTH scratches. For some reason, you have to present proof of insurance and they need to talk to your agent on the phone to confirm. They also have to retype everything you already entered online, including a copy of your driver's license. Checking people out in these labor-intensive circumstances takes 40+ minutes a customer (plus another twenty or so for the van rides). When the rent is $9 a day and Florida minimum wage is $8.46 an hour, how are these companies making money? From the hidden charges. You want a second driver on the contract? $25.<br />
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6. Before you sign, they casually mention for your $36 four-day rental that they are blocking off $500 on your credit card for two weeks for "incidentals" in case they find anything. That's an oddly specific amount. I mean, if you drained the vehicle of fuel, oil, and antifreeze, it wouldn't be that much. Yet it's less than any reasonable collision repair amount. What are they expecting to go wrong in that price range? Is this a bizarre money-laundering scheme?<br />
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7. The site does not have any lighting outside, and it's dark. You have to inspect the car by iPhone flashlight and the worker beside you pretends this information about previous damage is new. He starts with a clean sheet of paper, not a form that already lists known problems. If you miss one rock chip in the dark, you just paid for it. Suspicious contracts usually have an independent section on page one that states you are responsible for any damage to the vehicle "whether it's your fault or not." Or they put on page-one how much they charge if they have to come out and tow you back to the one service location. Why would a legitimate company have to underscore that type of rare occurrence unless it's not rare?<br />
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8. Toll tags don't come with the vehicles like at other rental places. You can't leave MCO without paying $5 in fees or driving twice the amount of time on surface streets. Without a SunPass/e-pass sticker, you have to stop and pay tolls every couple miles by the airport. If it's late or remote, the stations will be unmanned and you can only pay in coins. Yet, the company charges $11 a day for a toll tag when the whole car is only $9 a day. How much for four days of tolls? "$48," they replied. Hmm.... where did that extra $4 come from? Fees multiply like rabbits in those dark boxes.<br />
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9. We reserved an economy car, and they don't have any on-site. They upgrade us to a land-yacht with multiple blind spots that we really don't want. Worse, when we turn on the vehicle, it shows a previous trip average of 11 miles per gallon. I kid you not. Are they hoping it will burn more fuel so they can charge $10 a gallon for refilling it? The performance didn't get any better as we drove. I didn't think that rate of burn was possible after the Obama legislation and buybacks of fuel hogs. How could these rental people possibly be doing due-diligence maintenance on this fleet? They can't. Any vehicle that out of tune could DIE ON YOU at any minute. They don't care. You'll pay for the towing plus diagnosing and "fixing" of any problem if you happen to lose this lottery because you agreed that any problem was your fault.<br />
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10. The last person left their contract in the glove box and there's an old piece of hard candy in the trunk. That seems trivial, but it means they don't really clean their rentals between users, despite their "comprehensive return checklist". When obvious litter is overlooked, what more significant details are they skimping on to get that car back on the road sooner?<br />
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11. The company boasts a TripAdvisor rating under 1.5 with 89% of them one-stars, leading with the headline "Complete Scam." The economy rental website we used was at the top of the print-out, not the name Routes. We booked over a month in advance, not thinking to check their reputation again on the day of our arrival. You'd think with a rating like that, it's time to change the business's name again. No. They're advertising a $7-a-day special for Black Friday.<br />
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There's another rental agency just next door. Run! Pay the extra dollar a day for peace of mind.<br />
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<br />
SIGNS YOU SHOULD FILE AN FTC COMPLAINT OR HIRE A LAWYER AFTER YOU SIGN<br />
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What happens if they catch you with their scam? These are signs that it's not you and that others are in danger too. Call your credit-card company and contest as soon as you can. Post on social media. Give as many one-star ratings as you can. File an online report with the Federal Trade Commission.<br />
<b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">1-877-</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">FTC</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">-HELP (1-877-382-4357) or </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">www.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">ftc</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">.gov/</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">complaint.</span></b><br />
<b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></b>
Help save others from this fate.<br />
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1. When a problem occurs a mile out, they "don't have the manpower to address it." One of our tires registered 3 pounds low on the dashboard as soon as the gauges displayed at the gas station a mile away where we had to stop at to pick up $10 in quarters. By the time we reached our hotel a 30-minute drive away, the indicator warned us we needed to reinflate immediately. When we phoned, the person at the desk wasn't alarmed. "Put air in it or bring it back." For $10 in tolls and an hour more driving plus another hour of paperwork, they offered nothing for the inconvenience. Our hotel concierge was shocked. In her experience, real rental agencies dropped off a replacement and apologized. Some rental agencies I've used had brand-new cars with stickers on the window advertising 24-hour free road service from the manufacturer. The agency closed by the time we had eaten and decided to take the vehicle back. The next morning, we weren't sure if we'd be able to make it the 3 miles to Disney the next morning. We couldn't park in the Magic Kingdom lot for 15 hours and come out to a flat tire. By the time Disney closed and we picked up the family, it was too late to return the vehicle again.<br />
<br />
2. When we did take the defective vehicle back (after waiting in line to refill the air twice), the agency started with the assumption that we would pay to replace the entire tire after they took it to the shop for an estimate Wednesday (after we were gone for two days). But wait, the last guy said you folks do all your maintenance on-site. When we take him outside to explain, he points out a nail and has an explanation in under a second. "Oh you must have taken it to highway X. They have a lot of construction there." No. The 6-lane road to Disney World is the cleanest highway I've ever been on. Blaming the victim automatically is a sign that this fraud happens often.<br />
<br />
3. When my wife replies, "That's a rock in the tread, not a nail. Are you sure it's not just the pressure sensor?" he finds the real nail head in the same relative position in a few more seconds That makes me suspect he knew where the puncture was all along. We <i>know for certain </i>it left the site with the damage, and their negligence could have killed me and my family if that tire blew in traffic. They didn't care about our safety, only their profit.<br />
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4. There is no manager on site during normal daylight working hours. The clerk "doesn't know how to reach" a manager who can override this mandatory charge even if there is a hurricane. When you ask for the number for a local lawyer on your cell phone, the clerk suddenly has his manager on the cell phone, asking for advice.<br />
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5. They didn't replace the broken vehicle with a new one until we argued for an hour. Even with other workers testifying to the accuracy of our statements, they didn't hand us keys to a replacement vehicle until the next vanload of suckers comes in from the airport and we started telling them how the place works. What worries me is they made a BIG deal of saying the key and contract would stay on the manager's desk until this was resolved. How do we know this next vanload of folks didn't get stuck with it for another bonus payment?<br />
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6. When I put fuel into the replacement, the tank overflowed onto the tire INSIDE the car frame before the pump shuts off. It had clearly been in an accident and improperly repaired. Instead of going to NASA for the day, we had to walk around in a random town for an hour waiting for the fumes to subside enough for us to start the car safely. This thing was a death trap. I would never risk my family to this company again, and neither should anyone else.<br />
