Software that can check your spelling and grammar

With advancements in technology, there is now a range of different software readily available to those looking to put their book through the initial editing process. I have always been a big fan of Grammarly, the online editor. You copy and paste your documents into it and then it spells checks them for you. It has a range of different features including a plagiarism checker for those who are doing essays and may have used outside sources in their work. It is also very good at spotting commonly confused words, it will usually highlight them for you to double check you have used the right spelling. Grammarly also identifies when a comma is needed. If I need to get anything edited professionally I will always put it through Grammarly first. There is no point in sending an editor a half-finished book, the closer it is to finished, the more likely it is that the professional editor will be the one to finish the job. 

Style Writer 4: This is the second piece of writing editing software that I recommend. It can be tailored towards your writing style. The aim of this software is essentially to remove redundant text. Performing the role of a professional editor without the cost. I don't honestly believe there is a piece of software on the market that is perfect, but this software will check through your work for you, and turns your work from what it is, into what editors want to see. It will also remove words that are overused in the English language and suggest more appropriate words. This will help your writing appear fresh. It does not like Microsoft Word 2010 very much though, it works better with Word 2007.  The website is here: http://www.editorsoftware.com/

The Mice and the Cream

The Two Mice and the Cream

I loved my primary school, what I remember most out of everything we did was the assemblies. Sure we had some good lessons, but the assemblies were different. There was one story in one assembly which I came to embody as my own life. The story of the two mice, I will retell it for your benefit. There are two mice that fell into a bucket of cream. They fought and fought to escape, running as fast as they could to get out. Eventually the first mouse gives up and drowns. The second mouse keeps running till it churns that cream into butter. And that appears to be my life, granted the butter is not particularly thick at the moment, but I expect it shall thicken with time. Ultimately the question is and always will be how much do you want it? I was speaking to a girl at one of my many jobs, she was an English student. I told her the journey I had been on, the six years churning away at that cream.

She responded, “That seems like hard work.”

So I will ask you again, how much do you want it? I gave up watching television, I gave up computer games because I wanted this more than I wanted them. You may think I am being extreme here, I know that, I don’t care I will not go to my grave wondering if I could have given just that little bit more. Before I was born I won my first race; the race for life. The promises about my life are slowly being fulfilled. Since March this year I have earned more from writing than I have from my other job, somewhere between selling books and advertising products I am actually making a decent income. I won't pretend like there aren't bad months, cause there are, but there are also very good months. This month has been a very good month. Whilst I await the return of my beloved laptop I thought it would be a good time to start a new project, it will be a collection of short stories with a Yorkshire theme. 

The New Season

       What an amazing time to be alive, I am officially making money from writing. Six years ago I set out with a dream to complete my first novel. Six years (and three part-finished novels later) that dream is still be fulfilled. I am closer than ever though and now have the summer to put the finishing touches on Unspent Convictions. In the last six years I have moved from obscurity to running my own magazine. Twelve thousand people a year visit Dark Places Magazine at present. Issues are selling and I am very happy with the general direction that my life is moving in. About six hundred people a month read stuff I have written. It would seem that the dark period of the early twenties that many men experience is coming to an end. Your twenties represent an era of unknowns, "what am I going to do with my life?" is one of those burning questions. Fortunately the tide began turning for me on the eve of my twenty fourth birthday.

It all begins with a choice and a risk. When I did a short stint at a recruitment consultancy at the age of twenty three, I realised then I was a bit different. When asked what they wanted to do with their lives, most people responded to that "to work in  recruitment, to raise money and to have a family."

I responded "I want to be a writer." I left on the Friday after making a call to a gentlemen with regards to a job I was pitching. The woman asked how I knew the person I was contacting, the truth is I didn't, so I panicked and hung up. If I am honest  I was too honest for recruitment anyway.

My mother hounded me for months after, she was worried about me- about my future more specifically. I now work in a school, which is probably the best place for me. The kids I work with are a delight, if not a little bit cheeky, but so what? It keeps the job interesting and keeps me on my toes. Dark Places Magazine was the master stroke. It came as an idea to me whilst perusing Hubpages one evening. I have always loved writing, but knew how difficult the industry is at the moment for new writers to enter. I wanted to create a platform to get writer's voices heard. I am delighted to say that a year on, not only is the project still running, but the product is being delivered simultaneously in multiple formats in PDF and on Kindle. We have sold more issues of Dark Places in the Month of July 2013 than in any other time since I started the project in October last year with Brandon Vaughan at my side. It has been sad to see Brandon say goodbye, and I really do owe him a lot, without a second person I don't think I would have had the guts to get this project up and running. So thank you Brandon! 

