FYI of Friday Morn – 12/18/1620

Good morrow, dear reader! Welcome to ye FYI of Friday Morn – a glorious opportunity, provided me through the grace of God and to the chagrin of the great enemy of man, to convey unto you my most-humble observations and trial-earned wisdom.

Today, the King’s  vessel Mayflower hath found purchase in the calm water of the harbor we shall call Plymouth. Shortly, to the glory of God, we will begin the unenviable though crucial work of constructing our new settlement in this strange and foreign land. This hath caused a great swelling – of equal parts thankfulness and joy – in my breast, and my mind to be compelled with hopeful dreams of a prosperous future. It is these emotions that have led, most-directly, to this week’s FYI:

With persistence, proper sacrifice and humility, and strict honor to the Lord of all, all earthly things are possible.

 

Thank ye for reading,

{RDj}

Friday Morning FYI – 12/11/2015

Welcome to your Friday Morning FYI – my chance to share observations/wisdom/rants in short, easily consumed form.

This week’s (long’ish-and-hastily-written-before-a-five-hour-drive) FYI is about daring:

Last week I wrote about a friend launching a book. I provided a few hints about the novel’s contents, and recommended you check it out. What I didn’t note was the book is self-published. I’m bringing that up because it’s important to understand how daring a thing that is – or more accurately, how daring my friend is for doing it the way she did. She hired a team, invested her time and money, and has done (and is doing) everything right to position herself for success. It’s not what I would have done, but while attending her launch event last night, I saw it was the right choice for her at this point in her evolution as a professional writer.

Where am I going with this? Just to note that in a world (profession, industry, sport, etc.) where everyone wants to tell you how things are done, you have to decide for yourself the best way to go. If you forget that, look to the people around you for a reminder.

 

Thanks for reading,

{RDj}

Friday Morning FYI – 12/4/2015

Welcome to your Friday Morning FYI – my chance to share observations/wisdom/rants in short, easily consumed form.

This week’s FYI is neither observation nor rant nor wisdom, but instead a celebration:

A friend has launched a book! It’s all space-opera-y and genocide-y and romance-y and pew!-pew!-y. You should check it out 🙂

CLICK ME!!!

 

Thanks for reading,

{RDj}

(Black) Friday Morning FYI – 11/26/2015

Welcome to your Friday Morning FYI – my chance to share observations/wisdom/rants in short, easily consumed form.

This week’s FYI comes courtesy of Thomas Jefferson, and will be auto-posted while my girlfriend and I plan a shopping-free Black Friday over breakfast:

“Never buy what you don’t want because it is cheap. It will never be dear to you.”

 

Thanks for reading,

{RDj}

Beta Reader Archetypes

I love my beta readers. All of them. If I could, I’d buy them Lexuses, just like artificial rich people do in those obnoxious say-I-love-you-at-Christmas-by-giving-them-a-car-with-a-bigass-bow-on-it commercials. Yes, that much.

If you’re not familiar, a beta reader is someone to whom you show your polished novel (not an early draft–that would be an alpha reader), and ask for feedback. In working with many of the same beta readers for my second novel I used for my first, I noticed things I hadn’t anticipated or previously spotted.

And when I notice stuff I think might be helpful, I stick in on here. You’re welcome, interwebz.

Continue reading “Beta Reader Archetypes”