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7. After promising we would only be charged for a simple tire patch and to give them a few weeks to resolve it, a mysterious $266.25 bill showed up on the same day as the initial pickup--almost as if they knew how much they were going to charge at the moment they pre-authorized. The whole tire wouldn't cost that much! A tire plug only costs me about $10-15 in Minnesota with a higher hourly wage. They're clearly hoping we wouldn't notice or the amount won't be enough for us to fight. When we called back from home, nobody at the agency could explain the amount. Somehow, the only person we could to talk to wasn't in, and the invoice and key were no longer on his desk. Who could see that coming?<br />
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After three weeks of phone calls, we did get our money refunded, but not everyone is that fortunate. Although the wasted hours and sleep missed will never be replaced.Scott Rhinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06437848922061482346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2886818154664476546.post-45767046631057463332019-10-27T12:25:00.000-07:002019-10-27T12:28:02.916-07:00Volleyball TournamentThis weekend was a two-day Christian Athletic League tournament, the culmination of months of driving around the state and late nights squeezing in homework. Early Friday morning, we drove two hours to Wilmar, the host of this year's tournament for both soccer and volleyball. Our soccer team had driven the night before to make their 8 am game. Since Irene had never had donuts before, we stopped at Cold Springs Bakery on the way to get a sampling. Mmm. (Don't tell coach--no food before games.)<br />
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Because CCS had beat only one other team this year, they were seeded next-to-last in the rankings. Emily was out most of the beginning of the season due to a dislocated knee but still subbed in for serving. Irene rode the bench as a first-year, though she should shine in basketball starting next week.<br />
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Waiting in the stands, I chatted with fans who bore easy-to-read labels on their shirts like "Clara's Grandpa." In the first game, we were up against third-seeded Saint Cloud. Below, Emily serves three in a row, improving team morale.<br />
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The girls were so excited when they won this upset victory. The SC fans and players kept remarking on how surprised they were that we beat them. Our later game against the favorite and the host of the tournament did not go as well.<br />
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The girls had a full schedule of events: cheering on our soccer folks, pizza, secret-sister gift exchange, and trying to get to sleep in a busy hotel full of excited teen athletes. I used the time between games and chauffeur duties to read "Leviathan Wakes" -- an excellent noir buddy novel.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhapOCDmUnz58ICjR3SiHLilxJM2FlEcmDwuiTPUsHzSWflpgU1ai0S6BjBwnqfTkLjO5hzRtFfvrPeUU8f4qD-h183zXPwWpr02mwM5pxXC5PJ6gq5nr-N831KJtFCOk7bV-HKUxBX7Wg/s1600/IMG_0709.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhapOCDmUnz58ICjR3SiHLilxJM2FlEcmDwuiTPUsHzSWflpgU1ai0S6BjBwnqfTkLjO5hzRtFfvrPeUU8f4qD-h183zXPwWpr02mwM5pxXC5PJ6gq5nr-N831KJtFCOk7bV-HKUxBX7Wg/s320/IMG_0709.JPG" width="320" /></a>On day two, the girls rallied in an extremely scrappy match that went to game five. Everyone pulled together, and even shy Anna made some very aggressive spikes. Unfortunately, no one told the stands that the last game only went to 15 instead of the normal 25. I was planning to tape the ending but was shocked when the entire team went bananas and rushed onto the court jumping and screaming. After a disheartening season, they won third place in the league!<br />
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The medals on our setter and senior blocker are for players voted all-tournament by other coaches. Congrats CCS!<br />
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We shared decompression and dazed anecdotes over a Chinese buffet. Now we drive home and do laundry so we can hand back uniforms by Monday.<br />
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Scott Rhinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06437848922061482346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2886818154664476546.post-68476698701182032992019-10-26T09:58:00.000-07:002019-10-26T09:58:01.398-07:00Family Vacation Part 3: National Parks<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLr0phznhK-95Va9POYMVuJCCgstzDOkHHX5NhMw-Lrj4wworjL3qPITVh3D3qGAFEz1wNycjgS6IbqMKpRVUytlWS2WGRb8EiAtfD79lRvSHTbv8fyy2VFHHRm96HzjNJiMeMwtdMfRI/s1600/devil%2527s+tower.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLr0phznhK-95Va9POYMVuJCCgstzDOkHHX5NhMw-Lrj4wworjL3qPITVh3D3qGAFEz1wNycjgS6IbqMKpRVUytlWS2WGRb8EiAtfD79lRvSHTbv8fyy2VFHHRm96HzjNJiMeMwtdMfRI/s320/devil%2527s+tower.JPG" width="240" /></a>We woke bright and early to visit Devil's Tower. Up close, the formation reminds me of the Causeway of the Gods, with perfect geometric shapes in nature.<br />
Below, there were no open food places, but the ranger warned us that Yellowstone might not be open tomorrow if they got snow. I didn't relish the thought of 9 hours of driving for nothing. So while the ladies hiked, I phoned the Yellowstone information line. They had no plans to close but said to monitor their website or phone for updates.<br />
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Irene loved the Wyoming landscape, with all its varying colors. She said that, other than the lack of water and very small towns, it reminded her of her hometown of Alicante. When we reached a "big town" for lunch, she said "Town? No, this is a village!" We explained that Alicante has 450K people, and the entire state of Wyoming only has 577K. Having a smartphone makes me seem brighter than I am.<br />
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The trip over the mountains in the dark with icy roads is not an experience I would recommend to anyone. In fact, in another two weeks, chains will be mandatory on tires. We ate dinner at the dude ranch in Moran, since the close hotels in Grant Village sold out so fast. I wouldn't recommend finding your room in the dark without labels or lights, and a porch roof that's about 5' 5". The food was sketchy, and the WiFi dropped every five minutes. I couldn't get a call out to Yellowstone. DON'T COME HERE OFFSEASON, which is after Sept 30, but the views of the Tetons were great in daylight.<br />
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Thirty miles from the Yellowstone south gate, we were turned away. All the roads on the website but one were gray... which I would have painted red. The roads were too icy and bear activity was at a dangerous level. No geysers or hot springs for the rest of the year. We were all sad that we couldn't show Irene the wonders we had promised. However, Irene was in awe of the snow.<br />
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We spent the rest of the morning exploring the slightly icy roads of Teton Nation Park around Jackson Lake. On the daylight / warmer trip back through the mountain pass, we got to see the bears we had promised. To Irene, this had been worth the trip.<br />
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When we returned the way we had come, gas stations were open, but no restaurants. We bought lunch food at the grocery store and had a picnic in the car.<br />
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A few minutes into the Wind River Indian Reservation, an engine malfunction light came on. I was terrified of breaking down in the desert... until I remembered a similar situation in the past. I had my daughter check, and the gas cap hadn't been completely tightened. This was likely a false alarm, but the manual I pulled up online told me it could take a few days of driving before the light went out in this case. If I guessed wrong, we were talking serious engine damage. Reading more on my phone made me feel confident that it was only the gas cap. Everyone else was out of roaming data, so I had to conserve what little remained of mine for the GPS.<br />
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We decided to take the long way home through Montana and North Dakota for maximum cultural exposure. The resumption of cell service, green hills, and eating dinner at a real restaurant in Billings did wonders for our morale! The fact that the dash light went out after twelve hours of driving and adding a better grade of fuel didn't hurt either.<br />
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We did manage to find one last tourist attraction in North Dakota. "Look, a giant cow?"<br />
Without her glasses, Irene asked, "Where?" We lost it and took this picture to tease her. How could you miss a cow this size out your window?<br />
<br />Scott Rhinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06437848922061482346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2886818154664476546.post-56377090371106677742019-10-24T09:58:00.001-07:002019-10-24T09:58:50.778-07:00Family Vacation Part Two: Rushmore and Bigger Statues<div>
My biggest worry was daylight--once the sun went down at 6:05, we wouldn't be able to see a thing. This part of the country gets DARK, and the sidewalks roll up. Since we had stopped at so many attractions on the way, we had to skip the gold mine and Bear Country. Jewel Cave was closed for the season due to construction. Fortunately, we had gained an hour by traveling west. Emily drove while Irene napped. I fretted about impending rain.</div>
