Yearly Archives: 2018

Yesterday’s Songs Transformed — It’s Here!

This entry was posted in My writing Writing and tagged music Yesterday's Songs Transformed on by

Finally! Yesterday’s Songs Transformed is available on Smashwords!

Cover for "Yesterday's Songs Transformed."Did you know that “Charlie on the M.T.A.” started out as a song about a ship that never returned? That the “Streets of Laredo” follow a path from St. James’ Hospital in London? That “Yankee Doodle” originally was a song mocking the colonists?

This book follows the ways songs have changed and evolved over the years. It starts from the Middle Ages and conducts a tour that leads to Mad magazine, the Smothers Brothers, and Weird Al. It looks at where protest songs came from and how they changed with the times.

YST makes no pretense of being a scholarly book. It’s simply a look, with lots of quotations, at changing song lyrics and what lies behind them. You may learn a few bits of history you hadn’t known, and hopefully you’ll enjoy the ride.

The list price on Smashwords is $4.99, but I’m thanking readers of this blog by offering it at just $3.49 with the coupon code QV69U till August 20.
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Excuses for dishonest writing

This entry was posted in Writer ethics Writing and tagged ethics ghostwriting writing on by

Some people see nothing wrong with writing dishonest articles. A discussion in an online forum recently reminded me of this.

Let me start by clarifying what I mean by dishonest writing. If you’re writing on someone else’s behalf, you can argue for a position which you don’t personally agree with. It’s legitimate if there’s some case for the position and you use accurate facts and valid arguments. You’re helping the customer to present a position in a reasoned way, and there’s nothing wrong with that even if it’s not your position.

It becomes dishonest when your argumentation is dishonest. If you cite sources which you know are unreliable, use arguments which don’t hold up, and present “facts” with no source, you’re serving up counterfeit goods. If the customer is unaware you’re spewing nonsense, you’re cheating the customer. If they do know they’re asking you to deceive, you’re collaborating in cheating the reader. In some cases, it could count as fraud under the law.
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