The importance of a copy editor

cj Sez:  I’m feeling pretty mellow right now. It’s Saturday night, and I just got home from the Allison Krause concert in Mobile. She has such a great voice.

   Okay on to the blog post: Did you ever open a book, read a few chapters (or even a few lines), and then put it down because of errata, i.e.; those typos and misspellings that drive a pedantic like me up a wall. One or two will make me pause and shake my head; gremlins happen. A lot of them will stop me in my tracks.

  Now, I’m finding errors in books by established authors and big publishing houses that, I thought, should do better. Perhaps it comes down to the time it takes to do a detailed copy edit vs. getting the book on the market. 

(Definition: Copy editing is the process of reviewing and correcting written material to improve accuracy, readability, and fitness for its purpose, and to ensure that it is free of error, omission, inconsistency, and repetition.)

   Speaking from experience, self-edits and beta readers do not, will not, and cannot catch everything that a professional copy editor will. When I was gainfully employed, one of my report/column-writing rules was to get as many people as possible to read the document . . . the more eyes on it the better the end product. That wasn’t easy to do as I was always on an eleven a.m. deadline every day, and my work wasn’t on the top of someone else’s to-do list. But the effort was so worth it.

   The same thing is true about an author’s manuscript. I, me, personally, want my manuscript to be the best I can make it. I read the document on the computer screen, and then I print a few pages. Because the text looks different when printed, I’ll usually find the missing comma, period, or quotation mark that was missed on numerous computer-screen read-throughs. Sometimes, I make a copy of the printed page. Copying changes the size of the font once again, yet I will too often find another gremlin to correct.

   My advice to indie-published authors: Don’t presume that because you’ve typed “The End,” your manuscript is finished. It’s probably months away from being ready for publication. It needs fresh eyes. It’s a personal and financial consideration for each author, but please consider hiring a copy editor if you can afford it. 

   Caveat: Expect that if your manuscript is accepted by a publisher, their punctuation rules for how they want their publication to look may differ from your copy editor’s input, and there could be (probably will be) more changes to be made

   By the by, as the masthead of Lyrical Pens says, if you have a book you want to promote (new or one you want to refresh), let me know. We can arrange a blog date…the only caveat is that this site is PG 13.

   That’s it for this week’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same. See you next week?

cj

CHOOSING CARTER and DEADLY STAR are quick reads chock full of adventure with a touch of sassy banter and sweet romance. Get your Kindle copy on Amazon…visit my Amazon Central Author Page = https://amzn.to/2v6SrAj for more information about my stories.

   TO ORDER an autographed copy of CHOOSING CARTER, DEADLY STAR, HOMETOWN HEROES, and/or THE POSSE, contact The Haunted Bookshop here: The Haunted Bookshop  Angela Trigg, the awesome owner and a RITA Award-winning author in her own right (writing as Angela Quarles) will be happy to ship you the book(s) of your choice.

Visit me on Facebook at:   cjpetterson/author on Facebook

When it's time to call yourself a writer

cj Sez: Author Pat Conroy, who wrote literary fiction—including The Prince of Tides which was adapted into an Academy Award-nominated film—credits his English teachers . . . no, make that lauds the “genius of” his English teachers for instilling in him a love of the English language.  

   As Mr. Conroy was quoted on Goodreads: 

“I've been in ten thousand cities and have introduced myself to a hundred thousand strangers in my exuberant reading career, all because I listened to my fabulous English teachers and soaked up every single thing those magnificent men and women had to give. I cherish and praise them and thank them for finding me when I was a boy and presenting me with the precious gift of the English language. ” (http://bit.ly/1ldfCg2 ).

   Though I will never have anything close to Mr. Conroy’s expertise, I was, am, and always will be fascinated with words and syntax. I love, love, love the task of putting words together to create characters and plots that lure readers into the story, where they can see the scenes and experience the emotions in their imaginations.

