Tag: author blogs

The Beauty of Book Clubs

“We should read to give our souls a chance to luxuriate.”  – Henry Miller

There is nothing so luxurious as curling up in a favorite chair with a good book. The ability to take the time to shut the world out, to lose oneself in the words and the vision of another human being is the height of indulgence. For many, a good book is nourishment, and depriving them of this sustenance is akin to starvation.

When I was working a crazy corporate job it was impossible to free read. Any reading I did was related to the telecommunications industry, and other books were reserved for the two weeks of vacation I took each year. When we relocated to Tampa I became a stay-at-home mom. I loved it.

I became close friends with my neighbor and we decided to form a book club. This was seventeen years ago, mind you, before the Oprah book club. I was diligent in the first five years or so in keeping track of the literature we devoured. Our taste is very eclectic, ranging from classics to “The Bridget Jones Diary.” Our club still exists, with five of the original members. Continue reading “The Beauty of Book Clubs”

A Blog of Your Own

I am a huge fan of personal blogs and their not so subtle messages. Personal blogs are fascinating, both in their success or failure to transmit the image their owner desires. This is another installment of “Your style According to Lois.” Here are the questions I want you to ponder without being overly sensitive and defensive: what does your blog say about you? Do you even know what you want it to say? This is an intervention and help is on the way.

In order to know what you want your blog to look like, you need to do some research.This is what I tell my husband when I am on Net-A-Porter or Sonja Morgan’s blog. The phrase, “I’m doing research, dear”, can get you out of a lot of conversations. Why would I take the time to Google a Real Housewife of New York? Because these women understand self-promotion to a level never before seen by man. To visit a celebrities’ blog, especially a reality TV star, is to see the culture of narcissism in a pure and perfect state. We shy and promotionally challenged writers need to study these experts at work. Continue reading “A Blog of Your Own”

Thank You Norman Coulter

Author Yvonne Hertzberger
Author Yvonne Hertzberger

Now I know none of you have ever heard of Norman Coulter. He’s not a famous author, Indie or otherwise. He was my seventh grade teacher. That school had only two rooms so Mr. Coulter taught grades five through eight. And that year I spent in his class was his first year teaching.

A little background may be in order. Picture a rural farming community of mostly “Old Order Mennonites” or close to that. There are so many orders no one can keep them straight. Suffice it to say that none of the ones whose children attended that school valued education. It was a bad influence that lured their children away from their way of life. And understand that in the entire school, my sister and I, one other girl and three children from another family were the only non-Mennonites. (Being ‘other’ could lead me into a whole new direction, but not today.) Not an auspicious environment for an inexperienced young idealist fresh out of university with the goal of ‘educating’ children. Continue reading “Thank You Norman Coulter”

A Matter of Perspective

Lonely?

Writer.

 

That word looks so lonely. Every author has heard the proverbial, “Writing is the loneliest profession.”

Really.

We spend countless hours in front of the keyboard, with our imaginary and sometimes not so imaginary friends.

Think about it, if you write 750 words per hour (a decent clip, about what I average when I’m rolling) that means in the best case scenario, that’s 133 hours for a 100,000 word novel. In other words if you wrote for a solid five hours per day, it would work out to roughly 27 days—month and a week if you believe in weekends. Continue reading “A Matter of Perspective”