Real Life is Better Than Fiction

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...