Real Life is Better Than Fiction

Trouble Making Contest Today's Flashback Friday is a little different. You often hear about my life, now I want to hear about YOU! My next book is going to be about cousins who are best friends and cause a little trouble together from time to time. This is where you come in. I want to hear all about trouble you have gotten (or still get) into with your best friend. The age when you got in trouble doesn't matter. You may have been a small child or an adult. For the contest you will need to submit your trouble-causing story (please, keep it clean and preferably funny - at least it's funny now!). If it is short you can submit it in the comments. If it is a longer story you may send it to me by email at oneilruth@gmail.com . I will write a blog post with some of the best stories and announce the winner. Now you may be wondering what the winner gets. The winning story will be included (maybe with minor changes) to my new book. The winner will also receive a free digita...

How Do You Fight Blogger Fatigue? I’m not sure I’ve had issues with blogger fatigue. In fact, it’s usually the opposite for me. I have plenty of ides, but implementing those ideas consistently is the issue. Fatigue implies burnout. One can hardly get burned out when there is a lack of regularity. As with any writing, most fatigue comes from a lack of ideas. How can anyone run out of ideas when there is so much going on in the world around us? Fatigue in writing can be solved by a change of scenery, a change of people to hang around with, or a change of whatever tires you out.   I usually have a running list of ideas and notebooks filled with scenes and characters for new books. No, I don’t recall ever having blogger or any other type of writing fatigue. Do you?

Show off Your Best 5 Blog Posts   This one is just funny and an example of a typical day in our household. April 30, 2013 - http://ruths-real-life.blogspot.com/2013/04/putting-fun-back-in-writing.html I like this one because it shows how much readers have enjoyed my book. That makes me smile! March 14, 2013 - http://ruths-real-life.blogspot.com/2013/03/reviews-of-come-eat-at-my-table.html I liked this one because I was able to give everyone a sneak peek. February 27, 2013 - http://ruths-real-life.blogspot.com/2013/02/and-nowthe-first-chapter.html I love my family and like to embarrass them from time to time. December 2, 2012 - http://ruths-real-life.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-dreaded-family-photo.html This is just a sweet story and I hope that all my kids can remain color blind. September 10, 2012 - http://ruths-real-life.blogspot.com/2012/09/colorblind.html 

On January 15, 1992 my mother walked into the Wednesday night church service, grinning from ear to ear, with a big announcement to make. She was waiting for the perfect moment to make that announcement.   She waited through announcements. She waited through the singing, feeling as if she was going to burst. She waited while one of her friends sang special music. That was all it took. My mother burst out in tears. Now, before you get too upset, you must realize these were happy tears. The woman who sang special music that evening was a mother of four little boys. The song she sang held a lot of meaning for her. The song was written from the perspective of a mother who was praying for some unknown little girl. You see, that girl would one day capture her son’s heart and he would marry her. B and her Grandma Doner The reason my mother was crying? It was the day her very first grandchild was born; a little girl. I was blessed to realize right from day one how important it is...

How Do You Choose What Book to Read Next?     Sometimes this is literally a game of eeny-meeny-miny-mo. There is a box of books next to me bed where I keep the “next batch.” Sometimes I just have to close my eyes and pick. Obviously, if I have to read a book for a review it gets moved to the top of the pile/list. I try not to read stories with similar plots/setting one right after the other. If I just completed a book that was deep, serious, and maybe even a little difficult to read or thought-provoking, the next book will be a much lighter read. How do you choose what books you’re going to read?

Why Do You Blog About Books? First of all, because I love books. In what other activity can you learn new things, meet new people, “see” new places, and escape the world? Hopefully by blogging about books I can inspire someone else to read, or someone to read more. There are so many good books out there that people may never find out about, except for reading it on my blog.