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We arrived at Mount Rushmore at around 2:30 Mountain Time. Irene was so excited. "I can't believe I'm here. It's like a movie or Phineas and Ferb." Yes, she watched it in Spain and shared a love of the cartoon with our family. We had recently shown her Ferris Bueller's Day Off, the prototype for the show, along with several of our other teen-friendly favorite movies.<div>
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Unfortunately, construction had begun at Rushmore, twenty feet from the gift shop. To get to the good viewing platform we remembered from our last visit (hence the matching T-shirts in the photo), we had to walk 45 minutes on a trail that made our legs burn. All to get a few feet closer. I was stressed about the schedule, but the ladies loved the scenery. When we rested at the Jefferson plaque, I commented that Jefferson with his pale sparkle looked like a Twilight vampire. That became a running joke for the afternoon.</div>
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We took a ton of photos for ourselves and others. My favorite was in a moment of dad humor, I posed the same way as the presidents and shot a selfie up my own nose, with plenty of throat shadow.</div>
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Next, we raced to the Crazy Horse Monument. At one turn, we braked and pointed three feet from the car at the side of the road. "Look, Irene, an antelope."</div>
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"Where?"</div>
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She wasn't wearing her glasses again, out of a misplaced sense of vanity. Tammy has tried to tell her she looks beautiful either way, but it's a habit. At fast-food restaurants, Irene uses her phone to photograph the menu and enlarges the print. We have tried to convince her (I through teasing) that seeing is more important. I included this picture of the amazing carving because it's one of the few times she voluntarily put them on.</div>
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The tour bus driver at Crazy Horse was a wealth of information. All of Rushmore would fit in this statue's head and hair.</div>
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In the next town, we searched for someplace to have a late dinner, and only two places were open. We decided to get a chicken alfredo pizza instead of waiting an hour at the burger place. For the price, they were very stingy with the chicken. The lesson--don't travel off-season in this area. In the two-hour drive in the dark, the girls played Heads Up word guessing game on an iPhone. We downloaded the movie and pop song expansions. The most hilarious part was the Warner Brothers cartoons and Muppets. Evidently, the characters have different names in Spanish. Kermit is known as Gustavo la Rana. I just remember one moment after Irene said, "Oh, no. His name is Roberto." Emily laughed so hard she dropped the phone.</div>
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That night, we stayed in Sunset, at the junction of all the looping highways. The ladies enjoyed the pool while I walked to a truck stop for a noncaffinated drink. Then I typed up some notes on my latest story. Emily also used the WiFi to submit assignments for her college classes. Did I mention that she's fifteen and wants to be a doctor someday?</div>
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The next blog entry will conclude the trip with the Wyoming sites.</div>
Scott Rhinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06437848922061482346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2886818154664476546.post-74902089107905532032019-10-23T19:19:00.001-07:002019-10-24T10:29:19.130-07:00Family Vacation, Part One -- Getting There is Half the FunTo help ease the loss of our son to Penn State (Pierce should be a junior by Christmas, still 17), our family has taken in an exchange student from Spain--Irene (pronounced ee-RAY-nay). Her English is outstanding, and she fits in well. Over the MEA 4-day weekend, my wife wanted to surprise her by showing her the sites in the Mountain Time Zone such as Rushmore and Yellowstone. Each month, we are planning a mini-vacation to show her the country.<br />
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So Wednesday night after work and school, we took off. The fields of wind turbines were amazing, but the whole town that smelled like fertilizer did not impress her. My daughter, Emily, got some night driving time in toward earning her license. We vowed to go back to the state's biggest candy store during basketball season. Our group made it as far as Mitchell, South Dakota the first night. </div>
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What's there to see on the way to our goal? We started with the Corn Palace--a basketball/performing arena decorated with, you guessed it, corn. Hey, it was free and had several Pokemon Go spin spots. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitfcR453R5sq8ZGnoyGcP-lFruBDh37J4_qrsvEeiok931IR-IEOTSmaERbKc02HWIzIZMv7hp-m6JR4b6ri1fYQ-Y7NSZ2eQETLxYv5Y_7mOC9kXooT1VfnB1PmXqOFP8OEE5Q3r423A/s1600/corn+rushmore.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitfcR453R5sq8ZGnoyGcP-lFruBDh37J4_qrsvEeiok931IR-IEOTSmaERbKc02HWIzIZMv7hp-m6JR4b6ri1fYQ-Y7NSZ2eQETLxYv5Y_7mOC9kXooT1VfnB1PmXqOFP8OEE5Q3r423A/s320/corn+rushmore.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div>
Inside, they had a corn rendition of Mount Rushmore so authentic that we almost canceled the rest of the trip. What could possibly compare?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPxLXWzSvpTrbRKaW014hR4DbcGMKSwP9a2EIHs80x7-NNvwANiFgRoIFfYe_LNf5xjQhzgHn0Xd3NK-nQgSfKzyjAOfWwEWMDXKK8NxCRElEsRytLzL33JIKQ_Fqnrj94fien-Y2AylA/s1600/dignity.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPxLXWzSvpTrbRKaW014hR4DbcGMKSwP9a2EIHs80x7-NNvwANiFgRoIFfYe_LNf5xjQhzgHn0Xd3NK-nQgSfKzyjAOfWwEWMDXKK8NxCRElEsRytLzL33JIKQ_Fqnrj94fien-Y2AylA/s320/dignity.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
<div>
Overlooking the Missouri River, Tammy found a monument to the dignity of women and her favorite hobby--quilting. We also found more fast-food places to inflict on Irene.</div>
<div>
On the road, we read "the Darwin Awards II" aloud to each other, sang Disney songs in two languages, and devoured Star Crunch snacks. Emily enjoyed driving 80 for the first time on roads where no one else could be seen. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicTr7HKS_Ysapp-hBUQWBy4NKTVrnQEe8okpERWIE9WVxxszJxnR7VLW_xnaSZfMKYxzpOPr_O8K4KGI-0EbyCsH5VN4aqVOK3ji2f8gd_LM8m0bEXTbRCCAg8UCSmqcPxOHgjxiRLc2w/s1600/jackalope+riders.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicTr7HKS_Ysapp-hBUQWBy4NKTVrnQEe8okpERWIE9WVxxszJxnR7VLW_xnaSZfMKYxzpOPr_O8K4KGI-0EbyCsH5VN4aqVOK3ji2f8gd_LM8m0bEXTbRCCAg8UCSmqcPxOHgjxiRLc2w/s320/jackalope+riders.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Next, we stopped at the MOST advertised tourist attraction in the state--Wall Drug, in the town of Wall! Here Irene bought postcards and other souvenirs. She learned how jackalopes helped pioneers explore the West like Sacajawea.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Since my Internet has suddenly turned glacial, I'll upload the big tourist site tomorrow and continue the story of our intrepid explorers.</div>
Scott Rhinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06437848922061482346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2886818154664476546.post-44999195752593545172019-09-25T12:20:00.000-07:002019-09-30T10:24:24.513-07:00Hacks for Amazon MarketingAfter my last post, I had an odd spike in ad expenses with no return, and I wanted to know why. So I did another report on my AMD ads experiment, with a breakdown by ad placement. It showed me that 35% of my recent ad budget was completely wasted on First page Top placement, with not a single sale. When looked for a way to adjust the number of ads by placement to eliminate this, I found none. AMS customer service said that they will take it under advisement as a new feature in the future.<br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 681px;" x:str="">
<colgroup><col style="mso-width-alt: 5558; mso-width-source: userset; width: 114pt;" width="152"></col>
<col style="mso-width-alt: 2998; mso-width-source: userset; width: 62pt;" width="82"></col>
<col style="mso-width-alt: 1609; mso-width-source: userset; width: 33pt;" width="44"></col>
<col style="mso-width-alt: 2121; mso-width-source: userset; width: 44pt;" width="58"></col>
<col style="mso-width-alt: 2157; mso-width-source: userset; width: 44pt;" width="59"></col>
<col style="mso-width-alt: 2011; mso-width-source: userset; width: 41pt;" width="55"></col>
<col style="mso-width-alt: 2121; mso-width-source: userset; width: 44pt;" width="58"></col>
<col style="mso-width-alt: 2084; mso-width-source: userset; width: 43pt;" width="57"></col>
<col style="mso-width-alt: 2011; mso-width-source: userset; width: 41pt;" width="55"></col>
<col style="mso-width-alt: 2230; mso-width-source: userset; width: 46pt;" width="61"></col>
</colgroup><tbody>
<tr height="35" style="height: 26.25pt; mso-height-source: userset;">
<td height="35" style="height: 26.25pt; width: 114pt;" width="152">Placement</td>
<td style="width: 62pt;" width="82">Impressions</td>
<td style="width: 33pt;" width="44">Clicks</td>
<td class="xl29" style="width: 44pt;" width="58">Cost Per Click</td>
<td style="width: 44pt;" width="59">Spent</td>
<td style="width: 41pt;" width="55" x:str="Sales ">Sales </td>
<td class="xl29" style="width: 44pt;" width="58">average cost</td>
<td style="width: 43pt;" width="57">return</td>
<td style="width: 41pt;" width="55">orders</td>
