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Jennifer Fallon's Blog
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Viewing By Month : October 2008 / Main
31-Oct-2008
Getting rid of all those useless, unnecessary and pointless, redundant modifiers.If you’ve ever wondered what the difference between “tight writing” and “wordiness” is (besides the criminal overuse of adverbs), it’s often the use of redundant modifiers. Tight writing doesn’t waste words. It certainly doesn’t throw all caution to the wind and chuck in extra description where none is needed, just to make up the word count. Redundant modifiers are words you absolutely, positively think are driving home your point, when in fact they are driving your readers to distraction. They are words or phrases that mean the same thing and deceive you into believing you’re writing descriptively, when in fact you are just filling up your narrative with useless words. A few examples of redundant modifiers:
Now… go back and find out how many of these you are guilty of in your writing and get rid of them. Be strong. You can do this.
30-Oct-2008
I hate BigpondI still have no Broadband at home. I won't be getting it until next Monday. The reason? According to BigPuddleOfDooDoo, I didn't book the transfer to the new house until yesterday. My argument that I booked the transfer two weeks ago, didn't seem to matter. They had a call logged from me yesterday, which they are claiming is the booking date. You know what happened yesterday? I rang them to complain that my broadband still wasn't connected. The stupid robot answering machine told me Bigpond was too busy to take my call and to call back today. ANd then it hung up on me. So I called back today. And I spent 20 minutes on hold, only to be told yesterday's call was the "logging" call for the transfer. I DIDN'T EVEN GET TO SPEAK TO A HUMAN TO TELL THEM WHAT THE PROBLEM WAS! HOW COULD I HAVE LOGGED THE FRACKING JOB? Perhaps they know I've moved because I told them about it 2 weeks ago???? Grrrrr.... And just to make life really interesting, the wireless broadband service I have for when I'm travelling, can't pick up a signal in the new house unless I'm standing on my head with the laptop balanced on my left foot whilst being held at an angle of precisely 48'. Seriously:) UPDATE!!! AAARRGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well... now I've got that out of my system... I've now started the process to get a satellite dish. God bless Activ8me is all I can say.
29-Oct-2008
First Review of The Chaos Crystal
It will either work spectacularly or I'll be getting hate mail from irritated fans for years to come... tee hee So, it was with a great having sigh of relief that I received the news Bookseller + Publisher Magazine had reviewed the book and given it 4 stars. Phew... The review says: The finale of this series is everything fans hoped it would be and more. Just like the earlier titles it’s dynamic, compelling and not at all what they expect. I will sleep easier now:) The full review is here on the Boomerang Books site.
28-Oct-2008
Could you spend a Trillion Dollars?A guy in Tenessee, Rob Simpson, apparently got a little peeved when he realised the war in Iraq has cost the US $I trilion. He realised $1,000,000,000,000 was just too big to comprehend. So Simpson, (according to the Huffington Post) decided to embark "on an unusual but intriguing research project" to put the dollars and cents of the war into perspective. He hired some assistants and spent 12 months immersed in economic data and crunching numbers. The result: a new book, "What We Could Have Done With the Money: 50 Ways to Spend the Trillion Dollars We've Spent on Iraq." "He calculates $1 trillion could pave the entire U.S. interstate highway system with gold _ 23.5-karat gold leaf. It could buy every person on the planet an iPod. It could give every high school student in the United States a free college education. It could pay off every American's credit card. It could buy a Buick for every senior citizen still driving in the United States. "As I started exploring, I was really taken aback by some of the things that can be done, both the absurd and the practical," Simpson said. America could the double the 663,000 cops on the beat for 32 years. It could buy 16.6 million Habitat for Humanity houses, enough for 43 million Americans... ...It's too recent to make Simpson's list, but that $1 trillion could also have paid for the Bush administration's financial bailout plan, with $300 billion to spare. It might not be enough, however, to pay for the war in Iraq. Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz has recently upped his estimate of the war's cost to $3 trillion." There's a companion website companion that lets you go shopping with a $1 trillion credit card. You can buy sports franchises, theme parks, help disabled veterans and save a polar bear. And if you click on Air Force One, the program asks: "Quantity?" hahahaha The amazing thing? According to Simpson, "At one point we couldn't find anybody who actually stuck with it long enough to spend $1 trillion. It will wear you out." Mind you... I haven't been there yet.... hehehe The website is here. Have fun!
27-Oct-2008
Ah... moving...Well, we have moved. I now live in a house furnished almost exclusively by packing boxes. Dace is still refusing to go home. We have functioning beds and pay-TV. Alas, it seems we won't have broadband until Thursday. And after spending squillions having a custom-made door installed on the staircase landing to prevent Mount Bruce getting up the stairs and For the record, Bruce is 50 kg. Declan is 4kg. David wins over Goliath, yet again:) And now, for a graphic representation of my life... behold, a picture of what happens when you lose control...
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