THE ICE PICK

Children’s Writer’s Word Book, by Alijandra Mogilner. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 1999. $16.99. ISBN: 0-89879-951-1.

"Fantasy is a healthy field for juvenile publishing. . . . Science fiction becomes popular around fourth or fifth grade when it is a venue for fast-paced adventure. By the sixth grade, character development becomes important."

If you write science fiction or fantasy for children from kindergarten through the sixth grade, this is a wonderful book to have. If you have thought about writing for children, but didn’t know what words publishers would consider appropriate or acceptable for which age level, this book is definitely for you.

If you want to use a word, but aren’t sure what age or grade level it would be appropriate for, an alphabetical list shows you, for example, that "nebula" is a fourth grade word and "airtight" is a fifth grade word.

The second section lists words by grade level. If you want to write for the third grade level, it lists words that an average third grader will understand, e.g., "vapor" and "arctic."

The third section is a thesaurus. For instance, if you want to describe an airtight compartment, it tells you that for kindergarten level, "closed box" or "room" is acceptable. A first grader would know "sealed cell," "place," or "space." A fifth grader would understand "airtight" or "self-contained cabinet," "stall," "department," or "locker," as well. "Compartment" is a sixth grade word, and although many younger children would know the word, the average child would not. You may argue with the list; "prayer" isn’t acceptable until third grade and "earthquake" not until fifth? And your children, with a writer for a parent, may be far more advanced, but these lists are compiled from many basic word lists and standard sources.

Besides the lists, there are tips on writing for children, hints on sentence length and word usage for each grade level, and guidelines for using words not found in the book. Samples of writing for different age levels are given along with discussions of vocabulary development, social changes for today’s children, and what subjects are currently covered in specific grades. If you’ve been out of school awhile, you may find it surprising to see what is, and what is not, covered at the same grade it was when you were in school. Also, there is a discussion of reading levels and what kinds of books and magazines are published for the different age groups.

This is an excellent book, and I recommend it highly.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, May 2006; and reprinted in Washpan News (Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators), June 2006.}

THE ICE PICK

The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits, by Rosemary Ellen Guiley. 2nd ed. N.Y.: Checkmark Books, 2000. Illus. 430 p. $19.95. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8160-4086-9.

This is a comprehensive look at the world of ghost lore and the paranormal, and for those of you, especially, who write horror, it is a treasure house of goodies.

It is arranged in alphabetical order, and many of the entries have lists of books for further reading.

Specific locations believed to be haunted are included along with details on how and when ghosts are said to appear and what the manifestations look and feel like. These places include the well-known "haunts," like London’s Adelphi Theatre and the less famous, like the Decatur House in Washington, D.C.

Societies and organizations of ghost investigators and paranormal debunkers are discussed along with biographies of mediums and psychic researchers. And there are entries for famous people who experienced the paranormal, like Abraham Lincoln, and ghosts themselves, like Chicago’s Resurrection Mary.

Notorious frauds like 18th-century-London’s Cock Lane Ghost and the Schneider Brothers are fully explained, from the motivations to the sentences of the perpetrators, if any.

Guiley has included phenomena and lore from many different cultures around the world.

If you seek information about a specific thing, such as the acheri of India, the Jewish dybbuk, the Japanese gashadokuro, or Yorkshire’s Jack-in-Irons, you may find it here.

Or if you need an idea for a story, you can browse the encyclopedia and be inspired by things like the Arab afrit demon, Brazil’s Jabuticabal Poltergeist, or the more commonly known Voodoo zombie. Some of the entries are brief, others, like the zombie entry, are very extensive.

Guiley has also included discussions of spiritual things like afterlife, near-death experience, and angels.

Necromancy, possession and other broad topics, as well as specific kinds of phenomena, such as orbs and poltergeists, are explained in detail.

Superstitions concerning objects like mirrors, meteors, and the Moon are also covered.

This second edition has been expanded by about one hundred entries over the first edition, and there seem to be more illustrations. I’m not sure if that justifies purchasing this newer edition if you own the older one. Also, the print on this new edition is a bit smaller to read, although not by much. Personally, I would say the first edition is still adequate.

All-in-all, I found the book fascinating and fun to read, and if you do not have the first edition, I recommend it very highly.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Oct. 2002.}

THE ICE PICK

Ralan’s Specfic & Humor Webstravaganza, www.ralan.com.