<td class="xl29" style="width: 46pt;" width="61">percent budget</td>
</tr>
<tr height="37" style="height: 27.75pt; mso-height-source: userset;">
<td height="37" style="height: 27.75pt;">Product pages</td>
<td align="right" class="xl24" x:num="">56792</td>
<td align="right" class="xl24" x:num="">78</td>
<td class="xl26" x:num="0.60948717948717945"> $
0.61 </td>
<td class="xl25" x:num="47.54"> $ 47.54 </td>
<td class="xl25" x:num="29.9"> $29.90 </td>
<td class="xl26" x:num="4.7539999999999996"> $
4.75 </td>
<td class="xl28" x:num="0.62894404711821639"> 0.63 </td>
<td align="right" class="xl27" x:num="10">10 </td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr height="33" style="height: 24.75pt; mso-height-source: userset;">
<td height="33" style="height: 24.75pt;">Rest of search</td>
<td align="right" class="xl24" x:num="">21624</td>
<td align="right" class="xl24" x:num="">34</td>
<td class="xl26" x:num="0.65"> $ 0.65 </td>
<td class="xl25" x:num="22.1"> $ 22.10 </td>
<td class="xl25" x:num="23.92"> $23.92 </td>
<td class="xl26" x:num="2.7625000000000002"> $
2.76 </td>
<td class="xl28" x:num="1.0823529411764705">
1.08 </td>
<td align="right" class="xl27" x:num="8">8 </td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr height="35" style="height: 26.25pt; mso-height-source: userset;">
<td height="35" style="height: 26.25pt;">First page Top of Search</td>
<td align="right" class="xl24" x:num="">2113</td>
<td align="right" class="xl24" x:num="">31</td>
<td class="xl26" x:num="1.2316129032258065"> $
1.23 </td>
<td class="xl25" x:num="38.18"> $ 38.18 </td>
<td class="xl25" x:num="0"> $ -
</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Until then, how do I avoid flushing so much money?<br />
<h3>
1. Product Pages Only</h3>
Well, Rest of Search has no knobs, but I can set the base bid at 10 cents, and after the ad is created, go to the last line of the "campaign settings" tab and increase bids for Product Pages only by 800%. In this way, I can ensure that no First impressions will be made and I can bid on my old keywords for Product Pages only for under 80 cents. I can then adjust the bid per keyword for this submarket. </div>
<div>
The first day only cost me $1.66, but I haven't seen any purchases yet. After an initial burst of 2000 impressions, Amazon throttled the exposure to 3 impressions per hour, too low to get any clicks. I suspect after the first day, it favors campaigns that produce a profit.<br />
<h3>
2. Rest of Search</h3>
</div>
<div>
If I want Product Pages and *some* of the Rest submarket which as twice as lucrative, I could set my default bid to 65 cents (the average cost per click of that category) and only bid down. The max bid is half the average of the First page prices; however, on the first day of this test, the campaign somehow reset itself to "dynamic up and down" and generated three useless $1 "top" clicks to go with the 3 sales that the other categories earned. I set it back to "down only" and will retry. Of the 13 settings that you can change, Strategy is the only one that has its own off-screen Save button, so be careful.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, when you go "down only," even if you keep increasing the bid, it only gives access to Rest markets 10 percent of the time. It feels like I am being penalized for not giving Amazon free-rein with my budget. Indeed, in the five days after the change, I only got 2 clicks total. Up until the change, I would have expected 65 clicks for the same period. Since it takes an average of 6 clicks per sale last week, I sold nothing.<br />
<h3>
3. Skipping Days Manually</h3>
With years of Amazon reporting data to go on, I know that Tuesdays are my worst days (and Sundays are weak). Looking at Amazon ad data, none of the clicks generated revenue on that day of the week. So, I will use the pause button on the campaign to manually prevent the expenditure on that day. Reducing my ad budget 14 percent with the same monthly purchase rate increases my profit.<br />
<h4>
4. Manually Enabling on Key Days</h4>
From my sword-and-sorcery series, I know that Monday afternoons were my biggest time for purchases, making almost as much as the rest of the week combined. Therefore, I only turn my Doors campaign on for that day. Make sure that the ad duration lasts through the desired dates or turning it on the night before will only get you an expiration message when you try to check the stats the next day.<br />
<br /></div>
Scott Rhinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06437848922061482346noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2886818154664476546.post-3983396347375101742019-09-17T10:55:00.000-07:002019-09-27T18:01:48.099-07:00AMS Ads Lessons Learned<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Indie authors would love to wave a magic wand and have
ads transform their backlist into best sellers. It doesn’t work that way. For
the first week, AMS is more like visiting the doctor or mechanic after going
without for years. You pay a bunch of money to find out what needs fixing. Be
willing to pay upfront for this valuable information and make changes
accordingly. If you’re lucky, you can use the tools available to find a niche
for your book that is profitable and satisfies your customers. I know this
because I played amateur sleuth like one of my characters. I’ll give concrete
examples from my experiments below.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">1. Don’t try this with 99 cent books</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Your cut of a 99 cent e-book is less than 30 cents. AMS bid
averages start in the 35 cent range. The best categories are closer to 90
cents. This means that you’ll never make a profit. Even if you’re willing to
eat the huge loss short-term, my one-day comparison experience is that people
are less likely to click on a 99 cent novel than a 2.99 option. If you don’t
value the product, why should anyone else?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">2. Use Kindle Select Novels with a Paperback Option</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although it is difficult to track, novels that subscribe to KDP
Select have much better results. Kindle Unlimited subscribers who don’t have to
pay extra are much more willing to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">try</b>
your book. Once they read a few pages, they should be hooked. Even with
stand-alone novels, I’ve generated almost as much follow-on revenue through KU
as during the actual sale of units. My “Doors to Eternity” epic fantasy didn’t
benefit from the exclusive Amazon contract the way all my sci-fi novels did,
but I flipped it on after a few days to make my ad dollars go twice as far. Note that I sold a higher percentage of paperbacks than normal with these ads. (11% compared to the normal 0.2 percent) Unfortunately, the AMS reports won't tell you which keyword sold your paperback, and the total sales on the summary page will be mysterious more than those on the spreadsheets because of this.<br />
Lastly, I noticed that read-through to the second book in any series made ads even
more cost-effective. The higher your read-through rate, the better the effects.
Because 67 percent of readers of “Jezebel’s Ladder” buy “Sirius Academy,” and there
are five books in the series, one sale has the weight of three.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Below is the comparison of direct sales versus KU. Note the two-day lead time.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidJPrsMZtipYXuaD6Gc4MI8m0EXS4nNdJCi4yLiisNh92FssshLwDu0TZa897laB1lw2P4bx6aIcRdDX1Gm6ZPNCqFwdBQ-kaLCKz1wwUPWmdwjA2V_SoeXrdqIEm0k8jVahnj9suXiYo/s1600/k2+kdp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="430" data-original-width="550" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidJPrsMZtipYXuaD6Gc4MI8m0EXS4nNdJCi4yLiisNh92FssshLwDu0TZa897laB1lw2P4bx6aIcRdDX1Gm6ZPNCqFwdBQ-kaLCKz1wwUPWmdwjA2V_SoeXrdqIEm0k8jVahnj9suXiYo/s320/k2+kdp.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">3. Manually Target</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve never seen an automatic campaign get significant
clicks. If it does get clicks, they often don’t lead to sales for the first
several days, and you won’t know why or be able to control this. The point of
this exercise is for you to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">learn</b>.
That’s the real benefit for what you’re spending initially. If you knew what
sold or why people liked/disliked your product you wouldn’t be in this
situation. I use an initial budget of $10 a day. Plan on burning that much per
book to find out what you don’t know. Try to start out with at least 75
keywords/phrases and add to the list each day as you find out what works. For
the first book I wrote, Scarab, I could only think of 29 phrases. Only three
got above 50 impressions, and only “Ready Player One” was something other than
a sci-fi category name. As much as I thought fourteen-year-old video-game
players will like the book, it isn’t really marketable. If I couldn’t think of
enough good reasons somebody would want it, no one else will. With all my other
experiments, other good keywords kept popping up every day. I was able to use
the data to change the price and blurb on my novels to reflect what I learned. For example, 100% of Andre Norton fans who clicked on my Doors ad purchased the book, so I added her to the blurb and my keywords. I also added her to the list of phrases on my YA novel, an even better fit.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">4. Be Patient</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Data in Amazon takes one to three days to be recorded.
