Hoop

Ya think it might have something to do with the clicks on a forum being of such supreme irrelevance? No, no, you wouldn't think that. Maybe it's because this is the only forum I've ever posted on. Betcha you'll be even more shocked when I say that my list of essential gear doesn't even include a cellphone. Shocking, eh?

I can't find where I said that anything gave me more credibility regarding an opinion on the election. Can you? Just out of curiosity, do you think the opinion of anyone else has more credibility?

Of course you wouldn't be aware of the emphasis publishers and authors place on word count. As an author, I aim for a completed manuscript of 85,000 to 115,000 words. As a sub-editor, the word count is an indication of how long it might take to get through. For a publisher, it's how many printed pages will end up between front and back covers, a factor in production costs. How silly of me to suggest you would know any of that. But inasmuch as you seem an expert on everything else, I thought just maybe... Nope, wrong again.

I think you may be looking through the wrong end of the telescope. What was your first look-at-how-virtuous-I-am comment on my HRC postmortem Ron posted? Something about how sad it was that I was filled with so much hate? What was whatsisname's first post saying [falsely as it happens] I took advantage of the NHS? It's not surprising both of you suddenly went mute on those and made tangential shifts when I supplied answers. If responding in kind to less-than-complimentary-comments is trolling, then I'm guilty as charged. Thanks, it gave me cause for yet another wry smile. As a writer, your profession is (I would assume) the communication of ideas. If you intend to say one thing and a sizable element of your audience hears something else, perhaps you should consider the possibility that your effort to communicate your ideas could be at fault. I certainly am aware that I need to take into account my audience when I speak about my research, for example. I would not use the same approach when speaking to an undergraduate class that I would at a research conference. If I give a lecture to a class and later (say, when I ask a question on an exam) discover that 90% of the students have misunderstood a particular point, I assume that I failed to teach that point in a manner my audience could understand. Re-reading your original post, I still find it aggressively smug, patronizing, and somewhat vitriolic. I would not enjoy a personal conversation presented in such a tone; perhaps those people who no longer invite you over for dinner are put off not by your ideas but by how you present them. Nothing about your post invited dissent or discussion of the facts or merits of your positions. It came across as "fuck you, progressives". Given your obvious facility with words, I think it's more likely than not that that was your intent. If it was not, you should take a big step back and reconsider your choice of language.Don I'll agree with you on various levels. First, that when the student fails to learn, the teacher fails to teach. Yes, smug to a certain degree, as answer to the overweening smugness of Hillary-ites pre-election. Yes, again, a "fuck you, progressives," in response to a year's worth of being labeled as intrinsically evil for not supporting HRC's agenda. Even patronizing after seeing the floods of tears, immediately followed by violent and destructive riots. Not to mention determined efforts to nullify the election results. (The same anti-democratic progressive phenomenon reared its head here in the aftermath of Brexit.) Actually, stepping back from politics (and if I understand your area of expertise correctly), I'd have been very interested in learning something about the latest research, albeit couched in layman's terms. Although I'm not likely to be heading off to the tropics anytime soon, I still have a few blister packs of Malarone lurking somewhere and have no idea if resistant strains are appearing.

How very knowledgeable you are. When I'm not working on one of my own projects, Helion and Osprey hire me as a freelance copy editor. You do know what a copy editor is, right? Right? Send 'em your manuscript and it might end up on my screen. As you're undoubtedly aware, we like to know the word count. As a professional wordsmith you'll have the number on the tip of your tongue. Excellent.

I think you may be looking through the wrong end of the telescope. What was your first look-at-how-virtuous-I-am comment on my HRC postmortem Ron posted? Something about how sad it was that I was filled with so much hate? What was whatsisname's first post saying [falsely as it happens] I took advantage of the NHS? It's not surprising both of you suddenly went mute on those and made tangential shifts when I supplied answers. If responding in kind to less-than-complimentary-comments is trolling, then I'm guilty as charged. Thanks, it gave me cause for yet another wry smile.

Could be A) she appeals to people who watch reality TV B) Her ginormous fake tits C) Ghost writers were employed by the publisher.

***Logic isn't your strong suit is it? The publishing world isn't your strong suit, is it?

***No, cwood was right, you simply didn't properly read or understand what Joe said, therefore your entire response is a non-sequitur. Congratulations on making it contain lots of words though - we're all very impressed

Sounds like the current conservative (at least in the US) attitude towards Muslims. Huh? I'll take a wild guess that I've sat and sipped mint tea with more Muslims than have most people here have met. I'll also guess that I've seen Islam's treatment of women more closely than any here who haven't work in the Middle East. All of them voiced admiration for suhada. I’ll further assume no one here has ever found him/herself in the hands of jihadi. At least 1/3 of British Muslims believe that suicide bombings are justified. More than ½ want to see sharia law imposed. These figures are much higher in continental Europe. I'll take it for granted that you’ve read or seen TV news reports about massacres committed by Muslims in Europe. You may not know that Sweden has become Europe’s rape capital, as the result of Muslim immigration. You may not know that, due to 600 women being sexually assaulted by Muslim immigrants in Cologne last New Year’s Eve, three nights ago over 1,500 German police were on hand, to protect women from another mass assault. This was denounced by the German Left as “racial profiling”. If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck and acts like a duck, it is monumentally stupid to call it a canary.

I took two contiguous quotes that best synthesized Joe's ideological myopia. Countering the many group-think convictions would be a complete waste of time; like trying to wean an acolyte from the Catechism. Easier to let Joe and members of the progressive church believe what they want to believe. I suspect the fanatics are disappointed that heretics can no longer be sentenced to the auto de fé.

