Don't Suffer with Scrofulous Scanning

By:  Kimberly Hitchens is the founder and owner of Booknook.biz, an ebook production company that has produced books for over 1000 authors and imprints, with over 2,000 books up on Amazon.


To Scan or Not to Scan, that is the question...okay, it's not the question. You have a book in print, or you have an old "typed" or printed-out manuscript in a drawer, and the Kindle Gold Rush has motivated you to consider publishing your backlist, or pulling out that old manuscript and dusting it off.  But...then what do you do?

Why Does Quality Scanning Matter?

I’m often asked, in the course of our business, about scanning and OCR from print.  Basically, if you’re an author with a previously-published book (or old manuscripts for which you no longer have disks), and no matching digital file, in order to take the first step on the road to putting your book into eBook form you must first put it into digital format.  This first step is called “Scanning and OCR.”

What the Hell Does "Scanning and OCR" Mean?

Scanning means essentially what it sounds like; someone puts the pages of your book on a scanner, scans the page, creating an image of the page, and does this some 300 or so times, to capture all the pages of your book.  “OCR” means “Optical Character Recognition,” and this is where talent and training start to kick in; this is when the computer “reads” those images of text that are on a page, created from the scan, and “translates” them into actual characters, letters and numbers, that can be used by a computer as text, rather than images of text.  Like the difference between “old style” PDF’s—just images of text—and newer, searchable PDF’s, which are actually the text in a non-reflowing layout. 

Why Not Just Use the Cheap Guys Down the Street?

Now, I know better than most that publishing is a business.  Someone with a backlist title wants, of course, to get the most “bang for their buck,” and manage not to go too deep in the hole before they get their book on Amazon, available for sale.  But while it’s tempting to scrimp on scanning—especially with so many cheap scanning companies out there—it’s almost never worth the savings.  If you’re one of those folks with  pretty good expertise in the workings of Word, and more time than money, then using a cheap scanner could be the path for you.  If, however, you have a limited amount of your own time, or aren't that comfortable figuring out things like how to delete section breaks in Word, or to create new paragraph styles (or clean up old ones), then using a high-quality scanner can save you a lot of time and aggravation.

Most people are ill-prepared for the reality of “raw” scan output, before the file’s been proofed.  While many scanning firms, particularly the low-cost ones, will do a book for under $20 or $30 (and some even advertise $1/book scanning), what this means is that most will simply make an imaged PDF of the book—not a file you can edit, or make a Word file from to editing.  The second step—the OCR— doesn't get done with these “super-cheapo” firms.  Even those that do make the OCR’d file tend not to do a very great job of cleaning up the resulting scan.  Scans with OCR, by definition, will be riddled with errors.  Some words, for example, like “fiat,” will almost invariably come out as “hat,” not “fiat.”  The program won’t recognize this as a scanning error, so every scan has to be proofread, letter by letter and word by word, for scanning errors, no matter who does the work.  The words that the program does recognize as erroneous, or likely erroneous, will be marked in RED, to help you find them.  I've seen scanned pages that look like the battle of Gettysburg, when it comes to the amount of red on the page.  The better the scanning company, the fewer “bloody” marks you’ll find on the Word output page.  You can download and review a sample of some better-quality “raw” scan output by clicking here (will display in Word).  

Won't It Be The Same Wherever I Go for Scanning?

A good firm will have “trained” its software to the highest degree, and this will result in far fewer errors in the scanning and OCR.  (Yes, you can actually “train” OCR software to make fewer recognition errors.  It takes a lot of time, and effort, but the better firms do it.)  This means less work for you and a decreased likelihood that you’ll receive one of those “Kindle Quality Notices” pointing out typos that have to be fixed, if your own final proofing isn't as rigorous as it should be.

The next issue to consider is the experience of the scanner.  Some firms don’t really know how to use the OCR software, and commit beginner errors like outputting the OCR to Word al right, but the text on each page is formatted within a “frame.”  When this happens, there’s no quick way around it, no easy fix—all the text inside these frames (think “text boxes”) has to be copy-and-pasted by hand into a new Word document, in order to flow properly—and there is no reason for this to happen.  Only the most amateurish scanning firms make this mistake, so if you see it, you've been warned.  If you click the output text on a page, and a box appears “around” the text…that’s text in a frame, and you’ll have to manually cut-and-paste all the text, as described above, to “fix” it, before you can give it to a conversion house like ours.  (To see output text "inside" a frame, you can download a Word file scanned this way, HERE.  To see the "frames," you'll have to download the file and open it in Word on your own computer--note the "boxes" around the text, and just imagine copy-and-pasting 300 pages of this!)  

