WORD TINKER

Christian Writing Tips, Self-Editing Tips, Christian literature, Writing History and Technique.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Friday, February 13, 2009

CHARLES DARWIN:WHAT"S THE BIG DEAL?!











I'm afraid I'll have to delay more recession tips until I have my say on Darwin!


Charles Darwin said : “No one can say why the same peculiarity in different individuals…is sometimes inherited and sometimes not so: why the child often reverts in certain characters to its grandfather…”

No one could say, that is, except Christian Geneticist : GREGOR MENDEL , the
Christian monk who discovered one of the big flaws in Darwin's theory without making a song and dance. This lowly Monk studied the humble pea and discovered that certain characteristic traits completely disappear from one generation to the next, rather than evolve, as Darwin would have it. Yet Mendel died two years after Darwin and we did not hear of it. Many have said that if this Christian’s theories had been published before Darwin's they would have become the accepted science, rather than the esteemed Darwin's!

Wendy McNeice is a writer, editor, inspirational speaker and tutor and a one-time history teacher and information adviser. Find more writing tips at http://www.scribeofspirit.com and http://scribewm.wordpress.com/ .
Read her latest book As the Eagle Flies the King, based around the remarkable true story of the release of the Israelites from ancient Babylon by a Persian king. http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-60604-339-4 . http://www.amazon.com/Eagle-Flies-King-WendyMcNeice/dp/1606043390/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223864553&sr=8-1 )
Permission is granted to distribute this material provided the following statement appears on any distributed copy: © W. McNeice http://www.scribeofspirit.com

Sunday, February 1, 2009

What can a writer do to prepare for this recession?

Here are a few recession-fighting tips for writers… (What I learned while an information adviser to Australia’s domestic science students, a history teacher, and during twenty years of foraging around as a free-lance writer.)

"He who tills his land will have an abundant harvest." Proverbs 12:11.
“Honour the Lord with your substance and with the first fruits of your produce, then your barns will be filled with plenty.” Proverbs 3:9, 10.

"Mr Marinis said a large percentage of the population were 'blissfully unaware' of dire economic predictions for the year ahead." Courier Mail, Feb. 3.09.

" The future ain't what it used to be." Yogi Berra.

***If you live in the northern hemisphere, see tip 2 now

Tip 1

· While you’re taking much needed writing breaks, start a wild-food patch, with a few veggies that will grow like weeds, even if, like me, your thumb is about as green as that pig that flies over the moon.




DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN BUY EDIBLE WILD FOOD for a pittance AT YOUR LOCAL BOTANIC GARDENS?(Even if it is illegal to pick them in your state.)

· With organic wild fruit and vegetables that can practically grow by themselves, you’ll make a huge saving on your grocery and health care costs next season.
· The price of food will sky-rocket once the workers’ strikes kick in. You will reap




rewards then. Now is the time to invest in planting. (Start composting today to build good soil.)


Collecting Cockleberries. Photo © Ludo Kuipers, OzOutback.com.au

Wild foods to grow
Australia: e.g. Wombat Vine berries, Mindyim berries, New Zealand spinach (Warrigal greens) etc.
See your local botanical gardens for a long list. http://www.anbg.gov.au/botanic-gardens/index.html

New Zealand: Kiwis seem to be particularly fond of wild food. The New Zealand Food Safety Authority publish a list of which foods are safe and which are not:- Here are some from the safe list as of Jan 09. Check regularly for updates.
FRESHWATER CRAYFISH, HUHU GRUBS, SALMON, TROUT, WHITEBAIT, INANGA KOKOPU, KAORA, WHELKS, LIMPETS,CRABS, DANDELION, CABBAGE TREE, NIKAU PALM, SEACUCUMBER, KIEKIE, SUPPLEJACK, MOST SEAWEEDS, MOST BERRIES, FLAX SEEDS, THISTLE NUT, MOST WILD HERBS

USA: http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/ This site gives detailed pictures and information about common US wild foods.
UK: The guys at selfsufficientish are a great source for wild food info in the UK. In this example they describe the myriad uses for the common Mallow. Apparently they can even be used for toilet paper, not that I’d recommend it, but…
http://www.selfsufficientish.com/index.php/wild-foods/188-the-common-mallow-malva-sylvestris .

