Time for New Summer Reads!

Summer is officially here! Time to relax, rejuvenate and read! Here are a few books you may want whether you’re headed to the beach, or the backyard.  

Invasion of Privacy by Christopher Reich

Let’s face it, technology is everywhere. The wife of gunned down FBI agent Joe Grant receives a strange voicemail from her husband that later disappears. When Mary digs into her husband’s death ‘she finds herself on the trail of a secret that could transform the world, and the target of a dangerous psychopath.’ (Paraphrased from Barnes & Noble)

The Wright Brothers by David McCullough

This is for my peeps from the Birthplace of Aviation! If you like this kind of story, you may also want to check out American Genius on the National Geographic Channel. They put together a documentary on the heated race for flight between the Wright Brothers and Glenn Curtiss (as well as some other very interesting rivalries).

“In 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright achieved flight. In his new book, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough explores the lives of these two men from Dayton, Ohio—preacher’s sons who did not attend college, and who were bicycle makers and salesmen prior to their invention of the first powered airplane. He sheds light on the skeptical reaction they received from a general public that did not understand their accomplishments, and takes a look at the contributions of their overlooked sister, Katharine. The truths he uncovers are startling and inspirational.” (Barnes & Noble)

Wicked Charms by Janet Evanovich and Phoef Sutton

“Evanovich introduced her New York Times best-selling Lizzy and Diesel series with 2010's Wicked Appetite, featuring dazzling Salem, MA, baker Elizabeth Tucker (her cupcakes drive men mad) and the seductive Diesel, first seen in Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books. Here she brings on multi-award-winning writer/producer/novelist Sutton to help. Each tale involves the search for an ancient relic mysteriously linked to one of the seven deadly sins—in this case, greed.” (Library Journal)

Speculation Begins on Amazon, S&S Deal

When Amazon and Simon & Schuster confirmed on Tuesday that they had reached new sales terms on the publisher's print and digital titles, scant details about the deal were revealed. Nonetheless, a raft of stories has appeared about the situation, with many in the press speculating on who benefits, and who loses, from the agreement. (Read more on Publisher's Weekly)

Espresso Book Machines? Why, yes!

If you're in the Union Square (NYC), Paramus, NJ, or Willow Grove, PA, Barnes & Noble store soon, try this out! 

It's a print on demand system, and you can print a hard-to-find book, a public domain title, or self publish a book. I have to see this in person, sounds interesting! Wonder if it takes as long as an actual espresso, or longer? 

Read more on Publisher's Weekly here: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/retailing/article/63863-b-n-testing-espresso-book-machines.html?utm_source=Publishers+Weekly&utm_campaign=5f69cd2758-UA-15906914-1&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0bb2959cbb-5f69cd2758-304507901

Book Update!

Things will be busy the next few months, with book design and launch. Follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ to make sure you don’t miss anything—announcements, giveaways, special offers, and more!

Stay tuned, and thanks for your support!

Estimating E-Book Sales-Info and link

Work, work, work…these days writers who want to get published have to take on the work of more than just writing. There's idea creation, organizing, editing, marketing and promotion, programming, sales tracking, and more. 

I'm neck deep in all this as the push to publish continues. One of the habits I picked up along the way helps me through periods of writer's block. I read about all the other stuff I should be doing. Doing so makes me feel productive, instead of staring at a screen worrying about the next sentence. Plus, reading industry news usually gives me ideas for my approach to the business of being a writer, which can be profitable, I think. 

Here's an industry nugget. It's a Forbes article about Estimating Kindle E-Book Sales for writers, and other curious folks out there. 

What do you do when you get writer's block, or when your day job gets tough? Feel free to share. 

Surprising or Not? Barnes & Noble turns down buyout bid

As a reader and writer, I've been keeping an eye on this and other industry developments. While I'm not surprised they turned down the buyout offer, they certainly keep making headlines with what is to come for their business, with or without Nook. Here's the latest from Forbes: Barnes & Noble Turns Profit, Tightens Nook's Belt And Dismisses Buyout Bid.

