Newest Releases from Books We Love

Don't miss these exciting new releases from the talented authors at Books We Love. Available now at your favorite etailer.  Find them all on our website.  BOOKS WE LOVE HOME PAGE 

Women's Equality Day

http://amzn.to/1YQziX0  A Master Passion
woman behind the man

This little known American commemoration (August 26) was created back in the 70's by Bella Abzug, a colorful, out-spoken member of the House of Representatives (1971-77). She was a labor attorney, a graduate of Columbia (Harvard, which she was qualified for, refused to admit her because she was female). She was always an activist, a force in the peace movement, the antinuclear movement and the civil rights movement too. Later, Bella became a leader of the women's movement. How well I remember her rousing speeches!

The test for whether or not you can hold a job should not be the arrangement of your chromosomes.

 Women's Equality Day is meant to be a celebration of the 19th Amendment to our Constitution, the one which gave American women the right to vote. Before that, women obeyed the laws and paid their taxes, but, never mind--taxation without representation for people of the "wrong" gender remained the law of the land.

I've always loved research, so digging around in the past comes naturally. I often write novels with female protagonists, and the social/cultural conditions which affect my heroines are always a big part of the background. 

I've just participated in a local celebration of Equality Day, so it's fresh in mind, and I think American women ought to know more about their own history. As I started reading,  I stumbled into a whole world of forgotten, not-in-the-textbooks people and fantastic facts. I thought that this month, I'd share a random few.

All Americans know the Paul Revere story, but who has heard of Sybil Luddington? When the message "The British are coming" arrived at her father's house--he was a colonel in the Colonial Militia--his 400 men were 40 miles away on some other task. The original rider/horse was too exhausted to continue, so Sybil, aged 14, mounted the family steed and rode all night--a distance of 40 miles--to call the men back to battle. We may not have heard much about Sybil, but still, at half Revere's age, she rode twice as far to deliver the same important message. General George Washington knew her, though, and later came to the Luddington house to say his personal thank-you. Now, Sybil was news to me, and I thought I knew a thing or two about the American Revolution.

Or, much later, how about Claudette Colvin? In 1955, on her way home from High School, fifteen year old Claudette refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, AL bus to a white passenger. This was some daring, as it would be 15 months before Rosa Parks did the same thing. Here's what she told Newsweek:

 “I felt like Sojourner Truth was pushing down on one shoulder and Harriet Tubman was pushing down on the other—saying, ‘Sit down girl!’ I was glued to my seat.”

Truth is powerful, and it prevails

Claudette was arrested for violating the segregation laws and the entire family was threatened with mayhem and death by white supremacists. Fortunately, the judge gave this brave young woman probation instead of a jail sentence, and, to my knowledge, the family escaped unharmed. 

And here are some fantastic facts concerning voting rights in the US. I've just learned that women actually  possessed the right to vote in several of the original 13 states, but lost it under the brand new "revolutionary" governments. 

In 1777, New York revoked women's right to vote, followed by, in 1780, Massachusetts. In 1784, New Hampshire did the same. When our present Constitution was adopted in 1787, the allocation of voting rights was left to the states. All states, except New Jersey, promptly put an end to a woman's right to vote. In 1807, New Jersey stepped backwards with the rest of the country, effectively leaving American women without the right to vote until, post Civil War, a few western states (Wyoming, Utah and Montana), began to do things differently. 

Women have still got a lot of work to do on the equality front all over the world. Here in the west, we're fortunate not to be considered chattel property, which is the case in many of today's Third world nations. However, things aren't perfect for us, either. Here are a few (not so) fantastic facts about the economic costs of being female in the US:

According to statistics released in 2015 by the U.S. Census Bureau, year-round, full-time working women in 2014 earned a real median income of $39,621 and full-time, year-round working men earned a real median income of $50,383. The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2014 Current Population Survey found progress in closing the wage gap so slim as to be “statistically insignificant."

According to the National Committee on Pay Equity, over a working lifetime, wage 
disparities cost the average American woman and her family $700,000 to $2 million in lost wages, impacting Social Security benefits and pensions.

Four in ten mothers are primary breadwinners in their households and nearly two-thirds are primary or significant earners, making pay equity critical to many families’ economic 
security.

So sisters, let's go! Get to the polls and exercise that hard won right to vote. Get familiar 
with local issues and engage in off year elections too. If you've got ideas--speak at the town hall meeting or better yet, run for office! Inequality will continue to negatively affect you, your daughters, and your grand-girls unless we in this generation fix it, once and for all. 

"...I’ve been female for a long time now. I’d be stupid not to be on my own side."

--Maya Angelou

~~Juliet Waldron

http://www.julietwaldron.com

See all my historical novels @

http://www.bookswelove.net/authors/waldron-juliet/

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004HIX4GS

https://www.facebook.com/jwhistfic/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel

Also available at Smashwords, Kobo, B&N...

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?Query=Juliet+Waldron

https://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=Juliet+Waldron

Decluttering Your Novel by Connie Vines

You know that feeling when you open up your closet and it’s so stuffed with clothes you don’t wear that you can’t find the ones you really like?  Or you locate something from the depths of your closet you don’t recall every seeing before?

