Real READERS Always Find Time To Read!

Happy Monday! Happy READER MONDAY! 
Today I'm excited to introduce you to an amazing reader, Lori Cimino! I met Lori on Facebook through another reader friend of mine, Dru Ann Love. Lori is such a great friend to authors. She is an avid reader and gives her favorite authors a little time of each day through social networking. AND she always finds time to read. . .

I have never understood it when I hear people say, "I love to read but I never have the time." Don't get me wrong, I do understand that everyone has obligations-- kids, jobs, relationships. But if you really love to do something, really enjoy it, you find the time to do it.

My favorite pastime has been reading and I have had a love of books for as long as I can remember. My mother has a passion for the written word and I am so grateful that she shared it with me. My earliest memory of books is around the age of 4 when we would walk to the bookmobile and pick out books. And it was around age 10 that I discovered my love of mysteries in the local library. I will always cherish the memory of the first time mom took me to a bookstore and I bought my very first book, I was 12.
 
I have always found ways to steal moments of time to read. Where ever I am, where ever I go, I ALWAYS carry a book or E-reader with me. I read during lunch breaks, while waiting for appointments or in lines. I even read during long road construction stops and in the car while my husband runs errands. In fact, I often go early to appointments or the movies just so I can have some quiet time to indulge in my latest armchair adventure. I used to read while my kids took naps or while watching them at play.

Of course, now that I am an "empty nester" I have more time than ever to read. My bedtime ritual is to read an hour or so before I go to sleep. I ride my recumbent bicycle and read or when my husband commandeers the tv for video games. When I am deeply invested in a story I have been known to read during commercial breaks while watching television.

My point is, if you love to read allow yourself to find the time. If your life seems to busy or hectic it is even more important to find the stolen snippets of time for yourself. And this is true of any pleasure you enjoy. You need those moments, whether it is 10 minutes or 2 hours to unplug from real life.

Treat yourself well and blessed be.

How do you find time to read?

Reading Through The Eyes of My Son~READER MONDAY

Today I'm so excited to welcome my friend, Ann Miller to READER MONDAY! I've known Ann, as a personal friend, for over five years. Not only is Ann a good friend, she is a GREAT mom of three wonderful kids. She is always promoting reading and education in their daily life. 

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Reading through the eyes of my son has been amazing! 

My son Austin is eight and in the third grade this year.  He has rekindled my love to hold a book and flip pages again. This year when he started third grade we were introduced to the idea of Accelerated Reader points and tests.  Austin has to get five AR points a month in order keep up his third grade standard for all kids in his class.  

In August, he had the highest number of AR points in the WHOLE third grade at his school.  Austin was in AR heaven at school and got a certificate to bring home at the end of the month.   Literally on the first day of school we planned to play at an area park with his younger twin siblings and he decided to read a new book that came his way.  He sat under a tree at the park and finished his first whole chapter book.  This series of books enamored him and he had to finish all of the books in the series.

 

My son gets his love of books honestly…… from a mother and grandmother who love to read also.  He was read to all the time from utero until he started reading on his own in kindergarten.  

I have worked in the education field all my life and I must say I have a HUGE collection of books for all age readers.  Flipping the pages of a book are a rare find these days now with all of the readers out.  I personally do not have a reader yet… we are the proud owners of three for our kids.  

Sometimes I enjoy flipping to the back of the book to get a preview of what happens at the end.  Must say don’t have much time these days to flip the ole pages of books as much as I used to, but when I do it is a wonderful treat. 

I must smile now as I see Austin with at least five books in back pack that he is reading at one time.  We write on his book log each night (or sometimes the night before the whole thing is due) what book he has read and for how many minutes. 

It makes my husband and I so happy to see his love of books.  He has now started his own series of books based upon that book he first read under that tree in his own style.  I believe now Austin is up to his thirteenth book in his series with some great illustrations.  He is also very excited that his mom is friends with a great author Tonya Kappes.  

We all love to read! How do you promote reading in a child's life?

Leave a comment to be eligible to win any ebook copy of one of Tonya's book! Your choice! Winner will be announced on Wednesday!

If The Word. . .er. .. Shoe Fits~Wear IT!

One of the biggest sayings from fiction writers is the tried and true:

As a matter of fact, this t-shirt is a bestseller among all the writer's cafe. I didn't get one of those though, I got the pink Writer Girl one and LOVE it!

Anyways....

The funniest thing happened to me and made me cackle from the tips of my toes to the split-ends in my hair.
Someone actually accused me of using their likeness to them, when in all reality the fictitious character was named and taken from a winner of a reader contest I had held on my STREET TEAM.

The contest was "Name Tonya's new town and the victim will be named after you and you get a dedication in the book." I had an overwhelming number of entrants. The winner was Ann Miller and she was SO excited. It was a great way to connect to a reader. We talked back and forth, having a blast fleshing out the character.

Soo....after I heard about someone, who is not even in my thought process, actually thought I was writing a character about them, made me pause (after I hysterically laughed of course).

John Steinbeck couldn't have said it better: I have tried to keep diaries, but they didn't work out because of the necessity of to be honest.

WOW! He is so right! AND people who don't write don't get this. Everyday life is hard and there is NO way I want to sit down and rehash any thing from my real life, good or bad. When I write, I write to help my readers escape from their world, not bring them into my real world.

When I write out my characters, I use a character worksheet and address book to make sure I have their features down pat. This helps me from book to book so I don't get their eye color or skin color wrong.
The problem with description is that there is only so many hair colors, skin colors, body types, etc....to use.

Again. . .it made me pause and think about the subconscious mind. Carpe Bead 'em was 110% taken from my life as a jewelry beader and my real life Aunt Grace. The novel is chick-lit, but it was the only chick-lit novel I have ever written. I'm a mystery writer. But Carpe Bead 'em was intended for my family to read and it ended up being the first novel I had published.

After Carpe Bead 'em, everything I have since published is strictly fiction. OR is it?

Or are my readers looking so deep below the surface that they take every single thing I write literal, creating the characters into their likeness?

Can we really keep our memories or our subconscious mind out of our writing?


At the end of the day, all I can say to my readers, good or bad. . . if the shoe fits. . .

Maybe I bought the wrong t-shirt.

What about you? Do you let your real life interactions seep into your writing?