Nothing will show up on your sale board for 24 hours. Even if you get sales on
your board, you won’t always know which title sold for a while. KU purchases
take even longer to register. Furthermore, book sales happen in cycles. For
example, my epic fantasy sales dip on Sunday and Tuesday, but spike heavily on
Monday at 1, after my target audience of IT guys comes back from lunch and
checks their e-mail. You need several days of data before discarding anything. Be aware that the reporting interface is buggy. When you change to request Targeting keywords, it resets the span of the report to LAST month, giving you an empty useless spreadsheet. I recommend the "Month to Date" version.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">5. Preconceptions are the First Casualty</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, on day three, you can begin changing the search
keywords that you entered in your initial KDP setup for your e-book. The words
you <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">thought</i> described your book are
probably irrelevant garbage. Now you can prove what is popular and what
positively associates with your product. For example: my magic school novel
“Tells” had Harry Potter in the description, but everyone uses that label. Only
.2 percent of impressions go anywhere. I had no idea that Richelle Mead or
Harley Merlin series fans would convert so much better (up to 2.5 percent). The
keywords Magic and Intuition were a waste of space, and I replaced them with
the two successful ones. For my “K2 Virus,” no one cared about Virus, Korean,
or Martial Arts, but Pandemic, Assassin, and Tom Clancy were huge winners. Evidently,
buyers wanted a spy thriller more than a research paper. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Why</i> customers are interested is something we haven’t been able to
see before. Take advantage of what you’re learning to make your book better
long-term, not just for the span of a sale. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">6. If Amazon Won’t Spend Your Money, It Can’t Be Spent</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After four days, “Quantum Zero Sentinel,” one of my newer
novels hadn’t spent even $3. I had very few clicks. Why not? It had a 4.8
rating and had a decent initial sales bump with my regular fans. However, there
were several problems. First, the targeted Batman/Orphan Black fans weren’t
interested. The more popular authors who resonated were Dan Simmons, Neal
Stephenson, and William Gibson. Altered Carbon even had a good showing. Wow!
Huge compliments, but I need to radically change my blurb. The category that
most closely aligned with the novel wasn’t hard sci-fi, but Spy Thriller, with
a whopping 2.5% click rate. My biggest problem? The cover doesn’t say any of
this to prospective readers. I’ll have to spend another $200 plus to fix the
problem. Fortunately, my Facebook marketing research of alternate images says
that more than enough people will buy the novel to pay for this change. In the
meantime, thousands of people in my niche were exposed to my brand for next to
nothing. Next time they see one of my books, they’ll be more likely to buy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">7. Not All Clicks are Good</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
False clicks happen, and they hurt, especially early on when
you’re adjusting your campaign. Sometimes it’s an accident or a fluke. I had
this happen most often with popular titles like “Game of Thrones,” “Warhammer,”
or “Star Trek.” You need to reduce the chances of a mistake using negative
keywords like RPG, DVD, Movie, or TV so that you don’t pay for someone’s fat
fingers. After filtering, the hit rate for several of these is much lower (1
per 3000 views). I eventually got rid of these phrases, too, because even if
the Star Trek customers do buy my space opera, it won’t be the experience they’re
looking for and my product reviews will be lower. This is an exercise in
finding the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">right</b> audience for your
writing. Since K2 Virus has a transgender character, I made that one of the
original keywords. However, the types of books that come up when you search
that word on Amazon are very specific sorts of erotica—nothing like my novel. I
turned this keyword off after several false hits because I don’t want to
mislead people. As this decision very subjective, I make it a rule to switch
off only one of these false leads a day (or a couple closely-linked ones like
Klingon and Star Fleet). Then watch how the revised list performs on your
reports tomorrow. Eventually, you’ll have a smooth-running machine.<br />
<br />
Here is an actual sample day with my decisions color-coded.<br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 518px;" x:str="">
<colgroup><col style="mso-width-alt: 5229; mso-width-source: userset; width: 107pt;" width="143"></col>
<col style="mso-width-alt: 1682; mso-width-source: userset; width: 35pt;" width="46"></col>
<col style="mso-width-alt: 1609; mso-width-source: userset; width: 33pt;" width="44"></col>
<col style="mso-width-alt: 5229; mso-width-source: userset; width: 107pt;" width="143"></col>
<col style="mso-width-alt: 3181; mso-width-source: userset; width: 65pt;" width="87"></col>
<col style="mso-width-alt: 2011; mso-width-source: userset; width: 41pt;" width="55"></col>
</colgroup><tbody>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="height: 12.75pt; width: 107pt;" width="143">keyword</td>
<td class="xl24" style="width: 35pt;" width="46">views</td>
<td class="xl24" style="width: 33pt;" width="44">clicks</td>
<td class="xl25" style="width: 107pt;" width="143">cost per click</td>
<td class="xl25" style="width: 65pt;" width="87">spent</td>
<td style="width: 41pt;" width="55">sales</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl26" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;"><span style="background-color: lime;">assassin</span></td>
<td align="right" class="xl27" x:num=""><span style="background-color: lime;">961</span></td>
<td align="right" class="xl27" x:num=""><span style="background-color: lime;">3</span></td>
<td align="right" class="xl28" x:num="0.99333333333333318"><span style="background-color: lime;">$ 0.99</span></td>
<td align="right" class="xl28" x:num="2.98"><span style="background-color: lime;">$ 2.98</span></td>
<td class="xl38" x:fmla="=2.99" x:num="2.99"><span style="background-color: lime;"> $
2.99 </span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">espionage</td>
<td align="right" class="xl24" x:num="">633</td>
<td align="right" class="xl24" x:num="">1</td>
<td align="right" class="xl25" x:num="0.64">$ 0.64</td>
<td align="right" class="xl25" x:num="0.64">$ 0.64</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl32" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;"><span style="background-color: yellow;">medical thrillers</span></td>
<td align="right" class="xl33" x:num=""><span style="background-color: yellow;">622</span></td>
<td align="right" class="xl33" x:num=""><span style="background-color: yellow;">7</span></td>
<td align="right" class="xl34" x:num="1.14"><span style="background-color: yellow;">$ 1.14</span></td>
<td align="right" class="xl34" x:num="7.98"><span style="background-color: yellow;">$ 7.98</span></td>
<td class="xl38" x:fmla="=5.98" x:num="5.98"><span style="background-color: yellow;"> $
5.98 </span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">spy novels</td>
<td align="right" class="xl24" x:num="">616</td>
<td align="right" class="xl24" x:num="">1</td>
<td align="right" class="xl25" x:num="0.65">$ 0.65</td>
<td align="right" class="xl25" x:num="0.65">$ 0.65</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl29" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;"><span style="background-color: red;">pandemic</span></td>
<td align="right" class="xl30" x:num=""><span style="background-color: red;">589</span></td>
<td align="right" class="xl30" x:num=""><span style="background-color: red;">12</span></td>
<td align="right" class="xl31" x:num="0.86499999999999999"><span style="background-color: red;">$ 0.87</span></td>
<td align="right" class="xl31" x:num="10.38"><span style="background-color: red;">$ 10.38</span></td>
<td align="right" x:num=""><span style="background-color: red;">0</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl35" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">tom clancy (BROAD)</td>
<td align="right" class="xl36" x:num="">576</td>
<td align="right" class="xl36" x:num="">1</td>
<td align="right" class="xl37" x:num="1.33">$ 1.33</td>
<td align="right" class="xl37" x:num="1.33">$ 1.33</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl35" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">tom clancy</td>
<td align="right" class="xl36" x:num="">450</td>
<td align="right" class="xl36" x:num="">1</td>
<td align="right" class="xl37" x:num="1.54">$ 1.54</td>
<td align="right" class="xl37" x:num="1.54">$ 1.54</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl32" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;"><span style="background-color: yellow;">plague</span></td>
<td align="right" class="xl33" x:num=""><span style="background-color: yellow;">292</span></td>
<td align="right" class="xl33" x:num=""><span style="background-color: yellow;">6</span></td>
<td align="right" class="xl34" x:num="0.7583333333333333"><span style="background-color: yellow;">$ 0.76</span></td>
