Blog Chain - How Do You Feel About Non-Fiction

This round's topic was chosen by the lovely Sandra who wants to know:

We all know it's important to read fiction if you want to write fiction, but what about reading non-fiction? How much non-fiction do you read? What kinds of non-fiction books do you read, and why? Has reading non-fiction influenced your fiction writing style?

I read a LOT of non-fiction. Biographies mostly. Most specifically, biographies of historical figures (mostly women). I've always been fascinated with the whole royalty scene, queens in particular. Maybe because historically women are seen as a little less capable of ruling than men (and most of the women who have made history have disproved that in spades. What's that saying? Well behaved women rarely make history? So true). :D

Some of my favorites: Eleanor of Acquitaine (this woman ROCKS), Catherine the Great, Lucrezia Borgia, Isabella of France, the wives of Henry VII (and his sisters), Elizabeth I, Marie Antoinette - to name a few :)

I'm also fond of reading encyclopedias. Researching has always been a bit of a time suck for me because I'll start looking up info on one subject and will find myself sucked into a million other fascinating facts. Back in the old days ;) BG (before Google) when we had to open an actual book to research things, I'd sit down with an encyclopedia and a few hours later realize I'd read through half the volume and still hadn't gotten the info I'd originally looked up :)

As a historical romance writer, research is still a big factor in my writing. I try very hard to make sure all the details in my stories are accurate (even in my contemporary stories, there is usually quite a bit of research to be done). I love this part of the process. But, I'll often just leave myself notes in my drafts such as [research this] - because if I take the time right then to research the details, I'd never get that first draft done. So once I'm in the revision stage I generally go through and spend some time researching (as well as researching before I even start writing, during the outline stage).

I also tend to research things I come across in my reading or tv watching or daily life - anything that strikes an interest that I want to learn more about. For instance, I had a lot of fun watching the Ancient Alien series which led to a bit of research on fun things like crop circles and weird phenomenon. :D I also have books on homeopathic medicines, crafty things, lots of How-Tos, (my hubs has an entire bookcase of cookbooks), a few memoirs, and a few other assorted NFs :)

How about you - do you read non-fiction? What sorts of things do you like to read about?

Be sure to stop by Katrina's blog to see what NF tickles her fancy, and stop by Alyson's tomorrow to see what she likes :)

And don't forget to enter my celebration giveaway! You could win a $25 gift card!!! (scroll down to next post) Entries are being taken until Saturday and the winner will be announced on Sunday the 14th!

Summer Reads

I have read so many good books lately...and I have a stack more waiting for me :D (I get to read if I'm a good little writer and get some work done :D ) I just finished OBSIDIAN by Jennifer Armentrout and LOVED it!

What great summer reads have you been loving?

Proud to be a Bookworm but...

I could use a maid LOL

My poor hubs cringes whenever I pick up a new book, especially if that book is the first in a series, because he knows nothing is going to get done until I'm finished :D I do try to do the "one more chapter" thing, but often I "one more chapter" myself into the wee hours of the morning, unable to do anything, including sleep, until I've read every last word :)

I guess as addictions go, it's not too bad. My starving and naked family might disagree though (as they kick a path through the destroyed house) :D

I've learned over the years that if I have anything I need to accomplish, I must do it before I start the book. I catch up on laundry, dishes, spruce up the living space, and do whatever else needs doing, and THEN I sit down and lose myself in the pages. I will take cooking breaks, but I'm usually stirring whatever's in the pot with one hand and holding the book with the other :D

How do you deal with your bookworm tendencies?

Twelve Word Tuesday :)

There are worse crimes than burning books. One...is not reading them.

— Joseph Brodsky 

Start at the End

There is a scene in the movie "You've Got Mail" where Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks are looking at books at the market. Meg picks up a book and flips to the end and Tom asks her what she's doing. She replies that she likes reading the end first - if she likes the end, she knows she'll like getting there.

This is soooo something I do. Well, I'm not quite as bad. I don't read the ending first. I usually get about 50 - 100 pages into the book before I sneak a peak at the end. Usually right about the time the first major twist happens...and I just can't wait and have to flip to the end to see how things go.

