As for lie and lay, the way I was taught the difference (and what has stuck with me for many years) is that you lie yourself down, but you lay something else down. Thinking of it that way has rarely caused confusion for me. But I came across this site the other day, and I like it, too.

For whatever reason, Berkeley books do seem — of the print books — to have more errors that I catch. It does frustrate me, even though I always expect *some* errors, since it’s so incredibly difficult to catch everything (especially with Word catching only misspelled words). Someone mentioned the recent Kathleen O’Reilly trilogy, and the first book, which I bought in e-form, actually seemed to be missing words in several places, which both surprised and irritated me. I’ve actually found Harlequin books (at least the ones I’ve read) to be pretty clean. And lately I’ve noticed quite a few typos in some of the Avon books I’ve read.

I suspect that there are multiple reasons for the persistence of errors, but it’s something that does wear on me as a reader. Of course so does awkward grammar, misused words, and incorrect punctuation (serial abuse of the comma, especially). I realize that some of this is a matter of taste and judgment (and that knowledgeable opinions will vary), but it still makes me a little nostalgic for the bad old days when everyone learned to diagram sentences and had to do those boring old grammar drills. I especially wish the placement of prepositional phrases and dependent clauses would make a comeback in writing instruction. None of us is perfect; I make errors all the time, only some of which I catch in time (if only I had an editor, lol!). But I definitely seem to go through phases where errors in professionally written, edited, and published prose seem more common than I’d expect.

No, they aren’t (or at least Penguin doesn’t). I was under the impression that they still did, but then I had an interview on my site last year with a proofreader, and she said they convert the document.

RE: Through the Veil — I’m also hoping for more of this world.

Which makes goofs AFTER the final author alteration stage (we don’t get galleys) even more mysterious. Nothing makes my day like a reader pointing out an error I not only didn’t make, but never saw in any of the production stages. Grr.

What I see find most regrettable, however, is that even if there's line/copy editing, story editing is often completely absent and sorely needed.

I think this tends to occur in two major niches: the books they know will sell no matter what (m/m, m/m/f, BDSM, etc) and the books they know won’t (f/f).

I have to say that at least in my experience with the pub process, by the time you get your galley proofs -’ which someone else has typeset from your original, hard copy manuscript, btw, and not an electronic file that you typed yourself…

All in all, if Samhain had published Shiloh's book, the editing would probably been a lot better!

Tell me NY isn’t still having typesetters do the manuscripts by hand? WTF? Do the typesetters have a particularly powerful union? Why on earth wouldn’t they use MS word or any other word precessor out there? Why even bother line editing, if you’re going to hand it over to some fallible human being who could fuck up every other word?

I want to point out that some epubs, when careless with their editing, take immediate steps to correct the problem. I purchased an ebook from Samhain that was riddled with typos and grammatical klunkers. I fired off an email to Angela James, who is the senior editor at Samhain. She replied with a very gracious thank you for pointing it out and explained that this particular ebook slipped through the cracks before final editing. She said that she was appreciative of the fact that it was pointed out before the book went to press.

All in all, if Samhain had published Shiloh’s book, the editing would probably been a lot better!

Sara is right, after reading through a document so many times, the mind fills in missing words, etc. but that’s what crit partners and editors are for. That’s why authors don’t all self-publish, that’s the added value for which an author hands over a piece of the revenue. There really is no excuse for shoddy work to see the light of day.

What I see find most regrettable, however, is that even if there’s line/copy editing, story editing is often completely absent and sorely needed.

E-pubs seem to be putting less effort into editing from the examples I have in my 200+ e-book library (I saw a tract on the ‘tyranny of the ‘had’ not too long ago, in which the ‘editor’ encouraged writers to drop ‘had’ from their writing. That just made me want to reach out and tell that person that there is more than one past tense in the English language for a really good reason and to beg all authors to PLEASE use correct tempi in their works).

But it’s not just e-pubs; the recent O’Reilly Blaze trilogy was riddled with typos. Very disappointing! To me bad editing shows disrespect for the reader.

To stray off-topic, if you're getting a lot of unexplained bruises, go get your white blood cell count checked asap. That's a symptom of something not quite so much fun as being dragged into another world to fight a war and fall in love.

MD, there’s not medical issue on my end. ;) Unless you consider being a klutz a medical problem-although the docs I’ve worked with seem to find it amusing more than troublesome.

Yeah, unexplained bruises can be worrisome, but my main problem is that I bump into things, but it’s such a common occurence (likely due to my lack of attention) I forget when I do it and then bam, a day later, mongo bruises.

I think the stylistic trait you mention in the review is a sign of just not enough editing. I see that more and more in novels I've purchased from epubs.

MD, Ann already mentioned that this was a print pub with Berkley. But as much as I hate to say it, editing problems, in the end, are my mistake. I’m lousy at catching things, so I use proofreaders before I send it off, but the bottom line is that my name is the one of the book, so I’m responsible.

Kerry, I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy it more. I wish there was a way I could have explained certain issues in way that might have worked better for some readers, but some of the things would have involved changing certain character aspects, namely Lee’s character-and I can’t change who the character has become in my mind. I can work on some things, smooth certain issues out, but I can’t change how she faces things. After a while, characters take own their own personalities, even in the writer’s mind, and if I try to change that, the story stalls and then stops. I wish it could have worked better for you.

I've always had to stop and think about the “lie on the bed” or “lay an egg” difference. And let's not even get into laid, lain, laying, lying, etc. LOL

Sara…, I’m lousy at it. Utterly. Fortunately most of those issues get caught but unfortunately, some slipped through in this one.

