"Chasing The Sunset" by Barbara Mack - review

This was a terrific historical romance! Having read the "Dreaming Of You" novelette by the same author, I was pleased to find the main characters from that story involved as supporting characters in this novel. It was fun to see their romance from another character's perspective, but the main characters in this novel are the real story in this. The moments when they are together are full of sizzle and spark and you can't help but feel empathy for the pasts that they are both having to reconcile themselves to as they find a way to allow themselves to trust again.

If you are in the UK, you can get the book here:



Tweet

Sharing A Scene from "Through the Veil"

Just for fun, and because I have always been too shy to share the writing I have done on my novels, I thought I would share the opening scene (a very short one) from the novel I wrote during my first time doing NaNoWriMo (in 2009). It's from the novel called "Through the Veil." I am working on being braver with my writing by being able to share bits of it from time to time and get feedback.

How did she get into this? Bella didn’t know how she had ended up in this predicament. Just last week, she was a normal 15 year old girl with a normal life. She talked about boys with her friends and worried about her grades and what to wear to the Spring Dance.

How had things come to this?

“Are you ready?” The voice sounded soft but assured. Bella looked up at the girl who had spoken to her. Gabby was petite. She had died her brown hair jet black and had dark eyeliner outlining her eyes. Her very dark purple lipstick accentuated her lips and matched the purple streak in the front portion of her hair. Her expression was serious.

“Yah. Let’s do it,” Bella was as ready as she was ever going to be.

This was the night they were going to escape.

Before anyone thinks to bring it up, yes, I used some of my kids names for the characters. What can I say? I like the names, and I was having trouble naming my characters, so I went with names I knew, even if the characters do not at all resemble their namesakes.

Let me know what you think in the comments, and please be gentle; my ego is a fragile thing. Maybe I will work up the confidence to share a bigger piece of the novel someday.

Tweet

The Notebook

Recently, I was going through some old papers when I came across a notebook of mine. In it, I had ideas for stories written down and about 30 pages written of a paranormal romance novel. It was all just handwritten, and I barely remember writing it as it was written so long ago.

But here's the really interesting part about finding it; as I read through what I had written, I not only enjoyed it and thought the writing was pretty good, but I could see where I was going with it. Sometimes, I'll re-read something I've written, and I'll think the writing is awful and start questioning my ability to write a novel worth publishing. Finding that this writing was good was a definite confidence booster for me.

Am I going to start writing the rest of the novel? Not right now. I have other novels I am already working on which are much further along,and , although I'm tempted to go off in this new (old?) direction, I feel I should finish what I am already working on before starting something else. I will, however, take the time to type what is already written of it onto my computer so I can come back to it at a later date.

Do you have any old notebooks that you used to use for notes and writing ideas? Maybe you should go take another look at them. You might be surprised by what you find.

Tweet

"Dreaming Of You" by Barbara Mack (review)

Barbara Mack is not just a good friend of mine and she's not just my youngest son's godmother; she is also a very talented and gifted writer. I recently got the chance to read her new novelette Dreaming of You and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I don't often read historical romances anymore but I have read many in the past, so I can say that Barbara writes like a professional. Her heroine Kathleen is feisty, intelligent and proud, and the supporting characters are fully developed. You, as the reader, feel for Kathleen and for the handsome doctor Duncan who lusts after her.

If you like historical romances, I am happy to recommend Dreaming of You by Barbara Mack.





Tweet

Winner of "A Tale Of Two Goblins" by H.P. Mallory

I went to Random.org to choose the winner of the e-book or Kindle book that I am personally awarding to a random commenter on the post, and the winner is C.G. Powell! Please get in contact with me to claim your prize!


Tweet

"A Tale Of Two Goblins" by H.P. Mallory Book Tour

I have been given the opportunity to review the book "a tale of two Goblins" by H.P. Mallory. I was thrilled with this opportunity for two reasons. One was that I had just been given a Kindle for my birthday in late February and loved the chance to add another book to it. The other reason is that I had just finished reading the first book in the series about Dulcie O'Neil and was eager to continue reading the series.



These books were part of the Dulcie O'Neil Series, book one and book two, and I thoroughly enjoyed both! If you like books with a bit of romance, a lot of adventure and some supernatural abilities thrown in, then you'll love these books too.

