Reading for Life

It’s what I dreamed of when I was a little girl: reading for a living. Maybe I’m not making a living from reading just yet, but I am working on a career that involves extensive amounts of reading which of course, informs my writing, which someday (hopefully!) people will read. So for all practical purposes, I’m living the dream.

Are you living your dream? Are you looking for a dream into which you can escape from real life for a short time? If you were sitting across the table from me right now, I’d recommend at least three books to you, depending on who you are. I’ve been told I’m like a sort of book whisperer. Or as I so fondly remember the excellent terminology used in The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George: a literary apothecary. If I can chat you up for 5-10 minutes, I will literally think of a book I know you’ll love. If you don’t live nearby, hop over to shetalksbooks.com and see what I recommend to everyone! (Link at top of page)

So in between therapy sessions (funny how some people call them book bludgeoning, whatever) I’m writing. In fact, I just finished writing, editing and polishing #4! There’s no news as far as publication goes - that will happen all in good time. But I’m thrilled to be finished with the best story I’ve written to date. Now, to put this lovely into the proper hands…that’s the next part of the dream.

Thanks for stopping by, for following, for cheering me on toward my dreams. Whatever your dreams are—know that I’m over here cheering for you too.

New Stuff That's New

It's a new year. I've got a new website. I'm starting to write a new story. And the new year ahead is teeming with possibilities, like a blanket of freshly fallen snow. 

Photo credit: gmayster01 on & off ... on Visualhunt.com / CC BY-NC-ND

JRR Tolkein (one of my absolute faves!) has an appropriate line for this time of year: 

“His old life lay behind in the mists, dark adventure lay in front.” 
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

So I'm looking at the year ahead as a new adventure. Are you? Shouldn't every new year look like this? Yes, it may be shrouded in darkness, our future. But just because we don't know what lies ahead doesn't mean we cannot embrace the unpredictability, the adventure of it. 

I don't want to be one of those people who decide they will accomplish X, Y, & Z in January, and by April they have forgotten all about it. I want to take one step at a time in a better direction. Every day, taking a step in the best direction. 

I've found that daily blogging is not for me. It stifles the creativity I need to write novels. So this blog-type page will be used for news. When something exciting happens in my writing career, this is where you'll hear about it first. If I'm speaking somewhere - I'll post it here. That type of thing. But no regular blog. We'll call it irregular stuff you might want to know.

I do, however, enjoy reviewing the books I read. In fact, I am a little bit annoying about telling people what they should read. Give me five minutes of conversation and I'll probably recommend a book to you without even knowing what I'm doing. It's something that happens naturally. So I've started a book review site called SheTalksBooks. There's a link at the top of this website. If you're looking for something good to read, I promise you'll find it over there. I only post the good ones. You can follow that blog from there if you like it - I post almost every week, but I skip sometimes if I'm reading a book that takes longer to get through, or if I don't find it worthy of a recommendation.

Photo credit: Ozyman on VisualHunt.com /CC BY-NC-SA

I'd love it if you'd sign up for my newsletter. I promise they don't come out often. Only when there's news to tell. And even better? If you sign up for the newsletter, I'll give you a free short story today. How's that for a deal? Pop over to the contact page and we'll get you all settled in.

If a newsletter is too big a commitment (I get it, really)then maybe you'd like to follow my author page on Facebook. I'll post a link there to any newsy new news over here. And you won't get an email - yay! 

Thanks for visiting! I'm tickled you stopped by.