Write 15 things That Appeal to you    on Blogs     These are in no particular order; they are just how they came to mind. 1.        Good writing 2.        Interesting writing 3.        Hominess 4.        Family stories 5.        Book reviews 6.        Recipes 7.        Money saving tips 8.        Craft projects 9.        Godly articles 10.    Details 11.    Help/how to’s 12.    Comments from readers 13.    Real life stories/articles 14.    Friends 15.    Pictures What do you like to find on a blog?

Talk About Your Blogging Quirks     The first, and probably most obvious, is that I’m not regular with my blog postings – although I’m working on that. I write a lot about my family because my family is important to me and let’s face it, my own life is fairly uneventful and boring. I do write everything out before typing it into the computer. I know a lot of people skip the pen and paper part, but to me it's therapeutic, helps me organize my thoughts, and allows me to think to make sure I haven't forgotten anything. This applies to all my writing, not just my blogging. Even when I’m working on a piece of fiction, a lot of it is drawn from real life. I’m not that creative that I can come up with all completely imagined scenes for stories. Besides, we all know that real life is truly better than fiction anyways, right?

Here and now are the perfect place and time to get your copy of Unclaimed Legacy. Now? Because it's only 99 cents for Kindle (for the month of September only). Here? Because buying it enters you in a giveaway of the complete Time and Again trilogy (personally signed by the author) AND a pretty mug for your morning coffee. Hint: You might want to keep the mug and Kindle book for yourself and give the signed copies of the trilogy as a gift. The Rafflecopter giveaway entry form is below, but first let me tell you about Unclaimed Legacy . Those who have read Time and Again know that Abby Thomas is a college student on a summer service project with 11-year-old Merri. And they know that the summer is not going the way Abby had expected—but in a good way. For one thing, she meets a very nice guy named John Roberts. And for another, she discovers a strange computer program called Beautiful House that lets her fast-forward and rewind life. Not her own, of course, but those of ...

Describe How You Shop for Books   I’m a creature of habit. If I find something I like or a method of doing something that works for me, I continue with that. I’m cheap, so the less expensive a book is the better. I’m also busy, so I like easy. Those things affect how I shop for books. One company I shop from sends me emails occasionally with bargain books and free shipping. That’s two of my favorite words in one email: bargain and free. When I receive this email I always browse through what’s available and usually purchase at least one book. My most common method of shopping is through word of mouth. If someone, whose opinion on books I trust, tells me about a title, it normally makes it to my list of books to read. I don’t think books can get any better advertisement than one reader’s glowing reviews. If you’ve read a book that you enjoy, particularly if it was self-published or published by a small press, write a review and post it, I promise you the author will gr...

Recommend a Tear-Jerker A couple of books come to mind right away. One is Nicholas Sparks' Three Weeks with My Brother. While this is not in my usually genre of books I read, someone handed it to me so I read it. This is a non-fictional book about the author and a three week trip he took with his brother. The book goes back and forth between his childhood and adult life. There were tears; half the time because I was crying and the other half because I was laughing so hard. I don't usually make audible sounds when reading, but in this case I did. I know my family thought I was nuts when they would walk through the room where I was laughing. The next is actually a series of books. These had belonged to my mom, but I inherited them when she passed away. This is the Zion Covenant series by Bodie Thoene. I think I like these books so much because there is a lot of history in them. What makes me cry is what many people had to go through during WWII. It wasn't just Jews th...

What's the Latest Book You've Flung Across the Room? First of all, I would never actually throw a book. Books are precious gifts in my mind, even if I don't particularly like the content. Two books come to mind immediately. Since I'm not in the habit of author or book bashing I won't mention authors or titles specifically. Book 1 - This was one I started reading several years ago. I just couldn't get into it at the time. I didn't like the author's style of writing at all! After putting the book aside for a few years I brought it out again. Well, I read the entire book through this time and I still didn't like it. Besides the style of writing, there were other issues I had with the story as well. Definitely not a favorite. Book 2 - This was a book I had really been looking forward to reading. I even actually bought it and paid full price for it. That didn't help the situation when as I began reading it there was content that compelle...