   What really draws me to Mr. Conroy is something he wrote in his memoir My Losing Season: A Memoir  

“Do you think that Hemingway knew he was a writer at twenty years old? No, he did not. Or Fitzgerald, or Wolfe. This is a difficult concept to grasp.  . . .  But they had to take the first step. They had to call themselves writers. That is the first revolutionary act a writer has to make. It takes courage. But it's necessary.” 

   That’s what it’s all about. We have to call ourselves “writers.” That’s a grand title I long hesitated to give myself despite having been published in several genres (and been paid for it) over several years. Now that I’ve said it out loud, guess what? It sounded good and natural.
   
   I hope you have taken ownership of the title you've earned through study, discipline, and determination. If not, maybe it's time to try it. Celebrate it. Say it: “I am a writer!” I bet you’ll like it too.


Passing along info: 

A Journey into the Mystery of the Criminal Mind . . . A Conference for Writers and Readers of Crime Fiction

Sponsored by Sisters in Crime - New Orleans 
Featuring keynote speaker Hank Phillipi Ryan and local authors BJ Bourg, O'Neil De Noux, Jean M. Redmann, and Erica Spindler.

Saturday, November 16, 2019 at 8:30 AM

Holiday Inn, New Orleans Airport 2261 N. Causeway Blvd., Metairie, LA

///

   As the masthead of Lyrical Pens says, if you have a book you want to promote, let me know. We can arrange a blog date…the only caveat is that this site is PG 13.

   That’s it for this week’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same. See you next week?



cj 

CHOOSING CARTER and DEADLY STAR are quick reads chock full of adventure with a touch of sassy banter and sweet romance. Get your Kindle copy on Amazon…visit my Amazon Central Author Page = https://amzn.to/2v6SrAj for more information about my stories.



TO ORDER an autographed copy of CHOOSING CARTER, DEADLY STAR, HOMETOWN HEROES, and/or THE POSSE, contact The Haunted Bookshop here: The Haunted Bookshop  Angela Trigg, the awesome owner and a RITA Award-winning author in her own right (writing as Angela Quarles) will be happy to ship you the book(s) of your choice.



Visit me on Facebook at:   cjpetterson/author on Facebook

Familiar Legacy cat detective series and etc.

cj Sez: An invitation from the Mad Catters of the Familiar Legacy cat detective mystery series:  “We are going to have a whole lot of fun on Familiar Legacy cat detective mystery series Facebook page - a weekend filled with prizes, interviews, and contests.

   Hosted by Jaden Terrell with help from all of the #MadCatters as well as other authors you can meet and greet! October 5-7. 12-7 p.m. CST. Drop by the page and you're bound to see some shenanigans going on. MARK YOUR CALENDAR!

///

Since I’m recovering from knee surgery and can’t spend a lot of time sitting with my leg hanging down, here’s reminder of how fluid and difficult the English language is (from a 2014 post):

   This quote came from fellow blogger, Sol Sanders a few years ago:  “Perhaps the glory of the English language is that it so expressive. Its remarkable heterogeneous origins have given it an almost limitless vocabulary. And American English, particularly, has used that tool with an enormous flexibility to make it the international means of communication. One is able with a minimum of linguistic dexterity to capture every meaning, or almost every nuance.”

   Mr. Sanders’s comments were part of an introduction to his essay on what today’s journalism and media do with the English language. The gist of his blog was that journalism and media people overcomplicate their sentences with words that muddy their meanings—changing nouns into verbs and, perhaps, calling a shovel a “hand-held, earth-moving tool.” My take is that media and journalists employ an old trick of confusing the issue to persuade readers to their (the writer/editor’s) points of view

   The fact is, the English language is a living language. It’s constantly evolving as we create new words and new definitions in response to new technology. The rather sad result is that the generations cease to understand each other at an almost exponential pace. Many times I need an interpreter to understand teen-talk, and I can’t text (a noun turned into a verb because of technology) like my family does for fear I’ll forget how to really spell.