The summer holidays begin tomorrow. I have big plans for this summer, I will be going to a Christian youth conference with some of my young people. I also have a stack of books to read and old friends to catch up with, and my first full length novel Unspent Convictions needs finishing. This summer is gonna fly I can sense it.        

The things that are important...

It has been an amazing weekend, I spent most of Saturday night half awake on a slowly deflating airbed at E:merge in the centre of Bradford. I got less than an hours sleep, but there was a reason for this. The reason was that we were enabling ninety six young people from Leeds and Bradford to bless a deprived community not ten minutes from where our church meets in Shipley, West Yorkshire. The overnight stay was to look after them whilst they cemented relationships with each other. Then the next morning we went in, cleared gardens and ran a family fun day. One woman seeing all this was almost reduced to tears. What an amazing feeling it is to see how the lost respond to being loved.
     Whilst we cleared the garden it rained intermittently, I think the only thing that kept me going at times was the thought of a time of worship to come and a warm meal in my belly when we got back that evening. It was an amazing weekend, but God wasn't finished yet. I arrived the next morning to run Latitude, the youth I help run for my church in Shipley. One of the young people was complaining about severe back pain and was having trouble standing for long periods. He spent most of our game time sat in a chair. So I thought you know what this time we will pray for his back and God will answer. So I gathered the youth round and the other youth worker and we prayed and God answered. As he stood up out of the chair the smile that stretched across his face was huge. "That is so much better." Rest assured God is on the move at City Valley church. I went out to lunch with some friends, came home after, thoroughly knackered out due to lack of sleep. God was not finished for the day yet, I received a text later that evening from a mum whose son I know, he needs a role model desperately. I already have his name on a prayer list on my wall. In truth I don't have the time, but to be a father to the fatherless I will make the time. We were talking with the youth this morning about time, money and gifts and actually what the other youth worker said spoke volumes, you can't take your riches to Heaven, you can't take your Lamborghini but you can take people, and I for one intend to take as many people with me as possible.

Keep plugging away! (Can't someone edit this book for me?)

       I am presently working about thirty hours a week for a school in Bradford and have just started another job as well. In between this I am running my own magazine, editing my book and completing my Level 3 Teaching Assistant course. As well as doing youth work each week. Now it is really important when you are going through something this intense that you take regular breaks. This is because you don't want to burn out. It is so easily done in this life. Also and I am talking to myself here as much as I am to anyone else. Life is busy, so so busy, but please respect that there are times when your body will not feel like completing mammoth tasks like editing your book, respect that. You have one life, it is better that you enjoy it than ruining it by overworking. I assure you few end their lives wishing they had spent more hours at work. As long as there is no deadline, don't worry too much. Obviously again there is a balance here, so if you feel you may go the other way then set yourself a weekly editing target. For me I am now over 75% of the way through my writing project and the book is really taking form. My suggestion is to read it out loud slowly. You will be amazed how many mistakes you pick up on as you do it. Above all else don't give up, many of life's failures were people who did not know how close they were to success when they quit-Thomas A. Edison US inventor. Then again how do we rate success? One thousand people have now read my article on the Mechanics of Short Story writing on Hubpages, is that success?     

Reviews of various moth killling products

We have been at war with the dreaded moths in our flat for a number of months now, there have been casualties on both sides, I have killed close to one hundred moths and they ate two of my beloved sweaters. I don't believe you can fully eradicate them either not without pest control. However that being said there are a number of products I have been using over the past few months, with varying degrees of effectiveness. We we start with the best product I have used to kill close to seventy of the cloth munching little monsters.

The Flea and Fly Bomb (can it kill moths?)

