Happy #Loveswept Day!

Magnet #1263 - Authors are my rock stars

In junior high and high school, I loved Duran Duran, my band director, soap operas and my Loveswept authors.

I wrote to John Taylor, wrote a letter to the editor in our hometown paper about our band director, joined the Frisco & Felicia fan clubs and even wrote a screenplay featuring Frisco & Felicia & Sean.

But I also wrote a letter to the editors of Loveswept to find out how I could do what they do - not to be a writer, but to be an editor and work with my favorite authors.

No response, but a decade later, I became a Loveswept editor, getting my dream job very early on in life.

I never wanted to write, but I worshipped Loveswept authors like Iris Johansen, Kay Hooper, Peggy Webb, Joan Elliott Pickart, and dozens more. It was a fabulous job, working with the later generations of Loveswept authors, and really, just an honor for me - and my seventh grade self.

Because it's true, this magnet from my friend - they were my rock stars growing up - and I won't lie, they're my rock stars now.

Now that Loveswept has been relaunched today as a digital imprint, I'm looking forward to discovering more Loveswept rock stars.

Just as soon as I get an eReader.

What?

That's a whole other magnetpost!

For the love of books

Magnet #1197 - Lexxie Couper

I think this might be the last of the Romantic Times convention magnets that my friend brought back for me. Figured it was appropriate, since I just finished watching @avonbooks' Romance Live webcast with romance writers Julia Quinn and Elizabeth Boyle.

I love books. I love the look of them, I love the feel of them. I love holding them.

I love the places they take me, the ideas they hold, and the stories they tell.

But, these last couple of years, I've been having a crisis of faith over the actual reading of them.

I've gone from reading back to back to back to not having read more than a handful of books over the course of the last year. And three of those books were Sarah MacLean's trilogy, so that almost doesn't count (except that they were so very good).

It's troubling, because I used to could drown myself in other people's lives and be transported to the romantic worlds of Regency or Victorian England for a few hours. I could distract myself with books on architecture or the film industry or history.

Now, instead, I buy a ton of books with every intention of reading, but then I can't make it the first couple of chapters before I'm distracted from it, and never pick it up again - which is why I have stacks and stacks of books in my apartment, all bookmarked for my supposed return.

A lot of my problem is that I really can't read without editing. Rewording paragraphs, finding plotholes, recognizing character development mistakes or making mental improvements. I've even found myself composing the revision letters to the authors in my head.

Now, it's more than just that. And I can't figure it out, no matter how hard I try. It's kind of driving me crazy, because I keep hearing everyone I know talk about how much they're reading lately. I'm so jealous!

Clearly my reading block doesn't stop me from buying. So, you're welcome, publishers!

My latest attempt to jump-start my reading is the Kindle app on my Droid Pro. I figured I'd give the app a try, rather than investing in any real sort of eReader. So far, it's great - I buy a title with just one click, and boom. I own it, and can read it whenever I have downtime in random places.

Mind you, I do hate that I'm spending random $7.99s all over the place, and have no physical stack of books to show for it. But, I'm starting to see the same trend - buying a ton of books, and the app's saving a place for my supposed return.

Right now, I'm in the middle of Bossypants (by Tina Fey, which is actually pretty good), Contest (by Matthew Reilly, set in the NYPL, but I wish I'd been told there was an actual monster in it), and More than a Mistress (by Mary Balogh, which was reco'd on Twitter and is ok, though I'm having issues with the characters).

On top of that, I've bought, but haven't yet started The Vespertine (by Saudra Mitchell, because Sarah MacLean kept Tweeting about it), Just Like Heaven (by Julia Quinn, because Theresa Medeiros Facebook'd it), and Lord Langley Is Back in Town (by Elizabeth Boyle, because of tonight's webcast).

The only title that I've actually finished is Unlocked (by Courtney Milan, because it was gifted to me by a reviewer on Twitter, and likely because it was a novella).

See? All these, bought in the last month.

Yep, apparently, my susceptibility to all forms of publicity is still in full bloom...now, I just have to figure out how to get my reading mojo back!

Wish me luck!

Tales of a fourth grade everything

Magnet #908 - Dogs must be carried

We all have that one teacher that we remember growing up - the one who took extraspecial care for us, the one who mentored us and made getting through the schoolyear easy.

For me, that was Mrs. Honbarrier, my fourth-grade teacher, who, besides having a Fireball factory in her basement and always having her ventriloquist's dummy take class pictures for our yearbooks, was just the best teacher ever - and there are tons of people who went through our public school system who will back me up on that.

She gave me the gift of reading by noticing my head was always stuck in a book. She began to let me borrow from her personal library, even though we had a perfectly good one on the other side of campus.

Behind her giant wooden school desk, she kept a bookshelf filled with books that you'd expect - Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary and Louisa May Alcott. On top of that, she introduced me to one of my favorites, Ruth Chew. (It was to Ruth Chew that Mrs. H totally caught me writing a fan letter to...which would have been ok, had it not been in the middle of class. It was one of the few times I was ever scolded in that class - though, honestly, it must have been hard for her to scold a little fourth-grader for writing a fan letter to a children's book author. Heh.)

But it wasn't just fiction. That bookshelf was where I learned about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the cow on the White House lawn. And, oddly enough, it's where I learned about Service Dogs, and how they train the puppies from birth to be guide dogs for the blind. No, I haven't a clue why she had that book there, but I remember being fascinated by the fact that the dogs can sense danger, and be trained to protect their humans from the outside world.