   Still, for me as a genre writer, the gloriously expressive English language is what makes my craft so fascinating. I adore language and anyone who accurately uses a large vocabulary with familiar ease.

   Yes, I use nouns as verbs. Yes, I deliberately obfuscate . . . and add the disclaimer that it’s for the sake of mystery. I am drawn to the syntax, symbolism, and syncopation of a well-drafted sentence that is the hallmark of successful mystery/thriller/suspense novelists. It’s using that “minimum of linguistic dexterity to capture every meaning, or almost every nuance” that appeals to me, and, I think, to readers of those genres. They want to try to decipher the code, find the clues, and solve the crime. Mystery writers like trying to confuse the issue.

   I’m still working on my craft. How are you doing with your genre?

   By the by, as the masthead of Lyrical Pens says, if you have a book you want to promote, let me know. We can arrange a blog date…the only caveat is that this site is PG 13.

   That’s it for this week’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same. See you next week?

cj

   CHOOSING CARTER and DEADLY STAR are quick reads chock full of adventure with a touch of sassy banter and sweet romance. Get your Kindle copy on Amazon…visit my Amazon Central Author Page = https://amzn.to/2v6SrAj for more information about my stories.

  TO ORDER an autographed paperback copy of CHOOSING CARTER, DEADLY STAR, HOMETOWN HEROES, and/or THE POSSE, contact The Haunted Bookshop here: The Haunted Bookshop  Angela Trigg, the awesome owner and a RITA Award-winning author in her own right (writing as Angela Quarles) will be happy to ship you the book(s) of your choice.

Visit me on Facebook at:   cjpetterson/author on Facebook

Dog daze of summer and hurricane season

cj Sez: The dog days of summer were historically the period following the heliacal (sunrise) of the star Dog Star, Sirius. Sirius is one star in a group of stars that form the constellation Canis Major, meaning “Greater Dog.”

   Greek and Roman astrology connected Sirius to heat, drought, sudden thunderstorms, lethargy, fever, mad dogs, and bad luck. For Egyptians (according to the Farmer’s Almanac), “Sirius came into view just before the Nile River’s flood season. They used Sirius as a 'watchdog' for that event. Because it also coincided with a time of extreme heat, the connection with hot, sultry weather was made for all of time! Some ancient peoples believed the summer swelter was due to the combined heat from Sirius and the sun. The name Sirius means ‘scorching’ in Greek.”

   The Farmer’s Almanac also says, “the 40 days beginning July 3 and ending August 11” are the traditional timing of the Dog Days. It also says that “some of our hottest and most humid days happen after August 11.” Seems there’s a lot more hellacious heat and humidity to come…so we have that going for us.

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Here’s an offer to cool you down, at least visually.

   You-all guys know it’s Hurricane Season on the Gulf Coast, don’t you? Well, have I got a deal for you. The HOMETOWN HEROES Christmas anthology is available at the low, low price of 99 cents (one week only, folks) or free on Kindle Unlimited.

And you’ll be getting a two-fer!

   Part of the proceeds from the sale of the book go to the Cajun Navy, those hometown heroes who trailer their personal boats to hurricane devastated areas to help those in need. And they do their incredible volunteerism on their own nickel. You can help out and read some wonderful stories at the same time by buying this book—the stories are lovely reads for any time of the year.

   Discover the role this fox plays in my story, “Hobbes House Noel,” one of the five romance stories in the anthology. (Well, actually not THIS fox. This photo was taken in my back yard.)