This is by the far the most lethal product in any moth killers arsenal, I have actually managed to clear my room of moths using this product. There is no other product I can say that for. At first I was skeptical, but it says on the canister that it decimates flying creatures, I think that is a fair representation. We only brought three cans, I reckon had we have brought six we would not have any moths left at all now. They were fleeing from the rooms where we set the canisters off. I personally toppled my bed (I knew that under the bed was their favourite breeding spot). I have had a few rogue moths sneak back under the door into my room I killed them promptly so despite the rest of the house still having moths in, my room presently has none! You have to use more than one canister for bigger rooms though (we didn't otherwise there would be no moths left at all now). The biggest thing is the eggs if you get the eggs then you stop them breeding. I actually hoovered my entire room thoroughly before using this product, targeting places where I suspected they were breeding. They like warm spots, next to radiators and dark spots- under the bed so make sure you hoover there. You will need some cheap face masks as well, because this product is hazardous to humans. Put the canister in the centre of the room, close all windows, twist it, till it starts spraying, then get the heck out of there shutting the door behind you. You have to stay out of the room for about four hours (upon returning follow the instructions on the bottle). My room was moth free for two days, I found one baby at that point which I promptly killed, since then there have been no moths breeding in my room at all. This product works! 4.4/5

The Zeroin Demi-Diamond clothes moth killer

It is the safest, easiest to use and in my opinion most effective moth killer on the market (unless you want to pay rent-o-kill hundreds of pounds to super heat your home to high temperatures to destroy the little blighters and their eggs). Essentially it is a prism shaped object. Inside is a sticky piece of card sprayed in a sexy lady moth pheromones. The male moths fly onto it attracted by the pheromones and then get stuck to it, if you are wondering whether they can escape, I caught the edge of my foot on it and ended up with the pad stuck to my sock, I had to use physical force to get it off. With no men left the women cannot breed, so you end up with severely reduced numbers of moths. However there are a lot of cheap knock offs and you struggle to buy a good batch in large quantities. 3.7/5

Zeroin clothes moth Killer Spray

So this Zeroin clothes moth killer is another from the Zeroin range. It is not nearly as effective as the Demi-diamond clothes moth killer. I have sprayed a number of surfaces with it and found that it makes very little difference, in comparison to the aforementioned product. It did make me cough though, a lot actually, so make sure if you buy it, keep your windows open and don't breathe it in. I used so much of it my room became hazardous to my health, I am not sure how the moths survived. I was having coughing fits in the night as a result of using this product. It is not recommended as a spray you can put in the air as it is bad for us and not just the moths. It is for spraying on various surfaces. So it is best not to chase moths around the room with it. However it is only marginally effective. 2.9/5

Zensect Moth Proofer

When I first brought this product I was impressed by the number of moth balls you actually get. There are twenty in a pack. They smell of lavender which is never a bad thing, but I am not particularly confident in this product I have to say. I have put the twenty balls around my bedroom near clothes, under the bed, the moths seem to like it under there and in the cupboards, however I moved a moth to within close proximity to the product hoping it would drop over dead and instead it chose to fly off. It deters the moths but is it a moth killer? Definitely not. 2.1/5

Don't judge your journey by its beginning

Life does change at quite a pace. I left my second job a little over three weeks ago, God told me it was time. It seems at that point the magazine started taking off. Traffic has jumped up to almost seven hundred and fifty visits a month. Finishing the books is still on the priority list, the second book is closer to finished than the first. I now have the equipment and the time to be able to get them both finished. I remember when I started Nowhere To Be Found roughly three years ago now. I had no idea how long this project would take or that it would spawn a sequel. Now looking back I can see a journey, where I have come from being a child writer to a prolific editor, a new writer to a more season one. I look at my writing and see an heir of maturity. I respect the journey I have been on. Others now turn to me for advice and input. There is no quick fix for this journey, no magic course, it could never happen any other way. I think the mantra of the day is definitely Mark Twain "it's not the dog in the fight, it's the fight in the dog." With every fight we gain experience, with every wound we are left licking we grow stronger and ultimately we get better at spotting the errors in our own writing. I remember handing over a shocking manuscript to a friend Charlie Southwell, I asked him a few weeks ago what happened to that manuscript, he said he got three chapters in and his red pen ran out. It is fortunate we don't judge all journeys by their beginning. The second novel was better, and by the third I was happy I had developed a craft that could potentially give me a second income in the long term. Unspent Convictions and Nowhere to be Found have both been read by three people each. Reviews so far have been promising. Whilst neither book is finished I feel I can now finish them quickly and with a much higher level of efficiency and accuracy than I had previously. Largely because of a new piece of software I started using. In the mean time I spend my spare hours reviewing and picking stories for the next issue of Dark Places magazine. Then in my day job battle to get children to read and write simple sentences and walk in single file up corridors. This is a strange life... but not a bad one.