Here's a bit from the author:

Hi, I'm HP Mallory and I've written two series, the first about a fairy in law enforcement (To Kill A Warlock and A Tale of Two Goblins) and the second about a witch who can bring back the dead (Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble and Toil and Trouble).

I'm a mongo fan of anything that goes bump in the night and Halloween is one of my favorite holidays! (Quick tangent--the best costume I've ever worn was last year when I went as the Headless Horseman and my baby was my Jack-O-Lantern head!) I've always loved the Twilight Zone Marathons and if I ever saw a ghost, I think I'd wet myself.

I grew up in California although I've lived abroad in the UK (England and Scotland--woo hoo, gotta love those kilts!)

I'd categorize my writing as a blend of suspense, humor, light horror, and romance with a sprinkle of fantasy to tie everything together! If you are all about fairies and witches and vampires (oh my!), you love a good alpha warlock and you like men who get a little hairy during a full moon, I got the goods.

And, just to give you a taste of what you'll find in the book, here's an excerpt:

I knew I was sleeping but my dreams had never been quite so lucid, images so vibrant and crisp, I felt as if I could reach out and touch them. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, finding the velvet blackness of night was still in full effect. There was something I needed to do, something that was on the brink of happening. Something bad. It was one of those gut feelings.

I stood up and was seized by a pain reverberating through my head. It felt as if my brain was being torn apart, all my memories and thoughts being dissected by a sharp blade. I fell to my knees and grabbed my throbbing head, willing the pain to go away.

And, just like that, it did. I was suddenly free of pain but I was somewhere I couldn’t comprehend—somewhere unknown to me. It was like I’d been plucked from my bedroom and deposited on a street I didn’t recognize. A cold wind whipped around my shoulders, and I glanced down at my white lace singlet and baby blue pajama shorts. I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to ward off the cold and glanced up at the front of a townhouse—a modern structure that glared down at me in an array of hard angles and bleak whiteness. The numbers 3467 delineated the corner of the door, and somehow I knew those numbers were important, that I had to remember them.

Before I had the chance to think, something flashed by me. I couldn’t see it but I could feel the death imprint it carried—something powerful, something evil. In an amorphous blur of darkness, it vaporized into the door before me, and I had no choice but to follow. It wanted me to follow—I could feel the distinct urge to continue after it, as if it were beckoning me. I reached for the doorknob, and my hand went through it. Shrugging, I took a hesitant step forward and found myself merging with the door, entering the room beyond it.

The sounds of crashing and fighting snapped me out of my initial trepidation and I forced myself forward, following the noises down a dark hallway and into a bedroom where my eyes settled on the shadows of two men. One was in a huge bed that dominated the room and the other was atop him, pummeling him with fists full of hatred. The man in the bed didn’t resist his attacker. He merely lay there in quiet repose while the entity pounded him repeatedly. I had the sudden desire, the sheer need to protect the man in the bed.

I started forward and suddenly came up against an invisible barrier, something stopping me from reaching the bed. I shook my hand, waiting for the telltale sign of fairy dust to emerge in my palm so I could blow the dust toward the barrier and simply eliminate it but my fairy dust never materialized.

The man in the bed continued to lie there, immobile, amidst his blood-stained sheets. The thing atop him shifted to the side, pulling itself away from the bed and allowed me to gaze at the man. My heart about stopped.

“Knight!” I screamed and beat my ineffectual palms against the invisible wall. My voice just bounced off the unseen barrier and died in the air.

Knight’s attacker was no longer an amorphous shadow. He’d taken an outline of a man and was now facing me. I couldn’t make out his features, I couldn’t even see his face. He was just etched in darkness, outlined by night. But I didn’t have to see his face to realize what and who he was. I knew it deep down in my gut because he wanted me to know it. The Dreamstalker. I felt a smile radiating outward from him. A smile coming from that dark shade of his face.

He leaned over Knight while I held my breath.

I woke with a start, my heart pounding.

I couldn’t shake the nightmare from my mind. And the main reason was that I was convinced it hadn’t been a nightmare at all but an omen from my own subconscious. It had been a warning. A warning from the Dreamstalker.

I leapt out of my bed and glanced at the clock. It was two a.m. Reaching for the phone on my side table, I speed dialed Knight. It just rang.