One of the other things that a good scanner will do, that a bad one won’t, is try to ensure that you’re offered “corrective editing,” (or something with a similar name), in which the scanning company will proof the output page, by eye, line by line, against the page provided to them for scanning.  This is usually somewhat costly—around $1/page—but many clients feel that the time-savings to themselves is worth it.  No scanning company proofreads the work, unless asked, and then, not without additional cost.  Don’t make the mistake of thinking that any scanning and OCR company is proofing the output—that’s not the way it works!

Uh-Oh, More Pilcrow Talk!

Broken paragraphs at page endings are a frequent problem with scanned pages.  When reading a printed page that breaks, in the middle of a line, at page’s end, we don’t give it another moment’s thought.  But when that page is output to Word, from a scan, the scan will almost always contain a “pilcrow” character (¶) at the end of that same line—which tells Word, and any other type of program that that location, where the line broke, is the end of a paragraph, and that the next words (which are at the top of the next printed page), are the beginning of a new paragraph.  If this isn't fixed before your output manuscript/book is sent to a conversion house, you’ll have two paragraphs where you should have had one, resulting in more editing effort by you, more work for the conversion house, and a higher end cost, as all conversion houses charge for edits you make to your content post-production.  So:  keep your eyes on those errant pilcrows!  (See my blog articles on pilcrows: http://crimefictioncollective.blogspot.com/2011/10/pilcrow-go-go.html, http://crimefictioncollective.blogspot.com/2011/11/pilcrow-no-nos-part-ii.html and http://crimefictioncollective.blogspot.com/2012/05/dozen-dos-and-donts-on-prepping-your.html [#11] in that article).  Again—it’s not the job of the scanner to fix these page ending pilcrows—cleaning them up and prepping the manuscript for submission either to someplace like Createspace or to a firm like mine for making eBooks is your job as the publisher.  This is why using a better scanning firm is in your best interests; the fewer messy parts you have to fix, from the scanning job, the easier your responsibilities will be to execute. 

So:  Who Should I Use, Then?

These are just a very few of the reasons that hiring a high-quality scanning firm is in your best interests, if remotely in the reach of your budget.  We at Booknook.biz, when asked, invariably recommend Golden Images Scanning, owned by Stan Drew, http://www.pdfdocument.com, 636-379-9999, for the best quality work.  Stan’s used by the top author clients that we have, and for good reason.  He does give multiple discounts for repeat clients, multiple books, and the like, so you should not hesitate to pick up the phone and give him a call if you have a backlist book that you need to get into digital form, either for re-issuance as a print book, or for making eBooks for sale.  We don’t recommend any of the very inexpensive scanners, because the results we've seen from these places have been so wildly inconsistent that we can’t in good conscience say, “well, this one works great or pretty good, but that one doesn't ” because they all seem to have their bad and very bad days.  

Worse, many don’t  have phone numbers where you can pick up the phone when you have a problem and get an answer, or even someone to talk to.  This isn't to say that the least-expensive firms can’t on occasion do a decent job…but for 100% reliability, time and again, we like to recommend companies that we trust; in this case, Stan’s company.  In the last 4, almost 5 years, we haven’t seen scanning work from anyone else that’s even come close to the quality of Stan’s.  Yes, using firms that are actually using offshore labor, and thus cheap, is very seductive, for obvious reasons. Who doesn't want to save money?  But before you commit your valuable manuscript to a lower-quality firm, do give the points discussed in this blog piece some consideration.  Remember how much blood, sweat and tears you put into that book in the first place, and how important it is to you that it stay as you wrote it, not full of introduced typos and errata from a bad scan job.  

And that's this week's tip on Bookmaking from Booknook.Biz.  There's no crime in bargain-hunting; we encourage our clients to go out and seek competitive bids, always.  But when you competitively price scanning, make sure you are pricing apples to apples--and not apples to lemons.  

Thanks!  Until next time...

Hitch

In the Bleak Midwinter

Cover of Snow by Jenny Milchman (Ballantine hardcover, 15 January 2013).

Reviewed by Marlyn Beebe.