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   That’s it for this week’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

cj

By the way, if you read/heard about the U.S. Navy ship that recently destroyed an Iranian drone by laser, I found that amazing because I proposed that concept in DEADLY STAR in 2008. To read what else I wrote about, the novel is still available free on Kindle Unlimited here:  https://amzn.to/30JqTMq

For your summertime/beach reading pleasure, stop by my Amazon Central Author Page = https://amzn.to/2v6SrAj 

To order an autographed copy of DEADLY STAR, CHOOSING CARTER, HOMETOWN HEROES, and THE POSSE, contact The Haunted Bookshop here: The Haunted Bookshop  Angela Trigg, the awesome owner and a RITA Award-winning author in her own right (writing as Angela Quarles) will be happy to ship you the book(s) of your choice, and I shall be forever grateful.

Visit me on Facebook at:  cjpetterson/author on Facebook

Aspiring romance writers take note

cj Sez:  Harlequin is looking for new talent and wants to bring more stories representing diverse voices to romance readers and announced they will accept writing submissions from September 1 to October 15, 2019.

   “Harlequin’s ‘Romance Includes You Mentorship’ initiative offers aspiring romance writers from traditionally underrepresented communities the chance to work one-on-one with a Harlequin editor for a year on writing a romance novel and includes an offer to publish their book and $5,000 (US) to support their novel writing.”

   If you’ve ever dreamed of becoming a published romance novelist, here’s an opportunity. Submit a sample of your writing and apply here:  http://www.soyouthinkyoucanwrite.com/mentorship/

   (PS:  Be sure to follow all the directions.)

///

Well, tropical disturbance aka tropical storm aka hurricane aka tropical storm Barry has inundated the Gulf Coast of Alabama with a lot of rainfall (not nearly as much as New Orleans and other cities in Louisiana and Mississippi). It seriously rained all day today. Weather Alert: The storm is weakening into tropical disturbance Barry and is now moving inland and Northward toward Memphis.

   I just wanted to mark my family and I safe but soggy. 

///

The following pieces of writerly info really makes me happy:

   James Lee Burke was born in 1936. I’m not that old, but it tells me I don’t have to be a twenty- or thirty-something to succeed. (Granted, I should have started earlier. Sigh)  In the back of his novel, WAYFARING STRANGER, on the “About the Author” page, I found this:  “His novel, The Lost Get-Back Boogie, was rejected 111 times over a period of nine years and, upon its publication by Louisiana State University Press, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.” 

   Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They read it to get to the end. If it’s a letdown, they won’t buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book.

                                          ~Mickey Spillane

   From author Chris Bradford: “There is no failure except in no longer trying.” 

///

   You get the idea. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

cj

Where did I get the idea for DEADLY STAR, you ask?... One of my sons came up with the premise. "What if what looks like an asteroid was really a satellite?" he said one night. "Suppose it was a weapon?" My imagination took over and gobs of research followed. One of the more interesting things I found was that in the 1990s, the U.S. government funded something called "Operation Dawgstar" and provided grants to college students to develop nanosatellites. I also discovered that nanosatellites were actually launched from the space station Mir in 2001 and that they possibly could go undetected by world powers for some time. The surprise meteor that hit Russia in February 2013 proved that to me. The meteor was reported to be as big a five-story building when it entered the atmosphere but wasn't detected. Scary stuff. 

   Buy it. I think you will fall in love with Mirabel and Sully and their struggles.

   For your summertime/beach reading pleasure, stop by my Amazon Central Author Page = https://amzn.to/2v6SrAj  — at the time of this post, CHOOSING CARTER and DEADLY STAR are free on Kindle Unlimited.

   To order an autographed copy of CHOOSING CARTER, DEADLY STAR, HOMETOWN HEROES, and THE POSSE, contact The Haunted Bookshop here: The Haunted Bookshop  Angela Trigg, the awesome owner and a RITA Award-winning author in her own right (writing as Angela Quarles) will be happy to ship you the book(s) of your choice.

   If you send me a note at cjpetterson@gmail.com, I’ll personalize your choice, and drop it in the mail to you (cover price plus mailing).

