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message 101:
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Keli, Keli Snail
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Aug 28, 2020 03:40AM
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StarMan wrote: "This has nothing to do with anything, but here's a super easy recipe for instant diabetes pecan pie. It was from an old newspaper, and I found it stuck inside a book. I can even manage this one......"Yum! You nice man.
SNAIL = Slow, Notoriously Awesome, Intelligent, Literate(yeah, I made that up; ya'll can probably think of a better acronym)
And I like what you’ve done with your hair :-)
Pien wrote: "And I like what you’ve done with your hair :-)"Thanks, I change my profile image occasionally (if that's what you meant!). Sadly I'm still not as attractive as your Miss Auras reading her Red Book :(
I'm not too sure about the pink, but "8-bit" StarMan is sorta cool.
StarMan wrote: "SNAIL = Slow, Notoriously Awesome, Intelligent, Literate(yeah, I made that up; ya'll can probably think of a better acronym)"
Love it! And like the new profile pic, Tim.😉😊
Yes, I ment that! And I didn’t know the picture’s name till now! Thanks, that’s nice to know. Being Miss Auras I can tell you that it’s not always easy to be so pretty. My friend Mona L. gets stared at all the time too. Sometimes it would be nice to just averagely blend in.
oh but we love you, miss Auras, not Mona...
Just curious... How many of you, fellow snails, have written or are writing a book? I don’t think I could ever have the patience for such a project so I’d love to hear how you manage it, and what it is you write.
Pien wrote: "Just curious... How many of you, fellow snails, have written or are writing a book? I don’t think I could ever have the patience for such a project so I’d love to hear how you manage it, and what i..."I've written two novels, one a Japanese historical set in the aftermath of WWII which was published by a small indy publisher (when the five-year contract was up, I self-published a revised edition), and the other a quirky contemporary mystery set in old East Dallas, also self-published. Last year during NaNo (National Novel Writing Month) I got about half-way through a third novel, set in Japan about the aboriginal people of the northern island, when I discovered that someone had written almost the same story in 1973. In Japanese. The only way I could see an English version was to go to Hokkaido and check it out from the library. That wasn't possible. All I could find here was the English review.
Writing novels is not as easy as it might look. It is hard work, especially the rewriting, which you'll do a lot of, and then the editing and polishing. Then there's the query search for an agent and publisher, unless you decide to go the self-pub route, in which case you need to find out how to do that or pay someone to do the formatting for you. I think you must have a story that drives you to keep writing until it's finished, which is not the same as having patience. It takes a bit of madness, imo.
Mod
East Dallas, like Oak Cliff?
Way to go, Candace :) I agree on the "madness" part.I've written 3 incomplete novels (50,000+ words) for 3 different years of NanoWriMo (short for 'National Novel Writing Month,' which happens every November 1-30).
I'm still working on those, and I write short stories as well. Mostly SciFi, occasional fantasy or speculative fiction.
I was participating in a small local writers group, but that's on hiatus due to COVID-19--although we occasionally pass stuff around via email or snail mail.
Keli wrote: "Candace wrote: "Pien wrote: "Just curious... How many of you, fellow snails, have written or are writing a book? I don’t think I could ever have the patience for such a project so I’d love to hear ..."Hi, Kelly - No, like near Lakewood.
StarMan wrote: "Way to go, Candace :) I agree on the "madness" part.I've written 3 incomplete novels (50,000+ words) for 3 different years of NanoWriMo (short for 'National Novel Writing Month,' which happens ev..."
Are you doing NaNo again this year? I would if I had a subject. :(
Candace wrote: "Are you doing NaNo again this year? I would if I had a subject. :("Probably not. I have some ideas, but I already have too many unfinished projects. And the Nano website is a bit of a mess with their new redesign. Maybe they'll get the bugs worked out before Nov 1st, but I find it very cumbersome to navigate at present.
Hi Candace and Starman, I admire your writing efforts! And it doesn’t sound easy to me at all to write a book! I’m not one for a bucket list, but having written and published a book once would feel very special. So wow Candace! And what’s your interest in Japan? Too bad that last book was so much like an existing one...And Starman, you sound like you have always new ideas for a story. That’s a great talent I think!