Nora Hamilton wakes up one morning and almost instantly can feel that something is wrong.  Searching the house for her husband Brendan, she finally finds him in the attic.  He's committed suicide.  Her immediate reaction, of course, is that he would never have done such a thing, and despite the assurances of his colleagues on the police force in the tiny town of Wedeskyull, New York, that there could be no other possibility, she remains unconvinced.

After the funeral, she finds herself unable to continue her day-to-day life without confirming her suspicions, but she finds herself stymied at every turn by the police chief, the other officers, or the local townspeople.  Despite the fact that she's lived in the small Adirondack community since she married Brendan six years earlier, she's still perceived as an outsider.  She gets support from very few people, including a local journalist (also a "newcomer"), her family, and Brendan's aunt (who really only helps by not hindering her). 

Despite the fact that her search leads her into some remote parts of the mountains in the middle of winter, and at times she even fears for her life.  Milchman describes the frigid winter surroundings so well that  I found myself shivering often while I read this (which may make it the ideal book for a sweltering summer afternoon).

The story is suspenseful and creepy, but gripping and difficult to put down.  It's an exceptionally written first novel, and will likely be enjoyed by fans of Julia Spencer-Fleming and Louise Penny.


Many thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for the e-galley of the book.

Boycotting Agent-Focused Conferences

by L.J. Sellers, author of provocative mysteries & thrillers

Every year I think about going to Thrillerfest, but this time my reason for not attending is different. In the past, it was always a financial issue—an expensive conference and an expensive flight. But now that I can afford it, I've decided to pass for ideological reasons that recently become more pressing. The short answer: Agentfest, a sub-conference within the larger gathering.

Last year, I was invited to teach a workshop at Willamette Writers conference, and I turned it down because the conference is focused on writers pitching to agents. Agentfest is the same thing: hopeful authors trying to sign contracts with agents. This choice, of course, is for the author to make, but I can't, in good conscience, support a program that encourages new authors to sign with agents. (For established authors, it's a different decision.)

I don’t have anything against agents personally. But their role in publishing has become mostly obsolete. Yet, the 15% forever commission hasn’t changed. What has changed is how they earn it. Now many agents are helping their clients self-publish by performing tasks that authors can do for themselves or contract to professionals for a flat fee.

This practice seems unscrupulous. And that perception has been supported by recent blog revelations. Barry Eisler posted about the nasty reaction of agents to his self-publishing talk, where he sought to empower writers with specific information about the changes in publishing.

And David Gaughran recently blogged about the pitiful performance of Argo Navis, a digital distributor favored by agents who steer their clients into those contracts. Agents talk about how the Argo Navis distributor is a guarantee of quality independent publishing because it only deals with books submitted by agents. Yet, according to Gaughran's research, Argo Navis books don't sell. Hundreds of real indie authors sell more books in an hour than agent-supported Argo Navis clients do in a month. And the distributor takes 30%...in addition to the 15% paid to agents and the 30% to the retailer.

I would discourage authors from signing with an agent who makes self-publishing deals. I encourage authors to take charge of their careers and self-publish…in a way that allows them to keep most of the profits.

So for me, it doesn't feel right to attend—and spend money on—a conference that matches new authors with agents who may steer them into bad financial decisions, which, in my opinion, includes most contracts with traditional publishing as well. Especially now that big publishing owns the most notorious author-scamming vanity presses out there. 

The main reader part of the Thrillerfest conference takes place on the last two days, and it would be great fun to hang out with thriller writers and readers. But spending my money on Thrillerfest indirectly supports Agentfest, and I just can't do it.

I would love to see Thrillerfest drop the agent portion of the conference. Many of the conference founders are now self-publishing, and it surprises and disappoints me that they still offer the old model to new writers. I hope it's only a matter of time before agent-based conferences become obsolete. They're a disservice to authors.

Readers, writers: What do you think?

I might be in denial, but the view is pretty from here.

By Gayle Carline
Author of Humorous Mysteries and Mysterious Humor

I'm sort of re-cycling a post I did on my own little blog a while ago, not because I'm lazy, but because I'm in the middle of writing my newest mystery and my characters are pretty anxious to get this party started. I've got to kill someone in about a chapter and a half, so you see I'm pressed for time.

I want to talk about book trailers. I keep puzzling over them, noodling if you will, because in theory, I think they should be part of a book's basic pitch to the masses, one of the things we include with a media release. In practice, most of them end up in the YouTube Black Hole, where no one can find them and no one is looking for them.