Grabbing the bull by the horns

It’s been over a year now since I took the bull by the horns and started taking full control of my life. The results have been exceptional. The lists have been a powerful component in me achieving my goals. As I can visualise where I am, and where I want to go and achieve it one tick at a time. The biggest change has been Dark Places magazine; my pride and joy and chief accomplishment of the last year. When I first conceived the idea on the sixth of August I was frustrated, and feeling I could achieve more. The thing I wanted more than anything else was my own business. Using my limited experience, and with the help of a good friend I set up the website. It was reckless, stupid and scary. For the first time in my life my performance mattered. However, I concluded something very important, if the website fails to be successful, then what have I lost? The downside on losses was limited, the upside however was unlimited. It has been the source of frustration, one minor panic attack and a lot of time spent, but I tell you it was all worth it as I looked at the first issue online. The risk was definitely worth it. It was like a dream had come true. I have learned a lot from the experience and I am sure I still have a lot more to learn yet. The next big thing will be doing invoices. What an exciting season to be entering! I remember getting the first twenty likes, the first fifty and we now have over one hundred. Starting your own magazine is probably one of the most daunting things you will ever do, but it is definitely worth it.

Broken Sony Xperia Play

I have had my Sony Xperia Play for coming up to two years now, I love it. It is a very good phone with great features. The internet is reliable and the phone, despite being soaked through still works. However, there are certain things I am learning about my phone. The first of which, she doesn't like to get wet, do you best to keep her dry at all times. The majority of problems I have had with the phone can be traced back to an incident where the phone got wet. The first water damage issue. I used it to get directions in the rain. There was also another separate incident where I downloaded a free game, when I was in Serbia that caused it as well, easily rectified I deleted the game and the problem resolved itself. The second happened when I was using it with wet hands. It had two completely different reactions to each. The first time it broke, after repeated exposure to rain water, my sony Xperia play kept shutting off by itself, then turning itself back on. I followed the usual instructions, but it was a waste of time really, the problem was with the battery. The rain had wrecked it, and there was nothing to do, but replace the battery. That solved the issue immediately. The second time was different. Now it depends who you believe on this one the guy in the shop said the flip element had worn out, which meant that the screen on my xperia play was going fuzzy randomly. My friends said that I got water in the screen and that was causing the problem. I tried to dry it out, but that failed epicly. For a few moments I thought I was watching The Ring, it wouldn't work and when I took the battery out it was worse. I turned it back on and the screen was permanently fuzzy, it has been repaired, took it to the shop. The issue was related to the mechanism that detects when the phone has been flipped out, basically it was badly made and wears out. It is called the flex cable, Whilst I have had these problems I don't intend on changing phones anytime soon, because despite these issues the Sony Xperia Play is one of the best phones on the market, it is robust, reliable and fast. Unless they bring us out a Vita version, I will sticking with it for a few more years, so I am relieved to have her back from the brink once again. Had a new issue arise more recently, the screen on my Sony Xperia play is not responding all the time, this is an interesting issue, I think it arose from it being dropped a bit too much. Strangely though, I will check over the next couple of days, but the solution appears to have been giving the phone a squeeze. I am not joking check out this post Basically as near as I can tell dropping it has forced the screen to come away from the base it is mounted on. So applying a certain amount of pressure to the screen to press it back down appears to work. Now you have to be cautious, but what I did was put one hand on the back of it, and apply pressure to the screen using the palm of my hand, whilst also applying pressure to the back of it. You have to do it vigorously, but it appears to restore full functionality to the phone. I would love to know who figured this one out! Unfortunately it failed to work for me, I took it to the Carphone Warehouse and they basically said it was water damaged so needed a new digitizer, but said they would not provide me with one and the warranty was voided due to the water damage. So I took it back to a repair shop and they quoted me Sixty Quid for the repair. I went back and they told me it could not be repaired, which is sad. Since then I have made the switch to an Iphone 4, significantly better in terms of reliability, durability and longevity. I have never had to reset it, since I got it. Great phone and no more heart break for me!
  

