• General Thoughts,  Pop Culture

    2019 in Book Reviews

    I originally set a goal on Goodreads to read 100 books in 2019. When I surpassed that goal before the end of the year, I upped the goal to 125. As of December 31, I have read 150 books in 2019. This does not include how many times I’ve read my own books or read books with my daughter. I recently reread “Caroline’s Lighthouse” and “Jordan’s Sister” just to review why I write. I published “What I Learned That Summer” in August, so I’ve read through it several times in the last year while getting it reading for publication. That’s a lot of books! Here’s a collection of the covers…

  • Essays,  General Thoughts,  Novels (my writing updates)

    How I became a novelist in twelve (easy) steps

    There are steps for everything these days, so I reverse-engineered what I did to become a novelist and put the process into 12 steps. The steps were easy sometimes, and other times, they caused some tears. The end result was worth all the effort. Step 1: I read a lot Without reading, what’s the point of writing? Reading everything I could get my hands on when I was a kid developed my love of reading and also made me think about some things I would like to read that were not available.  I didn’t just read fiction. I read about the art of writing to learn everything I could, and…

  • General Thoughts,  Pop Culture

    Book reviews for 2018

    My original reading challenge for 2018 was to read 60 books. Well, I read 60 books and upped my challenge to 80, then 100. By the end of New Year’s Eve, I had read 106 books for the year. This number does not include the children’s books I read with my daughter. In 2018, I read many novels written by independent authors, such as myself. These stories are just as good as (and many times better than) traditionally published work The top five were: (image by Bluelela – Freepik.com) When Life Happened by Jewel E. Ann. This novel pulled me in fast, made me cry, made me see hope, and…