To e-read or not

A totally funny thing happened to me yesterday.  I was reading an actual, physical book, reached the end of a page, and tapped the right margin to turn to the next. Have you ever done this?  It wouldn’t happen, of course, if I read books in only one form.  But I’m constantly switching between hardcover,…

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Two more book recommendations

What kinds of books do you like?  Do you switch between genres or stick to one?   Me, I usually avoid non-fiction.  Since I read the newspaper daily, I don’t want more of the same in my free time.  Likewise blood and gore; the real world has plenty.  No, fiction is definitely my thing, but, within…

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Naming the characters in my next book

You’ve heard of Dennis Lehane, right?  Since he’s a home town boy, my local press is all over him.  So I wasn’t surprised to hear tv reports that his dog, Tessa (yup, that’s her pictured above), had disappeared on Christmas Eve and that he was offering to name a character in his next book after…

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Why I’m not a book reviewer

I’m going to be very careful here not to slam those who do review books.  I admire many of them.  They read constantly and have a wide enough repertoire to give them a grand perspective on books. But the contents of a book review is about more than reading.  It’s about the reviewer’s personal history…

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LOW PRESSURE: a book recommendation

Sandra Brown and I go way back.  We started in the field of romance together, actually met at the first ever Romance Writers of America conference.  We raised our kids, saw them marry and have their own kids at roughly the same time.  Both straying from the romance genre, I entered the field of women’s…

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Dealing with the loss of my characters

Readers feel this.  You’ve been engrossed in a book for however long it takes to read it and then, suddenly, the characters are gone.  You write me asking what they’ll do now and whether they’ll ever be back. But if you miss them, think of what I’m feeling when I finish writing a book. Take Sweet…

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THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS: a book recommendation

Judi, one of my readers, recommended this to me in a recent blog comment.  I had already read several reviews of this book, but saw her recommendation at the moment when I needed something new. What a good read! The Light Between Oceans is set in the 1920’s, as was Rules of Civility, which I…

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Are you a typo freak?

Inevitably, when each of my books first comes out, I get notes from readers catching typos.  “ Doesn’t anyone proofread anymore?” they ask plaintively. The answer?  YES!  I carefully read through looking for errors, as do my editor, my agent, my assistant, and more people at the publishing house than I care to count.  And still, when the…

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RULES OF CIVILITY – a book recommendation

Another one, you say?  Wow, do you read fast!  I do, but only when I’m not writing, and since right now I’m hovering in the twilight between Sweet Salt Air and my next book, I have time.  As always, this isn’t as much a book review as a recommendation.  I can only tell you what I like. …

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Lean on me

Do you remember that song?  “Lean on me … when you’re not strong … I’ll be your friend … I’ll help you carry on …”  It was written by Bill Withers in 1972 and is still being played, and no wonder.  The message is right there in the words, no pussy-footing around.  I also think…

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