Pien wrote: "Hi Candace and Starman, I admire your writing efforts! And it doesn’t sound easy to me at all to write a book! I’m not one for a bucket list, but having written and published a book once would feel..."We lived in Japan during the Korean Conflict (early 1950s) while my Dad was stationed at an American air base near Sapporo, on the northern island of Hokkaido. Like everyone else, we had two Japanese maids on base - one loved everything "modern" and the other was very traditional. I always wondered what happened those girls and decided to write a book based on them. They were the first generation of women to have rights because their new government was based on ours. So, what would happen if both girls - one modern and one traditional - had arranged marriages and for the first time they could chose whom to marry?
Candace, I like stories set in Japan, too. The only one I've read recently is Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata. It's a slow-paced but pretty good contemporary story, if you like characters who are off-kilter or perhaps on the "spectrum."I plan to re-read James Clavell's Shōgun one day as well.
PIEN: Ideas are easy... just people watch, and listen! Sometimes an odd phrase or a name is enough to inspire me. However, finishing a writing project isn't as much fun as starting one--at least not for me.
For me, I struggle with the creative part. I agree, Pien, it's a talent. It's not so easy for some of us. I am strongest on the proofreading/ editing side of things. My family and coworkers come to me all the time, and I even help a fellow author and good friend. I've been told I have an eye for it. I don't know, it's always just come natural to me. So it's very hard for me to read some books that are out there. I'm still surprised how some get published with the amount of errors, both grammatical and content-wise, that I see.😳 I get it, there's most likely always going to be an error here and there, but when it's constant...ugh, such a pet peeve of mine. My one coworker, a librarian I work with, has the creative side, so we've talked about collaborating down the road when we're retired... she'll create the story and I'll polish it.😄
Sounds good Vickie 😄I get really irritated when I see misspelled words and wrong grammar in texts too. When there’s a lot, I seriously think of contacting the publisher. Which I luckily never do for real.
Oops I’m realizing I’m writing this in English, which means a good chance there’s mistakes. But hey, I’m not a writer huh? 😄😄😄
Just curious, is anyone else not receiving notifications? Mine stopped as of yesterday, and I've double checked my settings and nothing has changed. 🤔 hmm... glitch maybe??
So talking with some other GR friends, evidently it is a glitch. Sigh... Grr... hopefully GR fixes it soon.
Latest update... received this email from GR...Thanks for writing in. Goodreads has temporarily turned off email notifications and push notifications to your phone. These notifications include new messages, new friend additions, new followers, new group additions, and any other event, comment, or activity notifications you've signed up to receive in your Account Settings.
We’re very sorry for the inconvenience and will provide updates directly on Goodreads Help about when we'll reinstate email and push notifications. Please feel free to visit Help for more information or contact us.
Best,
Roslyn
--
Roslyn B.
Goodreads Expert
Goodreads.com
No explanation of why they did this, which is annoying, but there you have it. Sigh...
Thank goodness notifications are turned back on. I read that they were evidently doing "maintenance" to better combat spam, etc. It would have been nice if they sent out a universal notification before they shut it down, just so GR members knew to expect it. Oh well... to each his own, right?😊
I thought everyone was just being really silent, reading a very very good book or something 🤓But so we might have missed some interesting comments in our group? What did I miss what did I miss???! 👩🏻💻
Good to know, Vickie, thanks for the info.
I thought it might be a normal thing for my fellow snails🐌 so I did not think anything of it.
I thought it might be a normal thing for my fellow snails🐌 so I did not think anything of it.
Welcome guys.☺And you didn’t miss a whole lot. If you go to our home page and click on discussions, though, it'll show all new comments in red. You can also click on the drop down menu under 'community' and click on 'discussions' to see the new comments in red as well.
In the June 2020 issue of Reader's Digest is an article entitled "Story Time Is For Everyone". The article talks about the benefits of reading aloud and being read to. The article noted the calming effects of listening to someone reading, and I was reminded of the many evenings spent reading to our daughters, and later, being read to by them. Something to think about on these long , dark and stormy winter evenings. Dogs like listening to stories too, but the article doesn't mention cats or goldfish.
