You had me at "What do you like to read?"

With all the things I've been worrying about recently, work has been hard.  Oh, not the actual job.  That's not any harder than usual.  I just feel so trapped for those 8-9 hours when I have so much time to think.  And think.  And rehash this, and rehash that.  I feel like I'm stuck in a Star Trek Recursive Casuality Loop - I'm not literally repeating the same events over and over again, but I am mentally.  And I hate it.

My line leader at work Carissa unknowingly pulled me out of one just this past week.  With one of the best questions a person can ask a writer:  "So, what do you like to read?"

I'm sure my face must have lit right up!  It started a great discussion on books that lasted several minutes.  We talked about the different genres and what books we'd read and which we hadn't.  I was amused to learn that she had read only two of the Fifty Shades of Grey novels, while I haven't read any.  I shared that I love big books, and of course she'd never heard of the Wheel of Time series; which was fair because I didn't recognize some of the authors she mentioned either.  Sadly I don't even recall the names she mentioned aside from them being female - one reason why I hate working in a noisy environment is that it makes these conversations twice the challenge!  One book we both had read was Joe Hill's "Heart Shaped Box" - which we both agreed was a good book that scared the pooh out of us!

It's always nice to talk about books.  I even like talking about books I've never read, because another

I really do need a bigger bookshelf...

readers opinion can sway me to check it out or avoid it completely.  And you can learn so much about people by the books on their shelves (I'm apparently a schizophrenic romantic princess living in space judging by my wide array of books, which really needs to expand!)

Another co-worker, Maggie, really picked my day up by talking to me about my own book.  She had told me earlier that she'd downloaded it on her Kindle, and in this conversation she was telling how she was halfway through and she was liking it.  And then she asked me if I planned on writing any more books - which is another great question to ask a writer!  So I was once again distracted by answering yes and how I have the beginning and end of book two written, while I have the middle of book three written; as well as bits and pieces of the fourth and fifth.  I do things so backwards sometimes!  It usually works for me.

Also this week there was a small dialogue on a Facebook thread concerning my shared blog Broads of a Feather and my book.  It started out concerning a technical difficulty with the blog's comments, which I've fixed so that anyone can comment (which I'll have to double check for this blog!) but there was some conversation about the blog post and my book.  It's always a bit of a rush.

It's part of the reason why I blog.  Not just to say 'here's my book, buy it!' but to just talk about books in general, share some of my trials as I try to write the rest of the series while trying to get that first book noticed.  It's not easy, and self publishing should never be viewed as easier than traditional publishing. Tweet it...   I mean, yeah I've bypassed rejection letters from agents and publishers this way - and opened myself to mass rejection by the readers, which is way worse in my opinion.  Thankfully I haven't had to face that yet.

There's a first time for everything though, and I'm sure you'll all hear about it when it happens!



2014 - Back On Course