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e-maginings: Kindle DX

May 16, 2009 by in category The Romance Journey by Linda Mclaughlin tagged as , ,


Earlier this month, Amazon announced its new, larger Kindle DX, due out this summer. The DX is magazine-size with a 9.7 inch screen compared to the 6-inch screen of the Kindle 2. The DX has a rotating screen so you can read in either portrait or landscape mode; a built-in PDF reader, no conversion required (a much sought after feature); wireless connection and Amazon’s new, somewhat controversial Read-to-Me text to speech capability.

The new device is designed to enhance reading of newspapers and textbooks, and I can see where the larger size will be helpful in viewing graphics. I’ve had a Kindle for almost a year and a half ago, and one of the few downsides I’ve found is that graphs and photos are often so tiny as to be meaningless. Gadget purists are upset about the lack of a slot for a storage card in the newer models, but Amazon claims the increased memory makes an SD card unnecessary.

The pre-order cost of $489.00 will no doubt chase away some readers, esp. during tough economic times, but I think the Kindle is here to stay. The smaller Kindle 2 is still available for $359.00 and there are some used first generation Kindles available for $250.00 and up.

On the POD front, I found an interesting blog post about the Espresso Book Machine. Personally, I’d love to see one of these in every bookstore.

Linda McLaughlin w/a Lyndi Lamont
http://flightsafancy.blogspot.com/
http://www.lyndilamont.com/

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So Many Writers’ Events, So Little Time!

May 6, 2009 by in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston, Writing Conferences tagged as , , ,


April was especially busy with events relating to books–partly, but not entirely, because of the publication of my seventh Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mystery NEVER SAY STY. I did some signings for STY and also gave a talk at the Writers of Kern.

More recently, I attended both days of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, signing at a couple of booths and also sitting at the Mystery Writers of America booth to promote the organization.

I also attended the Melody of Words, an event at a local high school to encourage students and members of the community to read… and write. It was a lot of fun, too.

I usually attend Malice Domestic around now, an event celebrating cozy mysteries that’s held in Washington, D.C., followed by an event hosted by the Mystery Lovers Bookstore near Pittsburgh, PA, where I grew up. However, this year my older son and daughter-in-law were visiting L.A. from Chicago on the same weekend, and since RWA National is also in D.C. this year I didn’t necessarily need two visits there so close together. So, I stayed home and had a great time with family.

Next month, the local chapters of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime are co-hosting the California Crime Writers Conference, which I’m looking forward to.

And I of course love to attend OCC meetings! I’ve had to miss some lately because of some signings and other events–and the June meeting does, unfortunately, conflict with the California Crime Writers Conference.

You’d think I wouldn’t have time to write with all these meetings and events going on… But somehow I manage!

What are your favorite writers’ events?

Linda O. Johnston
http://www.lindaojohnston.com/
http://www.killerhobbies.blogspot.com/

Linda O. Johnston is the author of 15 romance novels and several novellas, including a current Nocturne Bites, with 2 more Nocturnes upcoming. She also writes the Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mystery series from Berkley Prime Crime.

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The Artist’s Way

April 29, 2009 by in category The Artist Way by Gillian Doyle tagged as ,

“All artists must learn the art of surviving loss: loss of hope, loss of face, loss of money, loss of self-belief.” – Julia Cameron, THE ARTIST’S WAY.

In November of last year, my widowed mother was diagnosed with mid-stage Alzheimer’s. In January, she required a full-time caregiver in her home. In late February, she suffered a psychotic breakdown and had to be admitted to a secure facility. Thanks to a change in medication, she has come back around but her memory is deteriorating rapidly. In some ways, she is not aware of losing track of minutes, days, weeks. For the rest of the family, it is sad and frustrating and stressful.

While cleaning out my mother’s house, I found a poem titled “Don’t Quit” that she had tucked into a drawer. Ironic, yes. Her mind is shutting down. Her eyesight is failing from cataracts and glaucoma. The neurologist is concerned that she is beginning to show signs of renal artery failure. And yet here is this scrap of paper with words of hope. I don’t know when she clipped it. Or from where. It could have been years ago. Maybe it helped her hang on this long. She’s 88 years old now. Her mother was only 62 when she had died of complications from Alzheimer’s.

When I decided to share the poem in my blog this month, I discovered that it ties in nicely with Debra Mullin’s blog entry on yesterday’s A Slice of Orange, in which agent/author Lucienne Diver states: “Don’t give up and don’t let rejection get you down. Rejection is part of the process. . . . you’ll never make it to the goal if you get disheartened and stop along the way. “

Don’t Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill
When the funds are low and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh
When care is pressing you down a bit
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns
As every one of us sometimes learns
And many a fellow turns about
When he might have won, had he stuck it out.
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man;
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor’s cup;
And he learned too late when the night came down
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt
And you never can tell how close you are
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit
It’s when things seem worst that you mustn’t quit.

– Author Unknown

Until next month . . .

– Gillian Doyle
http://www.gilliandoyle.blogspot.com/
http://www.gilliandoyle.com/

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A Fantasy Life

April 27, 2009 by in category A Fantasy Life by Janet Cornelow tagged as ,



By Janet Quinn Cornelow

Debra Young, who some of you know and who has been my critique partner for years, went to the last OCC meeting with me to hear Blake Snyder. He was an interesting and entertaining speaker with a great deal of information. Because I couldn’t go home after the meeting – the Orange Oil Termite people were there and I’m allergic to oranges – Debra and I went out after the meeting. While eating banana splits and making ourselves sick, we talked about Snyder’s points.

