Two years ago when Amazon unveiled the kindle 2, (The earlier kindle was unleashed 2 years prior, so the whole e-reading thing isn't really that old) you could hear warrior cries among the publishing industry masses--"Print Books Will Never Die!"  "People Will Always Want to Hold a Book Made of Paper in Their Hands!"

No one ever dreamed that our beloved bookstores would be affected in any big way.

Boy, were we wrong.

Check out this article by the Wall Street Journal, Borders on the Brink of Liquidation.

Is it possible that 399 stores employing 11,000 people are positioned to shut down? Disappear forever?

I don't even live in the States and this concerns me. I mean, I may go there sometimes and where will I shop for books?

What can bookstores do to survive? Here in Canada, we have a book chain called Chapters. They sell books and a lot of other non-book stuff.

Fellow Canuck, Austin James recently posed the question on his blog, Should Book Stores Sell More than Just Books?  And if so, at what point does the book store just become a department store that has a book section?

No easy answers here.

Which brings me to my confession. I LIKE E-BOOKS. I do. And I don't even own a kindle. Or Nook, or other legitimate e-reader. I'm reading my books on my i-phone.

Why do I like it? I don't mind the small screen, really. To me it's like reading a magazine article. Once you get into the story, you don't even notice you're reading a really long column.

I can buy my books in an instant and (usually) for much cheaper. This is helpful to my budget and to my luggage weight when I travel.

Even if I don't read what I buy, I don't sweat it. It's not a big investment. Cheaper than a Starbucks coffee. (Actually, something feels off about that, but anywho...) And it never goes away unless I delete it so I can always go back to it later. The Shelves Never Get Full.

I know I'm sounding kind of two faced here. I want my cake and eat it too. I want my e-books and the bookstore in my town. I love visiting books, stroking them, reading back copy, admiring covers, and on occasion, plopping a twenty down on the counter to buy one.

Readers aren't the only ones concerned about the shrinking bookstore trend. Agents and Editors are pretty unhappy about it as well, for obvious reasons. Plus they are facing the accompanying exodus by published authors to join the e-publishing revolution. (See Passive Guy's post-in the link- for more on this). They're starting to get cut out of the equation and the subsequent piece of the financial pie. Agents and Editors are busy trying to figure out their changing roles in this new publishing landscape. Check out Laura Paulings post on Agents as Publishers to get more info on the debate.

I don't know the answer to this one. What do you think? Is there a way to have the best of both the e-book and print book worlds?

I hang out with a lot of creative people. This weekend we had a few friends over and everyone was excited to share what they or their kids were doing. We watched a video clip of a daughter who did her first story as a reporter for CBC news, we listened to a new song one of the women had just recorded. My husband showed off a song off from our eldest son's upcoming CD. We watched other artists perform songs and viewed paintings posted to an online community artist site.

I sat there watching and listening, thoroughly enjoying what other artists brought to the table.

And they had no clue about me and my art as a writer. Even though I had worked my butt off (not literally, but wouldn't that be nice?) completing the 2nd draft of my latest wip, there was nothing I could share. No way I could contribute to the impromtu creative showcase.

Singers can sing a song in under three minutes. Dancers can perform in that amount of time, too. Painters can hang their creations on the wall for visitors to admire.

But a writer with an unpublished book, not so much. It's not like I was going to start read aloud the first chapter. The inability to share your creative work (outside of beta readers who usually get to read less than publishable drafts), is one of the downsides of choosing this particular creative outlet.

I think this is why the publishing dream is so strong. Why self-publishing has a lot of appeal for some people, despite unlikely financial gains.

It's a way to "hang" your creative work on the wall.

But not all singers want an audience. Nor do all dancers. They find pleasure in hearing their voice in the shower, or dancing alone in their own living rooms.

Though I'd love to hang my novel on the wall, I also want to enjoy dancing with it alone in my living room. Success can come in many forms.

What do you think? Is writing without ever publishing still a worthy venture?

1. I'm made it a full week--haven't touched my wip! I've been tempted but fortunately I've had a lot of research to keep me busy. My goal of waiting until June 20 is within reach. A busy weekend will help me to keep my hands off of it. I think this break is really helping me. Though I'm not actually writing or editing, I'm working the story, setting and characters in my head. I'm hoping this whole process will make the second pass a lot easier. I'll let you know.

2. Last week I commented on Kristen Lamb's views that writers should write about more than writing on their blogs  and how they should discover their other passions. I then went on to say that I didn't know what my other passions were, but, hey, here's a story about a guy I met while traveling.

Ah-ha. Maybe that's my other passion. I have done a fair bit of traveling with every intention to do a lot more. Not counting Canada, I've visited, USA, Mexico, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Spain, Belgium, Luxemburg, Holland, England, Greece.  (So, yeah, mostly Europe, but I do hope to expand my travel portfolio to other continents in the future.)

I have a few stories.  So I might write a weekly or bi-monthly Travel Diary for other lovers of travel--those who do it and those who like to live vicariously through those who do.

