I don’t think I caught every last typo, but I did try as hard as I could. What I did find to be quite interesting is the devise which allowed me to catch what needed to be caught much easier than before. My trusty Kindle Fire gave me the tools necessary for the job, text to speech.
I do know some people do not like the mechanical voice of the e-reader, but generally, it does ok. I can understand the speech and it’s not too far off the mark most of the time. However, it did have a difficult time with Scots dialect. Some of what it came up for in the of pronunciation was quite funny.
It does read much slower than I do (probably the reason I don’t catch some typos, not to mention the fact that my brain easily adds in what’s missing) which allows me to follow along in word processing. There are times I can correct stuff on the fly and still not lose the flow. Very handy when you are stuck in edit hell.
The hell part came about because of the editors I hired. A bit of incompetency, illness and an absolute disregard for the principal of when you are paid to do a job, you should do it, put me in the nasty position of having to do for myself.
In persevering, I did learn stuff and I did get the job done before the end of the year. Of the 21 (arggh) books I have out. I could count on 3 being in good enough condition that I did not need to look at them right away. Maybe later this year for the other 3. I started going over the rest in late September. It was an extravaganza and a half. Not to mention that during the middle of this, I had a new one, part of the MacGrough Clan series coming out. Then there were three small short stories as well One for anthology and the other two for the Life and Love in Alaska shorts. Can you spell stress?
In the middle of the whole huge undertaking, I found someone who needed a little help with their book. Great plots, lousy grammar. Don’t get me wrong, mine is now where close to what it should be but was better than this newbie. I had a very wonderful individual take on the unenviable task of helping do better around the last of 2013. When the opportunity came to help another fellow writing addict, I took it on because it was time to pay it forward. I tried to give as I had received. I sure hope I helped that author in some way. Got that manuscript back to the author on the 30th.
Then the opportunity came to help my son who has been writing stuff for years and never doing anything with it, get a small group of short stories on Smashwords. Somehow, thanks God, it all came together. Yesterday The Twisted Laird http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QG97KBG was released and on the prior Sunday, we got my son’s book published to Smashwords. Wow! All done before the end of the year. Celebrated another Birthday and rang in the new year as well. How very wonderful.
Of course, I’m in the beginning stages of another Copper River Romances, http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G2URP14, Della S. Jones wants her story told and she is tired of waiting. On ward.
I will do better on this blog. I have also reviewed a ton of books and might post some of those reviews here. But you can find me on Riffle and Amazon. Have a really good new year all and lets see how far we can get before this one ends. Hugs all. The Cheat, the first of Life and Love in Alaska. 
cherime Macfarlane 