I dialed again. It just rang.

I dialed again.

It just rang.

I was told I had a giveaway to do too, but, as I have recently moved to a new house and temporarily lost my Internet access (I am using my local library now), I was unable to follow up to that and see if there are any conditions and just exactly what the giveaway was supposed to be. So I decided that everyone who commented below will get entered into a random drawing to win the Kindle version or e-book version of the novel, awarded by me from my own pocket.

The drawing will be closed at noon PST on May 1st.

However, I found out through following it up that the giveaway was supposed to be quite different, so there is another giveaway you can enter which is detailed below.




Both books can be bought for the Kindle.



Tweet

Do You Call Yourself A Writer?

What constitutes being able to call oneself a writer? Everyone seems to have a different opinion of this. Some say you have to be published in order to consider yourself a writer. Some say you have to have published a book in order to call yourself a writer. Others say you only need to be currently writing, whether published or not, in order to call yourself a writer.

The Merriam-Webster Free Dictionary defines a writer as "one who writes." Many of us write. Some of us are good at writing, and some of us only write rubbish that few would be willing to read. But according to this dictionary definition, both types are writers. One only needs to write in order to be a writer.

Wikipedia states that "A writer is a person who produces literary content, including but not limited to stories, poetry, music and other literary art, advertising, procedures, and books." It goes on to say that "The word is almost synonymous with author." This would suggest that a writer is someone who is published, whose writing is read by others.

What about bloggers? Our writing is published on the Internet. We don't get paid for our writing (unless we are writing a review for pay), so does that negate the fact that we are writers? Do we need to be paid for our writing in order to qualify officially as writers?

Personally, I believe that, while not everyone who writes is a writer, you don't have to be published to be a writer either. Some people write with no intention of ever having their writing read by others. Some people write without ever paying any attention to their prose, ignoring the need for their writing to have any sort of quality whatsoever. Those are not writers. They are dabblers. Just as artists sometimes doodle, writers sometimes dabble in mindless writing. But a person who only writes mindlessly and never writes with thought to content is not a writer. (We should have a word for this mindless writing, just as artists have the word doodle for mindless drawing. Any suggestions?)

Some people strive to write something that will appeal to others. They pay attention to their content and to their form, and they work hard at creating something worthwhile through their writing. Regardless of whether or not these efforts ever get published, these people deserve to be called writers, because writing means something to them.

And maybe that should be the distinguishing concept on whether or not someone can call themselves a writer or not; what they write has to mean something to them. Anyone who puts something down in writing in order to express something, to share something or to create something is a writer.

What do you think?



Tweet

Picture Book Marathon

February is Picture Book Marathon Month. I love the idea of a picture book writing marathon!

Alas, I am unable to join in as I did not learn about this picture book marathon month until it was almost over. Instead I will honor the month by writing a new picture book this month and drawing three preliminary sketches for it. (Yes, I am still struggling along with my attempts at teaching myself to draw.)

Have you joined the marathon? If not, do you think you'd like to join in next year?

Tweet

Writing for Real

I feel as though most of my writing up until now has been hobby writing, and I feel this way because I haven't actually done much with the stories, articles and poems I have written. I haven't shared them here. I haven't completed either of my novels or started editing them. I still have my three children's stories and they aren't illustrated yet.

What I have done that is not just hobby writing is I have become a regular writer for a magazine. I write monthly on the topic of raising healthy kids for Beverly Hills Child Magazine. This is great, but it's only a start.

I have career goals for my writing and those goals are achievable. I just need to keep working towards them. To this end, I have decided to set up a list of tasks for myself to do in which, with each of the tasks that I achieve, I will be getting closer to reaching my goals.

Watch this space, because I will be published this year and in more than one venue!

What would you include in a list of tasks if you were making the list of tasks for yourself?

Tweet

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Some of you I see every day,
And some of you live far away.
But I consider you friends, one and all,
With hearts so big, and typing so small.
I love learning of you through this electric highway,
And I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day!


Tweet

Tips For Sticking To Your New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year! I hope 2011 is going to be a wonderful year for us all.

It is that time of year again when everyone starts to think about what they have achieved over the past year and what they hope to achieve in the new one. A lot of people will make new year's resolutions now. And most of those people will not stick with them any longer than next month.

