Just A Little Red

Confessions Of A Bookaholic

Posted on March 2, 2014 by DMW

I have a problem. I have been trying to push it down, but it keeps fighting its way up to the forefront of my thoughts. I have too many books to read. Not as in I own them, but they are on my reading list, waiting for me to discover them, befriend them and love (or on the rare occasion get upset with) them. Hello, my name is Michael, and I am a bookaholic. Right now my reading list has 1196 books on it. No, I am not kidding. And this does not include the books I know about that are forthcoming or books I have yet to hear about! It does not include any subscriptions, magazines, other blogs, or news articles either. Just good, old fashioned books of all types. (Sadly, I read very slowly. The upside is that I do not need to re-read, and retain everything, even in a complicated 600-page novel, but I am in the bottom 16% of the population in terms of words per minute. Yep, I tested my reading speed haha.)

I have a goal of reading fifty pages a day from my reading list, which means that I can finish a little over two books per week on average. Of course, I add at least four or five books to my reading list every week, so this is not helping. I am busy, like every other person I know. I am not independently wealthy, which means I work forty to fifty hour weeks, as does my husband. Handling our house and finances are a fulltime job (at least it feels that way sometimes) and that job is also mine. Any long-term planning that needs to be done (trips, conferences, long-term goals, kids) – that would be me. My husband is seriously allergic to making such plans, see my previous blog Opposites Attract: The Story Of A Happy Marriage. And finally I have to balance a medical schedule of appointments, treatments and making sure I am doing what I need to do to stay physically well. I also must confess, this tends to come last for me. Deadlines matter more to me than getting a full night’s sleep. I now strive for a solid seven hours a day, much better from my previous five hours…

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Posted in Books | Tagged "book reviews", "reading list", book, bookaholic, reading, review, writing | 9 Comments

The Things You Don’t (But Should) Expect Once You Have Published Your Book (Part Two)

Posted on February 28, 2014 by DMW

I hope that yesterday’s tips (or warnings depending on how you look at them) did not seem like a bucket of ice water dumped over your head. This second half is all about what to be aware of after you have published your book rather than what to be aware of beforehand. I hope they help you in your mission to be the exception (see #1). If you haven’t already, read “The Things You Don’t (But Should) Expect When You Get Ready To Publish Your Book (Part 1)” before moving onto these.

Ready? Then let’s get to it.

6. The quality of your writing and the story are secondary in terms of how well your book does.

This sounds crazy, right? But it is actually the reality of publishing today, even if you self-publish (and it actually is connected with the next two points I go over). Your book needs to be great in order to do well; no one wants to read sloppy writing or boring characters and flat dialogue. So yes, your book still needs to be good. But there are a lot of beautifully written books out there with mediocre sales at best. Why?

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Posted in Editing, Publishing, Writers, Writing | Tagged "book deal", agent, book, editor, manuscript, marketing, publisher | Leave a comment

The Things You Don’t (But Should) Expect When You Get Ready To Publish Your Book (Part 1)

Posted on February 27, 2014 by DMW

I love my job, and most of the people I work with. I own my own writing and editing business. I primarily work with self-published authors on their manuscripts as well as students on various academic projects, depending on the time of year. What always gets me about the majority of the writers I work with, however, is they usually fall into the same traps.

To be a writer means you have to have a thick skin (more like armor). I think writers who try to find agents, or query magazines or publishers understand that rejection is a part of being a writer. Most writers I know receive hundreds of rejections before they hear that magical “yes.” This either breaks us or hardens our resolve. (I feel strange saying this, because I have never submitted a darn thing, but I know this is the way of it and I am prepared for it. I am preparing my book proposal and query to send out to agents as I write this.)

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Posted in Editing, Publishing, Writers, Writing | Tagged "book deal", agent, book, editor, manuscript, publisher | 3 Comments

The Truth About Institutionalized Hatred: Arizona’s SB 1062 Wasn’t The First, But Can It Be The Last?

Posted on February 26, 2014 by DMW

Hate is a dish, best served… never! Hate is nothing new and institutionalized bigotry isn’t either. What I always fail to understand is why people carry around so much hatred and put so much energy into limiting the liberties of others.

I have read a few articles on SB1062, Arizona’s bill allowing businesses to discriminate against the LGBT (lesbian/gay/bisexual/trans) community and I think all parties involved are simply acting idiotic. Some people have referred to them as the Jim Crow laws of the twenty-first century and others are miffed about such a comparison. The short version, Jim Crow laws forced segregation and discrimination whereas this law gives people the right to discriminate. So the way that this law works is different. That being said, hate is hate. Jim Crow laws were unconstitutional pillars of hate, institutionalized and enforced by the government. In this way, they are very much the same. Other people are saying that this is just ‘the gays’ getting huffy about something that is more along the line of, ‘no shoes, no shirt, no service.’ Of course, people generally choose to wear these articles of clothing, and being gay is not a choice. I don’t care who you are or what special insight you have – it isn’t. Get off this argument; it has been done to death.

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Posted in Equality, News, Opinion, Politics | Tagged 'gay rights", "human rights", "sb 1062", arizona, brewer, discrimination, glbt, hate, lgbt, mccain, romney | Leave a comment

Opposites Attract: The Story Of A Happy Marriage

Posted on February 25, 2014 by DMW

I think everyone has heard the phrase “opposites attract” but I remember in my Interpersonal Psychology class in college that while opposites may attract, they don’t last. I question the validity of this idea because some of the strongest couples I know are complete opposites. Of course that question is only relevant if there is any truth to the statement or is it something I remember, but I got the context wrong? Still, some people seem surprised when they come across a couple who are so different from each other. Why?

My husband and I are complete opposites. I tried to think of something else to say to showcase just how different we are. I am type triple-A (seriously, type A is not a strong enough statement) and on the other end of the spectrum my husband is double-B. He is more B than most of my type B friends, but I don’t know if he is as B, as I am A. I am a morning person; I wake up no later than 7:30am regardless of when I went to bed, on a weekend. My husband can go to bed by midnight and sleep well past noon and regardless of when he wakes up, there is a ‘morning adjustment’ period for him to go through, even if it is midafternoon. I am on a schedule, my husband is always fifteen minutes late. (I actually started to calculate this early on in our relationship, if we needed to be somewhere by 5:30, I told him we needed to be there at 5:15. It usually works.) His favorite foods are the few foods I hate (broccoli, onions, coconut) and my favorite foods are the few foods he cannot even stomach (seafood, mushrooms, the spicier the better). I believe in the direct approach and my husband lives for insinuations and blind trust. I am a realist, he is an optimist. I prefer to keep busy and he prefers nothing to do. I could go on, but I feel I have already demonstrated my point, and then some.

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