Ralan Conley performs a marvelous service for all of us in speculative fiction with this well-designed, award-winning website. Primarily a marketing tool, the site offers much more.

The pages load quickly, and the site deposits no cookies. The navigation bar on the side stays with you as you scroll down the home page, allowing you to access what you want easily.

On this website you will find Ralan’s showcase for his own fiction as well as his personal response time log for markets he submits to. You can use this time log to estimate how long it will be before you hear back on your own submissions.

But the heart of this site is in the market lists for adult and juvenile books, anthologies, magazines, and webzines, all of which he maintains and updates regularly.

He lists "Pro," "Paying," and "4theLuv" markets. "Pro" markets are those paying 3 cents or more a word. "Paying" markets pay up to 2.9 cents a word. And "4theLuv" markets pay only in copies or "exposure." The Humor section includes story, article, and greeting card markets, as well as contests.

In these sections, Ralan gives the latest news and highlights new markets. Deadlines and market notes, like "Dead market, DO NOT SUBMIT" or "no unsolicited subs" give you fair warning. And if you click on the name of a market, you will get that publisher’s guidelines. An alphabetical finder helps you locate known markets quickly.

Accessible through the markets pages, but not shown on the navigation bar, you will find lists of contests, dead markets, and abbreviations, plus information on proper manuscript format, etc. I would put a caveat on his recommendation to include your Social Security number on all your manuscripts. A victim of identity theft myself, I was warned that you should not do this unless specifically asked for it in the guidelines. If the publisher is going to pay you, they usually send a contract and ask for your number anyway.

In addition, Ralan includes links to: agents, articles, artists, associations, authors, beware, book stores, chat, contests, copyright, courses, dictionaries, editors, events, film/TV, fun, genre, grammar, groups, help, hired help, jobs, libraries, links, magazines, markets, names, newsletters, promotion, publishers/publishing, reference, resources, service, free software, songwriting, and writing for and by youth.

Do you need to design an alien planet? Try the "reference" links, where you will also find C.J. Cherryh’s list of words commonly used before 1900 (which comes to thirty-five printed pages) and www.bartleby.com, which contains links to the Columbia Encyclopedia and Gazeteer, American Heritage Dictionary and Book of English Usage, Roget’s Thesaurus, the King James Bible, Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, and Columbia World Quotations, the World Factbook, Strunk’s Elements of Style, Gray’s Anatomy, the Oxford Shakespeare, and much, much more.

If you want to start your own zine, try the "resource" section, which has links to all kinds of writing articles as well as links to groups like our own workshop.

The "service" section includes postal information.

The sheer volume of information here is overwhelming, and Ralan is to be very highly commended for providing all of this for us for free! You owe it to yourself to take a look at this fabulous website. (I like his little animated monster, too!)

{Published in the SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Jan. 2002.}

THE ICE PICK

Making Shapely Fiction, by Jerome Stern. New York : W. W. Norton, 2000. ISBN 0-393-32124-X pbk. $14.95.

This practical book claims to be "different from other books on writing. It’s organized so that you can start writing serious fiction (or non-serious, if you like) from the first page." Intended for "people who are already writing fiction" as well as beginners, it is a clear and easily comprehensible treasure for writers of all levels of experience--or inexperience.

Written in a warm, inviting style, the first two sections encompass all of the basic principles of writing. These sections lead the way into the more complex and difficult aspects of fiction crafting, by providing what Stern calls "shapes of fiction." These are not so much "rules that you follow as ways to create."

The third section, "An alphabet for writers of fiction," stretches from Accuracy to Zigzag. It is most profitably used by reading it straight through and then hanging on to it for quick reference later. The more experienced you become as a writer, the more you will probably get out of this section, because there is so much information packed into it--too much to absorb at one time.

The final section is the best annotated bibliography I’ve seen in a long time. The works range from inspirational autobiographies to books "about the pragmatics of publishing," and include books Stern likes, although they "don’t get often mentioned but deserve to be, and books that are just too important to omit." You owe it to yourself and your writing craft to read over his list and seriously consider the books there.

There is no index, but the book is heavily and beautifully cross-referenced. And this is not a book to be checked out of the library anyway, but one to be owned and marked up with your own notes and personalization. It is a book to be dipped in and out of for inspiration as much as for reference, a book to be kept and used. I recommend it highly.

{Published in GPIC, the Oklahoma Science Fiction Writers Newsletter, June 2000. Reprinted in SF & Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Dec. 2005.}

THE ICE PICK

Encarta World English Dictionary. New York : St. Martin’s Press. ISBN 0-312-22222-X. $50.00.