This drives some people I know crazy. They think I should wait and be surprised. But hey, I am still surprised and I still enjoy getting to the ending...in fact, I might even enjoy it more because I can see how the author weaves all the twists and turns into the story since I know how it's going to end. :D

So I'm curious...how many of you are end-first readers? Do you wait to reach the end or do you flip ahead a bit?

P.s. My book and a swag pack is up for auction over at Write-Hope until Friday at 2 pm. Click HERE if you are interested in bidding on it. There are tons of other awesome items up for bid, so if you are looking for some signed books, fun swag, critiques, etc, or just want to help out (proceeds go to Save the Children to help those in need in Japan) swing on by!

52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge

(Essay Horror Stories contest runs through 11:59 pm tonight! See yesterday's post to enter! Prizes include a signed copy of my book and fun swag including bookmarks, calender magnets, mouse pads, and more!)

Okay, so I toyed with the idea of joining the 100 book challenge for this year. But, I barely made the 52 book challenge last year and only did that because I counted a crit partner's novel (hey...it's not published but is under contract and it WAS a whole book....and a very good one too!)

So, this year I'm going with the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge again. Which I always find more difficult than I expect, because I know I read more than 52 books a year. But, I can't count rereads....I can only count books I've never read before.

I'm off to a great start! It's only Jan 3rd and I already have 1 and a half books read :D

Wanna join the challenge!?

I'll keep a running list of my books on my side bar like I did last year. I hope you join in!

Have you read any good books yet this year? I know we are only 3 days in but, come on.....I know some of you have!! :D

Winner of the Essay Horror Story contest will be posted tomorrow! And as entries are sparce (apparently the people I hang out with over here are a little strange like myself and enjoyed writing essays....though I forgot a few due dates and had a couple horror stories along the way) :D I'll probably just pull a winner from the comments left on that post (scroll down to Saturday's post for deets!) Details on our next game will go up Wednesday!

52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge

Well, the year is drawing to a close and I'm very happy to say that I've just about reached my 52 books in 52 weeks goal. I never think it'll be a problem to read 52 books in a year....that's only one a week. Yet somehow, it always becomes a challenge. Of course, part of the reason is because I'm only counting new books, not the many well beloved books I reread through out the year.

I've noticed that I tend to go in spurts. I'll have several weeks, even months, where I won't read a new book, or even an old one, at all. Life gets in the way, a wonderful burst of writing productivity hits (I rarely read when really immersed in a WIP), deadlines hang over my head, children need attention, and that darn laundry ALWAYS needs folding. But then, I'll have a week or so where I read book after book after book, devouring them with every waking moment.

As long as I get them in, I'm happy. I've reached 50. I need just two more books....and I have about three more weeks in which to get them read. I know I'll be getting a bunch of new books for Christmas...but that won't give me much time to read by the end of the year. So, I think I'll have to browse a bookshelf or two and get in my quota for the year :) (Check out my list on my sidebar if you want to see the new books I've read this year. I loved them all!!)

Did any of you participate in this challenge (or one like it) this year? Did you meet your goal? What's the best book you've read this year?

Ten Word Tuesday

"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing."

~ Ben Franklin

The WOOHOO I'm Finished Grand Giveaway!!!

First of all, HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY! I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday

And second of all - I FINISHED THE BOOK!!!!!

Well, mostly LOL I did finish all the chapters and major rewrites. I do still have a medium-sized tweak for chapter 5 to do and a few minor tweaks throughout the book. BUT, all chapters, 1-17, the introduction, and the about the author section have been completed and the little stuff left will be done in a couple days.

So.....I'm feeling the need to celebrate :D

This one will be easy - just make sure you are a follower and leave a comment ON THIS POST. And that's it! You are entered! I will take entries until Saturday night at 11:59 pm.

Now for the prizes!!!

When I finish a project, I generally celebrate by diving into a good book, eating some good chocolate, and buying some gorgeous jewelry from my amazingly talented friend Bonny (who is also doing a giveaway on her blog, so click on her name and go check it out!).

So, I thought I'd share my celebration with you :) The glorious grand prize will include:

A beautiful bracelet from Bonny Lass Jewelry:

Yummy mouth-watering gourmet apples from Mrs. Prindables:

And a $10 gift card to the online book dealer of your choice  :)

Extra Entry Opps:

- Be or become a Follower of my other blog (which I promise I'll start posting more on!) Papers, Prose, and Poetry = +1

and

- Tweet, blog, Facebook, or otherwise share the joy = +1 for each (for a total of 4 extra entries)

So everyone has the opportunity for 6 entries - but you MUST leave a comment on this post to enter, so don't forget! Let me know how many points you have in your comment and I will announce the winner next Monday. 