Visit me on Facebook at:   cjpetterson/author on Facebook  

Father's Day and the Amazing English Language

cj Sez:  First, I want to wish a Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers, step-fathers, great-and-grandfathers, and adoptive fathers. I hope this day is the start of a healthy and happy year.

  I was re-organizing the backup files for my blog the other day, and that means I "had" to re-read every post. I found a few interesting ones, including one about our dynamic English language. So before I delete my comments , I think it’s worthwhile to repeat that 2016 post one more time.

***

…. A friend sent me this quote from a fellow blogger, Sol Sanders:  “Perhaps the glory of the English language is that it so expressive. Its remarkable heterogeneous origins have given it an almost limitless vocabulary. And American English, particularly, has used that tool with an enormous flexibility to make it the international means of communication. One is able with a minimum of linguistic dexterity to capture every meaning, or almost every nuance.”

Read it out loud. It does make sense.

  Mr. Sanders’s comments were part of an introduction to his essay on what today’s journalism and media do with the English language. The gist of his blog is that journalism and media people over-complicate their sentences with words that muddy their meanings—changing nouns into verbs and, perhaps, calling a shovel a “hand-held, earth-moving tool.” (I’ve seen those descriptions in engineering technical specifications papers also.)

  Yes, as a writer, I use nouns as verbs. Yes, I deliberately obfuscate and happily add the disclaimer that it’s for the sake of telling the story. I am drawn to the syntax, symbolism, and syncopation of a well-crafted sentence that is the hallmark of successful mystery/thriller/suspense novelists. It’s using that “minimum of linguistic dexterity to capture every meaning, or almost every nuance” that appeals to me, and, I think, to readers of those genres. They want to try to decipher the code, find the clues, and solve the crime. I like confusing the issue. 

   That said, I do have a few personal dislikes of changing nouns into verbs. One is the word “impactful”—a noun turned into a verb turned into an adjective by adding ful on the end. What the Sam Hill does that mean?

   Did you know that we're also speaking Greek? The truth is that English is a living language. It’s constantly evolving as we create new words and new definitions to compliment new technology. Therein lies a conundrum:  The generations cease to understand each other at an almost exponential pace. Many times I need an interpreter to understand teen-talk, and I think if I texted often (a noun turned into a verb because of technology), I’d forget how to spell.

  Coda:  IMHO, the gloriously expressive English language is what makes the craft of writing so fascinating.

  I’m still working on my craft. How are you doing with yours?

***

  That’s it for this week’s post. I hope you found a nugget in here that you can use. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

cj

DEADLY STAR excerpt (scene is after a plane crash in the desert):  Afraid to stay and afraid to leave, Mirabel began to shiver in the sweltering heat. She knew the rules for a crash. Dan repeated them before each time they flew. Stay with the plane. Searchers can see a plane. A hiker is just another invisible grain of sand. She stared long and hard at the purple haze of sawtooth hills in the distance then kissed his waxen cheek.

     “I have to go,” she whispered.

For your summertime/vacation reading pleasure, stop by my Amazon Central Author Page = https://amzn.to/2v6SrAj  — at the time of this post, CHOOSING CARTER and DEADLY STAR are free on Kindle Unlimited.

To order an autographed copy of DEADLY STAR, CHOOSING CARTER, and THE POSSE, contact The Haunted Bookshop here: The Haunted Bookshop  Angela Trigg, the awesome owner and a RITA Award-winning author in her own right (writing as Angela Quarles) will be happy to ship you the book(s) of your choice.

If you send me a note, I’ll personalize your choice, and drop it in the mail to you (cover price plus mailing).

To sign up for my quarterly newsletter go to: cjpetterson@gmail.com 

cjpetterson/author on Facebook  

Remembering D-Day

cj Sez: Seventy-five years ago, on June 6, 1944, the Allied Forces of Britain, America, Canada, and France attacked German forces on the coast of Normandy, France. With a force of more than 150,000, the Allies gained a victory that became the turning point for World War II in Europe.  

