Category Archives: Reading

“Arrr! Lick Me Nipples”

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Hi all. Hope everyone had a great week.

I’ll explain the title of this blog post in a moment, but first a brief writing update:

As I mentioned on Wednesday I finished a new short story and sent it off to my critique partner. Now that it’s done (or close to it) I realize I feel like I’ve spent months with those two guys, writing a novel, not a short story. Hopefully that means something good. I don’t know.

Since then I’ve been focused on TAKE ME HOME. Now that I have all the revisions in place I’m working on another read-through to polish the dialogue and descriptions. Today I read the first 5 chapters, and I think they are ready to go. I still need to do my final checklist of common mistakes and get my critique partner’s input, but other than that, I finally feel like this book is close to submission-ready.

Now on to review the next 20+ chapters again.

(c) istockphoto.com, davidf 2010

Before I get back to it, I wanted to share a link. This week I blogged at Loose Ends, the Loose Id author blog, where I talked about the importance of having someone else proofread a story. The blog is titled: “Arrr! Lick Me Nipples” Or the Importance of Another Set of Eyes. I’m curious how much errors bother readers. I’d love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave a comment here or at Loose Ends.

Hope you all have a great weekend. My little baby nephew is getting married tomorrow. I guess that means he’s not a baby anymore. When did that happen?

For the Love of: the M/M Romance Group at Goodreads

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If you haven’t checked out Goodreads or the M/M Romance group you should take a look.

What is Goodreads?
“Goodreads is the largest social network for readers in the world. We have more than 4,600,000 members who have added more than 130,000,000 books to their shelves. A place for casual readers and bona-fide bookworms alike, Goodreads members recommend books, compare what they are reading, keep track of what they’ve read and would like to read, form book clubs and much more.” (source: Goodreads)

What is the M/M Romance Group?
“The #1 resource on the internet for M/M Romance fans, this group has something for everyone.

  • Book and Series Discussions
  • Daily Updates on New Releases and Author News
  • Book of the Month Group Reads
  • Reading Challenges
  • Author Info & Writing Discussions
  • Erotic Photos
  • Games, Contests & Quizes”

(source: M/M Romance group)

The group currently has 2700 members, and they estimate they’ll have 3000 by mid June. They are also the top 20th most popular group on Goodreads which totally kicks ass when you think about the fact that this group is based on such a small niche market. Definitely a sign that readership and love of the genre is growing.

As a reader of m/m romances, I only wish I had more time to hang out there. If you’re a reader of the genre, you should definitely think about checking out the M/M Romance group.

For the Love of: Audio Books & Editors

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(c) istockphoto.com, Tony Tremblay 2005

Sharing a couple links today…

  • Earlier this week I blogged about my love of audio books at my RWA chapter blog. The post is titled What Else Can I Clean? I’d love for you to stop by and let me know what you think of audio books. Do you listen to them? If so, do you find you lose yourself in the story as much as if you were reading the book yourself? Or perhaps more?
  • Author SJ Frost has written a fabulous article about the unsung heroes of the publishing world: the editors. Definitely all true, so I’ll take this opportunity to say another huge thank you to my editor at Loose Id, Antonia, and the line editors and proof readers who have helped with my stories. Your insights, time, and effort are greatly appreciated!

It’s Read an E-Book Week!

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Read an E-Book Week is March 6-12, 2011.

Stop by the Read an E-Book Week website to learn about the history of ebooks, the advantages of ebooks, to enter to win an eReader, and more.

If you’re interested, here are some ideas to help share your love of ebooks (some are mine, some are from the Read an E-book website):

  1. Tweet links to the ebooks you read during Read an E-Book Week using the hashtag #ebookweek.
  2. Show your eReader and all its functionality to a friend or family member who doesn’t yet read ebooks.
  3. Set up an ebook challenge on your blog.
  4. Read only ebooks for the week.
  5. Blog, tweet, or Facebook about why you love your eReader and ebooks.

I hope you enjoy the week reading a great ebook.
Sloan

Video I Love: Organizing your bookcase? Try this…

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Some folks from blonderland.com and ohkamp.com decided to organize their bookcase one weekend. They said, “It got a little out of hand…” (source: YouTube)

I don’t think I’ve ever had this much free time, but it’s a fun video to watch.