Kind of like playing tag with your mean cousin.

Actually, I should refer to them as "book videos." Believe it or not, the term "book trailers" is a registered trademark and its owner can take you to task (or to court) for using it. Hand to God, it's true. See here, under the question "What is a book trailer?"

I know some authors eschew them. They rightly point to the fact that most book videos get lost in space and tell you it's time/money wasted. Well, except for James Patterson who gets his videos on prime time TV (usually during Castle), and he's got more money than God, so seriously, why is he bothering to advertise at all?

But I remember the day that MTV went live and changed the music landscape (I remember the first video, too). Now musicians had to either photograph well or hire clever folks to build music videos that didn't include pictures of them. I haven't watched MTV in quite a while, but every time I look up a song or band on the internet, it looks like videos are still being made.

Now I'm looking at the changing face of the book. It seems to me that ebooks, if they haven't started already, will soon be including links to places and people that are mentioned in them, or videos of events, etc. The reader is not only using their imagination as we take them on our fictional journey; they can be immersed completely in our world. I can envision everything from soundtracks when I read, to the ability to create my own idea of the main character and role play as the story goes.

And no, I'm not a gamer. I'm just a reformed engineer.

What I think this means is that we haven't been pushing the book video envelope far enough. It's not enough to throw your vid on your website and YouTube and hope for the best. That and five bucks will get you a latte. We need an outlet for ALL book videos to get air time in front of readers.

Some of my ideas are:

- A Book Video Channel. On TV and the internet, like MTV in its early days. Maybe split up some of the book videos with author interviews, book signing events, readers' picks, book reviews, etc. It could sell advertising space to the people who support writers, like computer makers and sellers, bookstores, Amazon... and James Patterson.

- A weekly/monthly feature of book videos on other programs that feature book reviews.

- Access to videos by bookstores (either brick and mortar or online) that allows them to display them on a monitor in the store or in a corner of their website.

Got any other ideas? Let your imagination run wild. Mine is.

In the meantime, here are my videos for my three mysteries. Yes, I made them myself. No, I'm no Martin Scorsese. I'm just a gal with a weird sense of humor and a son who has a killer voice and writes music.

FREEZER BURN




HIT OR MISSUS



THE HOT MESS



For bonus points, and a free e-copy of my latest, The Hot Mess, what was the first music video shown on MTV? (Shame on  you if you Googled it!)

Don't insult your reader....

By Jenny Hilborne
Author of mysteries and thrillers

....unless you want a scathing review.

When I invest money in a bank, I want a great return.

When I invest time in a book, I want an even greater return. I can't pull my time back out and invest it somewhere else if I'm not happy. That time has gone forever.

I'm insulted when an author cheats me of my time and persuades me to invest in an unworthy product. I'm not talking about taste; there are plenty of books I don't like, and it's not because they're bad. It's because the author is lazy, or maybe they're just pressed for time. So am I.

Lazy writing is easy to spot. It comes in the form of filler to pad the page count, repeated use of words, recycling a sentence, repetitive cogitations, rehashing an old plot, stereotypical characters. The list goes on. If you haven't got enough content for a novel, make it a short story and don't waste your readers' time. Or your own.

Don't insult your readers' intelligence. Don't use big words and pull me out of the story when I have to set the book down to get a thesaurus and look it up. Because I will. And that big word had better be used in the right context.

Build my confidence in your writing. If you use a big word and then include a sentence to explain what that word means, I'll assume you didn't know it either. And it will undermine my confidence in your writing, not to mention insult my intelligence as a reader.

If you have discursive tendencies in real life, don't bring them into your novel. Time is valuable, and short. Don't describe your book as an immersive provocative novel when the only sense it stimulates is irritation. Don't be a sloth between the sheets. Unless you want a scathing review. I wrote one last week for a lazy writer who undermined my confidence and insulted my intelligence, not to mention the poor return on my investment.

Chunking

Tom Schreck writes the Duffy Dombrowski Mysteries

Hey, writers with day jobs--do you chunk?

Can you write a book by spending a half hour (or less) a day on the project?

Purists will suggest that you need to sit for hours while blood seeps from your forehead to author a worthy piece of work.

It'd be nice to not have the day gig (and for the matter, the night gig, the freelance gig and the other part-time gig) but there's that silly mortgage thing.