3. I have a busy weekend celebrating a friend's 50th, my son's 23rd and Father's day. All good to help me achieve objective in point #1.

4. Here's a great video making it's way through the blogosphere on  How to Stay Creative. All great points.



29 WAYS TO STAY CREATIVE from TO-FU on Vimeo.

Have a Great Weekend!

I'm sure you're all aware of the hoopla that went on last week after a certain WSJ article (which I never read) wrote  about the possibility that YA was getting too dark.

It tossed YA authors and readers into an absolute uproar.

I'm not going to debate the merits or demerits of dark, edgy YA. I know that it serves its purpose.

BUT WHAT IF YOU DON'T WRITE DARK AND EDGY YA?


Can you still make it as a YA writer?

I think I'm a pretty decent writer. I've had two agents like my work and want to represent me, so I can't be writing complete schrot.

But twice the D and E issue has come up. Two books I sent out are commercial and trending. Both have gotten the same kind of feedback -- editors are looking for something more competitive--they want something darker and edgier.

GAH.

(To me competitive = give me the same book as those other guys--but different).

Is there no room for less than edgy in YA?  Does no one want to read something that's on the lighter side and fun?  Have we forgotten there's still a market for the younger YA market or any age teen who doesn't happen to be depressed at the moment?

Sorry, this has turned into a bit of a rant, and I know I'm over-stating for effect.

So tell me, is it just me?  Should I just take my light, non-edgy, butt the H. E. double hockey sticks out of YA town?

Update: I need to add a disclaimer--the historical YA ms's I've written are dark. You can't write about ww2 without being dark. I'm referring to my lighter paranormal, chick-lit offerings here.

1. I've had a great writing week. With hubby away, and the kids all doing their own things, I've had more free space than usual. I managed to knock off a lot of words, I lost count and basically, kind of finished a first draft of my wip.  It's more like an elaborate outline. But all the main plot and subplot points are there and lots of dialogue. It feels good just to have that all mapped out. Now I'm going to let it rest---and I'm declaring it to be held accountable--until June 20. Yes, with my zeal to write this, I've neglected other things. And I really want a fresh brain when I go back to it. Then I will tackle it line by line, scene by scene until it shines, brah-ha-ha.

2. Hubby get's back tomorrow--hurray!

3. When I got back from my time in Europe, all my favorite shows had ended.  Bones, Castle, Survivor (these are the only shows I had time for and suited my schedule). I'd missed all their finales.  Fortunately, I was able to watch most of my missed episodes on line. The summer TV schedule is basically not worth watching, which is fine. Too much sunshine and fun and extra long days to enjoy.

4. I'm thinking of watching BEASTLY tonight, since it's my last night alone where I'm free to pick any movie I want without having to worry if DH will like it too. Have you seen it? What did you think? I've read the book and quite enjoyed it, but I will confess that watching Alex Pettyfer, even all tattooed up is a bit of an incentive.





Have a great weekend!

If you been reading Kristen Lamb's blog lately, you'll know how she believes that to be a successful blogger is to blog about things other than just writing.

She gave the example of one romance writer who also liked cooking and making wine, and that when she started writing about those things, her following increased by quite a bit. Why? Because there are more people out there interested in wine and food and writing than who are just interested in writing.

Basically, blog about all your passions, not just one.

Which is fine if you have a lot of passions. I like to eat good food and drink good wine, but I hate cooking and I'm not interested in the finer points of how or where wine is made. These are not things I could blog about.

It got me to thinking: what are my other passions? And even more importantly, should I blog about them?

I'll have to get back to you on that.

But I do have an interesting reflection to share with you. This is something that happened while I was in Romania, a country I am passionate about, on the third floor of the apartment building my DH and I were staying in.

In the shared hallway, an older man was entering a shared bathroom. (Thankfully we had our own bathroom.) He was old, old, like white hair, rail thin, bent over old.

I couldn't stop thinking about him, what his life must have been like. Chances are good that he's never been out of Romania. Permissible travel for citizens out of Romania is a relatively new thing.

I calculated that if the man was in his late eighties or nineties, he must have been around fifteen years old when the second World War broke out. Brasov at the turn of the century and the first few decades into it was an affluent city. It was actually called Kronstadt, which is German for Crown City. He'd  have childhood and early teen memories of  "the good life".

The apartment building we stayed in would have been a single family home at that time.


Then the war broke out, and all hell broke loose all over Europe. This man would've been recruited to fight at some point, and for sure by the last year or so.

After that, fifty years of communism under the rule of a cruel and ruthless dictator,
Nicolae Ceausescu.  One man destroyed an entire generation of children to aids, with his egotistical plans to fortify "Ceausescu's Children" with blood transfusions.

I went to an orphanage in 1997. I saw the children rocking in lead painted iron beds, six, eight or more to a stuffy, smelly room.

Finally, freedom (sort of) in 1989, after the people of Romania revolted and shot the dictator and his wife to death. Was this man part of that revolution?

