Ezra Ferguson

Return to Aramon is LIVE and available to purchase and read right now. Thank God for this amazing journey. Thank you everyone who has supported me along the way. Enjoy! amazon.com/Return-Aramon-… barnesandnoble.com/w/return-to-ar… amazon.com/Return-Aramon-… returntoaramon.com

O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.

How many flat whites in one day is too many flat whites in one day? Asking for a friend...

Looks at this glorious cover on @arwenmccain's new book! 😍

@jalexgiguere @PeterJAldin It was really quite good. I have never seen so many square feet dedicated to coffee. I still crave it, 18 years later.

@Voldigar @PeterJAldin I had no idea about Australia’s magic coffee. I now have a new mission to see to!

Fantastic talk, author to author. Insightful and entertaining as always. Nice work @jalexgiguere and @PeterJAldin. For what it's worth, Peter, my Melbourne experience was delightful; the coffee especially.

I just noticed the cost of my paperback with tax is $16.11 when shipped to my town. I am greatly pleased by the happy coincidence of that price. If you get the significance, well done.

Not at all, but a good editor should be able to help you unlock dimensions you would not have found on your own. To continue the car analogy, writers are well advised to learn how to build it on their own, but no matter how good you get, a great editor is supposed to help you make a much better, faster, performative vehicle. Essentially, I suppose this discussion becomes circular. If an editor is just doing things for you that you could learn to do yourself, no sense in hiring them. I'm of the belief that a great editor multiplies the work beyond the writers abilities. I also have an amazing editor.

@Voldigar You believe a writer can’t add dimensions themselves?

1/4 My take on hiring an editor for your book. If you build a car from scratch, and the vehicle doesn't run correctly, you have four choices. 1. Keep tinkering, trying, and learning, and fix it. 2. Accept it is imperfect and try to drive it anyway. 3. Give up trying to build cars because you realize you aren't good enough. 4. Hire a mechanic to fix it. I believe in point #1; fix it yourself. #2 is not facing reality. #3 is recognizing your limitations. #4 is paying to fix your problems, and I don't agree with that. If you want to make a car, make a car. Maybe, if that is the only car you ever make, it is fine to seek professional help. But if car-making is your hobby--or you want it to become your career--learn to do it yourself. Which brings me to paying for editing:

While I appreciate the appeal of doing all the steps yourself, I think this misses the point of a good editor. The good ones are there to make your book better by amplifying your voice, adding dimensions that a single person cannot, and fully deconstructing the elements of your story so that you can see it without bias. They should not just fix mistakes or give you feedback. You pay them because real editing work is incredibly time consuming and incredibly valuable when done correctly (hundreds of hours of work). But I am also just another guy on the internet. 😂

4/4 1. I was lying. There are no exceptions. Learn how to write. 2. If you can't find peers, a writing group, beta-readers, or a crit partner, search harder. 3. I don't believe AI should be used for anything other than typos and formatting errors. If you are a writer, you do the writing. 4. I am NOT saying that no book ever benefits from a good book editor. Many do. But the books that benefit had big flaws. As a writer, learn how to spot those flaws yourself. 5. If you do hire an editor, review that editor so others will know what your experience was. Just as anyone can self-publish a book and call themselves a writer, anyone can go on Fiverr and call themselves an editor. 6. If you don't agree with me, no one is forcing you to. Maybe you love your editor and have used them for 50 books and have sold millions of copies. Maybe you are an editor and you pride yourself in helping writers make their work stronger. Maybe you'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. That's fine. You do you. You don't have to listen to some random guy on social media. But this random guy is giving you free advice. I'm not charging you 5 cents a word. I believe writers shouldn't pay for anything other than cover art (and maybe formatting, though that is becoming more and more automated). There is a large industry out there that exists by separating newbie writers from their money. Be careful. Do your research. There are no easy fixes, and no quick paths to success. Writing is hard, and publishing is brutal. No one can make you a bestseller, and anyone who says they can is selling you bullshit. I wish you much success.

