Goodbye Summer Reading, Hello Fall Gardening

Just one more day! Yikes! Can I finish all the things I wanted to do this summer in the one day that’s left before autumn arrives on Tuesday? I doubt it. The one thing I have accomplished, however, is meeting my summer reading goal. Challenged by Jennifer Hubbard to read ten books by September 21st,

It’s Reading, Writing and Relaxing Time!

  I’m taking a break to enjoy that lake in the above picture. See ya in a couple weeks.    

Goals versus Challenges and Resolutions versus Intentions

Is a goal really a goal if you have no expectation of reaching it, or is it just a pipe dream? That question returns with tongue out and fingers flapping in ears to taunt me whenever I consider accepting a challenge.   The first time was when I agreed to participate in the 2006 NaNoWriMo

Reading and Not Writing

My bookcase has a shelf that is packed and stacked with books on writing. I’ve counted over fifty volumes, all ordered alphabetically. (Okay, okay, by now you know I’m not a neatnik so just ignore the occasional ones that are out of place.) The collection is punctuated with titles by authorities such as Berg, Cameron,

Backing Down?

An update to this morning’s post: Nathan Bransford’s blog reports that Amazon, despite still believing it’s legal, has decided to give authors the choice on a title-to-title basis if they want their work available for voice readings on the Kindle 2.   Why doesn’t this surprise me?

The Kindle 2 Controversy Clarified

Guest blogger Marilynn Byerly has provided an excellent explanation of the controversy involving the Text-to-Speech capability of Amazon’s new Kindle 2 reader. Check it out on the “Hey, There’s a Dead Guy in the Living Room” site.

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.

A Daily Dose of Motivation

Everyone has an opinion about how to combat Writer’s Block. Whether believing it’s a mythical non-entity or a super-size monster, experts are quick to offer suggestions for overcoming a writer’s inability to make words materialize on the monitor.   The one I like best? “Just sit down, put pencil to paper (or fingers on keys)

Beta Readers

Sunday afternoon as wind-driven snow whipped over the backyard peaks and valleys fashioning them into anonymous mounds, I settled in by the fireplace. It was time to begin reviewing notes made by the long-suffering people who agreed to be beta readers of my current novel.   Beta reading is a necessary tool in the path

So Many Books, So Little Time

“So many books, so little time.”  If you Google this phrase you’ll come up with 164,000 results — everything from Sara Nelson’s book documenting a year of her passionate reading, to articles on the subject, and even a forum of the same name on the Indigo/Chapters site debating about what ten books you might take