Teaser Tuesday

Come check FQ's latest Teasers!




"Keeping the Grays from interfering any further would not be easy. But were these the people to trust with the job?"

"The number of computer security incidents and the resulting cost of business disruption and service restoration continue to escalate. Implementing solid security policies, blocking unnecessary access to networks and computers, improving user security awareness, and early detection and mitigation of security incidents are some of the actions that can be taken to reduce the risk and drive down the cost of security incidents."


"For a moment I brightened. That people would come just for the novelty of a play by a woman might make it worth the company's support."



"The family's perfectionism, expectations, and control have been replaced by a new ability to surrender, accept, and trust. Past wounds have had time to heal."

"Drums rolled a steady beat as we formed up shoulder to shoulder. There are to be no Rebel yells or running until we are almost there."

Tips to Encourage Children to Read

20 Ways for Parents to Encourage Reading

Source: Reading is Fundamental

Ages 9-12, 13+

The following are some ways to turn a young reader's reluctance into enthusiasm:

1.  Scout for things your children might like to read.  Use their interests and hobbies as starting points.

2.  Leave all sorts of reading materials including books, magazines, and colorful catalogs in conspicuous places around your home.

3.  Notice what attracts your children's attention, even if they only look at the pictures.  Then build on that interest; read a short selection aloud, or simply bring home more information on the same subject.

4.  Let your children see you reading for pleasure in your spare time.

5.  Take your children to the library regularly.  Explore the children's section together.  Ask a librarian to suggest books and magazines your children might enjoy.

6.  Present reading as an activity with a purpose; a way to gather useful information for, say, making paper airplanes, identifying a doll or stamp in your child's collection, or planning a family trip.

7.  Encourage older children to read to their younger brothers and sisters.  Older children enjoy showing off their skills to an admiring audience.

8.  Play games that are reading-related.  Check your closet for spelling games played with letter tiles or dice, or board games that require players to read spaces, cards, and directions.

9.  Perhaps over dinner, while you're running errands, or in another informal setting, share your reactions to things you read, and encourage your children to do likewise. 

10.  Set aside a regular time for reading in your family, independent of schoolwork, the 20 minutes before lights out, just after dinner, or whatever fits into your household schedule.  As little as 10 minutes of free reading a day can help improve your child's skills and habits. 

11.  Read aloud to your child, especially a child who is discouraged by his or her own poor reading skills.  The pleasure of listening to you read, rather than struggling alone, may restore your child's initial enthusiasm for books and reading.

12.  Encourage your child to read aloud to you an exciting passage in a book, an interesting tidbit in the newspaper, or a joke in a joke book.  When children read aloud, don't feel they have to get every word right.  Even good readers skip or mispronounce words now and then.

13.  On gift-giving occasions, give books and magazines based on your child's current interests.

14.  Set aside a special place for children to keep their own books.

15.  Introduce the bookmark.  Remind your youngster that you don't have to finish a book in one sitting; you can stop after a few pages, or a chapter, and pick up where you left off at another time.  Don't try to persuade your child to finish a book he or she doesn't like.  Recommend putting the book aside and trying another.

16.  Treat your children to an evening of laughter and entertainment featuring books!  Many children (parents, too) regard reading as a serious activity.  A joke book, a story told in riddles, or a funny passage read aloud can reveal another side of reading. 

17.  Extend your child's positive reading experiences.  For example, if your youngster enjoyed a book about dinosaurs, follow up with a visit to a natural history museum.

18.  Offer other special incentives to encourage your child's reading.  Allow your youngster to stay up an extra 15 minutes to finish a chapter; promise to take your child to see a movie after he or she has finished the book on which it was based; relieve your child of a regular chore to free up time for reading.

19.  Limit your children's TV viewing in an effort to make time for other activities, such as reading.  But never use TV as a reward for reading, or a punishment for not reading.

20.  Not all reading takes place between the covers of a book.  What about menus, road signs, food labels, and sheet music?  Take advantage of countless spur-of-the-moment opportunities for reading during the course of your family's busy day.

For more information, please visit www.rif.org

10 Tips for Choosing Books for Children of All Ages

10 Tips for Choosing Books for Children of All Ages

Source: Family of Readers Advisor's Guide

Ages: 5-8, 9-12, 13+

·      Have children choose their own books as soon as they start showing a preference for one over another.

·      Find the children's section of your local library. Get to know the librarian, who can be a great resource.

·      Find out what your child is interested in, and help choose books that are related to his or her interests.

·      Ask friends, family, and teachers what books their children have enjoyed; try a book swap.

·      If your child does not like a book you are reading together, put it away. Reading is a fun time to share, not a time to fight.

·      Again, Again, Again! Children may want to read the same book many times, even if you think they have outgrown it. 

·      Use book lists generated by various literacy organizations; they usually have good suggestions. For example: American Library Association, International Reading Association, Children's Book Guild

·      Look for books that you will like reading aloud. Your enjoyment will shine through and become contagious.

·      Try out different kinds of books to see what appeals to your children.

·      Have fun! Show your children the joy of reading and how it can open up a brand new world!

For more tips, please visit www.rif.org! 

Reviewer's Tip - Advance Reading Copy - Part 1

We see lots of newbie authors asking on various publishing lists what should be in 'Advance Reading Copies' of their books?  How should they be formatted, what about a glossary, or an index?  Does the layout need to be in final form?  Should it be bound like a proper book?  Can it be a finished copy with a sticker on the cover noting its status as an 'Advance Reading Copy'? 

I thought it would be helpful to discuss what some of the 'Big Boys' do with their advance reading copies.  First, let me say that it is all over the place!  From finished, properly formated, finalized covers to white covers with boring text and little "bubbles" that note "uncorrected proof - not for sale." 

