These are some of the cover designs I’ve been playing around with for my new novel. At the moment I’m leaning towards the red one, but I also like the whimsical appeal of the ones with the blue backgrounds.
Leave a comment below, or use my ‘contact’ page to let me know what you think.
I’ve been on a bit of a roll lately, posting tips on writing from world class writers. I’m doing this mostly for myself and the few writing friends I’ve managed to collect over the years as a way to keep these tips always easily accessible for them and myself. I have no illusions that these posts are reaching many others, as my website gets very little internet traffic. (I’m too cheap to pay the ridiculous costs to boost my Google rankings.) But if you are lucky enough to be one of the few who happen upon my little website, I hope you will find them helpful.
So here’s the next installment in my “Advice for Writers” series. Today I’m sharing some tips from George Orwell.
George Orwell, of course, needs no introduction. His classics, “1984” and “Animal Farm”, defined an entire literary genre. He gave these writing tips in an essay he wrote in 1946, “Politics and the English Language.”
So here they are, unedited and unadulterated:
A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus:
And he will probably ask himself two more:
One can often be in doubt about the effect of a word or a phrase, and one needs rules that one can rely on when instinct fails. I think the following rules will cover most cases:
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From Orwell’s essay “Politics and the English Language.” As always, I do my best to give credit where credit is due. I discovered these wonderful tips on The Gotham Writers website.
As always, have a wonderful day.
I’m really excited about my latest novel, Wally and the Anti-Fascist Fairy. It’s a political satire in the tradition of Animal Farm. While no real names are used, there’s no prize for guessing who the US President is.
It’s about high school senior Wally and his friends Freddie and Kitty, who like to dress up as various animals and mythical creatures. It’s all just for fun, but the fun comes to an end when jocks from the football team, who like to think of themselves as real men, start pushing the fairies around.
Wally and his Fairy friends decide they’ve had enough, and take to the streets in protest. Their ‘No Bullies’ protest days goes viral on social media and spreads across the country, and it’s not long before it comes to the attention of the thin-skinned Reginald Stultus Jr., President of the ‘hottest’ country in the world. Convinced the protests are about him, his orange face turns brighter hues of tangerine as he watches the protesting fairies and hippos dancing in the streets.
His ever-accommodating advisors suggest that any criticism of the great man must be an act of terrorism, and so the President designates hippos, fairies, and frogs – or anyone dressed like one – as Antifa and a domestic terrorist threat.
The Gestapo arm of Homeland Insecurity, the National Interspecies Costume Enforcement (NICE) agency, starts rounding up and incarcerating anyone dressed like a hippo, fairy or frog. But they can’t build the NICE concentration camps fast enough, so a dim-witted President comes up with another great policy idea: detain the protesters in zoos. They’re dressed as animals after all, so put them in the zoo where animals belong.
Zoo officials, however, aren’t so sure it’s a good thing to put kids in the zoo, despite Dear Leader’s wishes, and are forced to make a decision: follow the orders of a deranged President, or disobey.
And that’s when the adventure for Wally and his Fairy friends really gets started.
The manuscript is with my proof reader now, and I plan to publish mid-January. I’m still working on the cover art, and when it’s finished I’ll share it in a future post.
Thanks for visiting. Now go find some friends and make it a great day!
