Don't You Just Love A Sale?

It's summer. Time to prepare for vacation. Whether you're a beach bum, a city explorer, or prefer the rustic wilderness, it's always good to have a book or two along for those lazy days or rainy nights. You can benefit from my overzealous ordering. I'm drowning in paperbacks, so I'm having a summer sale. These prices are only available directly from me, not at online retailers. If you belong to a book club and want to make one of my books your read of the month, this is a great time to get multiple copies with FREE shipping. You can view the books and read a description of them on my page at Amazon.com. 

A Book is a Book is a Book

Rescued...Too is available in ebook, trade paperback, and audio formats.

                        Amazon.com













Okay, let me get my pet peeve and rant out of the way first. I often hear people talk about books and say, "I don't like ebooks. I prefer real books." Hearing that statement is like having someone shove cactus needles under my fingernails. News flash: ebooks are REAL books. So are audiobooks. A book is a book is a book.

Ebook technology has been around since 1971 and Project Gutenberg. Early books were available on floppy disks. (If you're old enough to know what that means, well, you're old, like me.) The first e-readers--devices designed for downloading and reading books produced in digital format--appeared in 1998. Prior to that, digital book files had to be read on the internet, on your home computer.

But my point here is not to provide a history of ebooks and reading devices. Rather, my point is to stress that books--regardless of format--are real books.

The difference is the format. I have twenty-seven novels and novellas along with several short stories available in ebook format. Twenty-five of those novels are available in trade paperback. You know---real books (wink, wink). And five of those are available as audiobooks.

I don't know about you, but I love having options. I spend a fair amount of time in any given week in the car. Audiobooks are my salvation during my long drives to and from the day job. And those books are very real. I know there are those who prefer a hard copy of a book in their hands, enjoy turning the pages. I do, too, sometimes. But the ability to carry my entire library with me for travel or to listen to a book being read to me while I drive is invaluable.

If you look at Amazon book listings, they will tell you all the formats in which any given book is available. There's no right or wrong in preference. Trust me, we authors appreciate our readers regardless of the format they prefer. That's why so many of us strive to make our books available in a variety of formats.

But I beg you, please don't refer to hardback or paperback books as the only 'real' books. I will thank you as will many of my author friends.

Have a beautiful weekend and take time to curl up with a good book---on your phone, your Kindle, your mp3---or a paperback. Keep it real!

Linda

Mini-Con for New and Emerging Writers: A Hit!

Saturday, May 6, marked the first in what is planned to be a series of events for writers, sponsored by the Desoto Writers Alliance and the M.R. Davis Public Library in Southaven, MS. It was a great day for all. The focus of this event was: Writing Your First Novel: A Min-Conference for New and Emerging Writers. And it was FREE!

I kicked it off with introductions, then a conversation with Kim Smith about ideas, beginning, starting your book. Helen Henderson picked it up with a great presentation on plotting--taking that idea and fleshing it out. Kimberely Koz showed us how to created well-developed characters.

A fabulous lunch was provided by Texas Roadhouse, Dale's Family Restaurant, and with snacks from American Wholesale Grocers (all donated). Our presenters joined the attendees for lunch and a discussion about writing groups and critique groups, where we were also joined by Vanessa VanDenBlaze.

The afternoon resumed with Wendy Strain, who talked about editing and ghostwriting. We wrapped up with a panel discussion will all the presenters, fielding questions from genre to marketing to finding a publisher.

River City Romance Writers were present to share information about their Romance Writers of America Memphis chapter, and a few participants who belong to Malice in Memphis talked about their local writers group. Writers groups are important, especially for new writers who benefit from the expertise and support of more experienced writers.

Someone asked me why we authors would volunteer to put our time and effort into a day-long event like this for free. I think I speak for my fellow authors here. A lot of people gave me a hand-up and helped me when I first started writing. They pulled me back from the ledge and steered me around many pitfalls. This is paying it forward, helping others who are starting out in their writing careers, sharing our learnings and experience and, yes, some expertise.

I want to especially thank Caroline Barnett and Zachary Clemmer from the M.R. Davis Library (part of the First Regional Library system), the Friends of the M.R. Davis Library and the volunteers, as well as the local businesses mentioned above who made the fantastic lunch possible. It was truly a collaboration and community effort. The First Regional Libraries and, especially, the M.R. Davis Southaven branch has always been welcoming and supportive to writers. They even have a special Local Authors section among their shelves. Libraries offer so much to the community, so please support your local library in any way you can.

I'm eager to review the evaluations and see where we go from here. There will be more to come.