Words being the primary tool of all storytellers, we are always interested in dictionaries. The creation of a new one is a massive undertaking, and the editors are to be commended for doing so. By including English words from all over the planet, especially new words from computer use and the six o’clock news, they have attempted to create "a comprehensive record of English --but with a world view."

They have tried to simplify the pronunciation system which we all learned in school. (You may find their way better or even more confusing.) They give etymologies and excellent cultural notes. And to speed your search for the correct meaning when a single word has more than one, they have used bold type to draw your attention. Also, they have tried to eliminate the annoying habit most dictionaries have of defining words with other words that you then have to look up in turn. E.g., "Preservable: capable of being preserved." In the Encarta that becomes "Preservable: able to be kept safe, unchanged, or unspoiled." And they give you a sentence to illustrate. Very nice.

At various locations, charts and illustrations can be found for such things as woodwind instruments and time zones. A list in the back of the dictionary says that they "can be found at their alphabetical entry." And then you notice that "Airport codes" is listed before "Aircraft" and "Herbs" before "Hats," and you start to worry. This may be an aberration, but a dictionary should at least be able to get things in correct alphabetical order. And if you look up anything, you discover that "Weather symbols" is under "Symbols" and "Phases of the Moon" is under "Moon." I never did find "Gulf Stream." But this is one listing, not the end of the world.

Out of the one million, or so, current English words, Encarta claims to have 100,000, so you naturally can’t expect to find everything here. And even though the things I read and the words I need to look up are almost certainly not the same as yours, to give you some kind of comparison, I did my usual unscientific dictionary test of looking up my own pet one hundred words. Webster’s second edition unabridged has 78% of them, American Heritage 70%, Webster’s Collegiate 68%, and Encarta 67%.

Encarta prides itself on flagging words for offensiveness and on giving regional notes, but that is where I started having some real problems with this dictionary. E.g., "Buttonwood in the sense of ‘sycamore’ is used chiefly in the northwest [sic], from Massachusetts and Vermont. . . ." Okay, we know this is wrong. But what about a subject that we don’t know anything about. Can we trust them? An offensive term beginning with "oct-" is given the same meaning as one beginning with "quad-." We know this is wrong even if we don’t recognize the words, because "oct" means eight or one-eighth and "quad" means four or one-fourth, but what about the words we don’t know? In the entry for "Grant, Cuthbert," an offensive (to some) word is used, but nowhere defined, yet it is listed in most of my dictionaries.

Am I glad I bought the Encarta? Yes, because of the modern words it defines, its clear illustrations, and excellent explanations. Am I glad I paid only half-price for it? Yes! Would I trust it enough to use a word from it, that I otherwise didn’t know, in something I wanted to submit for publication? No, I found way too many errors in it.

It’s difficult to recommend--or advise against--a dictionary, since each person’s interests and needs are different, but my advice is that if you choose to buy this one, buy it cheap. If you choose to use it, do so very carefully.

{Published in GPIC, the Oklahoma Science Fiction Writers Newsletter, Apr. 2000.}

THE ICE PICK

The Fiction Dictionary, by Laurie Henry. Cincinnati, Ohio, Story Press. ISBN 1-884910-05-X. $18.99.

If you’ve ever wondered what an editor meant in telling you a piece was over- or underwritten, been confused when someone in your writer’s group suggested you use a ficelle to help reveal information about your protagonist, or been lost trying to explain the distinctions of tone, atmosphere, and mood, you’re not alone.

Not only does this book define things like the difference between magic realism and surrealism--that you might see in market lists--but it also provides fairly lengthy examples from classic and contemporary works to show what is meant, and cites other works that you can read to see more of the particular narrative technique in action.

In the definitions of terms like tension, flashforward, diegesis, understatement, or vignette, you may find ideas on how to handle a story problem or a character; as well as pitfalls to avoid in writing, whether classic beginners’ mistakes or outmoded techniques--such as the metafiction of the 1970s or the minimalism of the 1980s--that many of us learned in writing or English classes. And it fully explains new terms, like voice, that have come into vogue in the 1990s.

The index is excellent, and the text itself is full of cross-references to related terms.

{Published in GPIC, the Oklahoma Science Fiction Writers Newsletter. Oct. 1998. Reprinted in SF & Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Jan. 2000.}