You get a break on your taxes for: Your minimal cost of living–the “standard deduction”; Medical expenses (above a certain amount); Donating to charity; Investing in a business; and Many other reasons. The first two reasons have to do with yourself; … Continue reading
Author Archives: Ed Skinner
It’s 1984 Again
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Big Brother is watching you. Or to be precise, he’s watching your Android phone. Specifically, if you have an Android cell phone and have shopped for any new app, then you’ll have a Google account. There, you can find all sorts … Continue reading
Adverb’s Disease
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Beware! My writing is afflicted with a horrible disease. Adverb’s Disease shows as weak little words attached to verbs. They add nothing to the story and just take up space and time. A pure waste of ink! Diagnosed by one of the … Continue reading
Flat5’s 50 Percent
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Stats are interesting. WordPress tallies a lot of information about this website including how many times pages are viewed, where in the world those viewers are, and so forth. (No, it doesn’t capture your credit card or license plate number. … Continue reading
Serpent’s Smile, Chapter One, Part One Reading
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The A, B, C, D and F of Editing Fiction
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Here’s the process I’ll be trying out as I edit the nearly 500 pages of double-spaced text in my first draft. First, some definitions using the grading system we all learned in school. Fiction is built with several parts: Action … Continue reading
Thirty Two: Spectacular View and Epilogue
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In this, the final chapter: Guns in hand and ready to shoot each other as well as Megyn, Spence, Sartaq and Megyn all ride the elevator up to the roof of the spectacular Marina Bay Sands Hotel for the final, fatal confrontation. Continue reading
Last Chapter Goes Up (Appears) Saturday Morning
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The climax of “Serpent’s Smile” will appear early Saturday morning. If you’ve been reading along, you will be pleased to find out how it ends — everything will be posted as of then. The story includes 99,136 words. [550,238 characters!] … Continue reading
Thirty One: Six Pillars of Disaster
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In this chapter: Two minutes before Noon, Sartaq pushes the button to explode the bombs and bring the hotel crashing down into the casino. Continue reading
First Draft Complete
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In a bagel shop in Santa Barbara California, I finished the first draft of the final chapter. It will be posted along with two others over the next three weeks. Work began last October with the outline. A month later, … Continue reading