Tuesday 28 May 2013

Crossword Puzzle - May 2013

I'm mixings this up a little this month. Since last month was a long month, and we had a Bonus Crossword (which nobody won), I felt it inappropriate to do May's crossword puzzle immediately afterwards. So, I'm doing it now.

Feel free to print out this puzzle and try and solve it. If you get it right, send me your answers on Twitter or Facebook. If you're the first correct answer, I will mention you (and your Twitter handle, if you have one) on this blog next week. Good luck!

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Across   Down
1 Common skin disease, associated with puberty (4)
3 Over 21 in Blackjack (4)
5 Fish eggs (6)
7 Extinct bird (4)
9 Deers (4)
10 Tree, or coat misspelt (3)
12 Water heater (6)
14 She helped Aphrodite seduce Adonis (6)
15 American ganster born in 1940 (surname) (3)
16 A person bringing bad luck (4)
18 Commander in id Software's 1990 computer game (4)
20 Economic resources (6)
21 Grass (4)
22 Revenue service in South Africa (4)
 
1 Fired (4)
2 A sound returned (4)
3 Cheese, or region in France (4)
4 Slang for tattoos (4)
6 To mate together closely related individuals (7)
8 "'Till Death do us Part" is an example (4)
11 Sets on fire (7)
13 In an unchecked manner (4)
16 Last name of American singer Billy (4)
17 Abbreviation for Christian (4)
18 Keep it simple, acronym (4)
19 Crazy (4)

Tuesday 21 May 2013

Write, Edit, Revise (Book Review)

Read this book, and wrote this review on Goodreads:

This book is interesting, and I think it contains some value. It's definitely very geared towards writing non-fiction, though, which I think isn't clearly explained in either the title or the synopsis. As promised, the author explains the three "job descriptions" of an indie author: those of writing, editing, and revising. He starts out by explaining how to write a simple sentence, by asking the questions "Who? What? When? How? Why?" There are practical examples and exercises that he wants you to complete, and I think he talks down to the reader a lot. It's useful to remember these questions when constructing sentences, but honestly the sentences that come out of following his examples are far too simple and uninteresting for me to want to read them (once again, though, it probably works far better for non-fiction). I did really enjoy the section on removing redundant words. Look at a really long, wordy paragraph, and remove all the words which do not add to the meaning. You can easily cut the length of the paragraph by 50% by doing this, making it far more interesting and easier to read. This is definitely something I will start doing! There are also tips on editing your chapter, paragraph, and section headings, and making the information you wish to impart flow more easily. It's useful, but difficult to read, and a lot of it may be irrelevant to you depending on what you like to write.

I don't really have anything to add, other than what I said in my review. If you're just getting into writing, or are struggling to write, or write non-fiction, then it might be worth a read!

Tuesday 14 May 2013

A Petition to Magic - Book Trailer

I was very impressed with myself last weekend. Quite some time ago, I subscribed to a free service called Animoto. It's a service that allows you to turn your photos into video slideshows, with title cards, captions, and soundtracks. At the time, I used it to create a slideshow of my wife and my experience at the CANSA Shavathon.

Well, I've been thinking for a while now that I really need to put together a book trailer for A Petition to Magic. Having forgotten all about Animoto, though, and knowing precious little about movie production, I'd been putting it off. Until I saw a book trailer for another book, done in Animoto.

I thought that was a great idea, so I logged back onto the site and discovered that my username and password still worked. So, without further ado, here it is in all its glory!

I hope you like it! Please add your comments below.

Thursday 9 May 2013

Happy Ascension Day

Happy Ascension Day everyone! Arguably the most important day on the Christian calendar!

Tuesday 7 May 2013

Bonus Crossword Answers

Oh, dear! Was my bonus crossword puzzle really that hard?

Or was nobody interested in a free copy of A Petition to Magic?

If you've been battling to solve it, and are pulling your hair out, here are the answers!

Across
1 outstretched (12)
5 licensed (8)
9 side (4)
11 sit (3)
12 Not, not (3)
13 Let, let (3)
15 out (3)
16 real (4)
17 presence (8)
20 constituents (12)
Down
2 unleashing (10)
3 run (3)
4 The, the (3)
6 castle (6)
7 seen (4)
8 excitement (10)
10 stolen (6)
14 true (4)
18 rot (3)
19 sat (3)

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