Guest Blog: Tale of a Kindle Convert

Guest Post written by: Libby Mercer

I never thought I’d do it. About a year and a half ago, I remember being on the tube with some friends of mine. We were on our way home after a birthday drinks ‘do, and my friend, Samir, was showing me his e-reader. I can’t remember which model it was – or even which brand – but I do remember my reaction.

I wrinkled my nose and started spouting off about how I stare at my laptop screen all day, and the last thing I wanted to do was to forsake my beloved paperbacks for yet another electronic screen. Surely those little screens couldn’t be good for the eyes. All my life, I’d relished the ritual of getting into bed with a good old-fashioned printed, paper book. I couldn’t imagine getting into bed with a silly electronic reader. The very idea!

Fast-forward about a year and my debut novel, Fashioning a Romance, had been contracted and published… in the digital format only. I still felt that paper books were best, but I knew I had to get with the times. I bought a Kindle – the most basic kind I could find – and let me tell you something shocking, folks: I haven’t purchased a printed book since.

I know, huh? I never could have predicted that I would end up opting for the digital books over the printed books, but that’s exactly what happened. And I love my Kindle. No longer do the covers of my paperbacks get bent and scratched up from being tossed around inside my backpack. No longer do I have to lug around the extra weight of books in my suitcase when I travel. No longer am I making my cramped apartment even less hospitable by adding to the piles of books cluttering my front hall.

And as shocking as it is, these days I even prefer reading the Kindle in bed. You see: I’ve got this new system for when I’m really tired. I position the Kindle cover so that it forms a triangle and set it up on the bed. I don’t even have to hold it as I read. Of course, since I started doing this, I’ve fallen asleep with the Kindle on – and with the light on – more than a few times, but that’s okay.

All in all, I’m so glad I opened my mind to the world of e-readers. And I must also give a nod to the fabulous instant gratification aspect of ordering an e-book and being able to read it right away. In my case, the gratification is not quite instant. Because my Kindle is such a basic model, it’s only got Wi-Fi, so if I’m at home and have just ordered a book that I’d like to read right away, I have to go stand in front of the Starbucks down the street from me to pick up their signal. I know many of the more tech-savvy readers out there will shake their heads in disbelief, wondering how I can be so behind the times? I say: baby steps, my friends. I’ve only just arrived in the world of digital reading, so I’ll stick with the basic model for now. So far, it’s serving me just fine.

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About the Author:

Born and raised in the Midwest, Libby Mercer’s adventurous spirit kicked in after graduating from high school, and she’s since lived in Boston, NYC and London. San Francisco is the city she currently calls home. For several years, Libby worked in fashion – first as a journalist and then as a shopkeeper. She also dabbled in design for a while. Even through the crazy fashion years, Libby never let go of her dream of being a published author, and has since developed her signature writing style, crafting quirky chick lit/romance hybrids. Fashioning a Romance was her first published novel, and Unmasking Maya will be her second. Libby has a third novel, The Karmic Connection, scheduled for release in 2013.

Links:

Blog: http://libby-mercer.blogspot.com
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16147861-unmasking-maya
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LibbyMercer1
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Libby-Mercer-Author/184901528274900
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Unmasking-Maya-ebook/dp/B00AN7CCV0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355471953&sr=8-1&keywords=unmasking+maya

Guest Blog - Kathleen Shoop

I’m so honored to contribute a post at Lilac Wolf and Stuff. Thank you for the opportunity! I was asked what inspired me to write this story and create the characters. The first part is easy—I listened to my mother. Well, not at first. I was looking for a historical disaster to use as the backdrop for my next book and she suggested I explore Donora, Pennsylvania’s “killing smog” of 1948. The what?

Even spending nearly my whole life up the road a bit from Donora, I’d never heard of such a thing. When I finally looked into it, the true facts of the tragedy blew me away. A temperature inversion trapped the steel and zinc mill smoke and gasses in the valley over the course of a week, killing twenty people and sickening another 6,000 or so! How could I not know about this? Turns out, many people who live in Western, Pennsylvania aren’t familiar with the “five days of fog.” I knew I had my backdrop!

When it came to creating the characters, I interviewed many Donora residents—past and present—to confirm whether my experiences with steel-town men and women were similar to those who might have lived in Donora in 1948. Once I confirmed that the types of people I knew from other mill-towns like Etna, where my dad grew up, were similar to Donorans, I began to craft the people of the book.

I knew my women would be grittier than expected for some readers, especially if a reader’s tie to mid-century women is limited to sanitized TV shows. I knew my men would be more complex, perhaps, than expected. Henry Pavlesic, Rose’s husband is quintessential Western, PA in many ways—a steel man who logged many years as an athlete, who just wants peace and quiet in his home. But like many people, he has squashed dreams. He regrets forgoing college for a pro baseball career and so he fills his empty moments with Auden’s poetry, quoting him ‘til his wife is up to her ears with irritation. Yes, I knew someone like that—a mill-working poet. Though Henry and his male relatives are coarse and abrupt in their ways with each other, they have slivers or threads or full-out parts of them that are more refined and gentle—the way most people are, multi-faceted.