Good luck and thanks for celebrating with me!!!

Obsession Confession....

I am addicted to books - as in SERIOUSLY addicted. Obsessed. When I'm in the middle of a good book, nothing else gets done. No housework, no writing, no sleeping...it really borders on the ridiculous, but I just can't help it.

I just sent my kindergartener to school with a $20 bill...I'm terrified it won't make it there, but this week is his school Book Fair and I want him to be able to buy anything his little heart desires (though, looking over the prices, it may not be much, even with $20).

Oh my - nostalgic visions of my own school book fairs dancing in my head.... *happy sigh*

I had to refrain from sending the whole $60 I had in my wallet. He gets to go buy BOOKS. I'm all giddy just thinking about it. I could really blow entire paychecks on books. Sure, I'd feel guilty afterward, but the feeling would be muted by the absolute euphoria I experience when I'm eyeball-deep in an awesome story.

In fact, I'm in the middle of reading a book now...which is why this post is later than usual and wasn't set up ahead of time as is normally the case - I was reading all weekend :D

So, how about you? Are there any other crazy, book junkies out there? Can you get sucked into a good book and still function, or does the world shut down as you devour your latest treat?

Please tell me I'm not alone.... :D

Yep, I'm nuts

Monday I went and picked up an entire set of mostly-never-been opened 1980's encyclopedias that someone in my town was giving away. Why, you ask? Seems sort of pointless, right? I mean, the information in those books is outdated by several decades. And it's easier to just look up stuff on the computer, right? Google! Who needs anything else?

But I just had to have them. When I was a kid, and even when I got a bit older, I'd spend hours sitting on the floor by my mom's bookshelves, reading through the encyclopedia. Most of the time it would begin because I wanted to look up something specific. Like after I watched Braveheart for the first time, I wanted to look up more information on William Wallace and Edward II and Scotland, so I pulled out a few books and started looking.

And along the way, I'd come across other articles that looked interesting, so I'd read those. Before I knew it, hours had passed and my entire family was standing there staring at me like I was insane :D But hey, no one's ever accused me of being normal ;D

So when this opportunity presented itself, I jumped on it. I'll admit, I have visions of my own children sitting for hours, thumbing through books most people wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole. They may never happen (I can be realistic...sometimes). But, even if no one else ever gets near them, I'll have them. They'll be there, waiting for me.

(If I disappear for a few days, you know where to find me) ;-D

Hook Me...or Else!

Quotes of the Day:

My test of a good novel is dreading to begin the last chapter.
~Thomas Helm

You know you've read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend.
~Paul Sweeney

How long do you give a book to hook you before you give up on it?

This is something I've been thinking about recently, as I delve into editing my first few chapters. I know as aspiring authors, we are sort of conditioned to try and hook our readers (i.e. agents/editors) within the first three chapters...or better yet, the first chapter...or better still, the first page. Because we know when we query, we only have a few minutes of a very busy agent's time to hook them into asking for more of our book.

But when you are reading on your own, just for fun...how long will you read before laying the book aside? 1 chapter? 3 chapters?

I just started reading A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray...for the third time. I've picked it up twice before, and despite the facts that the passages were wonderful, there were exciting, strange, and mysterious things happening, and it is right up my alley as a historical...I just couldn't get into it.

This time around, I am finally hooked - I'm reading and thinking about it when I can't read, and wondering what happens next. And I'm 80 pages in. It took that long for me to get well and truly into the book.

There are several books that I've done this with, that I didn't really get hooked by until around page 80-100 (Twilight being one of them - bored me to tears for the first few chapters), and sometimes these books go on to be favorites of mine. Twilight, the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon (probably my all time favorite series, but the first chapter bored me a bit). Anne Rice's books are notorious for this, with me at least. The first several chapters are beyond boring, and then I get really hooked.