Your fave?

Interesting though, when you talk to those who have made the leap to full-time writerhood many will admit that their productivity hasn't increased exponentially with their time.

Could it be that the shift in daily focus might help the process? Maybe things percolate while you're at the day job in cubicle hell. Maybe it's even good for you. Maybe several jobs give you a variety of experiences that prime the muse pump.

Or maybe it just exhausts you.

Could it be that we're not meant to write more than a couple hours or less a day?

Is not having the time a legit excuse for not getting a book done?

Might it just mean writing in shorter intervals and finding a rhythm that fits?

Whatyathink?

Gender Bending

Guest post by Jessica P. Morrell, author & editor

The source of all life and knowledge is in man and woman, and the source of all living is in the interchange and the meeting and mingling of these two: man-life and woman-life, man-knowledge and woman-knowledge, man-being and woman-being.~ D. H. Lawrence
 
This will come as no surprise: Men and women are not alike. Not only are their reproductive organs vastly different and fulfill differing biological imperatives, their brains are wired differently. Each person sees the world, interacts with people, and solves problems in his or her own way. 

Yet gender differences are real and many are based in the brain. Even before birth, females have a much denser corpus collosum, the gigantic connective pathway linking the left and right hemispheres. Men tend to be more left brained, while women have greater access to both sides, transferring data between the right and left brain faster. Men focus on the big picture; women, on the details. Men and women’s views of the world are influenced by hormones and other neurotransmitters, by genetics, and by sociological influences. But some brain differences can't be explained away through social or environmental reasoning. Proof that the sexes are immutably different abound.  

In Essential Difference: Men, Women and the Extreme Male Brain, Simon Baron-Cohen writes that, indisputably, on average, male and female minds are of a slightly different character. Men tend to be better at analyzing systems, while women tend to be better at reading the emotions of other people. Baron-Cohen and many studies reveal that this distinction arises from biology, not culture. Current research demonstrates that females, on average, have a larger deep limbic system than males. Due to the larger deep limbic brain women, are more in touch with their feelings, and are generally better able to express their feelings than men. They have an increased ability to bond and connect with others (there is no society on earth where men are primary caretakers for children). Females have a more acute sense of smell, which is likely to have developed from an evolutionary need for the mother to recognize her young. They also produce more stress hormones which might also reflect their roles as mothers and caretakers.  

Imaging studies show that men and women access different parts of the brain for the same tasks. Men react to stress or threat with a fight or flight reaction, likely based on their role as hunters and protectors, while women react by bonding. Men tend to be task and results focused rather than process focused, compartmentalize, and have spatial skills. Both brains are highly adaptive, but findings indicate that they may be adapted more naturally for different roles.   

And here’s another no-brainer: at some point in your writing career you’ll likely need to write about a character of the opposite sex – which is when you need to understand basic differences in the male and female characteristics. But leave Barbie and Ken, stereotypes, and nagging wives and insensitive slob husbands behind. The trick is how to inhabit the sensibility and gender so that the character comes off as authentic and realistic. In my teaching and editing career I’ve seen too many male character making endless declarations of affection, love, and lust, and women who belong in beer commercials kicking ass like Conan the Barbarian. Men so macho they barely wince when an arrow pierces their arms, matched with females who are emotional nitwits who when the going gets tough go shopping. 

You must inhabit your characters when you write. That means not imposing your perceptions, fantasies, or prejudices on the opposite sex. Instead, feel their bumps and heartaches, their past sorrows, losses, and triumphs. Write from the body. You need to know how they react to stress (male-female differences are key, here), to pain, loss, threat, to violation. Know when your characters feel most vulnerable and draw those situations in your story. 

Where differences become most apparent? Communication styles, food preferences and dietary habits, decision making, problem solving, emotional needs, eye contact, posture and body language (men take up more room in the world). Women tend to talk face to face, men tend to sit and talk sideways. 

Tips for writing across the gender boundary: 
When you choose beta readers for your manuscripts, enlist fair representation from the opposite sex. Balanced readership brings perspective to a story—offering invaluable insights into the actions of your opposite-gender characters. If you’re lucky, you’ll hear, “A woman (or man) would never say (or do) that.” 