Start leaving crumbs out for birds. They will kill insect pests. When you plant add companion plants from this list to destroy the rest :-

Tip 2***

Stock some fuel-producing items—firewood and coals for barbeques and heating, matches, etc. If you live in remote areas petrol would be a good idea. These will be needed if (and in our case when) blackouts and/or petrol shortages occur.
Stock up on a few basic durable food products, e.g. canned foods, pasta, etc.


Tip 3
Just for the experimental at heart(:
Even if you live in a cold climate, The Coolgardie Safe is the free Aussie bush fridge that works when hung under a tree.

Selfsufficientish have the instructions here:-

http://www.selfsufficientish.com/index.php/nevs-tips/110-keeping-your-cool-replacing-the-humble-fridge-by-selfsufficient-guru-nev-sweeney?start=1
(Remember, it goes under a tree rather than in a garage.)


Tip 4

Start making Gifts of Words. More about these in the next blog…
*The following site lists companion plants which control pests
http://www.gardentoad.com/companionplants.html
Tip 5
Apply the lessons from this article by Robert Sherbondy to your finances:-
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(Wendy McNeice is a writer, editor, inspirational speaker and tutor and a one-time history teacher and information adviser. Find more writing tips at http://www.scribeofspirit.com . Read her latest book As the Eagle Flies the King, based around the remarkable true story of the release of the Israelites from ancient Babylon by a Persian king. http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-60604-339-4 . http://www.amazon.com/Eagle-Flies-King-Wendy-McNeice/dp/1606043390/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223864553&sr=8-1

Sunday, January 18, 2009

How to Advertise your Writing

Barack Obama won this seat in office, as any savvy pundit will tell you, because he knew how to do elections in a new way. In other words, he understood that…

advertising is dead and PR is everything.

He understood the power of New Media and Social Networking.

New Media comprises a variety of elements—the Internet embodies most of these—
· Social Networking sites, e.g. Facebook, MySpace, MyShoutLife
· Virtual Conferencing by Video
· MSN Chat and Skype
· Podcasts
· RSS feeds
· Twitters
· and the thing everyone knows and many now bemoan…Email.

Find more on how PR is the new advertising in The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR by A & R Reis.

For more information on any New Media, do a search under http://www.about.com/
You’ll find examples of most of these things on the Barack Obama Blog: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hqblog

As I promised, here is a little info on one aspect of New Media:-

HOW TO PODCAST
(create your own mini-radio show)

Podcasts require only three things to set up:

a website or blog with podcast facility, a microphone
and a program that records voice--such as Windows Media, which is installed on most machines already.

Podcasts cost nothing to create and distribute and are not censored.

To find out how to make use of a podcast to spread your message, check out this site:-
http://radio.about.com/od/podcastin1/a/aa030805a.htm

For an editing podcast you should not miss, go to http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/

You can listen online or on your mp3 player.

A little like Obama, Jesus came to do the old things in a totally new way. His was the longest-lasting revolution in history.

(Wendy McNeice is a writer, editor, inspirational speaker and tutor and a one-time history teacher and information adviser. Find more writing tips at http://www.scribeofspirit.com and http://scribewm.wordpress.com/ .
Read her latest book As the Eagle Flies the King, based around the remarkable true story of the release of the Israelites from ancient Babylon by a Persian king. http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-60604-339-4 . http://www.amazon.com/Eagle-Flies-King-WendyMcNeice/dp/1606043390/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223864553&sr=8-1 )
Permission is granted to distribute this material provided the following statement appears on any distributed copy: © W. McNeice http://www.scribeofspirit.com
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Tuesday, December 30, 2008

The Other New Year's resolution that changes the world




My second New Year’s resolution is about patience.* And here are some self-publishing tips to help you get through to publishers before you run out of it…




You may be sending a manuscript many times over, but if it looks unprofessional it will land straight in the slush pile. Here's how to avoid the slush pile:-


Step 1


The difference between a published manuscript and an un-published manuscript is about ten drafts,’ so said a guru in the literary world. While you’re patiently working on those, don’t forget these vital points:-


The editing process takes place with your left brain hemisphere, and it loves to argue with your right! So….


· once the words are down, wait until you are sufficiently out of your creative brain and can come to your work with new eyes. The experts suggest six weeks later!

· Ensure formatting is consistent. The first paragraph in a creative work is flush left. The rest are about 3 Em’s in.

· Your Header should contain the name of your work and page numbering. The Footer should say ‘mf’, short for ‘more follows’.