Joe, Joe, old sport-- In an attempt to get things back on an even keel, let's look at this with a bit of balance if we can. Which do you think is the more deliberately insulting: libtard from this side of the political spectrum? - or racist, misogynist, Nazi, fascist and Klansman from t'other side? You know as well - probably even better - than I do that the latter (and lots more) have become automatic pejoratives in the mouths of progressive Hillary supporters when describing anyone of my political convictions. Same words are hurled at Brexiteers here in the UK. No need to get all steamed up again. Just askin'. Using statements from minuscule-size subsets to indict tens of millions of decent people, who are equally horrified by them, is an ideological rather than a logical conclusion. It smacks of Lenin's dictum that "Better 100 innocent die than one guilty escapes." But if you're convinced that's the truth, no amount of rational discussion will change your view.

The wit! The intellect! The literary skills! Who can fail to be impressed? He should pen a book. Ten books! I'll introduce him to my agent in New York. If he doesn't want to pay an agent's fee, I'll give him the private email addresses of a few editors. They'll be clawing each others' eyes out over him. Studios will be begging to buy film options. A new literary giant emerges. (Cue sound of trumpets.)

Joe, Joe, old sport-- In an attempt to get things back on an even keel, let's look at this with a bit of balance if we can. Which do you think is the more deliberately insulting: libtard from this side of the political spectrum? - or racist, misogynist, Nazi, fascist and Klansman from t'other side? You know as well - probably even better - than I do that the latter (and lots more) have become automatic pejoratives in the mouths of progressive Hillary supporters when describing anyone of my political convictions. Same words are hurled at Brexiteers here in the UK. No need to get all steamed up again. Just askin'.

I think you missed your calling as a standup comedian. You'd have audiences holding their sides with your imitation of an anopheles.

I was wondering where that dime went; wait until I get hold of my accountant. But not before trying to find a bereavement counselor who's not booked solid with patients still traumatized by Brexit. I imagine it's a similar situation in the States.

*** Here's an illuminating statistic for ya: first print runs for most new titles are 1,500, which is where the production cost per copy is reasonable and the publisher can break even with 1,000 copies sold. Only 3 -7% of new titles go into a second print run. (In aid of adding to your knowledge of the business, editions are not the same as print runs. An edition can have numerous print runs.) A Hundred Feet Over Hell has done seven print runs in hardback, one in softback and then Kindle. The publisher had hoped to offer only Kindle after the seventh print run, but the two bookshops at Oshkosh sold so many each year that Zenith did a special run in softback, which is cheaper to produce. Inasmuch as it will this year hit a total sales figure of 50,000 in all formats I'm not dismayed that you and your father-in-law found it a difficult read. Everyone to his own. Reviews on Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon France and Amazon Germany, plus magazines, newspapers and websites are pushing 250, with more than 90% in the 4- and 5-star categories. But my publisher and I are waiting breathlessly for you to tell us none of them are "proper reviews". You have no idea how grateful we'll be.

Let's be honest. "old time" might be construed as gross understatement. Late neolithic to late mesolithic. D4019 SCR242 SCS90 NSCR26

Never was a truer word spoken; there is a lot of crap out there. Anyone can pay a vanity publisher to print and bind a book, which is delivered in boxes to the author who then has to do his/her own promotion, marketing; distribution/shipping and accounting. For as little as $500 anyone can convert a manuscript into a Kindle format. Amazon, which takes 66% of the selling price, takes no risk. But trying to get a bookstore chain to stock it is another matter, even with the standard sale or return agreement. Koevoet, my first book has not gone out of print since coming off the presses in 1988. It went into its third distinct edition three years ago and is keeping Helion & Co very happy indeed, in both softback and Kindle formats. (As an aside, publishers really like digital sales; no investment in additional print runs; no space taken up in the warehouse; no lunching or paying distributors; no shipping costs. An even better seller is A Hundred Feet Over Hell, first published in 2009 and now in its eighth print run, and that doesn't include Kindle sales. So yeah, Quade, what you say is absolutely correct.

Don't be surprised, Jakee, the answer is obvious: I'm just not as well educated or as good a writer as you are.

Absolutely. ***I've got 2 autographed copies of your 100 foot book. Neither I nor my father in law, the Nam Marine, could read it. He said his artillery reports from the field in Nam were better reads than your book, which speaks to style and composition. I'm shattered. Really. Reckon we should discount the 30+ USMC Vietnam vets who wrote exactly the opposite? That would have to include the editor of Smithsonian Air & Space magazine, a Marine back-seater in I Corps. Can't be right all the time, I guess.

Another blistering insight. Easy to see why you're so much more successful as an author than I am. Wow, I should have passed my manuscripts to you first rather than to a publisher; you could have taught me so much about style and composition. How do I go about ordering autographed copies of your books? Are they available on Amazon?

Thank you Wendy, for a calm, honest and rational observation. It would be hard - nay,impossible - for me to criticize your contribution here. Kindest regards. Wendy P.

Very observant. Perfect response. ***... like an angry bull in a china shop ... Excellent. Mind if I add it to my compendium of original similes? , Hmmm, thanking Jerry B for correcting me constitutes a "discussion"? Maybe you have a dictionary of alternative definitions. You do have a dictionary, right? Of course you do, though probably not needed by someone with such an impressive vocabulary. You could always donate it to Oxfam or Greenpeace; I'm sure they'd be grateful. You might want to look up "simile" before getting rid of it.