<td align="right" class="xl34" x:num="4.55"><span style="background-color: yellow;">$ 4.55</span></td>
<td class="xl38" x:fmla="=2.99" x:num="2.99"><span style="background-color: yellow;"> $
2.99 </span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">north korea</td>
<td align="right" class="xl24" x:num="">279</td>
<td align="right" class="xl24" x:num="">1</td>
<td align="right" class="xl25" x:num="0.63">$ 0.63</td>
<td align="right" class="xl25" x:num="0.63">$ 0.63</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl35" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">richard preston</td>
<td align="right" class="xl36" x:num="">190</td>
<td align="right" class="xl36" x:num="">2</td>
<td align="right" class="xl37" x:num="0.81">$ 0.81</td>
<td align="right" class="xl37" x:num="1.62">$ 1.62</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">spy</td>
<td align="right" class="xl24" x:num="">181</td>
<td align="right" class="xl24" x:num="">1</td>
<td align="right" class="xl25" x:num="0.59">$ 0.59</td>
<td align="right" class="xl25" x:num="0.59">$ 0.59</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">hard science fiction</td>
<td align="right" class="xl24" x:num="">83</td>
<td align="right" class="xl24" x:num="">1</td>
<td align="right" class="xl25" x:num="0.84">$ 0.84</td>
<td align="right" class="xl25" x:num="0.84">$ 0.84</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">military thrillers</td>
<td align="right" class="xl24" x:num="">47</td>
<td align="right" class="xl24" x:num="">1</td>
<td align="right" class="xl25" x:num="0.59">$ 0.59</td>
<td align="right" class="xl25" x:num="0.59">$ 0.59</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">outbreak</td>
<td align="right" class="xl24" x:num="">43</td>
<td align="right" class="xl24" x:num="">1</td>
<td align="right" class="xl25" x:num="0.48">$ 0.48</td>
<td align="right" class="xl25" x:num="0.48">$ 0.48</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl26" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;"><span style="background-color: lime;">bioterrorism thriller</span></td>
<td align="right" class="xl27" x:num=""><span style="background-color: lime;">39</span></td>
<td align="right" class="xl27" x:num=""><span style="background-color: lime;">2</span></td>
<td align="right" class="xl28" x:num="0.45500000000000002"><span style="background-color: lime;">$ 0.46</span></td>
<td align="right" class="xl28" x:num="0.91"><span style="background-color: lime;">$ 0.91</span></td>
<td class="xl38" x:fmla="=2.99" x:num="2.99"><span style="background-color: lime;"> $
2.99 </span></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">8. All Hat, No Cattle</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The last case is the hardest. What happens if you get lots
of clicks, but nobody buys? Ouch. You just shelled out good money for nothing.
I had this happen with “Void Contract.” One of two things might be to blame. I’ll
have to apply the scientific method to determine which. First, the image of an
African man with a gun on the cover can be off-putting to American consumers. I
found with Facebook experiments that British and Indian customers have no such
bias. Unfortunately, I can’t test this theory because AMS doesn’t run anywhere
but the US, and I don’t want to buy another new cover today. Second, and more
likely, is that the detailed pitch is too dull for the audience. I wrote the
book as an homage to the 70s author Alan Dean Foster and peace between all
species, but today’s military sci-fi fans (Zahn, Dietz, Green, Cook) are the
ones buying it. No room for touchie-feelie with these guys. The pitch has to
grab them by the nose and shout, “Someone who deserves it is gonna get hurt,
and you can watch.” Testing will take a week because first I have to wait a day
for the e-book to unlock after I changed the keywords. Then, the new pitch can
take another day to percolate through to the Amazon page. Finally, I’ll need at
least three days of revised data collection to judge the performance of the new
one. Because of the long wait, I need to word-smith each revision carefully. I’m
considering the following replacement:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li>Max doesn’t want to be an assassin, but his Xhosan-African
genes and hunter training make him invisible to empaths, the perfect weapon for
hunting alien war criminals across the Gigaparsec of known space. After they’re
all gone, he isn’t sure how he’ll fit into peacetime society. That’s not a
problem now that Saurian mobsters have kidnapped his only surviving friend. Since
evolved races can’t legally kill sentients, Max is going to have to get
creative.</li>
<li>Fans of Dietz, Zahn, Vance, Heinlein, Walter Jon Williams, and Babylon 5 should enjoy this action-filled quest to other
planets.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ll update the post when these results are available.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">9. The Long View</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For “midlist” authors like myself with a couple dozen novels, AMS works
best as a marathon, not a sprint. I don’t want one-day burst of 500 sales,
followed by obscurity. I want a steady three sales a day, building my “people
who bought this” affiliations and increasing my positive reviews. I love it
when a day after someone new likes one of my novels, an entire cluster of them
sell. These are intangibles you can’t buy. The biggest success from the first
wave of my AMS experiments was “K2 Virus,” which has a handful of keywords that
pop 25 times a day, but when they do, I have a 4 percent conversion to sales. At
the other extreme, I have words that get 200 views a day with only a
half-percent click rate. You have to work these ads like a farm: planting,
weeding, harvesting, and starting over the next season when conditions change yet
again. This isn’t a one-time deal; rather, AMS ads are a tool in your arsenal
to help you understand who your buyers are and what they want—marketing. This
also informs what the topic of my next novel should be. If I can tell from
research that it won’t have a market, I shouldn’t spend three months and a
thousand dollars creating it.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">10. Adapt</span></b><br />
After over a week, I figured out that two of the keywords I used were getting sales but not earning as much as they cost. Therefore, I adjusted the amount I will bid so it stays inside the profit margin. This can be adapted continuously from week to week.<br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 527px;" x:str="">
<colgroup><col style="mso-width-alt: 8155; mso-width-source: userset; width: 167pt;" width="223"></col>
<col style="mso-width-alt: 3328; mso-width-source: userset; width: 68pt;" width="91"></col>
<col style="mso-width-alt: 2011; mso-width-source: userset; width: 41pt;" width="55"></col>
<col style="mso-width-alt: 2669; mso-width-source: userset; width: 55pt;" width="73"></col>
<col style="mso-width-alt: 3108; mso-width-source: userset; width: 64pt;" width="85"></col>
</colgroup><tbody>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="height: 12.75pt; width: 167pt;" width="223">Targeting</td>
<td style="width: 68pt;" width="91">Cost Per Click (CPC)</td>
<td style="width: 41pt;" width="55">Spend</td>
<td style="width: 55pt;" width="73">ACoS</td>
<td style="width: 64pt;" width="85">profit point</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">assassin</td>
<td align="right" class="xl22" x:num="1.395">$ 1.40</td>
<td align="right" class="xl22" x:num="5.58">$ 5.58</td>
<td align="right" class="xl23" x:num="1.8662207357859502">186.6%</td>
<td align="right" class="xl24" x:fmla="=B2/D2" x:num="0.74750000000000116">0.75</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">medical thrillers</td>
<td align="right" class="xl22" x:num="0.98363636363636309">$ 0.98</td>
<td align="right" class="xl22" x:num="10.82">$ 10.82</td>
<td align="right" class="xl23" x:num="1.8093645484949801">180.9%</td>
<td align="right" class="xl24" x:fmla="=B3/D3" x:num="0.54363636363636425">0.54</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<br />Scott Rhinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06437848922061482346noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2886818154664476546.post-13867206177994087892019-02-01T14:02:00.001-08:002019-02-01T16:02:35.445-08:00Success with Facebook AdsSince I've been concentrating on my editing program for the last two years, I've let my mailing-list lapse. I wanted to build it up again. Another writer suggested I use the Mark Dawson videos on the subject, which he sends for free when you sign up for his newsletter. They were a little outdated but still excellent. The idea is that you offer a free book to anyone who sends you their name and e-mail address. The catch? You can have words in your photo, and you have a very limited word count to induce someone to click.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Results in a Nutshell</h3>
I started slowly at $5 a day and canceled ads that clearly weren't working after a $2 expenditure or a hundred exposures without a click. By spending $58.84 over two weeks, I garnered 245 new names, bringing my total to a more respectable 400 names. My cost averaged 24 cents a subscriber, which was my target range. When I first posted a new ad, a good one would snag 10 percent of the viewers at around 15 cents each. Over time, this would drop. I paused ads that started costing more than 50 cents a name.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Key Takeaways</h3>
