Good Stories, Good Authors, Goodbye

GOOD stories, good authors, goodbye – victims of the book plague. Book plague? And why should good authors fear?

Because already too many good authors have lost their lustre, overpressed by their publishers and the marketers who control those publishers. There are too many bad books by good authors, a plague caused by global business. The good authors and their good stories are most prone to succumb.

Plague symptoms accelerate as we near the lucrative pre-Christmas buying spree, when brand-names swamp the bookstores.

Brand-names, get it? Many good authors have become just brand-names and nothing else, reclassified by the whizguys who manipulate the industry. A record one-million books got published last year, big-biz grabbing the biggest spoils.

Good stories and good authors still exist. Amazon has them hiding in its vast wilderness, and www.booktaste.com links to some goodies. Nevertheless the book plague rages on. Publishers caught in the global haggle cannot wait for their star scribblers to complete a new masterpiece. Hence the prized brand-name can appear on work ill-structured, unfinished, and often unreadable. Production gets sloppy, too. Count the misprints.

Hasty writing and skimped editing meets the deadline, but also destroys creativity. A manuscript that should be returned for a rewrite here and there is gleefully accepted and launched into bookstores incomplete, pimpled with errors, and likely to disappoint its buyers.
After paying to read a favourite brand-name, and regretting it, reader faith disappears and wallets tighten.

Why do publishers slaughter their golden geese? Because global business ranks marketers above editors.

Why don’t major reviewers expose this greed, this mediocrity offered as genius? Because the tsunami of brand-name titles drowns honest assessment.

Good stories and good authors are now a threatened species. By Cathy Macleod

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A Writer's Life

I started reading as a very young child. I wore out entire sets of Chronicals of Narnia, Little House on the Prairy, and The lovely stories about the red head girl in PEI, Anne of Green Gables.

Christmas eve for me is not perfect unless the last hours are spent curled up on the couch, sipping egg nog, munching on Christmas cookies and watching Alaster Sim's A Christmas Carol. Those author brought to live a vivid imagination, and the reality that the most heartfelt stories are not created in distant worlds, or fantastic plots.

History has always been a favorite subject of mine. I was weaned on stories of Ireland and Scotland bogles, banshees, and other things that go bump in the night. I am also fascinated by intrigue, no matter where I find it.

I love finding s moment in history where the world changed, and place my characters in the story. It takes some licence, but I try to be very accurate. My research often follows similar routes as other authors, watching documentaries, visiting locations, but I love to visit Scottish festivals. I've learned the secret behind the plaid's waterproof tightness, although it is too indiscret to mention in a book. I have contacted breeders of ancient horses like the Neapolitan and Jennet, the foundation stock for the dresteriers and today's Lipizzaners. I have talked to greyhound breeders, and spent lovely afternoons with wolfhounds.

I do not use historical fact to fill the novel with accurate information. I think that detracts from the story. However, each fact is a different colored thread, and they allow me to weave a tapestry that I hope will be unusual enough to make the book difficult to put down, while still maintaining the genre promises, "I write for my readers."