Give your characters a blend of traits, quirks, and faults. Instead of worrying about political correctness, worry about being dramatically authentic. In real life women are both gentle and tough, and men can be emotionally available, sensitive and honestly brave. Know your main players’ emotional spectrums. How does he or she react in extreme situations, under pressure, duress? Are they able to trust, laugh at themselves, rise to the occasion, or do they submit to cowardice? Imagine your character’s traditional masculine and feminine characteristics on the continuum of the general population. Would other characters describe your male protagonist as a man’s man, a jock, a gentle giant, an alpha male? Since leads in genre fiction tend to be alpha males and females does your character fit the role?

Find each character’s unique qualities. Some men are suckers for puppies, write poetry that move women to tears, and excel in the kitchen. Some women are stoic at funerals, can hold their liquor, and bench press their weight. Trace your character’s personality to his or her origins. How was your character validated as a child? Was he closest to his mother or father? 

Exploit some gender norms and stereotypes if they fit your story. Generally men only cry under severe provocation. While we’ve seen weepy politicians and TV evangelists or a dude who sheds tears at chick flicks, men are biologically predisposed to cry less and exhibit fewer emotions via facial expressions. If you cast a Navy SEAL in your story, then create a character with a lot of competence, physicality, and bravado. Ditto for a femme fatale—she can make men’s heads turn by entering a room and exude a desirable mystique.

Create powerful external and internal conflicts for both sexes. Without emotional conflict or turmoil, the story may wallow in vapidness. Up the ante: extract a physical toll on your characters, too. All storytelling should wrest characters from their comfort zones—and this might mean they venture far from their traditional identities and roles.    

The easiest way to create authenticity in opposite sex characters is by avoiding stating their emotions. Describe indirectly or illustrate them via dialogue, actions and reactions. Readers relate to characters in motion, not reports about their emotions. 

Be wary of chronicling every sigh, breath and heartbeat. Both men and women writers are guilty of this forgetting that readers can imagine some parts of fiction. At the same time, dialogue or scenes without emotional cues are empty. 

Experiment with your own devices to breathe life into your characters, remembering that there is room for suggestive and indirect approaches. And while writing fictional characters can be wish-fulfillment and a whole lot of fun, when it comes to the opposite sex, tell it true.

Jessica Page Morrell understands both sides of the editorial desk–as an editor and author. She writes with depth, wit and clarity on topics related to writing and creativity, along with other topics, and is the author of Thanks, But This Isn’t For Us, A (Sort of) Compassionate Guide to Why Your Writing is Being Rejected; Bullies, Bastards & Bitches, How to Write the Bad Guys in Fiction; The Writer’s I Ching: Wisdom for the Creative Life; Voices from the Street; Between the Lines: Master The Subtle Elements Of Fiction Writing; and Writing Out the Storm. Her work also appears in anthologies and The Writer and Writer’s Digest magazines. Morrell founded and coordinates two writing conferences, Summer in Words and Making it in Changing Times. She works as a developmental editor, has been a columnist since 1998, and is a popular speaker at writers’ conferences throughout North America. Morrell lives in Portland, Oregon, where she is surrounded by writers and watches the sky in all its moods and permutations.  

Registrations are still being accepted for Summer in Words 2013, June 20-23, in Cannon Beach, Oregon. For more information, go to http://summerinwords.wordpress.com

America's Legacy of Child Soldiers

This post by CFC Guest Blogger Suzanne Adair is part of her tour celebrating the release of her newest book. It had originally been scheduled to appear elsewhere, but that particular blog owner felt it was too controversial, especially in the wake of the tragic events in Boston. I assured Suzanne that CFC is not averse to controversy (we create enough on our own) and that we would welcome her, and what she had to share, with open arms.

Please welcome Suzanne Adair to CFC.

Award-winning novelist Suzanne Adair is a Florida native who lives in a two hundred-year-old city at the edge of the North Carolina Piedmont, named for an English explorer who was beheaded. Her suspense and thrillers transport readers to the Southern theater of the Revolutionary War, where she brings historic towns, battles, and people to life. She fuels her creativity with Revolutionary War reenacting and visits to historic sites. When she’s not writing, she enjoys cooking, dancing, hiking, and spending time with her family. A Hostage to Heritage, her next Michael Stoddard American Revolution thriller, was released in April 2013.

