Sunday 17 August 2014

Decluttering my office...but that was the excuse

My to-read bookshelf, with my writing reference books top right :)
I have never been the most organised person on the planet. In fact my mother would probably roll her eyes if I claimed that I was. My home office had been organised, sort of, until the day I decided to reorganise the furniture.
For that habit I have to blame my mother since she habitually moved the furniture around when I was still living at home. It would seem that I inherited that vice (virtue?) from her. And yes, I do do that, even at my office at work, to the amusement, and dare I say entertainment, of my colleagues.
Since the move, a few months back, I have been feeling more than a touch claustrophobic in my office at home. Time to get it back to order, I told myself.
I have started, and still have a long way to go to truly claim a modicum of organisation, but I have done the one thing that I needed to do: organised my to-read books.
I confess to being a book addict - paperback and ebook. While I had all these books, I had them packed away in my stationary cabinet - again to get some order. This left me with a problem: finding something to read.
Stored right at the bottom, four stacks deep, it was simply impossible (read lazy) to find anything to read, unless I unpacked everything. So I made the time and did exactly that.
Now I can see all the paperbacks (and my collection of hardbacks) at one glance, and finding a book to read, became an exercise of reaching out, making a cup of coffee and putting my feet up.
Good thing my kindle is simply a question of a button push or two, otherwise I would have been in real trouble!

Look out for my posts on one of my favourite genres: the murder mystery, coming soon :)

Wishing you a happy reading week!

Thursday 14 August 2014

Infographic Thursday: Why Self-Publish

Source: www.visual.ly

There is a bit more to it than this, but the infographic does sum it up fairly well :)

Tuesday 12 August 2014

Happily Ever After Romance Blog Tour


If romance is your game, book your spot to promote your book in September! Only 8 spots available. Drop me an email, SEPTEMBER ROMANCE in the subject line, at blog.tour.info(at)gmail.com and get more exposure - pun intended ;)

●♡●▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬❤●♡●❤▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬●♡●


Tuesday 5 August 2014

How long does it take to choose a book title?

How long does it take to choose a book title?
You might rightly wonder why I asked this question. As I had mentioned in a previous post, I had already written book 4 in the Nations of Peace Series, when I got the idea to write Michael's Mystery.
This story's title has been the only one of all that I have written published or not, that baffled me. In fact, I was planning on asking beta readers to help me figure out a title, because for some reason I couldn't get it right.
It went from Exquisite Pleasure to the Future Master, to Adrian's story (dull, huh?) to being Untitled.
Then it struck me this morning at work, while I was thinking about my tasks for the day. An Aha! moment indeed.
When I wrote it down (otherwise I would surely have forgotten) it just made perfect sense. It encompasses the fundamental issue in the whole story.
No, it is not a new 50 Shades (shudders) of anything. It will simply be titled: Waiting for Adrian, the first book of the sub-series The Future Masters.
And the most baffling thing of all - it took me three years to get to this point. Funny how the mind works, but it is the only option so far that not only makes sense, but feels right for the story.
Now I am so excited that I can barely wait to finish Michael's Mystery, so that I can dig into Adrian's story.

I sincerely hope that you have not encountered this problem, but if you had, please me tell how you overcame it so that it doesn't take me another 3 years if it happens again.

A-to-Z blog challenge: Step Q - action steps (part 4: preparing mixed media elements)

  Slapping paint on a panel is fun, but adding non-traditional mixed media elements allows me to really let the creative juices flow. Becaus...