..budgies? 🦜
Thanks Fred, that was a need to know information. I will try this tomorrow on my little guy ❤️
Thanks Fred, that was a need to know information. I will try this tomorrow on my little guy ❤️
When I was still reading to my daughter at bedtime, I often got so sleepy that she would take the book from me and read it aloud herself. I just couldn’t stop yawning the moment I saw here lying so cozily in her bed... we gave up when she was eight I think... 🥱🥱🥱Luckily she’s been a good reader from a young age. Guess she just had to 😄
Does anyone listen to audio books. Are they relaxing to listen to?
Nope, I do not. Can't focus enough on it.🤷🏼♀️
Very good memories!I find it hard to focus on audiobooks too. Listened to some and when it’s a very exciting story, or when the different accents were important for the story, I enjoyed it. But otherwise I tend to get extracted a lot.
lol.., Pien ☺️
Fred, I listen to audiobooks more and more. It took some time to get used to, e.g. the falling a sleep, thoughts wandering and fiddeling with my hands, but now I almost always have an audio going and a paper book at the same time.
To me it was like getting used to reading books in English.
I admit that some important stuff will go past my nose, because my mind wanders, but then I start again from there.
Fred, I listen to audiobooks more and more. It took some time to get used to, e.g. the falling a sleep, thoughts wandering and fiddeling with my hands, but now I almost always have an audio going and a paper book at the same time.
To me it was like getting used to reading books in English.
I admit that some important stuff will go past my nose, because my mind wanders, but then I start again from there.
Pien wrote: "Oh my... DIStracted! 😂"LOL!😂🤣😂
Pien wrote: "Oh my... DIStracted! 😂"Pien...you are so funny! I think you were right the first time. Some people get extracted, others get distracted, either way they are not with the story. :-)
Aya wrote: "lol.., Pien ☺️Fred, I listen to audiobooks more and more. It took some time to get used to, e.g. the falling a sleep, thoughts wandering and fiddeling with my hands, but now I almost always have ..."
Hi Aya; wouldn't it be interesting to know what is causing the relaxation, the story or the tone of voice ?
Yes Fred, the tone of voice is for me either a no no - or yes yes.
I have been meaning to write down the narrators that I love most, but it just doesn´t happen...must get secretary now!
oh..and my budgie loves some, and hates others - it must be the voice.
I have been meaning to write down the narrators that I love most, but it just doesn´t happen...must get secretary now!
oh..and my budgie loves some, and hates others - it must be the voice.
Hi everybody; what are you reading? Recently I set some of my books down (Archaeology from Space, and The Decameron ) and I've picked up 2 books of essays and other non-fiction from 2 authors, Neil Gaiman "The View from the Cheap Seats" and Ursula K. LeGuin "The Wave in the Mind". The books are refreshing reading and a nice change of pace. The articles are short, interesting, and have a simple, honest logic to them. I'm hoping to resume the other stories after the holidays when things settle down. Wishing you all a Happy and Safe Holiday Season!
Mod
Thanks Fred. I finished our book of the month today. I enjoyed it and it made me think. I have so many books I want to read but the next one I'm going to try is The Book of Night Women. Right after I finish Friends Without Benefits that is.
Happy holidays to you too. 🎄🎄🎄
I haven't been reading anything lately. Unable to concentrate as we've been very busy making a move from Texas to North Carolina! We're in the unpacking stage now. (When will this be OVER?!) Happy reading, everyone!
Mod
Wow, that's a big move. Do y'all have family there?
Keli wrote: "Candace wrote: "I haven't been reading anything lately. Unable to concentrate as we've been very busy making a move from Texas to North Carolina! We're in the unpacking stage now. (When will this b..."I can attest it's a big move, after driving across seven states! Yes, Tom's parents are here, about two hours away. We are in self-quarantine. Would have been done with that by now, except the movers have yet to deliver the second truck. Ten days late, it should be here Wednesday or Thursday. So quarantine starts all over for two weeks. Won't get to see the folks until after Xmas. But we did get to go to the beach for the first time the other day - this, I can get used to! We are just half an hour away from "Carolina Crystal Beaches." I can see that we'll spend a lot of time reading out there, listening to surf and gulls...
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