Everything is Booked on New Year's

Today is New Year's Eve and 2011 is quickly approaching. As always, we usually create New Year Resolutions for ourselves. The first few days can come easily but it's more challenging to committ in the long run. Work, school, taking down Christmas decorations, and schedules interfere with goals and may sometimes cause the resolution to fade away. One book may be able to help with that problem.

When Turtles Fly by Nikki Stone, gold medal Olympian and motivational speaker, tells stories about intriguing people who have accomplished great things. I've been reading the book recently and the stories are incredible. They show how people's efforts pay off with practice, dedication, and hard work. At the end of each story there is a tie-in to the book's theme and a challenge. These challenges are truly helpful in achieving goals. I definitely recommend this book for people striving to accomplish that New Year's Resolution.

2011 is almost here. A quick stop to the bookstore may be a good way to start the year off.

More details on Nikki Stone's book can be found on her website, http://www.whenturtlesfly.com/index.html

The Sun Also Rises Surprises

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is the first Hemingway novel I've read and I was pleasantly surprised. I hadn't heard great things about it before I started reading but I enjoyed it. I think Hemingway's style and use of short sentences is really effective in creating perfectly clear images. This was an enjoyable book to read. It was also nice to read something taking place in Spain and France. I would recommend this book if you're looking for a quick, enjoyable read. (Photo from Goodreads website-cover of Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises)



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Fast Facts: Recent Writer Updates

I have a few writer related updates at the moment:

-Misadventures in Filgersville is now available on Amazon's Kindle store for devices supporting Kindle programs. It can be viewed through this link. Filgersville on Amazon

-With that said, a new edition has been added to Goodreads of Misadventures in Filgersville for the Kindle edition. Feel free to review/rate that edition if you so please.Kindle Edition

Author Andrew Clements signing books at Tatnuck.

-The last Local Author Extravaganza on Black Friday went great. Thanks to everybody who came. It was nice to see some familiar faces and meet new authors from the area and reconnect with old friends from last time. I will also be attending the same event on December 26th at Borders from 1-4/5.

-Finally, I attended Andrew Clement's book signing at Tatnuck recently. It was really great to meet an author who I read and enjoyed through my childhood. He was very friendly and I was amazed by his timeline of book covers which was so long that it needed to be held up by multiple people. That's impressive!

Procrastination: The Eighth Deadly Sin

I recently finished National Novel Writing Month, writing 50,000 words in November. But Thanksgiving weekend I found myself cramming to write almost 30,000 words thanks to procrastination. It's always easy to put something off for ourselves to deal with later instead of in the present; even this blog post has been put off until today.

This time, I actually learned something valuable from procrastinating. The point of the National Novel Writing month is to write a novel, not to write a fantastic novel, or even a good novel, but to just write a novel. So, that's exactly what I did. I wrote a novel in a month and now I can move on to other writing. I eventually stopped worrying about splitting hairs and let myself write freely in order to meet my deadline. That is what I believe to be one of the key lessons of the challenge: learning to write without the constants editor and critic hovering over your shoulder.

What did I gain from National Novel Writing Month? 50,00 words. A story. I definitely think it was a good experience and hopefully I'll have free time in November 2011 to do it again.