To Declutter or Not to Declutter

If you haven’t heard about Marie Kondo you can’t possibly have been paying attention. The Japanese guru of organization is turning up everywhere. Her motto of ‘Tidy your space; transform your life’ by following six basic rules of tidying, is pushing even the most skeptical of us into evaluating our clutter. We’re told to sort

So Many Books, So Little Time!

I’m sharing an article from the archives today, updated from its original posting in 2008. But FIRST… I have to share my daughter’s exciting news! Her first publishing contract! Head over to Shari’s blog and read about it, then come back here to continue. 🙂 ~ “So many books, so little time.”  If you Google this

Ice

. “A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul.” [Franz Kafka] . “People grow old only by deserting their ideals,” Macarthur had written. “Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up interest wrinkles the soul. You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as

What makes a good book stand out?

. Peach sunset colours fade to soft rose and lavender over a somber sea. “The heavens declare the glory of God.”  Gulls screech and dance in the stiff onshore breeze while a lone eagle disappears in the distance. I scuff through the sand and stones, always hopeful that I’ll discover a bit of sea glass. My

Books as Wall Art?

. One of the bloggers I encountered during my ‘Freshly Pressed’ adventure is very crafty. In checking out her blog, Almost Never Clever, I discovered her living room wall art project – a framed collage of sections taken from used books. This involved cutting apart dozens of books, something that normally would make readers and

One Writer’s Admission and a Giveaway

. Fifty-three. That’s how many books I have on a particular shelf in my office, and that doesn’t include reference books or any borrowed from the library. All of them tell me how to write a novel. I counted them because I thought it would bolster my confidence. After all, if I’ve read that many

Supporting Debut Authors

I remember a year-end post on Rachelle Gardner’s blog two years ago, where she listed “ten really good first novels”. It was an impressive list of publicly acclaimed books and I was shocked to learn they were all first novels for their authors. Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini To

Bloggers’ Library Loving Challenge

Jennifer Hubbard is doing it again. Last year she decided to participate in a bloggers’ challenge to benefit local libraries. It was so successful that she’s inviting everyone to get involved in another one. This year’s Bloggers’ Library Loving Challenge is this week, from March 23-27. The idea is to open a post on your

Palin Book Look-a-likes

Yesterday Publishers Lunch reported on two books with fascinating similarities that will be released on the same day. “OR Books is issuing GOING ROUGE: Sarah Palin, An American Nightmare on November 17, the same day when HarperCollins publishes GOING ROGUE: An American Life by Sarah Palin.” Check out their explanation as to how this can

Books, Books… I Need More Books (like a hole in the head)

After yesterday’s post you’d think I would be embarrassed to admit this. I really should have known better than to stop at the library today but I couldn’t help myself. I borrowed eight books!!! Now you have to remember that I have a TBR pile on my office bookshelf that is already at a precarious height.