I took a bit of a risk in how I crafted Rose and Henry’s marriage experience. Rose lived a neglected, ugly childhood, but she’s one of the lucky people whose scrapes with the evils of the world left her crusty, not broken. She and Henry are physically intimate. They’re language of love is in the way they touch: Rose tending to Henry’s slag-burn while he pats her butt, the way they dance, that their sex life is utilitarian more than tantalizing, but it’s alive. Their relationship lives in their touch. Of course, when real crises arise, you can’t touch your way out of them. Rose and Henry find out just how capable they are of true acts of love when faced with threats to the very core of their family.

Mostly, I kept in mind that although the perception of American culture in one era might be that it is more buttoned up or repressed or perceived as “cleaner,” than in another era, people are generally the same—flawed and courageous and wonderful all at once.

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You can purchase After the Fog at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

You can also learn more about Kathleen Shoop at her:
Website / Facebook / Twitter

I also want to give a shout out to BookSparksPR for allowing me to review After the Fog (coming Wednesday) and getting Kathleen and myself together for this guest blog. If you are an author and need a PR company, I would contact them, I have been working with them for over a year and they are nothing but professional and always nice to work with.

--Lilac Wolf

Guest Post by Carol Cassada

If someone had told me years ago that I’d eventually be writing romance novels, I would’ve told them they were crazy. Yet here I am, writing for the genre I once loathed.

I admit I’ve never liked romance novels, in fact the only way I got my feel of romance and drama was from soap operas, which inspired my second book Westmore, we’ll get to that in a minute. But when I decided to go into writing, romance is one of the genres I considered as a option. I even got a few Harlequin novels to help me get a sense of the genre. I must admit I became hooked on them, I’d read a couple of chapters, then take a break, a few minutes later my hand was reaching for the book, I had to read more. I’d tear through them in three days, while it usually takes me weeks to read a book, depending on the length and the style. After getting inspiration I began writing my first book Going Home Again.

Going Home Again revolves around New York fashion photographer Rachel Mitchell, whose living the good life with a great job, and handsome boyfriend Jeremy David. But her perfect life is shattered upon the death of her mother Nancy. Rachel returns home to Virginia to comfort her three younger sisters and her grandma Edie, who throughout the book instills in Rachel the importance of family, a value which will eventually change her for the better. While in Virginia Rachel runs into ex-flame Cole Ashton, whose heart she broke years ago, yet they remain friends. Upon her return to New York, Rachel feels something’s missing and before long her life is in shambles, her job is in jeopardy and there’s trouble in paradise for her and Jeremy. Suddenly Rachel begins contemplating changes she wants in her life.

Shortly after Going Home Again was released I was finishing my second book Westmore. As a teen I explored the world of screenwriting and at one time I wanted to be a writer for the daytime serials, I had a notebook where I wrote characters and plots. Then I was looking for inspiration for my second book and I thought of taking my soap opera ideas and turning them into a book series and that’s where Westmore came from.

Westmore is set in a fictional town and the story focuses on three families; The Greens, The Braxtons, and The Reynolds.

The Greens consist of widowed matriarch Charlotte who has given up on love following the death of her husband Michael; however she changes her mind when handsome detective Jim Bryant comes to her rescue. Meanwhile her oldest son Jack, loves his job as a bartender, but longs to do more with his life. Scott and his sister Alicia are singers in a rock band, hoping to take their band to the next level, yet fate has other plans. Youngest son Peter returns home from college with girlfriend Zoey whose ten years older than him and causes trouble for Mama Charlotte.

The Braxtons are a rich, publishing family, Andrew is the oldest brother and took over the reigns of the company after his father’s death. Andrew’s a very controlling man, and his wife Elizabeth is fed up with his behavior and plans to leave. If that wasn’t enough Andrew learns his son Wayne who he’s groomed to take over the company, plans to jump ship, however Andrew isn’t letting go without a fight and will do anything to keep his son, even if it means his actions could hurt others.

The Reynolds consist of real estate tycoon Stan, whose life is turned upside down when his son Jacob begins dating rocker Alicia Green, and soon father and son are butting heads. Then his divorced daughter Laura and granddaughter Megan move back home. Once Laura’s settled into her new life, her ex shows up unexpectedly threatening to reveal her secret.

Towards the end of the book an accident occurs which will affect all three families, and the sequel due out September 2011 deals with the aftermath.

It’s hard to believe I’m writing for a genre I once detested, yet the old adage is true “don’t knock it until you try it.” Now how long I plan to write for the genre remains to be seen. Eventually I’d like to branch out into other fields, but for the time being I’m having fun writing romance and I hope readers enjoy the books as much as I do.

To learn more about my books visit http://www.carolcassada.net/

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Thank you so much Carol for sharing your story, giving us an interview AND a guest post. And mostly for hosing a giveaway. And the winner is...Mina from Green Witch with Sprinkles.