Benjamin Sobieck

My latest publishing gig is to convert several decades' worth of magazine issues into proper book releases (non-fiction). Since the ink hasn't dried, I can't say who this is for, but it looks like it's happening.
          
          In going through the back issues, I spot writers from 50 years ago making the same typos people do today. A good example is "jsut." Writers have been making that typo--and readers have been catching it--for a long, long time.
          
          And that gets me thinking about how that word--"jsut"--only exists as successfully as it does because of human error. You could place it on the same shelf as city rats and cockroaches and germs, the little creatures that make a living off the cracks in human endeavors. Or maybe it's more like pigeons and white-tailed deer, creatures that proliferate successfully because they can adapt to humans.
          
          My point being, the world of words is a *world*. It's a place. It wears the texture and shape of any other biology. Typos like "jsut"--innocent as they may be--are confirmation of this.
          
          OK, back to your originally scheduled programming.

It's good to see someone from back in the day posting and replying to people pretty regularly on Wattpad. I came across your blog and decided to follow you and just say hi.

WHERE'S SEASON 7 OF ZANDRA'S CRAZY ADVENTURES?
          
          P.S: I have this crazy thought that what if something is messing with Zandra's head. Like maybe a mental illness, but she doesn't know.
          
          Don't mind me, I just really love everything about Zandra. 

Please excuse me Mr Sobieck,I have a question.Are we going to get more of Zandra?

Same

Taking the dog for long walks at night, looking at Halloween decorations, listening to old Art Bell, catching the wafts of legal weed from the open garages, and just thinking. 
          
          It's good to have space like that. I've been grinding on an editing project for a novel that'll come out later this year. It's a semi-biographical piece 
          
          Art Bell had great taste for bumper music. "Some Velvet Morning" by Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood is an absolute banger.
          
          Still, you go into the archives for 20-year-old Coast to Coast episodes hoping to escape for an hour, and you realize it's the same proto-2024 paranoia that's always been there.
          
          We're either doomed or not doomed at all.

Today I learned "Ideocracy" is a real word, while "Idiocracy" is a real movie.

Doing a big editing project for a novel, and I'm cleaning up a lot of "soft" language in sentence structure. If you soften the sentence with "might," "could be," "started to," "seemed to," etc., you soften the stakes. This is a piece of military fiction, so these word choices echo throughout the novel.
          
          That goes for passive sentence structure, too. Active structure moves forward. Passive structures add a tiny, unconscious pause. Tight sentences allow action and important details room to breathe, too.
          
          Just random thoughts. I am sitting alone, after all, and the dog doesn't care much.

Pro tip: It's a lot easier to write a logline, summary, and back cover copy BEFORE you write the novel. You can always adjust later.

THE END OF WAR hit 100,000 reads. Thank you!