Or maybe your desk is piled with papers that need filing, and you waste time looking for that one you need? Clutter adds stress and sucks up valuable time.

The same situation applies to writing. Unnecessary words and redundancies in a page or paragraph obscure its core meaning and interrupt its flow. The essence of your message is buried under all those excess words.

Once you’ve written the first draft of your novel or short story, it’s time to go back and look for cluttered sentences and paragraphs.

Ferret out words that don’t add to the meaning or imagery and are just hampering the fluid flow of ideas. Look for instances of overwriting or beating a point to death. Say it once, or twice — then move on. Otherwise you risk annoying your readers.

Ready to search out the clutter in your story?

1. Avoid little-word pile-ups and eliminate redundancies

Reveal the essence of your message by streamlining your words. Instead of “in spite of the fact that,” just say “although.” Instead of “in the vicinity of,” say “near.”

Replace “in the direction of,” with “to” or “toward.” Instead of “came in contact with,” say “met.” Instead of “during the time that,” say “while.” No need to say “located at” – just say “at.”

Before:

On their cross-country trip, they slept each night in the cheap motels located less than a mile’s drive from the interstate.

After:
On their cross-country trip, they slept each night in cheap motels just off the interstate.

Before:

The car drove slowly through the large complex heading in the direction of a secluded building at the back of the facility. It was located on the shore of the Mississippi River. The vehicle came to a stop next to the entrance to the building.

After:

The car drove slowly through the large complex toward a secluded building on the shore of the Mississippi River. It stopped next to the entrance.

Before:

He was shooting off his mouth in the bar last night telling everybody that he was going to find the jerk that ratted on him.

After:

He was shooting off his mouth in the bar last night about finding the jerk that ratted on him.

Before:

He moved his mouse pointer over to the other email that he had received.

After:

He clicked on the second email.

2. Don’t drown your readers in details

Leave out those tiny details that just serve to distract the reader, who wonders for an instant why they’re there and if they’re significant.

Before:

He had arrived at the vending machine and was punching the buttons on its front with an outstretched index finger when a voice from behind him broke him away from his thoughts.

After:

He was punching the buttons on the vending machine when a voice behind him broke into his thoughts.

In the first example, we have way too much detail. What else would he be punching the buttons with besides his finger? We also don’t need to know which finger he’s using or that it’s outstretched, since everybody does it pretty much the same. Minute details like these just clutter up your prose.

3. Remove empty, “filler” words

Words like “it was” and “there were” simply get in the way of your story without adding anything useful.

Before:

I headed down a rickety set of wooden steps to the basement. There was a dim light ahead in the hallway. To the right there were cardboard boxes stacked high. To the left, there was a closed door with a padlock. Suddenly, I heard muffled sounds. There was someone upstairs.

After:

I headed down a rickety set of wooden steps to the dimly lit basement. To the right, cardboard boxes were stacked high. To the left, I saw a closed door with a padlock. Suddenly, I heard muffled sounds. Someone was upstairs.

The After result is more intense. More immediate.  This pulls your reader through your story.

4. Take out the word “that” wherever it’s not needed

Read the sentence out loud, and if it still makes sense without the “that,” remove it. This change soothes out the sentence so it’s less clunky and flows better.

Before:

She said that you thought that it was too expensive and that you wanted to shop around.

After:

She said you thought it was too expensive and you wanted to shop around.

5. Delete words or phrases that unnecessarily reinforce what’s already been said.

Cluttering your sentences with too many unnecessary words can get in the way of clear communication and confuse and subliminally irritate the reader. Go through your manuscript and see where you’ve cluttered up sentences and paragraphs with little words and phrases that aren’t needed and just impede the natural flow of ideas.

The phrases in italics are redundant here:

We passed an abandoned house that nobody lived in on a deserted street with no one around. The house was large in size and gray in color.

6. Don’t tell after you’ve shown

For example:

She moped around the house, unable to concentrate on anything. She felt sad.
He paced nervously around the room, muttering to himself. He was agitated.
In both instances, the second sentence should be deleted.

7. Condense any long-winded dialogue

In real life, people don’t usually speak in lengthy, complete sentences or uninterrupted monologues. Read your dialogue out loud to make sure it sounds natural, not like a rehearsed speech.
Break up any blocks of one person speaking at length by rewriting them in questions and answers or a lively debate, with plenty of tension and attitude. Try using lots of incomplete sentences and one- or two-word answers, or even silences.

How would your characters actually speak in real life? Think about their personalities and character traits. For example, men, especially blue-collar men, tend to be terser and more to-the-point than women.

Decluttering isn’t always easy.  I realized that when I write for hours at the time, without interruptions, my draft at the end of the day is less cluttered.  However, when I am required to stop and start throughout my writing session my draft is cluttered with ‘and’, ‘and then’—which I spot the next day.

Decluttering in your writing and in your life makes your day flow happily along. . .or at least, until the next ‘plot point’.

Happy Reading and Writing 😊

See you next month!

Connie Vines
www.novelsbyconnievines.com
Twitter:
Blog:
Facebook:

Purchase Links:
Kobo    Amazon Amazon      Smashwords     Barnes and Noble
     

Soon to  be Released: