While I’m away at the Colorado Christian Writers Conference, perhaps you will enjoy sharing your thoughts with each other. Have fun!
What books are you planning to take with you on vacation this year?
What are your favorite “beach” reads?
What old favorites will you revisit?
What new books will you read?
All Dialogue Mechanics Are Not Equal (Viva la Différence!)
Whatever you’re reading, enjoy it, and think of us in the Southern Hemisphere.
It’s raining, and winter is coming. I’m looking forward to reading beside the fire.
Oh a writers conference – enjoy and make someone’s day!!!
No matter how many great books I read, I have another stack ready. However I confess that I return always to my Agatha Christie collection. They are like a comfortable afghan to my heart. So I’ll bring the new batch and keep the old one too.
I’ve already been loading up my ebook device with pre-orders that will be trickling in over the next few months. Let’s see … there’s Just One Summer, a novella collection of some of my favorite authors (Tammy Gray, Amy Matayo, Nicole Deese and Jenny B. Jones). Both MaryLu Tyndall (The Reckoning) and Tamara Leigh (Lady of Conquest) have books due out soon and Heather Day Gilbert has a new mystery out–Trial by Twelve. One I’d recommend (I’ve already read) for a FUN summer read is Manila Marriage App by Jan Elder. Perfect for the beach!!! Oh there are so many more!!!
Hi Tamela,
Have a great time in Colorado. I just got back from three days in Mobile watching tennis. We had about six hours of free time and drove to Dauphin Island. We mostly walked and took pictures, but when we sat down I read Double Cross by DiAnn Mills.
I hope you all enjoy your summer.
Pinned down in Colorado, I’ll cover your flank. (you did say perhaps we’ll share our thoughts with each other). Here’s mine.
The Steve Laube blog was recently named one of the best WRITERS blog in the country,. A GREAT blog takes two elements, great posts and great comments. The SL agency blog consistently has great posts and some of the best commenters around. Yesterday we heard from James Scott Bell. In the past we have heard from many other very knowledgeable and talented writers, agents, self publishers, traditional publishers etc. with GREAT comments. I would like to hear what they are WRITING. What exciting projects are in the works. How its coming along. .Challenges, problems solved, questions etc. You know, stuff about WRITING.
I hope this isn’t blasphemy but the act of reading is quite passive and one of the very few subjects that I think I know almost everything I need to know about, READING.. zzzzzzzzzz…….anyone remember that?
On the other hand, WRITING and the writing industry, this is quite active and now I am enthralled. There is so much to learn and the SL agency blog is a great place to learn something. If I want to learn something NEW this is a great place to learn it, right from the horse’s mouth so to speak.
So Peter, Randy, Sandy, Jennelle, Jackie, Andrew, Ronie, James, Joanna, Joe and the oh so many of you that contribute freely with other WRITERS lets hear something exciting, new, different, about WRITING that we may be able to learn from and continue to receive the sizzle along with the steak that you get when dining at the Steve Laube agency banquet. I’ve had it with the hamburger joints!
Quite the challenge, Rochel. This may not be what you were hoping for, but what about books on CD/tape or whatever listening device you use? You can listen while you travel or exercise. How do you pick the narrator if the author doesn’t record the book? Do you think unabridged or abridged helps build your audience best?
Jackie, this is exactly what I was hoping for, an exchange of ideas, opinions and preferences among writers about writing. Reading certainly has its time and place and is an important part of building vocabulary etc. We all have endless sources for banter about books already published like book clubs, amazon reviews, bestseller lists, signing events etc..
I always prefer unabridged books, I have no need for an abridged version, I feel the fill (ouch) should have been left out in the first place. You might need to sit down when I tell you (and the world) that I DON”T listen to books on tape, I don’t own a listening device (not even a hearing aid) which renders the quandary over a narrator a moot point for me. I don’t mind if my writing goes to audiobook but that doesn’t mean I have to personally like audiobooks and don’t judge those who do. Hey, its their choice!
I always look for new, exciting, creative innovation and when I find it I apply a very strong filter of discernment over it. Back when, I would have sought out Copernicus, Galileo, Chris Columbus and others to listen and explore. That is, of course, after I had already met and listened the greatest of them all, that bright you man from Galilee that is My Father, Jesus Christ.
It is very enjoyable conversing with you. I am very happy to exchange ideas, points of view and projects with others. I will always be the first to proclaim I don’t know it all and that my way may not always the best way. This is why I love to listen to others, I ACTUALLY MIGHT LEARN SOMETHING!
It’s mountain reading for me! Our summer tradition is camping in the Sierra Nevada.
I’m not sure what new books I’m bringing yet, but I want to reread some early Robin McKinley (maybe “The Blue Sword”) and maybe sink into one or two of Ellis Peters’ Cadfael books (it’s been too long!).
I love to read and reread Jane Austin. I also have every audio version of Pride and Prejudice -great for cross country driving. I like the unabridged version best, but it is interesting to see how each abridged version selects different things to omit.
If you like Christie, try Ngaio Marsh. Some say she is even better. I love both. Show-versus-tell balance is very different from today’s standard. I like reading and writing the older style myself, but I’m not so old a dog that I can’t retrain and adapt. That’s going to be my summer self-improvement project.
Thanks Carol. I got a list – looks very promising!!!
This is a great blog site. The blog and comments are throught provoking. I am a ponderer so I rarely write something over the last couple months of being here. But I recently committed to write something as an exercise in courage and to offer something back.
So here is my thought in short thinking time….I’ve read thousands of books and have thousands but have only read magazines in the last 10 years and research books. Having a season of overlapping troubles, crisises, hard things drained my ability and maybe interest in fun. Stories are fun. I think I will try to read some of my unread novels and see how it goes.
I read your words and comments and it reminds of life before. I remember who I was before. I wonder if I can capture some of those kind of relaxing times I knew before. Thank you for sharing.
I am reading Les Miserables. Since it’s nearly 1,500 pages, it may be all I read this Summer! I do have a long list of books to read from CCWC, and I’m sure I’ll sneak them in somehow.
It is still freezing and raining here in Colorado, and we are wondering if Summer will ever come. While I crave the sunshine, I probably read more on rainy days, so I shouldn’t complain.
Nice to meet you at the conference.
Brenda, I enjoyed meeting you as well! My school assigned Les Miserables, along with three other books, for summer reading as we approached sophomore year in high school and I remember it as a tough slog then. Perhaps I might approach it again with a new appreciation this summer.
I love to read Jane Eyre. I like to read this book when I’m on the beach.
What do you like to read this summer?
Amanda, I haven’t chosen yet, but I’m getting some good ideas here!
I bet you do enjoy beach reading because its awesome. I also always look forward to my holidays to the beach, especially to read my novels!!!
Reading is equal to knowledge. So where ever you are taking this, grab it instantly. from my point of view, you can enjoy reading everywhere on beach, on waiting seats etc.