It took many years for Romania to recover from the ravages of Communism and dictatorship, and the corruption that lasted beyond the fall of the iron curtain.

But now, there are signs of economic recovery. The downtown core of Brasov looks good, almost as good as the early years. While off the main road the former glory still exists, its just chipped and faded. But there's progress.

I just hope this man is healthy enough to get out and enjoy the restoration of his city. I wonder if he sits on the bench in the park across the street and remembers his life. Or maybe he wants to forget.

So what about you?  What are your passions? Are they something you could blog about?

One regret I have in life is that I never learned a second language. I grew up in Western Canada and in those years, learning a second language wasn't given a lot of importance, a fact some might consider surprising considering Canada has two official languages, English and French.

This lack of value in learning a second language was proven by the fact that we didn't even begin to learn French in our school district until grade eight. I'm happy to say that that is no longer the case, and that not only do kids begin their French classes in primary school now, we have several French Immersion schools for those families who so choose.

I particularly felt my language deficiency when I moved with my family to Germany back in 1998. I thought I did okay with high school French, but I could not wrap my head around the Germany language.  The time for learning new languages is when you are young, as my four children quickly proved. My husband already spoke German, so I found myself to be the only one in our family of six that couldn't speak or understand it. Everyone I met while living there could speak at least two languages, often three or four. I remember one guy telling us how he struggled to learn English and how his friends thought he was stupid because he couldn't speak two languages.

He told this to me, a person who couldn't speak two languages.

In those days, Eastern Germany had only been out of communism for a decade, so most of Eastern Germans spoke Russian as a second language. Now a days, everyone speaks English. Pretty much.

I especially noticed this in Italy and Romania. Every restaurant you go to, the waiter will speak to you in English. In fact, our middle aged, grey haired, genial waiter who served us breakfast at our Italian Hotel,  welcomed us and offered us the special in English, then went to the next table and did the same thing in German and then went to the third table and did the same thing in French. And he was Italian.

I can't remember if it was the airport in Italy or Romania, but I saw the yellow pilot car from my passenger seat window. It said in large full caps: FOLLOW ME.  That's it. Just English, no other language. Each airport had all its indicator signs, including toilet signs, in its own national language and in English.

One of the first things I did when I got to Romania was go to visit the farm kids. My idea was to possibly return in the future to teach them English. Since they are delayed at learning (for differing reasons, but mostly because they were stuck on the farms) a teacher now comes daily to teach them. At first I thought teaching them English might just be an extra thing I could do to help. But now I see that knowing English is essential if they are ever going to compete in the work force. Even if they just want to get a job serving at a restaurant.

These kids were so cute and enthusiastic. I gave them a short impromptu lesson: My name is.... What's you're name. They loved it!

So, I started an online TESL program. I have a year to do it before I go back again, maybe even longer, so I can take my time, which I'm happy about. I'm also taking a German language course, ( a little at a time at my own pace) which makes me sympathetic to what it feels like to try to learn a new language. It's a good mix. I don't know if I'll ever be able to speak German, but I'm going to keep trying.

How about you? Do you speak a second language? If so, are you teaching it to your kids?

1. The first week back from any trip is always a blur of catching up: mail/bills, housework, laundry, conversations with kids, checking in with friends, grocery shopping, going back to that Hot Yoga class you missed for three weeks (eek), checking in with blogger friends, and SLEEP.

Did I mention, sleep? Well, yeah, it's been a pretty good week, and I'm starting to feel normal again and grooving with my routine.


2. I promise to tell a few tales from my travels next week, quite a few interesting things to ponder. Needed time to process before putting it out there. ( See number 1)

The Red Roofs of Brasov

3.  The weather in Europe was better. Hard to get off the plane to weather that still requires blue jeans and a sweater.

4. Despite number one, I managed to cross the 10k line of my new wip yesterday. Who-hoo! And I have a fairly open weekend so I can't wait to keep going. It's requiring some research which I'm doing as I"m going a long, so I know I'll be making some changes in the revisions as the research gets clearer, but I'm okay with that.

5. Writing makes you smarter. It just does.                       

Have a great weekend!

And I'm talking about the game. Vancouver beats Boston 1/0, scoring with just 18.5 seconds left to play.

I sit in a unique position. I've lived in Vancouver and Boston. I live in Canada but was born in the USA. I have duel citizenship. Who to root for?

Well, here's where I confess I didn't even watch the game. But my kids did and I heard them cheer. Since we live in BC and all my kids were born here, safe to say, they're cheering for Vancouver. So I will too.

Yay, Canucks!




So, imagine scoring just seconds before the game ends? Nothing like coming through at the eleventh hour. That's what it feels like when you're pursuing publication sometimes. At least it's that way for me.  I've taken a lot of shots. When will I score? I must be at the end of the third period by now?

Anyone else feel that way?

Anyway, that's my brilliant way of connecting the Stanley Cup playoffs to writing.