<ol>
<li>Keep your budget small, $35 over a week. When I tried the "more is better" approach, multiplying to $25 a day, the amount of money expended went up by a factor of three, but the rate of clicks stayed the same. </li>
<li>People who are <span style="background-color: white;">too </span>young may grab the free stuff but don't necessarily have the disposable income to buy your e-books. Fourteen-year-olds might read my video-game novel, but they don't pay for it. Don't waste your limited ad budget on them on the first pass. People who are too old may not relate to my books. Therefore, I chose the age range between 28 and 64.</li>
<li>Make sure to make your first "narrow the audience" filter people with Kindle readers. This limits any audience to people who may take action and become fans. Unfortunately, only about 5 percent of US Facebook customers identify as having e-readers, and they sometimes won't intersect strongly with your intended targets.</li>
<li>Make sure your targeted audience is between 300K and 1 million. This isn't as easy as it sounds. I added UK readers in because although the US has 5 times the Facebook population, we have only 3.8 times the readers. That means we're less literate. Also, some categories I tested scored many more hits in the UK!</li>
<li>There was a direct correlation between how well people responded to these ads and how well the tested nine books performed in Amazon sales (multiply by forty). So if you want to test-market a new release, spend five bucks and do it here first. </li>
<li>The images you pick must be text free, uncluttered, and eye-catching. This is hard to do. Start with a clip from one of your covers, but if that doesn't work, consider going to Dreamstime. Their site has a one-week, five free download trial that I highly recommend using for your experiments.</li>
<li>People don't speak in books on Facebook; rather, they speak in movies and TV series. By forcing yourself to pick two shows that most exemplify your book, you also communicate better to your Amazon audience.</li>
<li>Fantasy is a harder sell, reinforcing my earlier experiences, where I can sell 2.5 times the science fiction with the same effort.</li>
</ol>
<h3>
Images that Worked</h3>
<div>
What works on Facebook is doubly important because with similar constraints, what works here should also work in Bookbub ads. These were my most successful ads.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
1. Alias meets Armageddon (zoom on Jezebel's Ladder cover)</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifMf8oN8LMaj4vF9vEtZbSS4Pn4ZqEyuYO8IhGHhWUMIDz4czP_j1wCix0kxGTNJy9BTDTIgqAKUtFR3nfKRXuXqXRWBFErai-RqWfAaBH6Q2hlDMQv5Jj4L00PWQGfwjp1HA-EmAyDlo/s1600/Jezebel+85.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="759" data-original-width="1000" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifMf8oN8LMaj4vF9vEtZbSS4Pn4ZqEyuYO8IhGHhWUMIDz4czP_j1wCix0kxGTNJy9BTDTIgqAKUtFR3nfKRXuXqXRWBFErai-RqWfAaBH6Q2hlDMQv5Jj4L00PWQGfwjp1HA-EmAyDlo/s320/Jezebel+85.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
2. <span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Hot Zone in North Korea. What could another SARS epidemic trigger? (image used on K2 cover)</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXycKcqDSu_vqr4789yKljQge_-kFtkfwLVxtR4Ayoy1fTNUzbj7uccjACKMv2QqN3LT-a6dCsEHIKvah_2RyTtvxHb3eDHXazE87VztgA7w5erUhdgL-Wkaq-RIivikvRIim4tFfp3xs/s1600/coronavirus+40+women.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="477" data-original-width="576" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXycKcqDSu_vqr4789yKljQge_-kFtkfwLVxtR4Ayoy1fTNUzbj7uccjACKMv2QqN3LT-a6dCsEHIKvah_2RyTtvxHb3eDHXazE87VztgA7w5erUhdgL-Wkaq-RIivikvRIim4tFfp3xs/s320/coronavirus+40+women.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Strangely, 76 percent of the respondents were women. Therefore, I limited the ad to women only so that I would have a higher hit ratio. I'm running a second campaign switching the starting analogy to "The Stand."</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">3. Giants, evil spirits, and blood-feuding wizards guard the Doors to Eternity (top of Dreams of the Fallen)</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqx4K-qp2XkYcomcqUddFg3KsN51FUsqlel8pnhGfYgNd7wStHSdstiSm0WwgRwVq8mhT3dN477tX3V6Un6vFZea2LWsMKuGZsB2R4y9Fk5nKNGojasOhyphenhyphenlQ50WFZaI3SWWRpOdbQ0HGY/s1600/traveller+30.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="756" data-original-width="1213" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqx4K-qp2XkYcomcqUddFg3KsN51FUsqlel8pnhGfYgNd7wStHSdstiSm0WwgRwVq8mhT3dN477tX3V6Un6vFZea2LWsMKuGZsB2R4y9Fk5nKNGojasOhyphenhyphenlQ50WFZaI3SWWRpOdbQ0HGY/s320/traveller+30.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">I used "Lord of the Rings" and "Game of Thrones" as the audience base.</span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
4. <span style="font-size: 12pt;">Like </span><st1:city style="font-size: 12pt;" w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Babylon</st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> 5 with a bushman hunting alien criminals (part of Union of Souls cover)</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuiEQSVd0Nk6ZSfxBxpKbMAthfzumsCaU6qqiJzJ5zdsXmF669cBC8JPB1lpVoyxwASjxGFVTjvDyD2_x0x7IzgN7168gDPK9yt-zNlvrHAMt0etM0797EtxwM3jFWg7IRSy19KhMH50Q/s1600/Gigaparsec+23+day+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1002" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuiEQSVd0Nk6ZSfxBxpKbMAthfzumsCaU6qqiJzJ5zdsXmF669cBC8JPB1lpVoyxwASjxGFVTjvDyD2_x0x7IzgN7168gDPK9yt-zNlvrHAMt0etM0797EtxwM3jFWg7IRSy19KhMH50Q/s320/Gigaparsec+23+day+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I used Han Solo and Firefly fans to start with. This one did much better in England (35-50 percent depending on the time of day). That tells me I should promote my Gigaparsec series more in the UK.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">5. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Batgirl meets Orphan Black. Spies, quantum computers, & gummy bears. Quantum Zero Sentinel (Dreamstime image)</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ6piryRtho8qncwOka4ZSTi3Jc5fUSaguzv7fqFYzwSpUT3bN3uumzjZg8C4keMKvZpiWTWvPtivAsb3xIkHcAweTIYTK_j6BNv4BkaMX2evLbDxK2NB0oEhyphenhyphenJPzqSf1wSIEKsAjPKG8/s1600/qzs+19+day+one+men.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1119" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ6piryRtho8qncwOka4ZSTi3Jc5fUSaguzv7fqFYzwSpUT3bN3uumzjZg8C4keMKvZpiWTWvPtivAsb3xIkHcAweTIYTK_j6BNv4BkaMX2evLbDxK2NB0oEhyphenhyphenJPzqSf1wSIEKsAjPKG8/s320/qzs+19+day+one+men.jpg" width="223" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Since 90 percent of the clickers were men, I limited this to them in order to boost the relevancy.</span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Be careful targeting images, because some of them only scored among lonely 45-year-old guys late at night--not what I was aiming for.</div>
<h3>
In the Details</h3>
<div>
For those who like to see the proof, here's the spreadsheet.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
</div>
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 369px;" x:str="">
<colgroup><col style="mso-width-alt: 3218; mso-width-source: userset; width: 66pt;" width="88"></col> <col style="width: 48pt;" width="64"></col> <col style="mso-width-alt: 3254; mso-width-source: userset; width: 67pt;" width="89"></col> <col span="2" style="width: 48pt;" width="64"></col> </colgroup><tbody>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="height: 12.75pt; width: 66pt;" width="88">Title</td>
<td style="width: 48pt;" width="64">Sales</td>
<td style="width: 67pt;" width="89">Subscriptions</td>
<td style="width: 48pt;" width="64" x:str="Projected ">Projected </td>
<td style="width: 48pt;" width="64">left to sell</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">jezebel</td>
<td align="right" x:num="">4578</td>
<td align="right" x:fmla="=84+5" x:num="">89</td>
<td align="right" class="xl22" x:num="3568.3551020408163">3568 </td>
<td>done</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">doors</td>
<td align="right" x:num="">3207</td>
<td align="right" x:num="">36</td>
<td align="right" class="xl22" x:num="1443.3795918367346">1443</td>
<td> oversold</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">void contract</td>
<td align="right" x:num="">610</td>
<td align="right" x:num="">27</td>
<td align="right" class="xl22" x:num="1082.534693877551">1083</td>
<td align="right" class="xl22" x:fmla="=D4-B4" x:num="472.53469387755104">473</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">k2 virus</td>
<td align="right" x:num="">585</td>
<td align="right" x:num="">43</td>
<td align="right" class="xl22" x:num="1724.0367346938774">1724</td>
<td align="right" class="xl22" x:fmla="=D5-B5" x:num="1139.0367346938774">1139</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">foundation</td>
<td align="right" x:num="">339</td>
<td align="right" x:num="">19</td>
<td align="right" class="xl22" x:num="761.78367346938774">762</td>
<td align="right" class="xl22" x:fmla="=D6-B6" x:num="422.78367346938774">423</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">quantum zero</td>
<td align="right" x:num="">227</td>
<td align="right" x:num="">24</td>
