I’ve just published the fourth edition of my nonfiction book for writers, The Well-Presented Manuscript: Just What You Need to Know to Make Your Fiction Look Professional. I’ve added some material, as I have in each new edition, but the big change is a complete restructure around the ten most common types of errors I see authors making in the books I review:

1. Vocabulary. Now almost 200 entries on pairs, trios, or single words that are easily confused with each other or used incorrectly.
2. Apostrophe usage. Two simple rules will enable you to get the apostrophe in the right place every time.
3. Narrative tense. How to stop jerking your readers around in time so they have a smooth reading experience. Revised and expanded.
4. Commas of identity (vocative and appositive commas). How to fix one of the easiest ways to spot amateurish writing.
5. Commas of sequence (coordinate commas and lists). How to avoid an error that even some good writers still make. Revised and expanded.
6. Commas of grammatical structure (phrasal commas). How to know where—and where not—to put a comma, without having to guess.
7. Capitalization, hyphenation and other punctuation marks. Many different errors described and corrected.
8. Dialog punctuation. A persistent problem for a minority of writers, with a few easy rules.
9. Clarity of reference (number agreement, pronoun errors, dangling modifiers). Make sure your readers understand exactly what you’re talking about without having to stop and work it out. Revised and expanded.
10. Research and knowledge. Common slip-ups that are easily corrected. Revised and expanded, including an extensive guide to differences between British and American English for authors who speak one, but whose characters speak the other.

At the back of the book is a simple reference for grammatical terminology and concepts, and a resource section for further reading.

Everything is still directed at improving the working fiction writer’s grasp of mechanics and usage, so that your prose reads smoothly and your readers can immerse themselves in your story.

For the first time, the book is available as a print volume as well as an ebook, but it should be available wherever you get your ebooks, including all the major stores and many libraries.

Sir Julius Vogel Award trophy

It’s that time again – the time when I work on the “get nominated for a Sir Julius Vogel Award” item on my bucket list. I mean, look at how cool that trophy is. Wouldn’t you want one?

The SJVs are New Zealand’s speculative-fiction awards, given at the annual conference of SFFANZ (the Science Fiction and Fantasy Association of New Zealand). Anyone in the world can nominate an eligible work to get onto the ballot, but only those attending the conference or members of SFFANZ get to vote on the final list – which is made up of the works with the most nominations.

I’m eligible in several categories, as usual. If you’ve read one or more of these, and think it’s award-worthy, you can do me a favour by entering the details given below into their nomination form.

I actually published three novels last year (Ghost Bridge, its sequel Unsafe Harbour, and Trickster’s Nab), and you should feel free to nominate any of them, but I offer Ghost Bridge as the first choice because of its New Zealand setting, and the fact that more people have probably read it than have read the sequel. If you nominate one of the others, make sure you include the correct link!

Unsafe Harbour: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LX8TVD7/ 

Trickster’s Nab: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01KYS0214/

Best Novel

1. Name / Title of work: Auckland Allies 2: Ghost Bridge
2. Name of Author: Mike Reeves-McMillan
3. Eligible for: Best Novel
4. Year of First Release: 2016
5. GENRE – science fiction, fantasy or horror: Fantasy
6. Publisher / Production company name: C-Side Media
7. How to contact the producer / author: mike at csidemedia.com
8. Other details about the work, that might be relevant
   e.g. the media it appears in – radio, web: ebook
9. Where to get a copy of the work: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GDFWIAA

Best Novella or Novelette

1. Name / Title of work: Hand of the Trickster
2. Name of Author: Mike Reeves-McMillan
3. The work is eligible for: Best Novella
4. Year of First Release: 2016
5. GENRE – science fiction, fantasy or horror: Fantasy
6. Publisher / Production company name: C-Side Media
7. How to contact the producer / author: mike at csidemedia.com
8. Other details about the work, that might be relevant
   e.g. the media it appears in – radio, web: ebook
9. Where to get a copy of the work: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JHTIXMG

Best Short Story

1. Name / Title of work: “Forget You”
2. Name of Author: Mike Reeves-McMillan
3. The work is eligible for: Best Short Story
4. Year of First Release: 2016
5. GENRE – science fiction, fantasy or horror: Science fiction
6. Publisher / Production company name: Daily Science Fiction
7. How to contact the producer / author: mike at csidemedia.com
8. Other details about the work, that might be relevant
   e.g. the media it appears in – radio, web: professional webzine
9. Where to get a copy of the work: http://dailysciencefiction.com/science-fiction/virtual-reality/mike-reeves-mcmillan/forget-you

Best New Talent

This requires a precis of 100-500 words. I have provided some details below; feel free to rewrite this in your own words.

This nomination is for Mike Reeves-McMillan (mike at csidemedia.com) for the fan award of Best New Talent.

This author published three novels (Auckland Allies 2: Ghost Bridge; Auckland Allies 3: Unsafe Harbour; and Trickster’s Nab) in 2016, bringing his total number of published novels to nine. He also published a novella (Hand of the Trickster) in 2016, as well as three short stories, two in professional venues (“Forget You” in Daily Science Fiction and “Gatekeeper, What Toll?” in Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores), and “Mail Order Witch” in the semi-professional Farstrider. (See http://csidemedia.com/shortstories/ for details.) The Daily Science Fiction sale enabled him to join the Codex neo-pro writers’ community to work further on his craft, and he has since (in 2017) sold a story to Compelling Science Fiction. His self-published Gryphon Clerks series was recently picked up by the small press Digital Publishing Corp for republication, and the first of the series, Realmgolds, is now available in Italian translation. He curates the SFF Thought Starters collection on Google+ for fellow speculative fiction writers.

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Thanks very much for any support you choose to give me.