A Good Book Category Is Worth Its Weight in Gold

ID-100236990*

 

I like book categories. They save me time. I know exactly where to go to find the books I want to read. (And I’m very unhappy with my library’s decision to remove the mystery and science fiction categories and place everything under “fiction.” Come on, people! How much time do you think we have to go through the stacks?)

I was horrified to walk into a number of used bookstores and discover that the urban fantasy authors I liked to read were not in the fantasy/sci fi section. Instead, for some inexplicable reason, they were all in the paranormal romance section. And some of the stories didn’t even have a romance in it! (A nasty little voice in my head whispers it’s because they’re written by women but I hope I’m wrong.)

I use categories to help me find other books, other authors, who might not fall on my radar screen. Mislabeling means we, as writers, become more invisible.

Mislabeling drives me bats. What can we do about it? Any ideas?

 

 

*Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

Reading Indie Books

ID-10073138*

 

After writing my blog entry The Joy of Reading Indie a while back, I bought a Kindle so that I didn’t need to read books off my computer. It was a wise decision. I waded through Twitter, Amazon reviews, and websites I stumbled onto and picked a number of indie books to read. Some were misses. (Yes, I really do mind grammar and spelling errors because they take me out of the story. And please stay on target with your plot.) Some were simply okay. Other people might have enjoyed them better than I did. That’s fine. Here, I prefer to focus on the ones I enjoyed and will read again:

A Writer Battles the Paper Monster

I’ve been decluttering lately. The paper monster reared up and attacked. At first I defended, then I pressed the assault.

 

ID-100266277

*

 

The first skirmish was a draw. I still felt tired and overloaded, unable to write a word.

The second, third and fourth skirmishes were better. Then I lost count as I continued paring down the piles of the past. It takes time and effort to think about each line written.

There’s a brief respite now as I pause to write this. Here’s what I’ve learned.

A New Year!

ID-100207128*

I’ve been spending the past week decluttering. And it’s been tough. But the paper monster rose up to the point where I couldn’t write. Couldn’t focus. So I’m heading back to an earlier post I wrote on this topic and I’ve got my paper shredder primed:

https://www.jmlevinton.com/writing-amid-clutter/

See you next week on the other side of the pile.

 

 

 

*Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

 

Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Archives
Recent Posts