Manx Dialect Xmas Special

Romancing the Genres: 2022 Predictions for Independent Publishing by Deb...

Romancing the Genres: 2022 Predictions for Independent Publishing by Deb...: This time last year, my predictions for the new year were influenced by the impact of Covid on indie authors, on readers, and on the publish...

Novel Points of View: DEDICATION .... IS THE NAME OF THE GAME.

Novel Points of View: DEDICATION .... IS THE NAME OF THE GAME.: So, you've written your 80,000 or so words. You've edited them. Your editor has edited them. The blurb for the back of the book has ...

Novel Points of View: Readers are Plentiful: Authors are RARE

Novel Points of View: Readers are Plentiful: Authors are RARE: Some Thoughts about RARE Edinburgh Here, RARE stands for Romance Author & Reader Events . They have taken place in various cities arou...

Novel Points of View: FLASH FICTION TUTORING

Novel Points of View: FLASH FICTION TUTORING: Something that constantly surprises me about writing are the unexpected turns that take your work in a whole new direction. As those who hav...

Novel Points of View: Season’s ReadingsYou must’ve noticed it. We’ve no...

Novel Points of View:  Season’s ReadingsYou must’ve noticed it. We’ve no...:   Season’s Readings You must’ve noticed it. We’ve not even had Halloween yet, and already the supermarkets are full of Christmas food - fami...

Novel Points of View: Awards and Engagements!

Novel Points of View: Awards and Engagements!: For this week’s Blog Post I thought I’d say a few words about the Joan Hessayon Award of the Romantic Novelists Association . Many of you kn...

Novel Points of View: THE GREAT SCOTTISH CANVAS

Novel Points of View: THE GREAT SCOTTISH CANVAS: Hello!  Have you ever suffered a mental itch? An idea or theme you long to use creatively but can't find the right project? Well, the de...

Novel Points of View: How to write a classic

Novel Points of View: How to write a classic: In January I wrote a blog post about books to read before one dies and how the list influenced a Christmas gift from a member of my family...

Novel Points of View: A WRITER'S WRITER - MY MEMORIES OF JANE

Novel Points of View: A WRITER'S WRITER - MY MEMORIES OF JANE: Last weekend I was given the saddest news that Jane Wenham-Jones - novelist, short story writer, journalist, and so very much more - had...

Novel Points of View: Multi-tasking

Novel Points of View: Multi-tasking:   This month I find myself in the unusual situation of working on two novels at once. I often overlap writing them – typically having one n...

Novel Points of View: FOOD STORIES

Novel Points of View: FOOD STORIES: Hello reading friends!  THEMES When writers write for a while, themes can emerge, and one of the topics that interests me is food. This will...

Novel Points of View: Audiobooks for the win!

Novel Points of View: Audiobooks for the win!: Fasten your seatbelts, readers. I'm pretty certain this post is going to get some of you pretty riled up, but I've recently gone thr...

Novel Points of View: The Power of Sunshine

Novel Points of View: The Power of Sunshine: I am writing this while sitting in our newly built garden room. It’s a home office, but we’ve put a sofa in it as well as a desk as I like t...

Novel Points of View: What a Year – Its Strange Effects, Also Reflection...

Novel Points of View: What a Year – Its Strange Effects, Also Reflection...:   First things first! Leah Fleming, old friend, RNA member and reader of this blog pointed out that The Oxford Concise Dictionary of Quot...

Novel Points of View: Basic Instinct - friend or foe?

Novel Points of View: Basic Instinct - friend or foe?: Instinct:  the way people or animals naturally react or behave, without having to think or learn about it Cambridge Dictionary I read somewh...

Novel Points of View: The Great Scrivener Debate

Novel Points of View: The Great Scrivener Debate: Hands up if you’ve used Scrivener. (Barely raises hand) Starting a new novel is always exciting. I’m writing my fifth historical now, an...

Novel Points of View: The Book Launch That Wasn't

Novel Points of View: The Book Launch That Wasn't: On April 23, my book The Witness made its way out into the world. This was my eighth published novel, but the release of this book was compl...

Novel Points of View: A DAY FOR EVERYTHING

Novel Points of View: A DAY FOR EVERYTHING: 

A DAY FOR EVERYTHING

Hello!

The rise in social media means now there's a 'day' for everything, and when World Earth Day (focusing on how to preserve the earth's resources) and World Book Night (celebrating reading for pleasure) fell during the same week, it got me thinking about my reading habits, how environmentally friendly (or not) they are, and how they've changed over the years.

World Earth Day and World Book Night

STORIES TO MAKE YOU SMILE

As an aside, World Book Night is offering a collection of Stories To Make You Smile for FREE, which includes pieces by Katie Fforde, Dorothy Koomson, Veronica Henry, Richard Madeley and more, which is available to download in e-book here... STORIES TO MAKE YOU SMILE

A free collection of uplifting stories for World Book Night...

Back to my bookaholic tendencies, and just how environmentally friendly are my reading habits?

E-READER

When thinking about e-books, I felt quite virtuous. I wasn't amongst the first to adopt an e-reader but, once I had one, quickly converted to buying more e-books than paperbacks. A quick audit shows I currently have 523 on Kindle. Number read - 119. Given I read around 50 books per year, it will take me 8 years to complete my Kindle collection. I was shocked! I comforted myself that these numbers were less wasteful than if I'd bought paperbacks.

PAPERBACKS

Time to confront my paperback addiction... I always buy my monthly book club read in paperback form, as well as having a favourite list of authors I love to see on my bookshelf. Then there are the novels I know I'll wish to share with family, with friends. Also, I prefer to read shorter fiction in paperback  - short stories, flash fiction, poetry. And non-fiction too.

Last week, I invested in yet another bookcase. The Rose Metal Press Field Guild to Writing Flash Fiction arrived whilst writing this post! I didn't dare count the paperbacks dotted in stacks around the house, but a rough estimate of ones still to be read sits around 150. Again, using my 50 books per year reading rate, this will take me 3 years to complete.

So far, I have enough reading material to keep me occupied for the next 11 years!

AUDIOBOOKS

Over the past year, the most dramatic change in my reading habits has been the increased number of audiobooks completed. I use a variety of platforms, which made it difficult to work out how many I own. However, I can say with confidence that I have 36 still waiting to be read. Given it takes me a fortnight to finish an audiobook, this means I have enough listening to last well over a year.

TSUNDOKU

It would be fair to say I suffer from tsundoku, the Japanese word for purchasing more literature than I have time to read.

MY READING ECO FOOTPRINT

I suspected my book buying habit was hefty, but even I was surprised by the stats and know I can do better - particularly as far as my teetering paperback piles are concerned. That said, I wish to continue to support authors, but my book audit has highlighted that I need to be more thoughtful about the format I chose, and speed up my reading!

So, have your reading habits changed over the years? Do you suffer from tsundoku? How do you decide which format is best when purchasing a book?

Also, remember to bag your FREE e-copy of Stories To Make You Smile... 

Happy reading!

Rae xx

Novel Points of View: When Twisting the Truth is OK

Novel Points of View: When Twisting the Truth is OK: This week I am talking about when it's okay to twist the truth. Is it ever okay to twist the truth... or lie? Well, in the creative indu...