Most of the time, I stick with these books as long as I do because I've had so many people tell me how much they love them. So I continue slogging through either hoping I'll eventually see in them what others have, or wondering what it is that others love so much and assume if I keep reading I'll figure it out. With Anne Rice, I stick with them because I know if I can just make it to chapter 3, I'll be loving it (except for one of hers....I gave it about 100 pages and then just gave up).

Without that word-of-mouth incentive, or a prior good experience with the author, I doubt I would have given any of those books a second look...I would have gotten bored and put them down, never to touch them again. But I still try to give books 100 pages to catch my attention - mostly because that seems to be my magic mark, the point at which you've either got me or you don't.

So how about you? How long will you give a book to hook you?

When Garbage Inspires

(see more awesome demotivators at despair.com)

Quote of the Day:

If you are going to learn from other writers don’t only read the great ones, because if you do that you’ll be so filled with despair and the fear that you’ll never be able to do anything near as well as they did that you’ll stop writing. I recommend that you read a lot of bad stuff, too. It’s very encouraging. “Hey, I can do so much better than this.” Read the greatest stuff but read the stuff that isn’t so great, too. Great stuff is very discouraging. If you read only Beckett and Chekhov, you’ll go away and only deliver telegrams at Western Union.
~Edward Albee

I came across this quote and immediately thought, “Oh that is so true.” I’ve read books where I’ve just sat and shook my head at the awesomeness of what I held in my hands. I was filled with the desire to produce such incredible prose while at the same time knowing that I never would. And each time this happens, I have that moment of supreme discouragement. That thought of “I’ll never be this good, why do I try?”

That thought invariably disappears the second a new idea pops in my head, or the moment I sit down to write. Because whether I am producing a great novel or the worst sort of drivel doesn’t matter to me so much when I am in the grip of whatever story is clawing its way out of my head. All I want to do is write, get the story out, quiet the raging voices in my crowded mind.

But those doubtful thoughts will of course return the next time I have an unbelievably awesome book in my hands.

On the flip side, as Mr. Albee says, if I am reading something that isn’t so great, it is very encouraging. I was actually inspired to write the WIP I just finished because I was reading a book that, while I enjoyed it, inspired the thought of “Okay, I can do better that this. Or at least something just as good.”

And it spurred me to write, to start a project that would be better, more popular, and more successful than the book I had read.

To be honest, I’ve never read anything truly dreadful. If it starts getting too bad, I just put it down and move on to something else. My time is too precious and my spare time too limited to waste it on something horrendous. But it’s those in between books that encourage me to put all my effort into a project. Those books that are okay but that have you thinking through the whole thing, “Ooo, I wouldn’t have done that there, I would have done this instead. And this would have been so much better if this whole section was cut and maybe replaced with this.”

So, next time you start getting really discouraged…find a book that is complete garbage and bask in the knowledge that you can do better than that. Honestly, thinking of any book as garbage sends a huge twinge of guilt through my system, because I know how difficult it is to complete a book, any book, and I don’t like to negate the efforts of anyone. But, let’s face it, we’ve all read books where we sit in complete stupefaction that something like that could have successfully made its way through the maze of agents, editors, and publishers that exist to filter out the trash. I suppose that saying is true of all things…one person’s trash is another person’s treasure :) I am quite sure that someday, someone will be using my book to encourage them, knowing they could do better. But maybe another person will hold my book, shaking their heads at my awesomeness ;-D I’m not holding my breath on that one though :D

In any case, every book serves a purpose. Turn manure into a flower and let it be your inspiration :)

Reading List Update

Okay - I think I'll make Thursdays my update day :) So, for this week, I have two books to add to my list....

9. Wolf Wing by Tanith Lee (enjoyed it, but out of the series of 4, my favorite, by far, was book #1)

10. Fairest by Gail Carson Levine
--this is the author that wrote Ella Enchanted - so if you liked the book (or movie) of that, you'll enjoy Fairest (it is Ms. Levine's take on Snow White). I really enjoyed it :)

I have Melissa Mar's Wicked Lovely on the way and have book # 2 of that series on my table (courtesy of my awesome friend Bethany). I am also in a twitter over book #5 of the Casts' teenage vampyre series coming out next week (I believe), so hopefully next Thursday I'll have a few more to add!

Actually, there is another book on my table as well, but I can't remember the title and I don't want to run upstairs to look :D But I'll be starting that one today :D