<td align="right" class="xl22" x:num="962.25306122448978">962</td>
<td align="right" class="xl22" x:fmla="=D7-B7" x:num="735.25306122448978">735</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">scarab</td>
<td align="right" x:num="">144</td>
<td align="right" x:num="">4</td>
<td align="right" class="xl22" x:num="160.37551020408162">160</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">contagion</td>
<td align="right" x:num="">77</td>
<td align="right" x:num="">1</td>
<td align="right" class="xl22" x:num="40.093877551020405">40</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">Messenger</td>
<td align="right" x:num="">56</td>
<td align="right" x:num="">2</td>
<td align="right" class="xl22" x:num="80.187755102040811">80</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div>
I have 25 novels in my catalog and limited funds for ads. This data helps me to direct future advertising dollars and effort. Clearly, the lower three don't have a market, no matter how good they are. The top two have hit Amazon bombs and sold more than I expected over the years. The sweet spot is in the middle. K2 Virus is seems like I will get the most bang for the buck, followed by QZS with the Batgirl reference, and Void Contract in the UK. Unfortunately, Foundation doesn't have a good connect rate, and people don't often read the rest of the series. So I'll hold off on that and try it in the UK at a later date, once I learn the ropes with Bookbub ads.</div>
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Scott Rhinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06437848922061482346noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2886818154664476546.post-14053101210744611302019-01-20T16:26:00.001-08:002019-01-20T20:15:54.868-08:00the Myth of Weak VerbsI've read a lot of editing gurus (including the makers of Autocrit) who say that "weak" verbs should be replaced with strong ones if you want publishers to take your book seriously. Their goal was to make the book less "tell" and more "show." One even insisted that every instance of "walk" should be replaced with a more specific version, like "strolled". To me, this smacks of purple prose and those people who sold "said books" in the era of the Hardy Boys--when you shouldn't bore readers by using the same words for said and ask. I was skeptical, so I did some numerical analysis.<br />
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Here is the list of "weak" verbs I used:<br />
{ Every form of the verb IS (to be)<br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
"get", "gets", "got",</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
"move", "moves", "moved",</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
"walk", "walks", "walked",</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
"put", "puts",</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
"go", "goes", "went",</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
"smile", "smiles", "smiled",</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
"hear", "hears", "heard",</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
"see", "sees", "saw",</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
"look", "looks", "looked",</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
"watch", "watches", "watched",</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
"witness", "witnesses", "witnessed",</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
"stare", "stares", "stared",</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
"notice", "notices", "noticed",</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
"begin", "begins", "began",</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
"start", "starts", "started",</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
"feel", "feels", "felt",</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
"help", "helps", "helped",</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
"let", "lets",</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
"love", "loves", "loved",</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
"hate", "hates", "hated",</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
"knew", "know", "knows",</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
"set",</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
"stay", "stays", "stayed",</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
"meet", "meets", "met",</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
"keep", "keeps", "kept",</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
"appear", "appears", "appeared",</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
"sound", "sounds", "sounded",</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
"need", "needs", "needed",</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
"grow", "grows", "grew", }</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
Autocrit also highlighted forms of have, touch, and could, but that was overkill.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
Next, I had to lay some ground rules to keep the comparison fair. First, my program detects the part of speech from context because most of these words could be either a noun or a verb. We only care about the noun usages. Second, I ignore dialog, because people use these weak terms in conversation all the time. I had to reduce the noise and focus on narrative only. Third, I had to exclude first-person point-of-view novels, since that is effectively conversation.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
To test the range of weak content, I first ran the tool on all 25 of my books. I came up with an average weight of 18.25% weak, plus or minus a 3 percent range. Then I did the same thing for 26 common-domain masterpieces of literature. They averaged a whopping 28.47 percent (from 20.7 to 34.6). About one sentence in three violates this rule editing. Hmm. By this metric, these hacks like Tolstoy, Wells, Kipling, Twain, Burroughs, Dickens, Chopin, Joyce, and the like must not be very popular. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
But Scott, these were examples from the 1920s. English has improved so much since then. I'll bite. Getting a word or text copy of any current novel is difficult. Luckily, Brandon Sanderson has a website where he shares and workshops his novels with fan support. I downloaded version 6.1 (final version before handing over to TOR) of the novel "Warbreaker." It scored 25.2, in the same range as the 1920s stuff. A fluke? I downloaded three more novels from some friends at Fiction Vortex, and they averaged 25.6 (+-7 percent range).</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
Therefore, good and popular writers use "weak" writing a quarter to a third of the time. By Autocrit logic, to be successful, I should inject my work with more weak verbs like a butcher grinds more fat into the hamburger. If we only flagged those books significantly above the classical metric, half the sentences in a document would be highlighted for change--and the recommendation would be wrong most of the time. My conclusion is that only a few weak verbs matter for pre-editing.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
I have felt all along that my "Senescence" editor was right saying that narrators should rarely "start" or "begin" to do something; rather, they should just DO it, clearly and cleanly. My editor "Katie" was also correct that "get/got/gets/gotten" are a crutch that I should eliminate. Beyond these, I will add on a case-by-case basis. To one who knows how to mix a palette of words, no word is truly weak when it's direct and intentional.</div>
Scott Rhinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06437848922061482346noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2886818154664476546.post-25840733526311320322019-01-16T09:51:00.002-08:002019-01-16T09:57:03.712-08:00Free Sci-Fi Pageturner<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbJWmZU65J6FQszYhHxHeclmQdBwEiJO6WmQOeUJbq6PvkJFp213thuu7CFE38HDSUF7sjNGkVxYvEbgrAIrCJ30QvGdFnowMbYRyXI2wjIORlmNmyVE5Z2WZal9_fwSCDbQQET9wGD68/s1600/JezebelFinalWeb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="534" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbJWmZU65J6FQszYhHxHeclmQdBwEiJO6WmQOeUJbq6PvkJFp213thuu7CFE38HDSUF7sjNGkVxYvEbgrAIrCJ30QvGdFnowMbYRyXI2wjIORlmNmyVE5Z2WZal9_fwSCDbQQET9wGD68/s320/JezebelFinalWeb.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
In honor of my annual newsletter membership drive, this week I am giving away e-books of my most popular Sci-Fi novel, "Jezebel's Ladder." <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005LXWIE2/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0">Amazon Page</a> To get a free copy, click the subscribe button to the right with your e-mail address, or send a message to ScottRhineBooks@gmail.com with the title "Jezebel Giveaway."<br />
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If you liked "Armageddon", "Alias", "Orphan Black", or "Contact", you'll love this present-day thriller.</div>
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Note that this offer is not available to children under the age of 13. Your name and address won't be sold to anyone else, and I don't send out newsletters often (maybe once a season). If you enjoy it, please take a moment to leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads.</div>
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