· Your title page should contain the genre in the LH corner and your name & address top right; the title is centred with ‘by’ & your name. Rights requested are at the bottom left and word count bottom right.


More on self-editing at my other blog:- www.scribewm.wordpress.com


*Why Patience?

As Thomas Edison said, "Life's greatest accomplishments are those that at first seem impossible."

(Wendy McNeice is a writer, editor, inspirational speaker and tutor and a one-time history teacher and information adviser. Find more writing tips at http://www.scribeofspirit.com . Read her latest book As the Eagle Flies the King, based around the remarkable true story of the release of the Israelites from ancient Babylon by a Persian king. http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-60604-339-4 . http://www.amazon.com/Eagle-Flies-King-Wendy-McNeice/dp/1606043390/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223864553&sr=8-1 )
Permission is granted to distribute this material provided the following statement appears on any distributed copy: © W. McNeice http://www.scribeofspirit.com
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Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Dec 7th…

is Good Neighbourliness Day in Turkmenistan. Hey! you say, is there even such a word as Neighbourliness?

According to the Cambridge International Dictionary, “the lack of ‘good neighbourliness’ has led to a breakdown in the traditional life of the community.”

Is this a word doomed to become obsolete?


Old Words still in Usage
Words relating to social manners have always had nicknames with each new generation. Here are a few words used as far back as the 14th century and still in use by our elders today.

Rabble…tumultuous crowd of people (1513)
Rascal…people of the lowest class (1330) Today: a term of endearment by elders
Crush…infatuated with (1884) “Have a crush on” (1913)
Shirty…disheveled, as in anger, bad-tempered (1814)
Hot-headed…ungovernable (1616)
Beau…suitor (1665)


But would you dream of using the word ‘neighbourliness’ in a sentence?


Where to Find your Best Words



The definitive online source to go to if you had to check is the Onelook Online dictionary http://www.onelook.com/ .

  • Dictionary Indexes
    Michael Quinion has the best index I’ve seen of online dictionaries at http://www.worldwidewords.org/wordlinks.htm including such gems as the Australian National Dictionary, The Jargon File (for net heads) and The Luciferous Logolepsy for obscure words and various slang dictionaries.



    By now you would have discovered that neighbourliness is in fact a word in usage. But for how long?



    Perhaps we need a sociologist to answer that one! Social Scientist Alvin Toffler says we’re on the cusp of a new civilization. But in a new civilization where communities are full of people (online) you may never meet, has the very concept of neighbourliness gone out the door? Think about how you can change that today!


    PPST! Here are a few Christian writing communities you could join in the meantime—


Christian Writers Networks Online


International

http://christianwriters.com/forums/usercp.php
http://www.faithwriters.com/
http://www.xalt.co.uk/index.php?i=108&prev=1 (UK based)

For a more complete list, see my next blog...

For more writing tips go to my website at http://www.scribeofspirit.com/

Permission is granted to distribute this material provided the following statement appears on any distributed copy: © W. McNeice www.scribeofspirit.com
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Blogging - History and art

Welcome to my Ceilidh...
We writers are the ultimate tinkers. We constantly borrow and rearrange words, images, sentence constructions and whole styles just as the nineteenth-century tinker created implements, pots and pans and all manner of iron, silver and brass objects, often from recycled materials.
It may surprise many, but the majority of twenty-first-century writers have simply tinkered with either Ernest Hemingway’s sentences, or, in the case of the more idiosyncratic, James Joyce’s stream of consciousness.


Because Ernest Hemingway and James Joyce set the benchmark for modern writing.


And every twenty-first-century blogger is not just simply redoing what Justin Hall first did with his personal tours of the web in 1994 [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Hall ; we bloggers are also recreating an ancient tradition in a new way—the art of ceilidh…as my Irish and Scottish ancestors call it—of gathering together and telling stories by the new web-hearth.
Join my ceilidh.
So what makes a good blog?

  • Blogs should be current


  • Blogs should have good research


  • Blogs should be personable in style.

I'll try to be..."all things to all men, that I might by all means save some." 1 Corinthians 9:22.


http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-60604-339-4 . http://www.amazon.com/Eagle-Flies-King-Wendy-McNeice/dp/1606043390/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223864553&sr=8-1
Permission is granted to distribute this material provided the following statement appears on any distributed copy: © W. McNeice, mentor, tutor, editor, http://www.scribeofspirit.com/