Interiors, from the 'Big Boys,' tend to be finished, or pretty darn close.  The only time we see manuscripts in their original Word/WordPerfect form is from very small presses or self-publishers.  The big review journals may not like this, but at Feathered Quil, we understand the pressures small presses are under.  As long as the text is edited, we're okay with the format.  But watch out if the text hasn't visited with an editor!  We have to review what is in front of us, not what it will eventually (possibly) be like after being edited.  (And yes, we did once have an author argue that we should forgive all the errors because the book would "eventually" be edited!)

What about a 'Contents' page?  How can you possibly put together a list of chapters when content is, at this point, still changing from day to day?  Follow the example of a book I'm currently reviewing that's from an imprint of HarperCollins.  The book has 25 chapters.  All the chapters are noted by name on the 'Contents' page.  But where do those chapters begin?  All of them can be found on page "00."  Obviously the layout, while looking finished, is still in flux and the publisher does not want to wait any longer to get out the advance copies.  As a reviewer, I expect this and I certainly won't find fault with this in my review.  It's SOP (standard operating procedure).

Next time - just what should you put on the back cover of your advance printing???

6 Ways to Promote Your Book Online

This is a guest post written by Tom Tessin. Tom created FindMySurveys, a paid surveys directory that shows you who’s going to make you money online and who’s not. You can also check out more of his work there.





6 Ways to Promote Your Book Online

A lot of us have the dream of writing our own book. Whether it’s about our life, our hobbies or a book on how to do something, we want to share the word with others. Although, what may make it hard is just that, sharing it with others and getting people to find out about it. It may seem difficult, but if you consider a few of these ideas you will find that others will hear or discover your book rather quickly!

Website: People use the Internet for everything and when they’re interested in finding out about something they are going to search websites to find it. Create a website and promote your book online. Allow them to buy it or download it if it is an e-book.

Blog: Create a blog and blog about your book. The more content you have written about your book, the more opportunities you have to spread the word.

Social bookmarking: Once you’ve blogged, submit your post to a social bookmarking website. These update instantly and allow people on the website to find the newest posts. These can bring instant traffic and help you spread the word.

Message boards: Discuss your book online by using message boards. Find a message board that is talking about the types of books you’ve written about. Then, suggest to them the book you’ve written and describe it.

Press release: Try submitting a press release online. Have a catchy title and write a one page description of your book. If you submit it online, your story will be distributed to media outlets all around the world and it can appear on websites and in print.

Friends and family: Tell your friends and family members about your book. Explain what it’s about, who would like it and ask them to spread the word. A great way they can spread the word is through e-mail. E-mail them and submit a link to your website or blog and have them forward this e-mail to the people on their contacts list. This will then bring those people to your website or blog that is promoting your book.

Creating your own book is very exciting! It feels good to get your words down on paper and to share with others what you’re thinking or your creativity and imagination. So, if you’ve written a book, be sure to promote it online in these few ways!

Friday Finds

Yes folks it's that time again - FQ's finds for Friday!

Writing the Right Words - Part 2

Here's part 2 of Barbara Ardinger's informative aricle about selecting the correct words.  Part 1 was posted on April 5, 2010.  Barbara is a master at selecting the right words so if you're in need of an editor, please check out her services.  Visit her at: BarbaraArdinger.com

Writing the Right Words - Part 2

The French have a phrase for what I’m talking about: le mot juste. The right, perfect, appropriate word. No matter what I’m writing—even this blog—I’m looking for the right words. Occasionally I turn to the thesaurus, but using the thesaurus can lead to other detours on the road to writing the right words, especially for inexperienced authors. We get too many choices! My guess is that it’s the thesaurus that leads my authors down a wordy primrose path. It gets them into trouble. It’s gotten me into trouble, too. When I was in high school, I was the only member of the creative writing club to have a new story every week. One story—now remember, I was a 15-year-old girl living in suburban St. Louis, Missouri—was about a woman in Alaska who was being stalked. She narrated the story. She did a lot of thinking. I dove right into Roget: “think, reflect, cogitate, deliberate, contemplate, meditate, ponder, muse, ruminate, speculate” … well, you get the idea. I used nearly every synonym. Then I came to “opine.” All these years later, I can still hear a friend’s voice: “Opine???” As I know now, ordinary people seldom opine. Judges, maybe; politicians, perhaps; philosophers, indubitably. So nowadays I tell, beg, order, and plead with my authors to stay out of the thesaurus. The synonyms, I tell them, are never exact. There are always shades of meaning. That’s exactly why English has such a big vocabulary.

When I was writing a book review (The Throne in the Heart of the Sea) for Feathered Quill a couple days ago, I wanted to characterize the way the prophet Elijah spoke to the people. First I used “preached.” Not what I wanted. He did more than preach. I’ve always thought Elijah was a nasty old man, so I tried “harassed.” Still not right. It seemed too active, as if he were chasing them while he was yelling at them. I broke down and opened my thesaurus. “Harangued.” Le mot juste.

As we endeavor to write the right words, we also need to keep learning new words. One way to do this is by reading good writing, both fiction and nonfiction, by authors recognized as literate and skillful. Watch the ways they put words together. Look at how their sentences are constructed. Do they slavishly follow the rules of grammar and usage we learned in our eighth-grade English class? Do they ever break the rules? For what purpose? In what contexts? What’s the effect? Finally, there’s a perfectly splendid web site called A.Word.A.Day that we can subscribe to and receive a new word via email every day. Subscription is free. www.wordsmith.org   Sign up and learn new words and read the thought for the day. That’s a good way to get more right words and become a smarter writer.