Love, but not the romantic kind

My book on my Kindle!

I love my Kindle.

I got it about three weeks ago, and we’ve been inseparable ever since. Now, I don’t want this to be an advertisement for Kindle. If you have a Kobo, Nook, Sony or any other e-book reader, just insert the name of yours wherever I write Kindle. It’s especially satisfying since I bought mine with the profits from the sale of Fresh Air, so if you bought my book…hey, thanks!

I love the convenience.

I pick it up and it’s full of books. Plus, I can pick up where I left off. I have a fabulous collection of bookmarks…somewhere. I suspect I leave bookmarks in books, including library books, so that they slowly disappear over time. That bookmark I got from a hotel in Istanbul, the hand-painted one from Winnipeg, the one from a defunct bookstore---they’re all gone. So I’m usually reduced to using receipts and those stupid inserts from magazines, but no more!

And to have something to read whenever I’m waiting brings out my happy multi-tasker. My doctor runs 30 minutes late, minimum. When I went last week, that wait just flew by. “What, me already?” And then when I got into the examining room for my second wait, voilá: book to read! Not wasting time makes me feel virtuous, even if I am reading some cheesy freebie. It’s a book and therefore > a parenting magazine from 2010.

I love working on it.

I loaded my next book, which I have been editing forever, onto the Kindle. It allows me to actually experience the book as a new reader would. Currently my inner new reader is telling me that the book is waaaaay too long. So editing is ensuing. Unfortunately I love my words, and keep thinking I don’t want to lose the good parts. But if there’s anything I know from reading the cheesy freebies, it’s that a good editor is worth her weight in [insert your favourite treat here.] And if I would just stop reading, maybe I could get that editing done.

I love feeling like a techno-geek-leading-edger.

Seriously, I know that there is no technology knowledge needed for an ebook reader. Open box, load Kindle, begin reading. And I still have trouble turning pages back. But since the Kindle Paperwhite has just arrived in Canada, I am ahead of the curve. The most knowledgeable technology guy I know (his job involves vaguely consulting with startups for something cool I don’t understand) doesn’t even have one yet. Recently I gave a friend advice on her Kindle at the library. In a loud voice, of course. And yes, it’s a big deal because I am kind of a luddite. I keep phones so long that people want to see them because they think they’re new. “Oh, what’s that? I’ve never seen a phone like that before.”

In summary, I am very happy. There are still a few drawbacks. I don’t have a cover yet so I use a Ziploc bag when I take it in my purse which lowers my cool quotient. I want to make an adorable cover myself. And I have some complaints about the cheesy freebies I’ve been reading, but they were free, right? Finally, the Paperwhite has no colour, so my cover looks blah on it. But overall, very happy!

The Next One

 

The next one is not Sidney Crosby, as some say, but my next book. Unlike Fresh Air, this one is looooong, 60 chapters long! The first draft is completed, and currently in the editing stages, so major changes can still happen. Now that Christmas is over, I can really buckle down and work on the rewrite, which is something I procrastinate about. I wish I could write only first drafts and a team of scholarly elves would do all the editing and rewriting for me.

Anyway, Everyone Loves Doughnuts is the story of Frankie Taylor, a true homebody, who loves cooking...and eating. She has lived in Vancouver for her whole life, and when a  crisis forces her to make a change, she flees across the country to small town Ontario. There she meets two new men: one a handsome, successful businessman and the other good-natured and slightly slobby hockey player. Well, since Frankie's never been a huge hockey fan, it's no contest...or is it?

Introducing Fresh Air

Well, here's the first book! It's a short, eight chapter romance. Unlike most of my writing, it's actually rated PG, you could read this one out loud to your grandmother. Except perhaps a couple of words, but honestly, I think that grandmothers have seen it all and they're pretty hard to shock.

So here's what the book is about:
Janet Samson leads a quiet life. She lives at home and works the night shift at a downtown veterinary clinic. Then one night, a tall, dark and sort of good-looking stranger comes in with a terribly injured kitten. Usually Janet has eyes for animals only, but in this case she may make an exception.
Hmmm, I seem to have forgotten to mention: It's a hockey romance, because that's all I write.

Fresh Air is actually my favourite story that I've written. I think because it's succinct, and because both Janet and Max both feel deeply but keep their emotions contained. And of course, I love the two cats in the story.

I hope you'll enjoy Fresh Air too.

Welcome to my book page!

Welcome! I write about relationships, hockey, art and cats. So if any or all of these things appeal to you, you’ve come to the right place. I’ve been serializing my stories in an online community for a few years now, and I’ve been lucky enough to have had tons of encouragement from all my readers. In fact, my work was so popular it started to get ripped off by commercial websites looking for more traffic. So I took it down and decided to find another way to offer my work to readers. Another author encouraged me to try epublishing, so here I am.

So far, the writing and editing have been fine, but the technical formatting has resulted in a lot of frustrated screaming at my poor laptop. But my fingers are crossed that it will all get easier each time.

My first book is actually not a full-length novel; it’s a 15,000 word, eight chapter novella. I wanted to start with a shorter test book to make sure it was properly edited and formatted. This book was written because I lost a bet, or rather my hockey team lost a game, so I had to write story for a fellow hockey fan. So if you like hockey and romance, I think you’ll enjoy Fresh Air. I think the best way to describe it is a little romance, with hockey and cats.