Bzangl & JaimeK, thank you. :) I’ve gotten the okay from my editor for more in this world, now I just need to put the proposal together…hopefully after evil, awful, deadlinefromhell is reached.

I’ve always had to stop and think about the “lie on the bed” or “lay an egg” difference. And let’s not even get into laid, lain, laying, lying, etc. LOL

Perhaps I’m going to another realm!

I’ll look for this, because it does sound like an interesting premise.

I see that more and more in novels I've purchased from epubs.

I should point out that this is not an e-publication but a print book.

I should also point out that all epubs are not alike. My experience with Samhain is of extremely careful and rigorous editing, with a final pass through a separate line editor to pick up anything that was missed by me or my editor. Samhain also insist that no item is sent for review that has not been through the line-editing process.

In addition to Lee’s behavior, Kalen’s also was initially irritating. He had come to know Lee over the course of twenty years, knew she was somehow vital to the survival of his people and the fate of his world, and had all but fallen in love with her. Yet he had never asked her last name, where she lived, where she went during the time she wasn’t with him, or anything else a normal person would ask a friend, a lover, or even a fellow soldier. Confrontation on these topics finally caused “shadow” Lee to break through to “real” Lee (causing feelings of, of course, craziness in Lee), so I felt weighted and slowed down by Kalen’s early story, too.

There were several other setting, story, and character inconsistencies that kept forcing me out of what usually is an unshakable willing suspension of disbelief – including seeing Kalen as more of a caricature than a character, as Janet commented in her review. But finally, the characters were who and where they were supposed to be, and some of the plot secrets started trickling out. I’m in agreement with Janet that, had some of these characters, settings, and issues been introduced earlier in the storyline, perhaps I wouldn’t be quite so unsatisfied with the overall book. But as it stands, I felt very emotionally distanced from these characters and their plight for most of the time I spent reading about them. The ending did make up for some of that distance, and the premise still sounds so wonderfully promising, so I will probably read the sequel. But my overall feelings about Through the Veil, to my deep regret, range from general ennui to dissatisfaction and discontent. I didn’t hate it, but it didn’t make me happy. I agree with the C- rating.

To stray off-topic, if you’re getting a lot of unexplained bruises, go get your white blood cell count checked asap. That’s a symptom of something not quite so much fun as being dragged into another world to fight a war and fall in love.

I will say there were a few typos in my published version as well. The only one I can remember off the top of my head that annoyed me was a line that was supposed to read she “signed” and instead she “singed.” I had to read the paragraph a couple of times before it crashed through my head why I wasn’t comprehending. There weren’t as many as what it sounds like Janet had.

I am hoping for another book set in this world. Time will tell…

BTW, was Eira Aneva's mother or grandmother?

Bear in mind I’m answering this without checking my info (wrote it over a year ago, so I can’t 100% swear) Aneva was Eira’s daughter. Some of the familial issues were taken care of, I think, when I did my edits. (ETA: If I can remember, I’ll go double check, but I’m signing off here shortly because a killer deadline is…well, killing me and I have to cut my bloghopping/playtime short)

I liked Through the Veil because it was different and it took me to someplace new and interesting. I finished the book wanting more of Ishtan and it's rugged survivors. You better believe I'll be emailing you Ms. Walker because the first thing I did when I finished was check your website to see if there were any sequels coming out~

Thank you, Bonnie!

Sorry you didn't enjoy it more, Janet.

Me, too, Shiloh. It seems wrong, somehow, not to love a book with such a beautiful cover and such an interesting premise, lol.

BTW, was Eira Aneva’s mother or grandmother?

I was fascinated by the premise of a woman waking up with horrible bruises and then learning later that she was a warrior in another realm. I wanted to know “how” she did it, even though it was done magically. In the scene when she was monitored by the doctors and they registered a blip and she “disappeared,” I was eager to find out more, but that wasn't really shown.

The show/tell issue was probably my biggest with the book. I agree with you that the premise of the book was different, and as I said in the review, I enjoyed the last section, in part, I think, because the significance of so many things could be indulged in the narrative. I actually think the how of Lee’s traveling could have been explained in the novel without compromising some of its secrets. And perhaps had I known a couple of those secrets I might have been more invested in what was happening, able to feel the conflict between Ishtan and Anqar more personally. That human element we get with the twins, for example, hooked me in, and had that been more prominent earlier on, I think I would have been more interested during those early sections.

I enjoyed this book because it was a little different from the usual urban fantasy/paranormal stories (vampire hunters, demons, queen of werewolves…) out there, with a good twist at the end. Shiloh, are you going to write the story of the remaining twin brother?

Glad you liked it, Gennita! If you wanna know the answer to that, you’ll have to email me, though.

;) Weird bruises were the inspiration behind the story. Namely weird ones on me and my husband’s offhand comment one day that I oughta write a book about a woman who wakes up with bruises and it’s because she keeps getting sucked into another world where she’s in a war. I get weird bruises all the time-today’s bruise count is 3. I know how I got one of them. The other two are a mystery.

I enjoyed this book because it was a little different from the usual urban fantasy/paranormal stories (vampire hunters, demons, queen of werewolves…) out there, with a good twist at the end. Shiloh, are you going to write the story of the remaining twin brother?

P/S and O/T
One time, a long while ago, I woke up daily for a week with the most AWFUL bruises along my arms and legs. I was totally flummoxed since I hadn’t done anything to hurt myself. It was only that one week, but I always remembered those horrible bruises because people kept asking me whether I had been mugged. Now I know where I had gone to, Shi! Heh.