That's why Mrs. Honbarrier came to mind yesterday on the train, and why I knew I had to use the London Transit magnet, because an old lady carrying a supercute cocker spaniel walked by me. The spaniel was wearing a little yellow jacket that clearly marked him as a service dog, and I instantly remembered that service dogs book from fourth grade.

Mind you, it was really because I was trying to remember if they ever mentioned any other breed besides German Shepherds being guide dogs, but still, I'd bet that Mrs. H would never have guessed that almost three decades later I'd still recall the books she loaned me.

Make thy books thy companions.

Magnet#839 - Book worm

My friend picked this one up for me at this year's BEA. Love it - it goes with my matching mug from DCsis!

Summers were the best time of year for us growing up - for most kids it meant running around outside all day. But for us, it usually meant more time at the public library.

My parents would drop us off, and we would literally run all over the place. Now that I look back on it, basically the librarians were our babysitters and the library, our playground.

Now, sometimes that was great, sometimes not. Generally, we were pretty well-behaved bookworms - the darling little Filipino girls timidly peeping around the corners. Other times, we could get a little unruly, running around the stacks and staircases and water fountains.

But for the most part, you could find us nestled in the aisles, each in different sections of the library, reading our treasures, or finding new ones. And we each had our checklist of what sections to go through - after I outgrew the summer reading program, my favorite part was poring through the paperbacks section - looking for new authors and romances to read. Then doing the same thing through the hardcover fiction aisles. I'm glad I never discovered the joys of nonfiction there, otherwise, I truly would never have left the library.

As it was, no matter how often we'd visit the library, though, each of us would always, always, always leave with giant stacks of books to bring home - arms full of new people, places and things to discover. We'd check out so many books, it was hard, sometimes, to keep up with them.

Yep. Or, at least that's what I learned that one summer I wracked up $30 in overdue fees. Even Sonja the librarian was like, how is this even possible when you're here so often? Then she cut me a break and like brought it down to $20. Hee. Love those small-town libraries.

*Make thy books thy companions. Let thy cases and shelves be thy pleasure grounds and gardens.

- Judah ibn-Tibbon (12th century)

Reading IS cool!

Magnet #824 - Make Reading Cool

Woot! I'm off work today, so I can go to BEA (BookExpo America), and perhaps work on my back-up plan.

What's that plan you ask? I dunno, it depends on how much you like this blog. Heh.

Even though we all know I'm gonna end up on my blackberry on the exhibit floor (if I actually get off this sofa and stop answering emails, because apparently I enjoy playing the martyr), I'm totally gonna roam the BEA booths and see what they have to offer.

And? I'm gonna just wander the floor, rather than plan a course of action to see everything. Gasp! I know! I'm a rebel!

Seriously, I'm like a kid in a candy store at BEA, for a couple of reasons:

• First, because any trade show, is a good trade show.
• Second, fun swag.
• Third, free books. Though, this shouldn't count, since more often than not, I never end up reading them, I pass them along.
• Fourth, it's fun to see the Pomegranate stuff. Yes. You know I love them. One whole booth of well-designed heaven.
  
• Fifth, it's nice to visit the publishing world, and wonder if I should go back, and then determine that I'm too fulfilled by my marketing/advertising life to ever think seriously about going back. Insert sarcasm here, though, remember we learned last year that publishing and marketing/advertising are basically the same thing!
  

Anyway, I picked up this pin/magnet at last year's BEA - Ripple Reader is a kids eBook/eReader resource. Aside from the pretty colors and fun characters, I just love the simplicity of their mission statement.

Reading is cool!

A writer always reads

Magnet #728 - Thomas Jefferson's Library

If you think I picked up this magnet as my secondary magnet from my superdupercool Library of Congress tour a couple of years ago, you've got another think coming. A friend of mine picked this magnet up for me at ALA in Anaheim a few years ago.

That phrase "you've got another think coming" always cracks me up. It was the root of one of the first professional arguments I ever saw in the workplace. One of my colleagues always thought it was "you've got another thing coming," and made sure to change it in the manuscript that she was proofing.

Right? I mean, that's how most people think the phrase goes!

Instead, one of our other most OCD supervisors - ever - took much pleasure in correcting this thought.

I have never seen my friend so mad! She was arguing her own point to me days later, saying that the ordinary reader believes it to be "thing" and we should just fix it in the mass-market book she was working on.

Now, it's entirely possible that this type of "catering to the mass-market" in our editing and proofreading is what's helped chip away at our collective intelligence. But I worry that it might start even earlier than that.

Today, we had the pleasure of three 10-year-olds and a 4-year-old in the office. Great fun! And a good reminder of how much I love kids. And sending them home with parents.

Anyway, I pulled out a stack of books - I know! The nerve of me! Books! - for the girls to read to the 4-year-old. And all three older girls were like, uh, we don't want to read. One went so far as to say, I'm not a reader. I'm a writer.

Gasp!

I couldn't stop myself. I blurted out, But a writer always reads! She said, nah. I don't like reading. I just like to write. Which then led us into this tangent of how she's a blogger. No kidding, here. She's a 10-year-old blogger. Of fashion. (Of course, this was the girl who gets up an hour earlier than she needs to, to wash, dry, style, mouse and gel her hair, for her headband to stay in).

Eh, despite that, I do love this kid, and think she's the smartest thing ever, but I so wanted to cry when I heard she's a writer not a reader.

Sheesh.