Just how are you supposed to go about making resolutions and then making sure you achieve them?

Here are some quick tips, just from the top of my head.

1. Make realistic resolutions. Don't over-reach your abilities. Yes, you might be able to get your book published this year, but if you haven't even started it, then aiming to have it published by March is unrealistic. However, deciding that you want to have three short stories entered into competitions by March is a more realisitic goal.

2. Resolve to WORK towards your goals. You will never reach any of your resolutions if you are not willing to put in the effort and take the steps needed to attain them.

3. Believe in yourself. It is very important that you believe in your ability to reach your goals. Without that belief and confidence, you run the risk of sabatoging your own efforts.

4. Surround yourself with people who support you and believe in your goals. There is nothing more helpful than supportive friends and family who believe in you. The last thing you need if you are trying to become a published author is to have the people around you acting like you spend too much time writing or telling you that you are wasting your time.

5. Reward yourself for every step closer you get to achieving you goals. It is easy, on a long journey, to lose sight of how far you have come and to instead keep dwelling on how far you have left to go. Try to focus on what you have already achieved and how it brings you closer to your ultimate goal.

6. Write it down. Don't just write down your resolutions, but write down each step you need to take to get there. Reference this note whenever you feel tempted to slack in your efforts. Writing your ideas down has an effect on your subconscious. Also, keep a journal of your thoughts during this time. Sometimes fresh ideas can be sparked through journal writing.


Tweet

NaNoWriMo 2010 WINNER!!!!

I did it! For the second year in a row, I have completed NaNoWriMo, and ahead of schedule! I will still see how much more writing I can complete between now and the 30th, but it feels great to have already reached the 50,000 word count requirement to win!

As of today, I am officially at 50,030 words written of my novel. I wrote more today than during any other day this month. Today, I wrote 6,316 words!

Even though I won this last year too, I found this year that there was still more to learn from this process.

The bnovel I was writing last year, Through the Veil, was set aside after National Novel Writing Month ended, and I haven't written any more of it or edited it since then. I started a new novel for this year's efforts. I struggled more with this one. Don't get me wrong; I still managed to get the word count. But I feel as though last year's novel flowed more easily from me, and I enjoyed writing it more.

I think, when I go back to edit, there will be a lot about last year's novel that I will keep, and the editing I do will be more the type to keep it consistent with how the characters behave according to their natures and filling in some blanks. There were things I foreshadowed or left clues about that never came to be later in the novel, so I will need to go back and take a look at all of that.

There will be very little, except for the story idea, the characters and the plot, that I keep from this year's novel, Dream Walker. The writing will mostly have to be completely rewritten. But that's okay. Before I started this one, I didn't have a plot. I didn't have any characters but the main one, and even she didn't have name. So writing this novel for this year's NaNoWriMo has given me the outline and the bones of a story to work on later. It's much more than I began with. (The irony is that this one is actually intended to be the second in a series.)

I hope all of my friends who are participating in NaNoWriMo this month, whether they are reaching 50,000 words or not, are learning something from it, either about the process and their capabilities, or about the novels themselves.















Tweet

NaNoWriMo Swindon Meet-up

Amelia, Wendy and Victoria showed up at the NaNoWriMo Swindon meet-up and it was great to meet them! Wendy had her adorable grandson with her and he was very well-behaved.





It was fun chatting with others who are attempting to write 50,000 words this month. We found that we are all going through a lot of the same problems and processes as we try and keep our writing going. Wendy is much more organized than me and has the general plot for her story already worked out, while I am working it out as I go along.

I will enjoy keeping in touch with them and finding out how they are doing as the rest of the month progresses.

Tweet

Week 2 NaNoWriMo Stats - Starting To Fall Behind

On the 12th of November, my word count was at ‎24,021 words. I had made every attempt to be ahead of schedule due to a very busy weekedn over the 13th and 14th.

On the 14th, I was still at the same word count.

And now I am falling behind. I am behind by a few thousand words. I will try and get closer to being on schedule today, a bit closer to schedule tomorrow, and then, hopefully, I will catch up completely over the weekend.

It's hard because I feel as though I am running out of steam. I did not encounter this feeling back when I write for NaNoWriMo in 2009. But I am determined, and I will write my way out of this.
Tweet

One Week In - NaNoWriMo Stats!

