Sunday, June 22, 2014

Reading, reviewing, writing, and editing

Last night before I fell asleep I had this blog all written out in my head. Unfortunately I was too tired to write it down and now I've lost some of it. I am attempting to recreate it anyway.

We came home yesterday from a day trip to the Boston area. In the mailbox was a book that I'd won from a giveaway on Goodreads.com.  I've been winning a few of these giveaways lately and my book pile is piling up faster than I can read the books. He said "Wow, people must really love your reviews." Maybe they do, maybe they don't. I don't write great reviews. They're usually pretty simple and straight forward. Def not my best writing.

We went in the house, and he took care of our daughter while I disappeared into the bedroom and fired up my bedside computer. I opened up the browser and went to Facebook. I posted an unofficial review of the places we'd been to in Somerville. Then I went over to TripAdvisor and wrote up 2 official reviews. This required a little research because the restaurant that we ate at didn't have it's own listing. Once those reviews were done, I went over to Goodreads and updated my book shelf to show I'd gotten the book. A peek inside the front cover showed me that the author had even written me a note and autographed it. Well that deserved some special attention. I looked him up and sent him a thank you note. He wrote back and offered me another complimentary book that he's written. I haven't replied yet. I figure I'll wait until I read this one before I answer. I hope it's a good book though. I'd hate to write a negative review now.

After my reviews were posted on Facebook, Goodreads, and TripAdvisor I looked up his website and checked the listing of other books he's written. This isn't a debut novel. Then I went over to Twitter to see if he was on there. Nope. However he was mentioned by another Twitter entity recently who has already read the book I just got. I tweeted to him/her, and they tweeted back. I scrolled through my Twitter feed, a mix of many things including many authors promoting their books.

Phew!! When I was done with all that I finally cracked open the E-book that I had just borrowed from the library. This is one that I tried to win a print copy of, but failed so I had put a hold on it and I finally got it. I read a few chapters to get myself into it. Then finally very late, I turned off the screens and went to sleep.

Meanwhile July is fast approaching and while I have been editing my Work In Progress it is not completely revised yet. I'm probably about 1/3 of the way through it. In July though I will be doing Camp Nanowrimo and I will begin the next draft of this novel whether I am ready or not. The thought of having 2 drafts going is challenging. I will have to come up with a way to keep them separate. I am not even sure what my writing schedule will be like, but I have set a low word goal and I plan to make it happen.

It seems like lately I spend more time writing reviews of other people's works, quick and simple as they may be, than I do working on my own material. Oh well. Hopefully it all pays off in the end.

I know ultimately I need an editor, and maybe a cover designer too. I'm not there yet though. Just need to keep plugging away.