Ready to watch! All the crazy tidbits on what happened to my old film career with @TerranGregory , the birth of Return to Aramon, and how to write an ambitious novel in present year are here! Such a pleasure to sit down and talk story with Alex, our gracious and insightful host. Have a listen.

@sarahsalviander Praying for you, ma'am.

Tomorrow is the big day. I'll be in the hospital through Friday at least. I'm not sure how long I'll be away from this platform, but while I'm away I'd appreciate y'all's prayers. Meanwhile, check out my newsletter, Schrödinger's Poodle - my latest article is posting on Wednesday. If you like what I post here and want to read longer-form articles every week, I think you'll like my newsletter, too. A great way to support what I do is to sign up for a free subscription and get my articles delivered straight to your inbox. You can also level up with a paid sub - another great way to support me. schroodle.com

Writing is... ...getting out of bed to write it down. Because you definitely are going to forget that.

@MichaelFKane Alright fellow quadragenarians, should we tell him the secrets now or let him find out tomorrow?

Okay it's my 40th birthday tomorrow and I can do what I want. Order After Moses books from my website by tomorrow night and get $1.50 off. Paperback, hardback, E-book, and audio. Also if you get the paperback, I'll sign it, which I don't normally do. Discount applies automatically at checkout and will apply to multiple items, so if you wanted to buy a copy of After Moses for a 12 year old nephew that reads, now is a good time to grab an extra copy. (hint, hint) 😁 (Already discounted bundles and scratch and dents don't apply this time, so this sale is best for someone starting their collection or continuing it.) Anyway link below!

@BIG_SGT_D @5Solas2 Proponents of infant baptism, or more accurately opponents of credobaptism, for one. Opposing infant baptism once carried the threat of legal action against you. This creates a compelling suggestion that someone might remove Acts 8:37 intentionally.

@5Solas2 Who doesn't think acts 8:37 is a true statement?

The KJV is not a bad translation but I had to do it. It's the KJV onlyist that annoy me. The original misleading meme is in the comments..

@PugDaddyKaine @5Solas2 Thanks for the share. Are you aware that Irenaeus and Augustine, among many others, refer to Acts 8:37 long before the 6th century? That's a line of inquiry well worth your time, if this question interests you.

@5Solas2 Probably won’t edify anyone, but here it is. The earliest source for Acts 8:37 is a 6th century manuscript. It likely began as a marginal baptismal confession that entered the text. Erasmus’s main manuscript lacked it; he pulled it from a secondary source

@tophbrannen @5Solas2 Saying nothing of which text is purer or better, my purpose here is to emphasize that older manuscripts can have more errors than newer manuscripts if they are not in the same lineage. It's an important consideration when examining evidence. Older = better is not a wise rule.

@Voldigar @5Solas2 Older means purer in this case. The Textus Receptus is much later than the critical text. And the critical text shows that the textus receptus was doctored.

Have you considered the possibility that this wonderful person you met was in fact a gift from God? Perhaps the God and Father of Jesus Christ still has purpose for you both and this is just the beginning. I certainly hope so. "...He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him. Yet He is actually not far from each one of us..."

@WebTiene @Voldigar @RjNol My friend, I prayed to the Christian God. For 7 years, I prayed and begged for help, for deliverance, for the terrible situation I was in. And things got worse. For 7 years, your God abandoned me. Then I met my husband. He did what God didn't. He helped me. Protected me.

The evolution theory is a hoax.

@AuthorGFAllen Yep.

Would you read this? 👀 Dart, a young blacksmith training to honor his grandfather’s legacy, is tasked with protecting Ava, an ancient Celestial princess who’s fallen into the human realm with her powers gone and her memories shattered. With evil rising and the Infernals racing to open a gate to Hell, Dart forms a party and sets out on a dangerous quest to get her home before it’s too late. amazon.com/dp/B0CBYWKTK6?…

This is the way.

@AuthorGFAllen You called @AuthorGFAllen?