Bookstores always suck me in…
I don’t know what it is about bookstores that always suck me in, but I can’t just browse I have to buy. Not only buy, but also buy more than I intend.

The other day I went to Barnes and Noble to pick up Susan Johnson’s new book At Her Service. I went specifically to buy her book and that was all, but somehow I walked out of the bookstore with her book and four others.

It’s very rare that I walk out of a bookstore without spending close to a hundred dollars. I blame the tables. Some marketing guru for Barnes and Noble researched people like me and understand that if they group certain types of literature together on tables… people will buy. It’s that whole “If you build it, he will come” concept.

Barnes and Noble built it and I came and bought.

The problem is I get sucked into bookstores more often than I should. But really is that a bad thing? Books stimulate the mind, imagination and transport you to other worlds. Books make you laugh out loud and cry. Books connect you to characters in ways that movies or video games can’t.

Books are definitely a vice of mine, but they’re not a bad habit. Reading has never been bad for you!

Bookstores can suck me in anytime…

Labels: Barnes and Noble, books, bookstores, erotica, impulse buying, Literature, Reading, Susan Johnson

  posted by Matildakay at 10:32 PM 0 comments

Sidebar Goodies!
There are a lot of new and exciting things going on in my blog sidebar these days…

I’ve added a widget to my goodreads.com book page so you can check out what I’m reading. I’ll be adding books to this page periodically so keep checking back.

I also added a widget to my new flickr.com page where I’ve begun uploading some of my photos. I’ll be adding more photos as I go through all the photos on my computer. I’ve been wanting to start a flickr page for a long time now, and finally just sat down and started uploading photos. So if you like photography, check out my photos.

One of the most exciting new things in my blog sidebar is the link to buy the erotic fiction anthology I’m on the cover of, 39 and Holding… Him. You know you want to buy the book, so go ahead and buy it!

And don’t forget to buy Noveltown products while you’re buying! I’ve put the links to buy Lords: Part One by N.L. Belardes and the Noveltown Review literary magazine in my blog sidebar. If you don’t already have these Noveltown products you’ll want to pick them up!

All these new sidebar items sure make my blog sidebar more colorful… and hopefully fun for you all too. So get to clicking...

Labels: 39 and Holding... Him, Blogging, blogs, books, erotic fiction, erotica, flickr, good reads, Lords: Part One, Noveltown, Photography, Reading

  posted by Matildakay at 10:53 PM 0 comments

Naughty Novelist
"The biggest critics of my books are people who never read them."

~Jackie Collins, naughty novelist.

Labels: books, critics, daily quote, Jackie Collins, naughty novelist, novelist, Reading, wild women, wild words, Wild words from wild women

  posted by Matildakay at 9:40 AM 0 comments

Good Reads
Keely recently sent me a link to a fabulous website called goodreads.com where friends can share what they are reading...

It's my new favorite website!

If you love to read like I do...



Check out goodreads.com and become my friend so I can fall in love with some of your favorite books too.

Labels: books, good reads, Keely, Literature, Reading

  posted by Matildakay at 10:48 PM 2 comments

Memoir discussions...
I discovered interesting discussions on the memoir this week and shared the ins and outs of the memoir with everyone at Noveltown.

Here's a little bit about the memoir:

Recently, I finished reading Alice Sebold’s memoir: Lucky, a courageous tale of her brutal rape as a college freshman and the transformation in her life that followed. Typically I read more novels than I do memoirs. I don’t know that I would ever have picked up a memoir about a violent rape if Alice Sebold hadn’t been the author. It’s not that I can’t handle reading about rape or violence, but perhaps it’s the trueness of the subject and the personal connection to the author that changes the reality of the words. In a memoir the author shares a little piece of their soul with you in the telling of their story.

However, I find Sebold’s writing so compelling, so open and enchanting, I couldn’t help myself. She took a horrific story of rape and turned it into a story about her life I could not stop reading. The affect of a brutal rape on a person’s life was never more revealing to me than when Sebold stated: “After telling the hard facts to anyone, from lover to friend, I have changed in their eyes.”

After having just devoured Sebold’s memoir, I was ecstatic to find a great discussion on memoirs this week over on the Pub Rants blog from literary agent Kristin who participated in a panel at the Backspace Conference entitled: How to Publish a Memoir if You Aren’t Famous. She wrote several blogs discussing memoirs, which turned out to be the most popular genre at the Backspace Conference. She also brought up some great points that I just had to share with all of you writers contemplating writing a memoir.

Kristin writes:

“Lots of people want to write a memoir and it’s also the hardest project to get published by a non-celebrity. And here’s my little rant, very few people actually have stories that are big enough to capture national attention and hence, editor attention.”

What does that mean for those of you writing memoirs? It means that whether you have experienced divorce, or was a child of divorced parents, had abandonment issues, have mental health issues, suffered heartbreak, lived a wild life of sex, drugs and rock and roll, was in the military and went to war, graduated top of your class in college, had cancer, failed in business, lost a child or spouse, was violently attacked, or any other thing that you’ve experienced in your life, millions of other people have experienced them too.

So what sets your story apart from the millions of other similar stories? What makes your story worthy of garnering attention, of being published?

“People need to have a persuasive reason to read your story. Were you famous or associated with someone famous? If not, you have to find a way to tell your story that is so involving and compelling and unique that it grabs the reader from the very first sentence and never lets them go until the end.”

There's a lot more tips about the memoir. Read the full blog and join in the discussion on Paperback Writer.

Labels: Bakersfield, books, Literary, memoir, Noveltown, Paperback Writer, Writing

  posted by Matildakay at 3:48 PM 0 comments