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Back in 2009, Nina Malkin talked to me about the gorgeous cover for Swoon, and now the sequel is here with another enticing cover image.

Here's Nina:

"Writing is intensely present for me. With SWEAR I was so in the moment of the action and emotion as it unfurled, no way was I thinking about the cover. I was lucky if I thought about lunch. Besides, it’s such a privilege to be able to publish, I trust the pros at Simon & Schuster to do what they think is best for a book, and that includes the cover. After all, once you deliver a novel it’s no longer this magical collaboration between your conscious and your subconscious—it’s a product.

"Of course, I didn’t always have such a laissez-faire attitude. My first novel, 6X: The Uncensored Confessions, was about a band. Unbeknownst to me the publisher did an expensive photo shoot—too bad the girl on the cover looked more like a cheap hooker than rock chick (right). I threw some major hissy but got nowhere. And if I thought that cover sucked, the next one was worse. That’s when I realized the novels weren’t 'mine' anymore; I had to let them go..."

Read the rest of Nina's Cover Story at melissacwalker.com.

I don’t correct folk on their grammar – I make enough mistakes of my own, and I am not exactly quoting any individual – but one of a number I have heard or talked with,  rather than a specific person; but – and you had to see this but hanging out a mile away – the point was, we were talking about one word in particular. I tend not to use it and won’t use it here. However I think I can let you know just what word it is by replacing it in the following paragraph with the the words “fire truck”:

Fire truck! The fire trucking fire truck at the fire trucking movies said the fire trucking show was fire trucking sold out, so we fire trucking have to fire trucking find something to fire trucking do for a fire trucking couple of fire trucking hours.  Fire truck! Let’s fire trucking go to the fire trucking Mcfire truckingD’s for a fire trucking burger while we fire trucking eat. I’m fire trucking starved. Fire truck!

That paragraph wasn’t said in anger. Just  conversation, one friend to their peers. If you haven’t figured it out, “fire truck” actually contains the word in question and I am not talking about “fire” or “truck” but it does end in “ck” and start with “f”

The paragraph translates into more standard English as:

The woman at the movies said the show was sold out, so we have to find something to do for a couple of hours. Let’s go to the McD’s for a burger while we eat. I’m starved.

I guess I can agree that they are only words, but I wonder that they don’t mean anything? What I am meaning is, what is the point of saying them if they don’t mean anything? If the point was to shock – say an offensive word too often and it stops having shock value. If the point was to mark yourself as an individual –  too many people use that word, you are one of the crowd.

So, perhaps it is to mark yourself as one of the crowd and someone who just wants to fit in. It is extra work to type as you can tell by the extra length to the paragraph and you could equate it to the illumination the monks added to the hand calligraphed books of bygone ages – except that it is the same design mouth punched into the sentences. It is more like dotting all the “i”s with hearts or sticking stars on the paper – they all look the same.

Getting back to it though… if, as was said, it doesn’t mean anything. If the swearing is so unimportant, then why can’t they “not swear” at certain times? I am meaning in respect to people for whom it might have meaning to?

If it is so unimportant that I should not complain about it – why is is so very important that it has to be done?

What you do say does mean something. It might not mean what you think. “Fire truck” no longer shocks, it no longer makes you look cool or trendy, it no longer really adds any emphasis. nearly any word used now doesn’t because nearly any word used becomes so quickly overused and abused.

In some places you “need” the Internet to keep up with what the current word is. You might as well fire trucking make up your own and even that won’t work long because it is fire trucking how you end up using it that marks it fire trucking out. Why not just use words and English to say what you want? Shakespeare did use foul language in his works, but he also created it and was creative about it. Tell someone they are a ray of dung shine and be dung with it!

I don’t correct folk on their grammar – I make enough mistakes of my own, and I am not exactly quoting any individual – but one of a number I have heard or talked with,  rather than a specific person; but – and you had to see this but hanging out a mile away – the point was, we were talking about one word in particular. I tend not to use it and won’t use it here. However I think I can let you know just what word it is by replacing it in the following paragraph with the the words “fire truck”:

Fire truck! The fire trucking fire truck at the fire trucking movies said the fire trucking show was fire trucking sold out, so we fire trucking have to fire trucking find something to fire trucking do for a fire trucking couple of fire trucking hours.  Fire truck! Let’s fire trucking go to the fire trucking Mcfire truckingD’s for a fire trucking burger while we fire trucking eat. I’m fire trucking starved. Fire truck!

That paragraph wasn’t said in anger. Just  conversation, one friend to their peers. If you haven’t figured it out, “fire truck” actually contains the word in question and I am not talking about “fire” or “truck” but it does end in “ck” and start with “f”

The paragraph translates into more standard English as:

The woman at the movies said the show was sold out, so we have to find something to do for a couple of hours. Let’s go to the McD’s for a burger while we eat. I’m starved.

I guess I can agree that they are only words, but I wonder that they don’t mean anything? What I am meaning is, what is the point of saying them if they don’t mean anything? If the point was to shock – say an offensive word too often and it stops having shock value. If the point was to mark yourself as an individual –  too many people use that word, you are one of the crowd.

So, perhaps it is to mark yourself as one of the crowd and someone who just wants to fit in. It is extra work to type as you can tell by the extra length to the paragraph and you could equate it to the illumination the monks added to the hand calligraphed books of bygone ages – except that it is the same design mouth punched into the sentences. It is more like dotting all the “i”s with hearts or sticking stars on the paper – they all look the same.

Getting back to it though… if, as was said, it doesn’t mean anything. If the swearing is so unimportant, then why can’t they “not swear” at certain times? I am meaning in respect to people for whom it might have meaning to?

If it is so unimportant that I should not complain about it – why is is so very important that it has to be done?

What you do say does mean something. It might not mean what you think. “Fire truck” no longer shocks, it no longer makes you look cool or trendy, it no longer really adds any emphasis. nearly any word used now doesn’t because nearly any word used becomes so quickly overused and abused.

In some places you “need” the Internet to keep up with what the current word is. You might as well fire trucking make up your own and even that won’t work long because it is fire trucking how you end up using it that marks it fire trucking out. Why not just use words and English to say what you want? Shakespeare did use foul language in his works, but he also created it and was creative about it. Tell someone they are a ray of dung shine and be dung with it!