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Editing Rant: Variation

Erin Penn

Photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash

Variation is the spice to take words out of the bland.

  1. Vary the people. Don’t have them all sound alike. Did they have different educations? Did they grow up in different parts of the country? Do they come from different income stratus? Fix the dialog – don’t let it be stale.
  2. Vary the sentence length. Make Music! (See this previous post about the Music of Words.)
  3. Vary sentence structure. Don’t be all “noun verb noun”. Break out some prepositions. After that, maybe add some sentences clauses to the beginning and end. Have conjunctions, but don’t put one in every sentence.

VARY!!!!!!!!

Flash: A Photo For Now

Erin Penn

Photo from Unsplash

“Hey girlie girl, shoot me a pic of where you are.”

“Sure thing bestie.” After the voice to text sends the text for my BBF who I have never met in real life, I lift my phone, click, and send. It’s a little harder than normal, what with riding a bike and all, but she asks for a pic at least once a week so I’ve had lots of practice taking photos at a moment’s notice. She never sends one back – has serious body image issues which we are working on together. I hope I find out what she looks like some day.

(words 103, first published 7/10/23)

I want your photograph Series

  1. A photo for now (7/9/2023)
  2. A photo forever (11/5/2023)

Book Review: Technical Threat

Erin Penn

Amazon Cover

Technical Threat by Julie Trettel

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON

His job’s at stake, but she may prove to be an even bigger technical threat to his heart.

Tarron has met his match with a ruthless cyberhacker who has a personal vendetta against the Raglan. When she breeches Westin Force’s security Tarron must move in to stop her. That proves easier said than done when his Nonna steps up to help and meddle in his love life.

Meeting his true mate was not supposed to be part of the mission. But then again, having Nonna tag along wasn’t exactly how he envisioned his first solo assignment either.

Susan Duncan had finally broken away from the miserable life she led. She had been happy away at college, but then her younger sister Sonnet disappeared. Susan dropped everything and gave up her life to support her mother and two remaining sisters. But she never stopped looking for Sonnet.

Four years passed as Susan worked tirelessly each day under the strict demands of her mother then stayed up each night searching every lead possible to find Sonnet.

Her reality wasn’t a pretty one. Her days of believing in fairytales and true mates were long past when suddenly her mysterious true mate appears and promises to rescue not just her, but her sisters as well.

Can this Cinderella break down her own stone walls to accept the help of her potential Prince Charming? Or will is she be doomed to live in the dungeons of her mother’s warped reality forever?

 

MY REVIEW

A Standard Military-Shifter Paranormal Romance that is far from Standard

Tarron has been aggressively adopted by Nonna, giving him the found-family he always needed and her a reason to keep connected with the greater world. Doesn’t matter if she is an ancient wolf shifter and he is a foxy technical wizard, together they are the family they always needed.

I SIMPLY HAD TO READ THIS ONE. Their relationship intrigued me.

Then we add a romance for Tarron on top of that as he investigates a hacker into the Westin Force system. Taking Nonna as backup because all his military buddies are busy gives them alone time until he finds his hacker, as well as a waitress who is his true mate.

This is a wonderful story about community support and found-family. About leaving abusive relationships and saving others. One of the best “standard military-shifter” paranormal romances I’ve ever read because of the relationships.

(Read through Kindle Unlimited)

Flash: Red Skies at Night

Erin Penn

Photo from Unsplash

The world exploded on July Fourth, and not in a good way but in an anti-independence day kind-of way. The aliens didn’t care about our drama. Not about Trump having secret documents in a bathroom, not about training AI by stealing creativity instead of programming grunt-work, and certainly not whether kids or guns are more important to have in the classroom. The aliens brought their own drama.

It’s like when the neighbors down the street have a screaming argument in the yard. Only in our skies.

Problem is, just like the neighbors, they didn’t stay down the street. They landed.

(words 100 – first published 7/2/2023)