Gems

I don’t know about you, but I love great bargains. I just came from our local Half-Price book store where everything is half price. Sometimes even lower than half price. Most of the books are used, but many are new. I love it when I find what I call “gems.” I found an old Don Quixote book (with illustrations no less) for under five dollars. So what if it’s an old book published years ago; it’s still a good read and I happen to love old books.

I especially like it when I find books on writing. One book I’m looking forward to reading is The Little Red Writing Book. No kidding, the cover is RED and it’s got a wolf illustrated on the cover. Neat! This one I found discounted at B&N. I browsed through it and found it pretty interesting. Has principles of structure, style, and readability and grammar. All great tools a writer needs, wouldn’t you say? But like I recently read in a writer’s magazine, you can read all these books on writing but unless you sit down in that chair and WRITE, it won’t do you any good. So absorb all you can from these books but then take your craft seriously and write that novel that only you can write.

I highly recommend visiting Verla Kay’s blog for tons of information for published authors including contract negotiations, school and author visits, promotion of your book, the business end of publishing, etc.

"The scariest moment is always just before you start." -- Stephen King (On Writing)