No one notices your brand new sweater…
I haven’t really heard this song completely, but it’s been on a couple of tv shows over the past five years or so, that I’ve been forced to passively watch/listen to, so I’m a bit familiar with it. It’s actually a really sad song which tells you the harsh, realistic truth about life – how no one will grieve when you die, no one wants to know what you’re doing and no one wants to know where you bought your brand new sweater. Which is kind of the way life is, isn’t it? If it isn’t a whole lot worse than that. I think so anyway…
However, a great antidote to life’s depressing aspects is – writing!
So I’d add a line to the song – ‘No one notices your brand new sweater – but that’s ok, if you write something good, cool or fun.’
If you don’t write, let’s say the same except ‘but that’s ok because you can always read a good book.’ 🙂
What genre is your book?
What is genre? Genre was originally how a bookstore shelved fiction so the readers could find the stories they preferred. Over time, each genre has grown to have its own defining characteristics, based on what its readers want and expect.
Read more here.
Doing some errands
Today I went to a nearby town to get a few (partly book related) errands done. At last I was able to get my Cybook fixed for a good price. (Of course I wish I hadn’t dropped it in the first place). While I was waiting, I visited the library and borrowed the mystery I really would like to read as an ebook (but can’t). Now I’ve found out that I can’t read the other two books left in the series either (the re-published books, there are plenty of others that haven’t been re-published yet). This is the one I really wanted to buy, but they’re all very pretty. (This is the American edition, if you’re curious about the book. That means I’ll have to go back a couple of times and borrow the others.
After that we went out to the big mall to see if we could find some our special vegan products. Unfortunately, there wasn’t that much, but at least we were able to get some cheese. And – our favorite vegan chocolate that we usually have to buy online.
The weather is great and we’ll try to go back to this other town a bit more this summer. For instance there’s a big free festival there in July). We’ll be able to listen to our Eurovision Song Contest Winner. I never thought I’d say this, but I actually want to go and hear him perform live. ESC is not really my thing, normally.
Mum is also looking forward to seeing this big sailing ship that will come and visit our harbour at the beginning of July.
Writing a Book People Can’t Put Down: The Art of Pacing
It’s two o’clock in the morning. You’ve had a long day, you’re exhausted, and in just four short hours you have to get ready for another day of work. More than anything, you just need to go to bed. So why don’t you? Because you just have to finish this absolutely amazing book you can’t put down!
Read more here.
bibliophiles unite! | Book Tumblr is a space where basically everyone…
Read more here. This sounds wonderful. What a shame Tumblr is owned by Yahoo. Fortunately, there are other spaces dedicated to books, like Booklikes, Wattpad and others. Still, this is really great. Part of me is still rooting for Tumblr.
How To Preach To Your Audience and Not Get Caught
Let’s establish one thing right now. Every story has a message. Every author has a bias. Every author has multiple biases. There’s no such thing as something that’s ‘Just A Story’. Anybody who says that clearly doesn’t understand the role that fiction plays in influencing us and our attitudes towards the world. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe helped start the Civil War, of all things.
Read more here.
The Only Gold by Tamara Allen
The Only Gold by Tamara Allen was a Kindle freebie that I downloaded last year (I think). It’s not free anymore, but it’s still only 3.74 (US dollars). I have so many books on my TBR list that I had forgotten what sort of book this was. The way it looks once I’ve started reading it, I can’t find the title or the author’s name. It took me a rather long while to figure out what this book was about. In other words, there was a bit of a slow start, but once I got into the book, I found it interesting and well written.
It’s the late 19th century. Jonah Woolner works at a bank in New York. He is content with his life until he’s passed over for a long-awaited promotion. Reid Hylliard shows up out of the blue and annoys Jonah with his charm. Eventually, Reid begins to win him over (as he’s done with everyone else at the bank). Then trouble strikes the bank and Jonah’s relationship with Reid is put under severe strain. Both their lives (and those of others) are threatened, not only the bank.
The fact that it is a slash story and a historic one as well, was a big plus for me. I don’t normally read pure romances – but in combination with historic and/or fantasy it usually works for me.
There’s quite a bit of action (and I mean action, not sex) in this story, but also, to be honest, gay sex, so if you don’t like that, don’t read. Otherwise, I can really recommend this book.
Book meme
I found this book/reading meme on WordPress.com and I thought I’d try it here.
You just answer these three questions on your own blog:
What are you reading right now? K D Nelson Folds of the Script – a science fiction novel from Amazon on my Kindle.
What did you just finish reading? Lady of the Moon by Mary Gillgannon (from Smashwords).
What do you think you’re going to read next? A Swedish children’s book by author Ingelin Angerborn (“Heart of Dust”)
Never without a book…
“He never went out without a book under his arm, and often came back with two.”
-Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
The Glass Wall by Madison Adler/Carmen Caine
For some reason, I neglected to review a number of ebooks that I downloaded for free from Amazon, right after I read them. I’m trying to remedy that now.
Superficially, this book, Beyond the Glass Wall (The Glass Wall), book one in a series of YA urban fantasy books, sounds like any recent YA fantasy book. If I’d read the blurb I probably wouldn’t have bothered reading it. But my list of Kindle freebies is so long and from my view on my Kindle I can’t see what the book is about, just the title. So I did start reading it and I quickly realized that I liked it.
The books starts with the main character, 17-year-old Sydney, moving in with a new foster family. She’s been through this a lot so she’s not all that bothered. However, the family she comes to is very nice and she slowly finds herself warming up to them. Almost right away, she spots a very good-looking guy moving into a house nearby. Sydney soon finds out that he’s far more than just a handsome stranger.
It appears Rafael, the new guy, has superhuman powers, which leads Sydney to suspect he might be some sort of alien, which isn’t quite the case. It takes Sydney a long time to find out exactly what he is. In the meantime, she also meets another extremely handsome guy, Jareth, who is a rock star. He has a mysterious connection to Rafael, though not really a friendly one.
I can’t seem to give this book justice. It still sounds like a cliche. Just take my word for it, this one is really good. I finished it in just a few days, because I wanted to know more about Rafael and Jareth.
I suppose partly it’s because it’s so easy to see everything through Sydney’s eyes. I liked the way she slowly realized that her foster family was different from earlier ones, who she liked, but never felt completely connected to. Right from the start the parents treat her as their own child. Their daughter takes a little longer to connect with Sydney, but she too, comes to view her as a close family member. This book is the first in a series of four. There’s also a prequel, Behind the Mirror, a short story, that is available for free download on Amazon.