Horror and Sci-Fi Writing Competitions

There are a number of writing competitions, however looking for ones specifically in the genre of horror is a lot harder. There are several though,  Dark Places Magazine, we accept submissions in the genres of Sci-fi and Fantasy. There is a quarterly prize of £50 for the best story; all other winners get published in the magazine. There is also Dark Tales, they have a prize of £500, but charge for submissions. Dark Moon Digest is another option, they offer a prize of ten dollars to every successful applicant, plus publication in their magazine. Spinetinglers are a horror writing competition based in the UK, they pay £100 for the top story, and the competition runs on a monthly basis.

Roald Dahl Week

We had Roald Dahl week this week at school, I have had a lot of reminders of my dad as it has gone on. I remember him reading Fantastic Mr Fox to me and my older brother when we were little boys. Well Jak was a little boy, I was more of a little monster. He has been on my mind since one of the boys I work with asked about him, He said, "do you have a dad?"
"I used too," I responded, not wanting to lie.
"He died," he said in a matter of factly way, that only a boy with special needs could. This week I have been plagued with reminders of him as I go about my job. I felt all warm inside when I heard one of the teachers reading Fantastic Mr Fox to the children, the hours my dad spent reading it to us by our bedside. His other favourite was the Minpins, another Roald Dahl story. Although most may not have heard of it, I absolutely love it. I learnt to read using Roald Dahl, the books are such fun. What I remember most is that my dad created voices, each character had their assigned voice, I think as I read to the kids in my class, I am reminded of how he used to read to me. The children comment on how I use specific voices for each character, just like my dad used too (although I have to say he was better at it).  Being a kid was awesome, no responsibility, no chores, laying on quilts and then hurling yourself down flights of stairs (maybe that was just me). Part of growing up is appreciating how fun being a kid actually is. It has been a good week, draining, but good and I can't wait to get back into that classroom on Monday morning, I am hoping things will have returned to normal. Then again when working in a school, I don't think there is such a thing as a normal day. So what I have I taken from this week? Don't underestimate the importance of reading to your children, my dad did very little with us in truth, but he did that and the impact has echoed across decades, I too hope to one day read Roald Dahl's fantastic books to my little ones. For now I'll have to settle for reading to other people's kids; the advantage being I can send them home at the end of the day!

An Update from Bradford: The writing and the youth

Christian's can often feel burned out, it's happened to me before, it actually feels as if it is happening now. My usual reaction is to take a break from God, but this evening I tried something different, I pressed in, I read, I worshiped and to be honest I am feeling better for it. I love my life, I would not trade it for a multimillionaire's. It is uniquely designed by God, for me. Things though are moving at a mile a minute, especially with the website flying, we are getting a deluge of submissions for the magazine from writers eager to get their voice heard. I thought it could happen, but I could never have predicted it would be this fast. It has only been a month, the website is booming, constantly generating new traffic and new hits. It is exciting to be at the beginning of something that has so much promise and potential with Brandon at my side. I would like to thank Jan for inspiring me to take the bull by the horns with her entrepreneurial spirit.

The youth work too is starting to blossom into something special, stories of how God has been using me to reveal information I could not have known previously,  and how he is physically healing others have been inspiring young people to think  twice about the existence of God. Testimonies of how God is healed young people at Newday (A youth conference that runs annually) are inspiring my youth http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF5wyeoOWlA, there is not much more I could ask for than that. I spent this evening praying for them, and praying for another church I have been doing some youth work with in Saltaire. Prophetic dreams suggest that our youth work is going to grow dramatically over the next few years (both me and the other youth worker for our church have had dreams in which young people are literally queuing up outside the door). I feel like the giant snow ball has finally been pushed down the hill, nothing to do, but pray, wait and keep reading submissions for the magazine. Someone came up to me today in church and said, "I sense God is going to use you for something only you can do." My first thought was maybe he wants me to destroy the one ring at Mount Doom..... However, that seems unlikely so once again I am going to have to wait and see. I thought back in that moment to a few months ago when I was volunteering, and how God laughed as I moaned at the crap I was going through, and his response was "You have no idea, the good things I have planned for you, just around the corner." Well he wasn't lying, was he? The jobs, the magazine, the youth, it is as if everything all at once has clicked into place. For those that are still struggling, my advice is hold fast, the delay in God giving you what you want is definitely for your own good. You are a pawn on a chess board and he is player, trust him and he will make best use of you when the time is right.

I leave you with the verse I kept getting last year, every time I opened my bible it seemed to fall on this page...

I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you, plans to give you a hope and a future.