S.L. Viehl's Blog, page 240

Buy My Hardcover, or I'll . . . .

My daughter told me tonight that author James Patterson is running a TV commercial in which he threatens to kill his protagonist if people don't buy his new book. I think Stephen King already did that once in The Dark Half and it didn't work out so well for the guy (wait, no, twice, he did it in Misery, too.)

Maybe it's a joke, but getting all Abraham with your readership is like telling your editor what you really think of him. Just don't go there. Ever.

I know the steady decline in hardc...

Explorations in Story

I'm finally getting to read the new quilt books I picked up over Black Friday weekend, and really loving Design Explorations for the Creative Quilter, a fascinating how-to book by quilt artist Katie Pasquini Masopust that teaches you the basic steps of making art quilts. Art quilts are different from traditional quilts as they usually aren't made to be used as bedding but are hung or displayed like artwork. If you've ever wanted to make an art quilt but aren't sure how to tackle the project, ...

Gift Ten

Ten Gifts That Won't Cost You Much to Give

1,500 Gifts under $14.99: I keep getting mail-order catalogs from Collections Etc., a gift company that boasts it sells over 1,500 items for $14.99 or less. Turns out they have a web site and a sales section with 700+ items starting as low as $1.97 (a lot of this stuff is on the kitsch-y side, but I went through about ten pages of the sales section, and found these: Tabletop Letter Organizer for $10.97, Adjustable Table for $12.97, and Sunflower...

Off to Play Santa

Create a sticky note online for your blog at Wigflip.com's sticky note generator, Superstickies (link swiped from Gerard over at The Generator Blog.)

Cover Art

Dreamveil , the second Kyndred novel and Rowan's story, will be out in June 2010.

Freebies for All

Author Joely Sue Burkhart has posted a revised version of The Horse Master, a Blood & Shadows prequel, on Scribd.

A couple of seasonal freebies on Scribd: The Story of Snow by Mark Cassino with Jon Nelson (children's book, illustrated); Carol Baicker-McKee's Scandanavian Heart Basket Templates for making three sizes of the holiday heart baskets (assembly instructions & photos at the author's blog here), and Create a Homemade Christmas and Incredible Memories and Free Christmas Clip Art...

Gift No-Nos

Ten Things I Don't Want for Christmas

Biographies of Famous Dead Writers: Why, thank you for showing me exactly what sort of erroneous idiocies some dumbass might someday write about me or one of my friends as well as reminding me of how young we generally buy the farm. Does this come with a box of Kleenex?

Celebrity bylined Books: They didn't write them, and the writer who actually did the work probably got paid a pittance, so this is just going straight to the library donation box.

Chocolate ...

From Lucan & Jayr to You

Making these was just *too* much fun:





Convert any photo into a talking character online with the online demo/lite version of PQ DVD Talking Photo (they have preloaded mp3 scripts, mainly bits of songs and movie dialogue, but you can upload your own photos.)

Also, thanks to Gerard over at The Generator Blog for the great link.

Festive Ten

Ten Things to Help with the Festivities

Planet Green's Leslie Billera has step-by-step instructions on How to Make a Christmas Stocking from Recycled Wool Sweaters (felting, simple cutting & sewing.)

Need the lyrics to your favorite Christmas tune? You'll probably find it over at Christmas-Carols.net.

Reader's Digest has an extensive collection of Christmas recipes that will take your feast from soup to nuts.

In addition to offering up their annual holiday recipes, Cooking Light magazine is havi...

Home for the Holidays Again

Guideposts has issued a trade paperback reprint of my one of my Grace Chapel Inn novels (and to date the only Christmas novel I've written), Home for the Holidays , which until now has only been available via subscription to the entire Guidepost GCI series. For those of you who like my Christian fiction, you can find it at B&N.com or ChristianBook.com.