Settling in and building momentum

Isn't Friday a great day? Even if you have to head to work at 6am, or maybe something crazy late, if you get the weekend "off" then Friday rocks! I put off in quotes because there are so many people with smartphones and jobs that never quite shut down, the weekend is more like a long coffee break. But, maybe it's just me who thinks this. 

Anyway, I'm settling in for a weekend of family time, snow shoveling, writing, editing and hopefully, some movie watching. So, while I plan to relax there are things to do, lots of them. 

Whether you have fun, chores or work planned, try to make some time to relax. Even if it's only for a little while. My mind may be racing, and my To-dos piling up, but I made sure to stir up some hot cocoa this afternoon. It was my way of capping off the week and settling in for the long weekend. 

If you're a regular reader, Thank You! You might already know it's been a race these last few months to complete my book. I hoped to have it published before our grandma passed away, but I just couldn't work fast enough. She was an amazing person, and well-read. I'd hoped to get her advice on what I did right, and maybe a little constructive criticism on what needed changed before it got launched to the public. Plus, it would have been nice to show her I could do it. 

Thank goodness we have family and friends who will see me get published, but there is a sadness about this I just can't shake. Instead of losing my way and stopping completely I took a break, shed a lot of tears, and got back to it. Now, I'm building momentum again. 

I invite you to join this journey. Be sure to check back in the coming weeks for some cool previews, updates and giveaways. If you want, you can even share the news with your friends, and their friends. Blog subscribers will get some cool swag, so make sure to sign up to receive my updates. It would be helpful, and very kind of you to do so. 

The plan is to publish this work before grandma's birthday anniversary, so I have to get back to work. Here's to a happy, positive and productive 2014! Enjoy your weekend!

We do more before 9am than…

If you recognize this slogan, then the ad folks did their job. Actually, you might recognize it more as: In the Army, we do more before 9am than most people do all day, or Be All That You Can Be. It’s kind of motivational if you ask me. I want to get up and kick some butt before 9am, most days. (Here’s a YouTube video of it if you’re interested.) 

As a way of implementing some New Year’s self-home-work-flow improvement, I decided to get up earlier than usual on the weekdays. It was not a big stretch considering our kids don’t let us sleep much past dawn anyway. Perfectly doable, or so I thought.

See, just about anything can look good in theory or on paper. When it comes time to actually do it, is when you’ve got push through. It wouldn’t be so bad except we shoveled snow five times in the past three days, last night I somehow got sucked into a montage of funnies on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (here’s a preview) and set aside my book edits and stayed up past my bedtime—the one designed to help me have the energy to get up earlier and Be All That I Could Be.

Since then we got even more snow and school is closed. While my amazing husband did not wake me for the morning shovel, I did get up at my “early” time. We enjoyed breakfast before he headed off to see if he could get through the snow to work in under an hour. 

After a brief feeling of accomplishment at getting up early, I have cleaned up milk messes, dyed six fingers and my new favorite sweatshirt several shades of purple, placed three of the world’s tiniest balloons filled with water and food coloring (how I dyed my hands) on wax paper and set them on our front porch in hopes they freeze before a delivery guy squashes them. Water balloons and dye may seem like a bad idea in winter, but it looked cool on Pinterest. The water inside the balloons is supposed to freeze and make some kind of pretty colored ice balls, although as small as ours are they will be ice marbles.

I had good intentions, but sometimes things just go their own way. I’m perfectly content to keep writing/editing with purple fingers, complete more fun experiments with the kids, and Be All I Can Be. We’ll just have to see what else the day holds.

What are you doing to 'Be All You Can Be' today?

Playing through the pain

Whenever my peers and I suffered through difficult tests, tryouts, performances and other such trials the words “suck it up” and “shake it off” came out of the mouths of our coaches and teachers frequently. I heard them more times than I care to detail here, but I’ve not forgotten.