Debra and I meet the third Saturday of every month, so I decided that we should take one of his suggestions to heart and make a headline and a movie poster for our current projects. Of course, since neither of us have the ability to actually draw or put a movie poster together, we were suppose to come up with just the idea.

Our meeting came and Debra had forgotten what I said to do and I hadn’t had time. My online classes had kept me very busy that week. So as we ate fajitas, we came up with headlines and movie poster concepts. It really makes a person think about what it is her story is about. It does clarify the concept so that it can be explained to someone else.

My current project is Sam, the never-ending-story. (After I finish him, it is onto an urban fantasy and slaying monsters.) For Freedom’s Treasure, we came up with – When love is at stake, freedom is the ultimate sacrifice.

Figuring what type of movie poster would attract attention and make someone interested in your story is a bit more complicated. It is like designing a cover for the book. I am terrible at that. I never know what I want on the front of my book. However, we did come up with something. Now I wish I knew how to make it so I could post it on my website. Sam is standing in the foreground, in chains, protecting Jubilee. In the background are fields with crops growing. Up on the left, smaller, are the slave hunters looking for Sam and Jubilee.

We decide on the chains because the first time Sam was introduced in The River’s Treasure, he was in chains. Although he isn’t literally in chains anymore, figuratively he is.

Debra and I did go over the bullet points that Snyder came up with. Me, I’m still stuck on the one that says theme. I used to be a high school English teacher and I still can’t do theme. Debra wasn’t any help on the point. I think I’ll just skip that one and keep going.

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Advice to Myself as a Newbie Author

April 22, 2009 by in category Advice to Myself as a Newbie Author by Shauna Roberts tagged as , ,

by Shauna Roberts
http://ShaunaRoberts.blogspot.com

Today’s Guest: Trish Milburn

Trish Milburn is an eight-time Golden Heart finalist and two-time winner—once for Romantic Suspense and once for Young Adult. She writes YA as Tricia Mills for Razorbill (Heartbreak River, April 2009) and contemporary romance under her real name for Harlequin American (Her Very Own Family, May 2009). She is a former magazine editor and still puts those editorial skills to use as a freelance copy editor and writer. She has her own blog and is a regular contributor to the Wet Noodle Posse, Romance Bandits, Supernatural, and Harlequin American group blogs.

In what little spare time she has, she enjoys reading, traveling, watching TV and movies, and hiking.

Trish, if you could travel back in time to before you were first published, what advice would you give yourself?

1. Do not take rejections personally. There were so many times, particularly early on, where they felt personal when they weren’t. I could have saved myself a lot of tears and hurt feelings if I’d had a tougher skin from the beginning.

2. Related to No. 1: Remember, this is a business. Sure, we deal with creative works and we get emotionally invested in our books, but we can’t lose sight of the fact that those books are, in fact, products that we want the publishing companies to take a chance on selling. All our decisions should at some level be made through the prism of good business sense.

3. I live this one, but I think it’s important for all new writers to remember that old saying, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” Publishing might seem like a big world, but it really isn’t. Editors become agents; agents change agencies; other writers cross your path. Trust me, if you say something negative about an agent, editor, publishing house, or fellow writer, it’ll come back and bite you. I’ve unfortunately seen it happen to people.

4. Constantly learn. Read writing how-to books (but don’t necessarily absorb them as gospel), other books in the subgenre you want to write, novels in other genres (I like mysteries), nonfiction books, and magazine articles. You never know where inspiration will strike, and all this varied reading opens up your mind to so many possibilities about plots, characters, and writing styles.

5. Try lots of different subgenres or styles of writing to see which one fits you best. You may discover you like and are good at more than one. I like the freedom of going back and forth between writing my Harlequin American romances and my teen novels.

6. Support fellow writers, whether by buying their books, attending their book signings, giving them publicity on your blog, talking their work up to friends and family, or other means. I believe when you help others, good karma comes your way. Everyone benefits.

7. Jealousy has no place in your life. Don’t compare yourself with another writer, particularly one who started out about the same time you did and seems to be having more success. That way lies madness. Each writer’s journey is different. It took me eleven years to sell, and though it was hard to keep going at times, I believe I learned so much more and now appreciate the wonder of selling books more because it took me so long.

8. Even after you sell, don’t stop appreciating every single positive—each new book sale, each fan letter, each positive review. I just saw an interview with John Grisham on BookTV, and he said that he didn’t ever want to take any of his success for granted. I feel the same way.

✥✥✥✥✥

To learn more about Trish, please visit her Web page at http://www.trishmilburn.com or her blog at http://www.trishmilburn.com/blog/. You can purchase her April young adult release, Heartbreak River by Tricia Mills (Razorbill), and her May release, Her Very Own Family (Harlequin American), at your local bookstore as well as online. Click on your favorite online bookstore below to go directly to the purchase page.

Heartbreak River by Tricia Mills: Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Borders

Her Very Own Family by Trish Milburn: Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Borders

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