I’ve never read ‘The Lord of the Rings’

I'm a fan of fantasy and science fiction. I adore sinking myself into a good, thick tome. Sword and Sorcery novels can easily get me hooked so I read the full series. But there is one series that I have never read, and I never will.

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien.

And the reasons have nothing to do with its contents or historical origins. It's 100% my husband's fault.

Sit back and let me tell you about what married life can be like at times.

Read More

If you don’t want people to talk about it, STAY SILENT

I've always been of the belief that if you want an idea to die, then you need to stay silent. I'm not talking about the situations where one needs to take a stand against political injustices. No, I'm talking about the book that you want to see removed from the shelves… or the bit of misinformation that needs to be buried… or the embarrassing events that happened the other night.

The fastest way to ensure that anyone knows about whatever it is that you wish would disappear and never resurface is to tell others about it. And if you share it on social media, it spreads even faster.

In today's post, I want to talk about some of the instances that I've encountered over the years where people just didn't know how to keep their mouths shut, spreading that tidbit of information that they wanted to hide because of it.

Read More

Sorry, I have not read every book

Wouldn't it be nice if we could just read day in and day out? But life has to happen and reading every day from the moment you get up to when you go to bed is not possible.

However, because I'm a writer and editor (that's my day job), I encounter so many who assume that I have all this time on my hands to read every book on the planet. And it's another assumption that makes an ass out of all parties involved.

Far too many times, I encounter someone who starts talking about some random book, assuming that I've read it. Yet, more often than not, I don't have a clue what they're talking about.

"But surely you've read that book. Oh, you know the one I'm talking about. It only came out… um… last year. Ohh, why haven't you read that book yet? It's in your genre."

Well, I haven't read it because I didn't know it existed. Or I have too many other books to read. Or I just don't have enough time in the day.

It's time to put a little reality in this equation, and highlight that there are only so many hours in the day, and sometimes, I don't want to read.

Read More

My head is still spinning. Hidden Traps is OUT!

It’s been two weeks since my nonfiction book Hidden Traps was released, but I haven’t had a chance to breathe. The lead up to release was filled with preparation of supplementary materials and handouts, guest blog posts, and interviews for radio and video broadcasts. On release day, I ran my first webinar. This weekend, I’m presenting at the RWNZ conference on this topic.

OMG, IT’S THIS WEEKEND!

There’s so much to do, and this is on top of my normal schedule. What exactly have I gotten myself into?

Let’s take a step back and look at where this book started and the steps along the way.

Read More

What have I done? (Cover reveal)

I'm sitting here, not really knowing how to feel: excited, nervous, giddy, panicked.

For the past few months, I've been working hard on writing a book on the pitfalls of building an online platform. Everything is coming together.

There is still some editing to do... But release day is only three months away. 

(AHHH!!! MUST NOT PANIC!)

So... Here it is... The cover for my book...

Read More