I knew going into this venture there would be some highs and lows. By venture I mean fill in the blank—writing career, parenthood, life, you get the picture. I also knew it could lead to fun stuff such as back pain, eye strain, anxiety, saggy butt, carpal tunnel, etc. But, as I stop to write this amidst a major push to finish a novel, raise kids with my husband, freelance, maintain a household, be a good citizen of the world, etc., I am struggling.

I know it is time to push through the pain, but there is a good dose of heavy heart with each page I write and every moment I get with my beautiful family this week. I am not sad by the writing or the family, but because I don’t think my grandma will be around long enough to see the full potential of either.

She has been a huge supporter of my endeavors (and sympathizer of the struggles) to be a writer. I am a writer—at least she saw me practicing my craft and shared in the happiness as I became published. But, I hoped so hard this year she would be around to see her great-grandchildren at the holidays, and be around to read her grandchild's first book.

She loves books. I just thought it would be really great to share part of this with her, and I just don’t know if we’ll have the chance. We have so many wonderful memories, times we went to the library, times we surrounded ourselves with books and catalogs. She helped pass her love of books and learning on to my mom, who gave it to me, and my kids. Our children also get some from their dad’s side, thankfully.

So, while I’m saddened we may lose a dear member of our family, I know I need to be thankful. I am thankful. I am thankful for life, family, and so many things. But, I think it is important to recognize she may not hug the babies again, or read another great story, or even my story. And I need to let myself be sad for this for just a little bit. Maybe a miracle will bring her around, I believe it could happen, but if it doesn’t I know she would want us to celebrate her and share our love with others. In fact, I read stories about people making a wish come true for Batkid and the sweet sentiment of one woman interviewed for Humans of New York yesterday and it made me think of my grandma. 

While we all have problems, struggles and pain, spreading love and joy is an important message we could all use to hear.

I’ll grab some tissues, hug and kiss my sweetie and my kids as often as they’ll let me, get back to the work of publishing articles and book(s), and play through the pain. Whatever happens, I plan to encourage my family to spend more time having fun together, playing, sharing, goofing off, reading and celebrating life. These are gifts, cherish them. 

Rock-tober

I've been waiting for fall to really kick in this year. Not sure why, but I have. These past few weeks I spent time with my family enjoying nature's transition. Around here, we've seen trees change colors and leaves falling with each bough-shaking gust. 

Football, drizzly mornings, homemade chili (see photos below) and work spent preparing for upcoming holidays and the deep freeze keep us hustling. And Halloween is only a week away!

In the writerly world, I'm busting out a novel. Yay! You may remember I mentioned getting published a couple of times and in this previous post. It's seriously exciting, and a lot of hard work! At this point, anything is possible!

I plan to share more about the project and the road to publication each week. There may even be a contest and giveaway. So, if you're interested in free stuff, please check back or subscribe to receive updates.

I'm excited about the book this month because a lot of my research and effort seems to be working. As a person who still loves the crack of a new book spine and the feel of holding a weighty page-turner, I planned (years ago) to publish in book form. Now that I've experienced how easy it is to purchase an e-book, and how convenient it is to take that book with me on a variety of mobile devices, I see it as good business sense to publish an electronic version as well. I welcome comments about good books, food,travel, publishing and more. 

Hot chili with cheese and a dollop of sour cream - Yum!

Jiffy corn muffins - double yum!

Summer Reads — Monday Mysteries

Happy Monday! It's another week of Summer Reads. Check out the Monday Mysteries I posted last week, or try one of these. Share your favorites in the comments below. 

The Hanging by Lotte and Soren Hammer, translated from the Danish version. Excerpt from Publishers Weekly: The Hammers, a sister and brother writing team, make their U.S. debut with this outstanding crime thriller, which introduces Danish Det. Insp. Konrad Simonsen. The title and full description tells me it may be an interesting new thriller, not for the faint of heart.