Here we are now, reaching our first week of NaNoWriMo writing. How is everyone doing? Are you reaching the goals you had hoped to reach by today? Are you learning anything new about yourself and your writing through this process of writing for quantity instead of quality?

I have written 14,018 words so far. I was hoping to reach 15,003 words by now, but I'm not quite there. I need to be at least two days of writing ahead because I will be at Slimming World's Woman Of The Year 2010 Ball during this coming weekend, which means that I won't be getting much writing done on Saturday or Sunday.

Mondays are difficult for me to get much writing done as well, but I will have to see what I can do tomorrow.

How are you doing?


Tweet

Six Weeks & Counting!

National Novel Writing Month is just a little over six weeks away. I managed to succeed at writing my 50,000 words last November, which was my first year joining in with the NanoWriMo fun.

I must admit though that I have not finished the novel I started back then. I've reached about 60,000 words on it, but I need about 30,000 more before it is complete, and then I will have the grueling task of editing it.

I would at least like to have the first stage of writing complete on it before starting a new novel for NaNoWriMo. I know which of my novel ideas I am going to write this time, but I hate the idea of starting a new one while the old one stands incomplete.

This, of course, means I have my work cut out for me over the next six weeks. I suppose, since I managed to write 50,000+ words in one month last November, I should be able to write 30,000 words in six weeks now.

Some people write a story for NaNoWriMo that they have no intention of ever publishing. I am not one of those people. I am using National Novel Writing Month as a sort of motivator to get me off of my procrastinating bottom and get me writing. My finished work may not be publishable at the end of writing it, but that's what rewrites are for. I fully intend to edit what I have written and make it shine.

When I write, the characters go in directions I don't start out seeing for them and my plot takes on more form than the one it begins with. I start with just a summary of what I want for the story, ideas and a vague plot structure. But as I write, the plot takes shape, the characters gain voice and it all starts to come together.

So I need NaNoWriMo because it forces me to write. I hope someday to have less distractions in my life and to be able to sit and write without the push of something behind the urge such as NaNoWriMo, but for now, it serves a much-needed purpose for me.

Use It Or Lose It

I am a blogging addict. I admit it. I have upwards of 18 blogs. Some of them I write for more often than others, but it's still a lot of blogs to maintain.

I don't write here as frequently as I like, but it doesn't mean I am not writing. I am either writing for my other blogs or I am writing on other projects, such as my novel. I also write as the Fitness Walking Writer for the Examiner and I have an article on family fitness that will be published at Beverly Hills Child Magazine in September.

I don't make a lot of money for writing for these places, so why do I take the time to do it? The answer is easy; I do it because it's practice. Even though my novels and my children's stories are fiction, so a different type of writing than the writing I do for my blogs and other places, I still get a ghreat deal of practice in my writing by writing for these different subjects.

Before starting my blogs, I went for many years without writing much of anything. And when I finally started writing again, I found it incredibly difficult to get started again. I had gone too long without practice, without using my creative mind to do what it is meant to do - CREATE!

Writing for my blogs keeps my mind on writing. It keeps me thinking up ideas. I need to come up with fresh content to write about and I have to do it regularly in order to satisfy my readers. And because of this, the ideas just flow from me. I'm thinking up new writing content ideas while walking the dog. New ideas come to me while I'm making lunch for the kids. Ideas come to me while I sleep or when I'm in the middle of a conversation with my three year old. (Three year olds are GREAT for inspiration.) Ideas come to me at random times and more often than they did when I wasn't writing and had let my writing voice atrophy from disuse.

It's similar to physical exercise. If you haven't done any physical exercise in a long time and then decide you need to get in shape, at first your muscles are stiff and unwieldy. They don't move gracefully and easily in the exercise movements, and when you are done with the exercise, your muscles are sore and achey. It takes a while for your body and your muscles to loosen up and to take to the exercise more easily and with less suffering. And then, eventually as you continue to exercise, your body becomes so used to it that you start having to challenge yourself with different and more challenging exercises in order to get the same results.

By using my creative thought processes and my imagination regularly, I keep my mind in good shape for when I really need it for writing my novels. By using my mind, I keep it sharp. By writing often, I keep my ability to do so fresh. Practice makes perfect, but I'm not even looking for perfection. I'm just making sure that I've found my voice and and am keeping it ready for when I need it.