Blog and social media links:

Blog: http://www.SuzanneAdair.typepad.com

Quarterly electronic newsletter: http://tinyletter.com/Suzanne-Adair-News

Web site: http://www.SuzanneAdair.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Suzanne.Adair.Author

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Suzanne_Adair 

***Suzanne is graciously offering a FREE copy of her new book, A Hostage to Heritage, in paperback, or one of a multiple number of ebook formats, to anyone (worldwide) who leaves a comment today—please specify your preferred format, and check back to see who the winner is. I will be totally responsible (along with LoML) for the selection.***

One of the most haunting images of war around the globe is that of children holding semi-automatic weapons. In the United States, these images shock a belief system. Children should be in nurturing home environments, enjoying the company of friends after school, taking clarinet lessons, playing softball. They should be allowed to be kids and dream.

Enlisting children as soldiers permits conflict to continue long after a desperate faction's supply of adult combatants has been exhausted. The global costs are astronomical. According to Child Soldiers International, many children who join armed groups volunteer. Their reasons may be any of the following:

·      Survival

·      Poverty and lack of access to education or work (thus the need for income)

·      Desire for power, status, and social recognition

·      Pressure from family or peers

·      Desire to honor a family tradition

·      Desire to escape domestic violence (and for girls an arranged marriage)

Americans convince themselves that such extreme measures happen elsewhere, in distant lands. But historically America has inherited a legacy of children in the military that’s just as horrific as modern conflicts with child soldiers. There were drummer boys on battlefields, sailor boys on navy ships, and ragged children traveling with armies as camp followers. Did these children escape the bullets and bayonets? No.

Children don't escape war.

Two years into the American War of Independence, the fight was going poorly for the Continentals. The Congress was determined to raise an army of eighty-eight infantry regiments. Joseph Moseley answered Congress’s recruitment call in March 1777 and enlisted as a Continental private in the newly made 14th Virginia Regiment. Joseph had just turned twelve years old.

In the 14th Virginia, Private Joseph Moseley wore a uniform, carried a firearm that was probably taller than he was, and was paid six and two-thirds dollars per month. His two teenage brothers were also in the regiment. Left behind at home were a mother widowed for eight years and a brother and sister, both younger than ten years old.

Joseph was discharged in February 1778, just after his thirteenth birthday. During his year of service, his regiment participated in major battles—Brandywine and Germantown—that were losses for the Continentals. The regiment also endured winter camp at Valley Forge. Joseph saw morale in the Continental Army at its lowest point, before the French, the Spanish, the Dutch, and Baron von Steuben offered their aid and changed the course of the war.

Joseph Moseley was my great, great, great-grandfather. Until I conducted research for my membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution, my family thought that Joseph had joined a militia unit as an older teen at the end of the war and spent a year performing low-profile duties for the men: gathering firewood, cleaning weapons, digging latrines. We were stunned by the truth of a twelve-year-old in uniform who looked across battlefields at hundreds of disciplined redcoats with fixed bayonets. My upcoming thriller, A Hostage to Heritage, includes a sub-plot about child soldiers. Joseph has earned his spot on the Acknowledgements page.

My ancestor’s reasons for enlisting are found in the bulleted list, echoes of the reasons why children enlist today, a disconcerting history lesson. Joseph and countless other children picked up the firearms of dead men and continued the fight for the Continental Army. In doing so, they extended armed conflict for six years. And since our "Revolutionary War" was but one theater of a world war, the negative impact on the global economy was staggering.

Nations and factions have been using child soldiers for thousands of years. The effect on the children is obvious. Joseph and those who fought at his side had no childhood. At the least, they suffered from some degree of post-traumatic stress disorder for the rest of their lives, even if they volunteered for duty and were discharged with no physical injuries.

Today's child soldiers in Africa, Asia, South America, and the Middle East are all of humanity's casualties. They show us the costs of war, no matter how hard we try to look elsewhere.

Is there a child soldier among your ancestors? What do you think it will take to finally put an end to this horrific practice? 

Book description:

A boy kidnapped for ransom. And a madman who didn't bargain on Michael Stoddard's tenacity.

Spring 1781. The American Revolution enters its seventh grueling year. In Wilmington, North Carolina, redcoat investigator Lieutenant Michael Stoddard expects to round up two miscreants before Lord Cornwallis's army arrives for supplies. But his quarries' trail crosses with that of a criminal who has abducted a high-profile English heir. Michael's efforts to track down the boy plunge him into a twilight of terror from radical insurrectionists, whiskey smugglers, and snarled secrets out of his own past in Yorkshire.