D-Day Order of the Day (National Archives Identifier 186473)

   Every year Normandy celebrates the long summer of 1944 and the re-establishment of freedom: “Normandy will bear the scars of this moment in history forever and every year we remember and pay tribute to the veterans from America, Britain, Canada, Belgium, Denmark, Holland, Norway, Poland and Australia, along with their brothers in arms, those many heroes who lost their lives here during that summer of 1944.”

   D-Day, the day now often referred to as “the beginning of the end of war in Europe,” was originally code-named Operation Overlord.

   Operation Overlord was supposed to start June 5, 1944, under United States General Dwight D. Eisenhower's orders, but bad weather delayed the invasion. So a day later, Ike called it a “go,” and the Allies invaded five beaches—code-named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.

(Source: National World War II Museum)

(Various sources for text, including  https://www.history.com/news/landing-at-normandy-the-5-beaches-of-d-day )

//

   My uncle waded ashore on one of those beaches and was “different” when he came home. Shell-shocked was what they called PTSD back then.

   My friend Fen was two weeks shy of his 21st birthday on D-Day. He served with Patton until the end of the war. A world traveler and writer/poet, he now calls Savannah home.

   Sixteen million young Americans served in World War II, and in this 75th anniversary year, the survivors are in their 80s and 90s. According to the Department of Veteran Affairs, more than 300 World War II veterans die every day. Time is running out to honor these survivors for their courage, their service and their sacrifice.  

   If you know a WWII veteran, whether s/he served on active duty or stoked the fires on the home front, it’s a good day, every day, to say “Thank You” to a member of Tom Brokaw’s “Greatest Generation.”

cj Sez: Sa-lute and God Bless.

  That’s it for this week’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

  Free on Kindle Unlimited at the time of this post: a thriller with a touch of romance . . . DEADLY STAR

cj Sez: One of my sons came up with the premise for Deadly Star. "What if what looks like an asteroid was really a satellite?" he said one night. "Suppose it was a weapon?" My imagination took over and gobs of research followed. One of the more interesting things I found was that in the 1990s, the U.S. government funded something called "Operation Dawgstar" and provided grants to college students to develop nanosatellites. I also discovered that nanosatellites were actually launched from the space station in 2001 and that they possibly could go undetected by world powers. The surprise meteor that hit Russia in February 2013 proved that premise to me. The meteor was reported to be as big a five-story building when it entered the atmosphere, but it wasn't detected way up there. Scary stuff . . . and Deadly Star is the result.

Blurb: Mirabel Campbell must learn how to stay alive in a covert world of political intrigue where the unexpected is the norm, and she’s not the kind of woman who’ll wait for anyone, including her CIA ex-husband whom she still loves, to make her decisions. She made a promise to a murdered friend to find out what’s so special about a mysterious point of light in the sky, and she intends to keep that promise.

Little note: Print copies of Choosing Carter and Deadly Star are no longer available as Simon&Schuster winds down their support of the Crimson Romance imprint. You can, however, support an indie book store and order an autographed copy of my print books here: The Haunted Bookshop  Angela Trigg, the awesome owner and a RITA Award-winning author in her own right (writing as Angela Quarles) will be happy to ship you the book(s) of your choice.

Drop me a note to sign up for my quarterly newsletter: cjpetterson@gmail.com 

cjpetterson/author on Facebook   

Amazon Central Author Page =  https://amzn.to/2v6SrAj

Simon&Schuster Author Page = https://bit.ly/2uo1M0Z

I am stuck

cj Sez: My computer was at the tech doctor's office for the past week for a teeny, tiny glitch in Word that the techies decided they couldn't fix. So it was "wiped" and loaded with Windows 10 (I had been working with 8.1). I received the empty hulk back Friday. 

Spent all day Saturday downloading, relocating software discs, and reloading, but wasn't able to accomplish all I need to put out this week's Lyrical Pens post. 

