• 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…

  • General Thoughts

    For the love of travel (for work): Seattle

    One of the perks of my job at the university is the privilege to travel for professional development. During spring break (for the college students and my elementary school children), I attended the 2018 CASE Editors Forum in Seattle, Washington. Not only had I never attended this conference before, but I’d never been to Seattle. Due to having to fly across two time zones (I live in Arkansas) and the start time of the conference on Wednesday, March 21, I had to travel the day before. It was interesting, to say the least. For the first time ever, I set off the metal detector at the Little Rock Airport. What…

  • General Thoughts,  Pop Culture

    2017 in (book) review

    I fell in love with reading when I was a kid. I devoured books from the school library and used all my allowance money each month to purchase the next Baby-Sitters Club book in the series until I had almost the whole collection. Later, as a teen, I discovered the book section at our local Goodwill, a store I still frequent today. Back in the mid-90s, paperbacks there were 50 cents each (now they’re $1). Through my purchases at the Goodwill, I discovered Stephen King and V.C. Andrews novels (the ones she actually wrote before the “trust” pirated and diluted her memory—another story for another day) that I was probably…