The 9th Girl by Tami Hoag. The New York Times bestselling author brings back fan-favorite Minneapolis investigators Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska in a new thriller.

Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews. The author is a retired CIA officer. He shares stories about his long career, and each chapter includes a recipe for a dish the characters consume in the story.  

Unofficial start to summer reads!

If you're looking for a good distraction or just a good unofficial start to summer read, here are a few authors and books you may want to check out:

Colleen Hoover recently released This Girl, her third of the Slammed series - 'butterflying' love it!

Jimmy Connors released a memoir last week - although the guy was a little too busy winning matches to autograph a tennis ball for me at an ATP tourney decades ago, I think I'm over it...his candid approach to this memoir could make a really interesting read. 

Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg have a new one called The Heist out June 18.

Tammara Webber rolls out Between the Lines #4 Here Without You this summer. 

Sue Grafton is nearing Z in her Kinsey Millhone alphabet-titled series. W is for Wasted pubs late summer, but there are 22 other alphabet mysteries you can read until then.

There is plenty more to come! Check back for special announcements and my Summer Reads series—including cool adult and children's books.

Post what's on your bookshelf in the comments, or share with me on Goodreads. :)

Barnes & Noble buyout - hold onto your bricks...

Here's news from CNN, you can also find it on several other news outlets this morning. Apparently, the chairman of Barnes & Noble is talking about buying up all the stores and separating the Nook business. 

I'm not sure how this will play out, there are advantages and disadvantages to going private. Will it save brick and mortar stores? Maybe, but it's likely to involve more store closings, most of them already in the works.

Indies Sue Amazon, Publishers over E-book DRM

Publisher's Weekly reports the latest in the ongoing battle for digital supremacy (said with sarcasm). 

Barnes and Noble Store Closings

Barnes & Noble is not denying they have and will continue to close more brick and mortar stores.  

This brief clip explains their plan is to stem losses, not close-up shop for good, that's the story for now. Indies may not all be cheering, but big e-tailers scooping up more of the e-reader and e-book market are. It's a hot market, and something B & N has hoped will help their overall business, if they can grow it. 

This struggle in the e-market has changed traditional publishing. I've read dozens of industry articles about big publishers who have launched or are buying up e-book and self-publishing platforms. The times, they are a-changing, fast. 

Here's a link to the Barnes & Noble article (CBS News).  

Findlay Area Family – Rattle and Roll Baby Guide

My latest cover story is published in Findlay Area Family. Check out the tips for taking baby photos, nursing and more. Find it online at Findlay Area Family or in the July issue available now.

Liberty Media Bids for Barnes & Noble

Another big deal in the works as reported by Publisher's Weekly. An excerpt and link are below. Check it out and feel free to share your thoughts on the industry's recent mergers and acquisitions buzz.

Barnes & Noble announced late Thursday afternoon that it received a bid to acquire the company from Liberty Media for $17 per share in cash. According to B&N, the offer has a number of contingencies, including the participation of chairman Len Riggio, both in terms of his continuing equity ownership and his continuing role in management. The offer is worth about $1 billion. Click here for the rest of the Publisher's Weekly post.

Possible Borders Sale Gains Traction from PW

Publisher's Weekly reports that there may be a sale of Borders on the horizon. It looks like a lot of comments focus on the fact that Borders waited too long to go digital. This is interesting considering the e-book explosion and the wireless reading device competition has been making industry headlines for some time now - long enough to jump on board, perhaps. 


Here's a link to the PW news brief. We'll talk more about books in the digital age as well as check out some new Summer Reads and Recipes, so check back again soon. 


Good Day and Good Reading!

The future of books from a NYT writer

An interesting perspective on the future of books from The New York Times.

http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/ander-monsons-vanishing-point-the-future-of-the-book/?hp