Michelle Scott's Blog, page 21

President Obama Gives the Gift of Books

I caught this CNN news blurb on Twitter today.

President Obama observed ‘Small Business Saturday’ (a day to shop at local stores) by visiting an independent bookstore called Politics and Prose.  Not only did the president shop locally, he has good taste in books!  According to the White House, the President bought books by a few of my favorite authors such as Kate DiCamillo, Khaled Hosseini, and Crockett Johnson (author of Harold and the Purple Crayon.)

Huzzah, President Obama!

A White Thanksgiving

I wasn’t dreaming of it, but I had a White Thanksgiving after all.  We were visiting my in-laws who live in the west/central part of the state, a place where lake-effect snows are frequent.  Sure, it was pretty, but since I forgot to bring boots, it made for mighty cold feet.  Not to mention a terrible drive home.

Free – A Christmas Peril

Here’s an early Christmas present!  Today and tomorrow (Nov. 26 & 27), my novella, A Christmas Peril, will be free on Amazon.

Cassandra Jaber hadn’t planned on spending the holidays with a bunch of vampires who are all intent on stealing her soul. But when she gets a party invitation she can’t refuse, she realizes that vamps aren’t the only things she needs to beware of.

This is a stand alone work, but it is based on my latest urban fantasy release, Stage Fright.  What could be better than a holiday story about vampires?

 

A Little Privacy Would be Nice

Pinterest just rolled out their newest feature: Place Pins.  Place pins allow Pinterest users to add locations to their photo pins.  Not only can you tack up a picture of your favorite shawarma restaurant, you can put the place on a map as well.

If I ever got lost here, I’d want to be found. Other than that…

This isn’t new, of course.  Facebook is always asking me to pin down my locations, and before that, there was Foursquare, another site for logging your location.  But unless you’re canoeing in the middle of the Boundary Waters and worry that no one will find you if you don’t survive the trip, I’m not sure that letting the world know where you live/shop/eat/play is a great idea.

I’m no a Luddite, nor am I a paranoid individual.  However, the idea of people knowing where I am and what I’m doing every moment of the day creeps me out.  Am I alone in this?  Or are you all comfortable in letting others know what coffee shop you’re typing your novel in?

My Book BFF

[image error]It’s a coincidence that my last blog post was about my right to read since today, I had no choice but to read!

Fall in Michigan means tempestuous weather, and today was no exception.  Last night, we had a terrific windstorm/thunderstorm that took out our power and, with it, our wi-fi.  That left me home alone today with no heat, no wi-fi, and no computer.

Luckily, I had a really good book loaded up on my iPad, and the iPad was charged.  (Thank goodness – although I have a huge supply of regular paperbacks as well, lol.)

Anyway, I spent the day reading Dennis LeHane’s Shutter Island which was a perfect read for a gloomy day.  It’s a thrilling book, creepy in a Gothic kind of way, and utterly engaging.  The fact that I didn’t mind not working on my sequel to Stage Fright attests to how absorbed I was.

Anyway, the power is now back on, and along with it, the wi-fi.  In a way, I’m a little sorry because now I have to catch up on my work and can’t finish the rest of the book until tomorrow.  But it was fun while it lasted.

Reading is My Right

[image error]I’ve been on a steady decline over the past two years.  (I’m talking about number of books read…what did you think I meant??)

The year I got my very first Kindle, I decided that it was my right – nay, my duty – to read as much as I could.  I am, after all, a writer.  So using GoodReads, I set a goal for myself of 50 books, and I’m proud to say that I read 49!  The next year, I pushed myself harder and reached an amazing 62 books.  Yeah, I know that’s pretty small potatoes compared to what some people read, but before then, I’d read about five book a year if I was lucky.

This year, however, my numbers have dropped significantly.  I’m only up to a lousy 39 books.  If I want to meet my goal, I’ll need to read an additional thirteen books between now and December 31.

The problem with all of this is not that I’ve fallen behind in my reading, but that it has turned reading into a chore.  I love to read, but at the same time, I feel rushed to finish as many books as possible.  In fact, this whole reading gooal thing has sucked the fun out of my favorite pastime.

I think that in 2014, I won’t set a goal because my type A self will cruise through books without really enjoying them simply to see my numbers climb. And that kind of defeats the purpose of reading.  I want books to take away some of the stress in my life, not add to it!

Wool Gathering

Being a writer can suck up so much of my time that I forget to have fun!  But I love to knit and crochet.  It’s a great creative release, and it also keeps my hands busy while I think.

Lately, I’ve decided I  need to spend more time doing what I love (other than writing!), so I’ve started a new blog devoted to yarn crafts called Wool Gathering.  This is to be my fun blog where I can talk about something other than writing, lol.

Today’s topic is amigurumi.  Especially fox amigurumi.  Come check it out if you do a little wool gathering of your own.

GoodReads Has a Bookstore?

Did you know that you can buy books directly from GoodReads?  Yeah, me neither.

I was messing around with the website, and found that I could upload my own e-book.  As a trial, I’ve uploaded A Christmas Peril which you can download for FREE!  Just follow this link to the page and click the ‘read book’ button below the star rating.

Chicken Soup Day

I’ve decided that today is chicken soup day.

I used to do this thing where every Sunday, I’d make a pot of soup, but when one child moved off to college, one child declared herself a vegetarian, and one child told me she wouldn’t eat ‘wet’ food, my soup days sputtered out.  After all, my husband and I can only eat so much.

Today, however, is the perfect chicken soup day.  It’s cold and dreary outside, I’m home all day, and I’m tired of eating single-serving frozen dinners.  I also have a couple of chicken carcasses from rotisserie chickens in the freezer (and they are perfect for making soup.)

So now, I have the crock pot going, and the entire house smells lovely.  I don’t have a particular recipe.  I’m more of a ‘make things up as you go’ kind of person.  However, I’ve made soup so many times that a recipe hardly seems necessary anyway.

I may even make homemade biscuits to go with it!

A Christmas Peril – FREE e-copy

For the months of November and December, I’m offering a two, terrific deals on the Bit Parts series.  Both deals are available through Smashwords.

1. A FREE copy of the brand-new novella, A Christmas Peril.

Cassandra Jaber hadn’t planned on spending the holidays with a bunch of vampires who are all intent on stealing her soul.  But when she gets a party invitation she can’t refuse, she realizes that vamps aren’t the only things she needs to beware of.  (This short story is based on the books in the Bit Part series.)

 

2. $1.00 off a copy of Stage Fright when you use the coupon code RX59C upon checking out.

Cassandra Jaber’s dream of acting becomes a nightmare when she blacks out on stage during a private audition. She awakes, sore and disoriented, with a three-hour hole in her memory and a crippling fear of the spotlight. Although she tries to piece her shattered life back together, she remains at the mercy of the dark secret locked away in her mind.

But when a mysterious man, who calls himself a guardian of the night, rescues her from a terrifying attacker, Cassandra’s eyes are opened to a fantastic world she never guessed existed. She soon realizes that her midnight rescuer holds the key to her salvation. And her heart.