Is it sometimes a chore to have to crank out an article for one of my blogs or for another project when I feel less than inspired? You bet! But is it worth the trouble? Definitely!

The Summer Funk

My kids are home from school for the Summer. I love my children. They are beautiful and creative. They are full of energy and exhuberance for life. They are sweet, funny and loving. They are also noisy, demanding and distracting.

I am finding it difficult to concentrate on any of my writing, whether for my blogs or for my children's stories or for my novels. And I miss writing. The thought that it will be another 4 weeks before the kids are back in school and I can find the time to write again is not a pleasant one.

So I have decided on a plan. That plan involves me fighting past any and every procrastination technique I ever use in order to get as much writing done in the evenings as I possibly can. That plan involves me making sure that my daily chores are done before my children go to bed at night so that I have that time to write in relative peace and quiet. That plan involves me deliberately setting aside a specific amount of time and time of the evening just to write.

I will get out of this Summer writing funk.

Drawing - First Attempt - Fairy

I mentioned in my last post that I was going to try and teach myself how to draw, so that I can illustrate the children's stories that I have written. I also said that I would be sharing my drawings here as I attempted them.

Today's attempt:


My 7 year old daughter draws better than this! I have no concept of how to shade the drawing, so I didn't even attempt that yet. I'm not sure I succeeded in making the fairy look as though she is sitting with her knees pulled up in front of her. She is much more simplified than I intended her to be (as is the tiny dragon in the picture). I made her smaller on the toadstool than I meant to, so I didn't have a lot of room to really draw her face properly. I did not get the proportions correct. The list of my failures in this attempt at drawing could go on and on, but at least you can tell my fairy is a fairy.

And I will improve.

Illustrations

Three of the stories I have written are for very young children. Those stories need illustrations. At first, I thought I would be able to get my husband to illustrate the stories for me, as he is very gifted at drawing and at creating computer graphics. However, having him illustrate the stories for me has not worked out.

Now I have two choices. I can either pay someone else to illustrate my children's stories, or I can illustrate them myself. I may, in the end, have to resort to having an artist illustrate my stories for me, but first, I am going to try and illustrate them myself.

There is one problem with this plan. I am not very good at drawing. In fact, I am so terribly awful at drawing that it would be fair to say that my drawing resembles what it's meant to be as much as a bee resembles a dog, which is to say, not at all.

So what am I to do? Should I just give up? Maybe. But not without trying first. Children's illustrations do not need to be complicated. Simple but cute drawings can sometimes be just as enchanting to a child's eyes as more complicated and elaborate artwork. I just need to do a little learning (I hope).

I am going to spend a little bit of time each week attempting to draw. And I will share those drawings here. Hopefully, each drawing will be an improvement over the last. And hopefully, those of you reading this will give me honest (but not cruel) opinions on my progress.

I recently read an article that stated that, because drawing uses a different part of our brain than writing, even if we are not very good at it, the act of drawing helps to stimulate our creativity. Maybe doing a little drawing will help inspire me to write a bit more of my novel, as well as hopefully giving me some illustrations to use for my children's stories.

It's never a bad thing to learn new skills. And, no matter what happens with these attempts, it's never a bad thing to try something new.

Back To Writing

My story's characters are getting to be really annoying. They keep nagging me to get back to writing about them. You see, I've taken a little bit of time off from writing my story in order to work on some other projects, and now all I seem to be able to think about is my story and how much I need to write the next chapter.

New ideas keep coming to me for the storyline, and my characters are getting antsy to live out the rest of their story. So they are nagging me. They are calling to me. I take my dog for a walk in the park and he starts barking at what appears to be nothing, and I immediately (in my head) start placing a similar situation in my story to introduce one of the new villains. I watch my daughter playing with another young kid who starts getting a little rough with her, and, as I watch her put him in his place with skill and confidence, I picture one of my characters behaving in a like manner. No matter how hard I try to set aside my story, the characters in it won't let me leave it. They're even invading my dreams at night!

So enough time has passed now, and I know I need to get back to the story. My other projects can be set aside for a bit and now my story will get my attention again (even though it never lost my attention, just my actual writing of it).

So what makes you keep writing your book? What is it that keeps you from setting it aside and getting on with the rest of life?