Soooooo, if I can get the printers and scanner re-connected, two programs located and/or updated, and a download for photos, I'll get the blog posted tomorrow. (Caveat: If the "severe storm" that is forecast for tonight doesn't wipe out my cracked internet provider, that is.)

In the meantime, let me just say....AAAARRRRGGGHHHH !

Thank you for listening. 

You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I'll try to do the same. 

cj

Little note: Print copies of Choosing Carter and Deadly Star are becoming scarce as Simon&Schuster winds down their support of the Crimson Romance imprint. However, you can support an indie book store and order an autographed copy of my books here: The Haunted Bookshop  Angela Trigg, the awesome owner and a RITA Award-winning author in her own right (writing as Angela Quarles) will be happy to ship you the book(s) of your choice.

Drop me a note to sign up for my quarterly newsletter: cjpetterson@gmail.com 

cjpetterson/author on Facebook   

Amazon Central Author Page =  https://amzn.to/2v6SrAj

Simon&Schuster Author Page = https://bit.ly/2uo1M0Z

Procrastination or delayed discipline

cj Sez: It used to be that I worked better when I had a short-term deadline. That said, I thought if I gave myself a deadline, I’d have the incentive to keep going on the WIPs I have on my computer. Found out that’s not true.

   I have managed to bury those deadlines under weeks of procrastination that I called “research.” It seems that the more I research, the less creativity I have. I’m getting bogged down in discovering fascinating facts, and the stories are suffering. I suspect I’ll be scrambling in the last few days to get finished.

   I suppose some of you might call that procrastinating. Nope, I’m calling it delayed discipline.

How about you? How do you kick research to the curb and stay on track?

///

Speaking of research, I try to make it my job to learn something new every day. Today I came across the word "bildungsroman" while I was spiraling down a research rabbit hole looking for more information on coming of age stories. In literary criticism, a Bildungsroman is a literary genre

"Bildungsroman is the combination of two German words: Bildung, meaning 'education,' and Roman, meaning 'novel.' Fittingly, a 'bildungsroman' is a novel that deals with the formative years of the main character - in particular, his or her psychological development and moral education. The bildungsroman usually ends on a positive note with the hero's foolish mistakes and painful disappointments over and a life of usefulness ahead. 

   "The term coming-of-age novel is sometimes used interchangeably with Bildungsroman, but its use is usually wider and less technical."

(Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bildungsroman)

   I’ve seen the word before but never committed its meaning to memory until now.

///

“The Apprenticeship of Nigel Blackthorn” is a coming of age story from author Frank Kelso, a friend of mine: https://amzn.to/2V3gmZT

In 1853 Texas, thirteen-year-old Nigel Blackthorn is the spoiled son of a Protestant preacher. When his missionary family fall victims to a Comanche attack, his easy childhood crumbles in an instant. How will he find the grit to survive?

///

You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

cj

Free on Kindle Unlimited at the time of this post:  DEADLY STAR \

A fast-paced read: Mirabel Campbell must learn how to stay alive in a covert world of political intrigue where the unexpected is the norm, and she’s not the kind of woman who’ll wait for anyone else to make her decisions. She made a promise to a dying friend to find out what’s so special about that tiny point of light in the sky, and she intends to keep that promise.

Little note: Print copies of Choosing Carter and Deadly Star are becoming scarce as Simon&Schuster winds down their support of the Crimson Romance imprint. HOWEVER, you can support an indie book store and order an autographed copy of my books here: The Haunted Bookshop  Angela Trigg, the awesome owner and a RITA Award-winning author in her own right (writing as Angela Quarles) will be happy to ship you the book(s) of your choice.

Drop me a note to sign up for my quarterly newsletter: cjpetterson@gmail.com 

cjpetterson/author on Facebook   

Amazon Central Author Page =  https://amzn.to/2v6SrAj

Simon&Schuster Author Page = https://bit.ly/2uo1M0Z