We are delighted to welcome back author Phyllis Entis to Omnimystery News.
We spoke with Phyllis earlier this year when her debut mystery The Green Pearl Caper was published, and now the second entry in her Damien Dickens, P.I. series, The White Russian Caper (Quintzy Press; November 2015 trade paperback and ebook formats), has been released. We asked her to return and and write about any topic of interest to her, and she titles her guest post for us today, "Random Musings of an Indie Author".
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Photo provided courtesy of
Phyllis Entis
I learned my alphabets — English and Hebrew — at my grandfather's knee. My parents read to me (and not only at bedtime), and encouraged me to pick out words. By the time I entered kindergarten, I was able to read. The highlight of my week in third grade was the weekly spelling test. Every Thursday evening, Dad would quiz me on the spelling words from that week's lesson. Every Friday morning, I would ace the test, and receive a coveted gold star. Five successive gold stars earned me a trip to the principal's office, where Mr. Stewart would place a special sticker in my workbook, and sign his name under the sticker in bold, black ink.
I had earned two of those special stickers, and was well on my way to a third, when I tripped over the word "their," spelling it "thier." I sulked and stormed that entire weekend. How could this be? What about, "i before e except after c?" No one had ever told me about exceptions to a rule. I vowed that I would not be caught out again. By the end of the school year, my spelling workbook contained a galaxy of gold stars. But, the gap in the ranks of those special stickers gnawed at me.
When my niece was in elementary school, creative spelling was in vogue, and parents were told to ignore their child's spelling errors, as correcting spelling errors was thought to stifle creativity. One evening, I was chatting with an acquaintance — an elementary school teacher — and asked her about this philosophy. She replied that she had recently attended a teachers' convention, where the developer of the "creative spelling" concept had given a presentation. During the Q&A period, a member of the audience — a 6th-grade teacher — posed a question. "I understand that 'creative spelling' is the term to use when a first- or second-grader misspells a word," he began, "but what should we call it when a 6th-grader spells words incorrectly? Is there a term we should use?" The presenter paused before nodding. "We've given this matter serious thought," he replied, "and there is a term that should be applied to the situation at that grade level." The audience held its collective breath, waiting for the pearl of wisdom. The magic word. "The term," said the presenter, " is 'wrong'."
I was fortunate to have grown up in Canada in the 1950s and 1960s, an era when teachers were expected to teach, and students were expected to learn. We studied spelling, grammar, and composition in elementary school. Creative spelling had not yet been invented. Creative grammar was frowned upon. Creative writing was encouraged. I have never felt that the rote learning of grammar and spelling to which I was subjected as a child stifled my creativity. On the contrary; my ingrained knowledge of those basic tools freed me to concentrate on telling my stories.
I am an Indie — or should that be "Indy"? — writer. I am just one among thousands of writers who have eschewed the traditional route of submitting their work to literary agents or directly to publishing houses, in favor of self-publishing. Some of us have tried the traditional route and were rejected; others have taken a more direct road. It doesn't matter how we arrived at our destination. What matters is how we treat our readers. We respect our audience by taking the time and effort to polish our work before publication. To copy-edit our paragraphs for spelling, typographical errors, and punctuation. To scrutinize our sentences for proper syntax. To offer a product that is worthy of ourselves and our readers.
Last June, about two months after the release of my debut novel, my husband and I travelled to Montreal to attend a family function. I was chatting with some of my in-laws about the book — its plot, setting and characters — when my sister-in-law joined the conversation.
"What's this?" she asked. "You've written a novel?"
"That's right," I replied. "It was released at the end of March."
"Who's the publisher?" was her immediate — and only — question. I answered that I had self-published via Amazon.
"Oh," she said, with a dismissive shrug, as she turned her back.
I have no patience with writers who rationalize the errors of grammar, spelling, punctuation and syntax that litter their "finished product" by saying that these are not important, or that William Shakespeare spelled his name six different ways, or that they will make corrections if a reader advises them of an error. These are the writers who give all self-publishing authors a bad name, and cause potential readers (including my sister-in-law) to dismiss self-published books as unworthy of their consideration.
Grammar, vocabulary and spelling are the rebar and concrete of every writing project. Without them, the most compelling story in the world will lose its way. And lose its readers. When a writer takes the time to choose the best words, to spell them correctly, to place them in the appropriate order (syntax), and to punctuate logically, these structural elements disappear into the background and the reader is able to focus on the story. And that's when the magic — the ineffable bond between reader and author — is able to materialize!
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Phyllis Entis was born and raised in Montreal, Canada and is a graduate of McGill University and the University of Toronto. She turned a love of science into a career in food safety microbiology that lasted for thirty-five years. Upon retiring, she decided to follow a different dream. She inherited a love for language and wordplay from her mother and her grandfather, and a love of reading from her father. This heritage, along with a lifetime of reading Nancy Drew, Agatha Christie, Sue Grafton, and Louise Penny mysteries, inspired her to create Damien Dickens, Private Investigator. She lives in Carmel, California with her husband and their Australian Labradoodle. When she's not working on a Damien Dickens story, she can be found baking, tending the garden, or sharing long walks.
For more information about the author, please visit her website at website and her author page on Goodreads, or find her on Facebook and Twitter.
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The White Russian Caper by Phyllis Entis
A Damien Dickens Mystery
Publisher: Phyllis Entis
A mortally wounded Miss America entrusts a mysterious Russian coin to Damien Dickens, P.I. before she dies. After Damien disappears while researching the significance of the coin, Millie tracks her husband's abductor to Florida.
When his captor falls to his death from the balcony of a 7th floor apartment, Damien escapes; then, he and Millie join forces to unravel the web of intrigue surrounding the Russian coin and its connection to the murder of Miss America.
— The White Russian Caper by Phyllis Entis
