Yearly Archives: 2020

Writing accurately about exponential functions

This entry was posted in Techniques Writing and tagged mathematics writing on by

“The number A is exponentially greater than the number B!” What does this mean? Nearly nothing. If it has a meaning, it’s that there’s some number x such that Bx = A. But that’s true of any two numbers, as long as they’re both greater than 1 and A > B. Please don’t use that expression in your writing.

You could also say that A is “linearly greater” or “quadratically greater” than B. They’re just as true and just as meaningless. “Exponentially greater” sounds more impressive because exponential curves rise really fast. In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, the number of cases followed something close to an exponential curve. But a single data point doesn’t establish a curve.
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More ways to order The Magic Battery

This entry was posted in My writing Writing and tagged Kindle magic battery on by

I’ve been working on making The Magic Battery available in more ways.

Discount codes work only with Smashwords, sorry. To give a discount for the Kindle version, I’d have to enroll in KDP Select, and I can’t enroll because Amazon doesn’t have an exclusive on the book. Smashwords offers lots of download formats, including ones you can put on a Kindle. Again, the dollar-off discount code for June on Smashwords is RW83R.

It’s your choice how you want to buy it. The Kindle version has nice-looking drop caps at the start of each chapter and some other nifty features.

If you got the book a while back, check the Smashwords page for an update. I’ve fixed some minor errors.

Capitalizing (on) skin color

This entry was posted in Commentary Writing and tagged capitalization race usage on by

In the first half of the twentieth century, race was widely considered a scientific concept. Terms like “Caucasian” and “Negro” were capitalized to emphasize their significance. Today science recognizes that no objective division of humanity into genetic races is possible. One group shades into another, and differences within groups are greater than those between them. The view of people as members of races has done only harm, setting people against each other.

I prefer strictly descriptive terms when possible, such as “light-skinned” or “dark-skinned.” At the same time, I recognize that dark-skinned people very often get badly treated. It just lets me avoid giving unwarranted significance to these categories. A person with straight, blonde hair and light skin is as human as one with black, curly hair and dark skin. Their experiences are likely to be very different, but their humanity is the same.
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Quick update on The Magic Battery

This entry was posted in My writing and tagged magic battery on by

Smashwords was giving me error messages on the ePub file it generated for The Magic Battery. I found a way to eliminate them. This means the book is now eligible for the Smashwords Premium Catalog, which will make it available through additional channels. I’ll post an update when this happens. If you downloaded the ePub, you can grab the new version on Smashwords. The latest version also corrects a minor inconsistency between the table of contents and a chapter title.

Tip from your friendly neighborhood file format mage: If your submission to Smashwords uses the “Quotations” style, you may be better off changing it to a paragraph style that gives your quotations the appearance you want. That was what gave me trouble.

I got my first review on Smashwords, with five stars! It says, in full: “This is a very enjoyable book, and the themes of racism, sexism and religious bigotry are well handled. Oh, and the magic is, too.” I didn’t even know there was a theme of racism, but I’ll take it!